Jarrod Langlois

iTrader: (1)

ya i my chassis felt good in stock but in mod it may have been flexing but it could have been my rear diff. im getting a new chassis anyway but i will still try this chassis again with and with out a top deck and rebuild or put in a new diff.

i was going to get the hardcore outdrives but cant you just use associated circular rings instead of grinding the outdrives thats what i did for a steel diff i have.

i will post pics later when i am done with the top deck. it will be simple design but hopefully affective.

johnbull

Hi guys. Greetings from Malta.

Since the beginning of RCTech I have supported the original TC3 thred and never even looked into this one.

Having done so today i find it very interesting.

John Stranahan.

I know the TC3 has a bit of a reputation for tweaking chassis, and have read lots about it.

I bought one of the first batch of TC3s that came to Europe 3 years ago, just out of curiosity, and have sold dozens of TC3s since, from my shop.

That first TC3 my son decided to race, instead of the J type Yoke he raced then. He has raced it since, though it has been through all the upgrades, and has won the National championships in mod for 2 out of the 3 years he has had it, and presently leads this year's standings with 7 wins from 7 starts.

This car is just fantastic. But if there's one thing we don't seem to suffer with, it's chassis tweak. In fact I still mount the motor with two solid screws, just like it was originally, though i have changed to more durable 3mm screws. We use the optional AE alloy motor clamp and heatsink, and have never experienced any such bothers. And you just put it on the track and it's always quick.

I prepare the car with plenty of droop, and a fairly soft set up. There's plenty of body roll but incredible grip, and it's obviously quick enough. To give you an idea, in the A final last Sunday he ran12 of the 16 race laps in the 18 second bracket. Only one other runner managed one single 18 second lap in the whole 5 minute final, so the car must be good.

Basically it's a Factory Team spec car with some very minor mods, no one ways, nothing dramatically different from the boxed item AE sells.

I am presently waiting for a new graphite chassis which i intend to modify to move the cells inwards, and because of all I read about tweaked chassis on TC3s I am honestly worried that it will start with tweak problems too.

I will let you know as soon as we have run it a few times with the new chassis.

Regards

Joe from sunny Malta.

Jarrod Langlois

iTrader: (1)

i rebuilt my rear diff and found i had spun the diff rings in the outdrives and ground off the flat spot that "keys" in the rings to outdrives and the rings moved off center and everything was just grinding so i replaced everything and now will try the car in mod again, but first i need to get some aluminum outdrives.

John Stranahan

iTrader: (27)

Joe-Thanks for the report. I aggree that the car is fast and is still fast even if the chassis tweaks a little. You can adjust this out for the most part on a tweak station. How have you checked that your chassis are not warped a little.

ixlr8nz

I'm pretty sure that if your car does flex a little it doesn't really matter at all. Remember those Yokes that had flex with a 5th shock! The only problem I can think of is that the gears may not mesh as well, but if you get rid of all the shims you shouldn't have this problem anyway.

cya

Mike F

Will this cause problems once assembled, I mean not having the shim on the outdrive in the gearboxes?

Jarrod Langlois

iTrader: (1)

it will give the diff more lateral movement. i dont run any shims on the plastic out drives but i run one shim on steel and aluminum outdrives. no shims on plastic out drives in combination with the gear boxes dremeled really makes a huge difference in freeing up the drivetrain.

johnbull

Hi guys. Greetings from Malta.

JOHN S.

To be honest I haven't bothered checking it on a flat surface, but all the shocks are screwed about equal and it balances well on the tweak bar - and most importantly it drives well.

Whilst son Josh runs the TC3 and swears by it, I run an MR4 Sp in stock and have done for 3 years now. I love it.

Now