Hi,
I've raced electric off-road from 1988 to 1999, had an eleven year break from RC and I'm now getting into 12th scale. I went to a local club and recently ordered some stuff
. I went for a Team Associated 12R5.1.
- Team Associated #4019 RC12R5.1 Factory Team
- Protoform #1611-21 AMR-12 Light Weight Clear Body
- LRP #50682 Vector X12 Brushless Modified - 5.5t
- LRP #80905 SXX Competition Version 2 Brushless ESC
- Ko Propo #30048 PDS-951ICS ICS 6.0V Digital FET Servo
- MYLAPS RC4 Hybrid Transponder
- 4x LRP #79877 LiPo Competition Car Line 1S Hardcase 5400 - 50C - 3.7V
- Ko Propo #80400 EX-10 Eurus 2.4GHz SS (Tx/Rx with setting module)
- Graupner #6444 ULTRA DUO PLUS 50
So, I'm totally green when it comes to 1:12 and current technologies. I built the car, which was fun, apart from sanding/glueing/sanding CF parts. That takes about as much time as actually building the car, if not more
.
However during building I noticed some things, I've got some questions:
- The pivot brace is under an angle when adjusting it for for free lower rear pod plate movement.One side is sitting to the front, while the other is sitting to the rear. I guess this is normal/intended.
My car is the same as this
- One of the holes in the left & right rear pod links binds slightly without even having inserted a M2 screw. Its not bad, but its not optimal either. It seems to be mold related, since its the same hole that slightly binds for both links. What is usually done to fix this? Polish the ball? This would remove the coating, wouldn't it? Enlarge the hole somehow?
Try squeezing the plastic part with pliers around the ball to indent it around the ball and free it up slightly
- The pivot balls in the lower front suspension arms bind very badly, they don't move freely at all. Is this normal? Should I fix it somehow? Polish the ball? Enlarge the hole somehow?
Same as last post squeeze the plastic of the arm around the ball to free it up.
- With default settings, the pod is sitting upwards. With the wheels from the ground, shouldn't the rear pod rest downwards (some droop), so one could adjust the center shock preload to make the pod aligned to the chassis under static load (car resting on its wheels with full mass)? I used the (default) center shock droop spacer. The center shock aluminum rod end is all the way onto the shaft. Shouldn't it be? Should I unscrew the ball cup a few millimeters? Or shorten the droop spacer in the shock? How much droop should I aim for?
Check you droop spacer is trimmed to the correct length and trim to suit, i run 1mm of pod droop on my car
- Which Ackermann servo spacers should I use by default? ( Ko Propo #30048 PDS-951ICS ICS 6.0V Digital FET Servo ). At the moment I used one thick spacer per side. In a top view with steering centered, the turnbuckles are sitting colinear.
my steering links run inline with each other
- How am I supposed to use the tiny receiver antenna with the solid antenna mast? Use shrink wrap around the mast with the antenna inside?
just try and run it up the mast as far as possible without touching any other electrics
- Do people position LiPo's to the front or rear? My assumption with LiPo's being lighter than sub-C cells, people would move LiPo's to the front to retain some front end weight. However, pics from the recent worlds show this:
Marc Rheinard: LiPo to the front
Ronald Völker: LiPo to the back
Juho Levanen: LiPo to the front, the ESC is turned 90 degrees to make room for the LiPo
I have used my car since last winter and it was cells at the time so the lipo guys may be able to help you with this
Don't know if the pics were I got this info from were taken during similar track conditions. Or maybe it just comes down to driver preference. I guess I'll install electronics in a way so I can strap the LiPo either to the front or rear (or somewhere in between). Is it true positioning the LiPo to the back actually gives more steering? Is moving it to the front used to reduce grip rolls?
- Just have to install electronics now. I must say, its pretty tempting to trim all receiver channel wires to custom length as well. Not sure if that would void the warranty of the ESC/servo/transponder. Its a bit of a handfull to fit the standard length receiver wires into the car, it doesn't look very tidy either.
Most people either shorten the wires or just fold them up and black heatshrink them so they are slightly neater
- Oh, how many guys replace some of the not-so-stressed steel screws with blue anodized aluminum/titanium ones? Seems a bit iffy to me, but i guess its doable for some screws. On the other hand, better to snap a screw than rip a chassis plate on heavy impact.
Thanks in advance to anyone taking the effort to answer these questions!
( Sorry, I can't link URL's yet for pictures: "You are only allowed to post URLs to other sites after you have made a certain number of posts. You have not reached that limit yet." )