mx836

iTrader: (15)

With the kit setup of my original b5m, the thing had too much steering! I can assure you that the steering you are looking for can be achieved.

Edit: Meant to quote Jeffs SC10

HoldDaMayo

iTrader: (5)

what position is your battery in? All the way back? Move it forward. Do you have any drag brake? Try 30% drag brake. I had the EXACT same post a few pages back... don't feel crazy though, even though these guys who respond seem to saying you're crazy, a lot of people struggle with out of the box push with the B5m Lite.

Fasttrak

The 1251 is more than adequate to do the job, has taken a serous beating in my buggy and not had a single problem or been the cause of lack of steering, a setup not suited to your track will be. If you really think that little bit of weight is going to make a massive difference in how your car rotates, buy the brass front bulkhead, half the price of the Savox you have now, and test it out, or move the battery all the way forward.

You never state what kind of surface you are running on or what tires you are actually using and this to me, is one of the most important first steps. Tires not suited for your track and you can chase your tail through numerous setups and nothing will work for you.

I run on a indoor clay track that ranges from high bite, just post watering, to pebbled out and medium bite once the track dries out. When bite is high I love highly worn out tires that are basically slicks, when pebbled out I prefer newer electrons to gain some traction.

Start with the kit setup, get your tires sorted out, get your ride height sorted out, get your shocks sorted out, then begin working through the numerous other steps to fine tune how you want the car to rotate on and off power. Everything is sliding scale and you will never get 100% steering 100% of the time, find where you can get through your track for your style and find a middle ground and learn to work it.

Also, having just gone through relearning how to drive this buggy, I have had to learn to get the nose planted hard by being heavy on the brake just prior to turn in, rotate through the corner and apply power as the outside wheel is loaded. So I am racing straight lines from corner-to-corner, heavy brake in a straight line prior to hitting the corner entry, rotate in and begin getting on the gas as the buggy has rotated a bit, get on too early or too heavy and you are either going to push badly or lose the back end, it's not a 4WD. How you setup ackermann, bump steer, ride height, toe-in, camber, diff tightness, slipper tightness, caster and kick-up will all effect on and off power steering characteristics. I am just getting back into this and these are some of things I am trying to get to understand better and how they effect my buggies handling.

Having spent several weekends just doing practice sessions and I have the buggy finally comfortable for how I want it to drive, I am guessing most normal folks would call my buggy super twitchy with too much steering. I realize it is not setup for getting a good driver around the track quickly but it has allowed me to get comfortable with learning to drive a buggy and as I get more comfortable I am backing out steering to get the back end looser, baby steps to faster lap times.

Razathorn

iTrader: (2)

I seriously suggest staying away from anything other than 4mm trailing axle if you can. If you can't, and it's the only thing left, it will definitely give you steering, but it really changes the car and makes it less consistent in my opinion.

We need to know where you need steering. Do you need it corner entry such as decelerating when entering the corner? Mid corner low speed when the car is trying to apex a small corner? Mid corner high speed such as the middle section of a high speed sweeper? High speed corner exit steering under power?

If it just feels like the rear of the car is too stuck and won't rotate, which is how mine was. I ended up going to cav's "half hole longer b hub" hole with shocks laid down in the back and it was an absolute game changer. I tried a lot of things, because what was frustrating is it seemed loose at times yet stuck at times. I tried more front droop (which gives a lot of low speed steering) and it gave me steering but the car was a hand full. My real problem was lack of rotation where I wanted it. The b-hub really fixed it—it gives you less traction when the rear rolls under hard corner but it hooks up MORE at low speed, so it gives the car this amazingly smooth rotation and confidence exiting corners when you're pointed the right way.

Wayne

Mason

It's probably better that you have not. I had to personally replace my plastic one because of uh... you know when you blast down the straight and come into the corner a little too hot? Then you start wheel hopping under braking.. All I gotta say is the wall is still undefeated. I don't remember if I ended up replacing the hing pin (most likely) or not. It cracked and separated most of the portion from the front to the back right a long the edge line of the square meat of the mount.

So just to confirm, yes it has happened.

BIGSKI15

iTrader: (18)

The grey spring will add more push to the car. A stiffer spring will give more initial response but will push mid turn. I usually use a grey sprin on higher traction tracks.

Razathorn

iTrader: (2)

For what its worth, I run the grays on loose tracks too.

BIGSKI15

iTrader: (18)

Raz,

I do too at times toe prevent the car from hooking if that is a problem with white springs.

Razathorn

iTrader: (2)

The faster you drive, the stiffer front spring you want! Go fast guys!!!

VegasHB

I've got my B5m balanced out really well and handling great but I was planning on running on a sugared track this coming week. To start I plan on raising my roll center for the higher grip, is it fair to say removing 2mm ballstud spacers up front and 2mm ballstud spacers in the rear will maintain that balance? I assume the geometry front and rear is close enough to make this assumption?

BrandonBreh

iTrader: (2)

Anybody try the new reedy mach 3 17.5 short stack or even the regular one? How do you like it compared to other ones?

I have a trinity d4 17.5 maxzilla and i overheated it too many times. Time for a new one.

I run a reedy 8.5 mach 2 when i run modified and it's super smooth. I've heard that trinity is the way to go in stock and reedy in modified.

Not sure if i should get a trinity ss or the reedy ss.

Fasttrak

So far I have only had the chance to run a Team Powers Actinium, the Trinity D4S Short Stack I bought had issues out of the box.

The Team Powers I love for it's massive torque, geared two teeth low with timing turned almost down to zero, which I think on the TP is still like 30 degrees at zero. Running it at 33\69 this last weekend gave it great corner-to-corner pull, fairly short track with short approaches to two fairly good sized jumps and the torque is useful more than an RPM type motor.

I will say I was not happy to have the Trinity come out of the box with issues but just heard back from Jim Dieter and he confirmed that the motor had issues on one of the poles and is turning the motor around ASAP, nice customer service I must say!

I am dying to get the motor back from Jim and put it through it's paces, I have a feeling it will be good since Jim will be setting it up himself and he tested each phase to see how much timing it was pulling and making the motor right with his own hands. Truly hard to beat that kind of customer service in this day and age of disposable products.

Using the Team Powers motor setup the way the instructions from my B5M and even the TP setup sheet, it was not well matched for the track I run on. They had the motor shifted to spin it up but did not leverage the massive torque it produces. Once I played with the gear ratio, started at 30\69 and worked my way up to 33\69 reducing timing to manage heat. I went from struggling to have enough pop out of the corners to clear the two big jumps to easily having the torque to pop over them with very little effort which made picking lines and driving the buggy much easier and less stressful.

If the track I was running on was a more open and longer style setup, the rpm oriented setup would be preferable, for now I am enjoying having the grunt to get around the corners and drive the torque curve. it was almost pulling a wheely coming down the straight, it had just enough to get the wheels just barely touching the ground.

QDRHRSE

iTrader: (515)

Here's a typical setup for sugared blue groove in 90-105 degree heat:

I run a pretty much book set up in the front other than 0mm on the rack, 2mm under the ballstud. In the rear my set up is pretty basic too. You need to run a long link, I run the aluminum hub w/ball stud in the second longest hole with 1mm under the ball on the hub and 1mm under the inside ball with the ballstud holder flipped in the -2 position. I run a 3 hole 1.4 piston in the front with 32.5-35 and run .75-1mm of extra droop over the box set up w/ white spring but I've been considering grey. The rear I run a 2 hole 1.6 piston 32.5 w/white spring and around .5 - .75 extra droop over the book setting. The proline X2 is the best blue groove tire there is (suburb rears/scrubs up front). If you can't get x2s then orange barcodes are the next best. Regardless of anything else, if you run the oil any thicker the car will feel funny. Even when its 100 plus degrees out the car feels weird with more than 35/32.5. Max the droop out till the car starts to roll over and then reduce a hair.

Razathorn

iTrader: (2)

No... Probably not. I'd start with 1mm front and low+2mm in the rear. Anything more than that and you're getting out of the range of normal setups.

BrandonBreh

iTrader: (2)

Team Powers seems to be a hot motor in Cali. Never saw one here in Michigan. Everyone at my track seems to be running short stacks.

We are allowed to run timing on our speed controls. Our track is a small indoor, rubber surface track. Traction is always through the roof. We run slicks all winter and summer.

My #1 concern with my motors is heat. I'm always squeezing every last bit out of my D4 to get it through 7 minutes. I need a motor that runs cool. I hear the short stacks generate less heat.

I've only ever run a D4 Maxzilla 17.5 as far as 17.5 motors go. I wasn't ecstatic about the performance but i wasn't pissed. Would like to try something this time, but don't mind staying with trinity.

So I guess I will do some more research on the TP motor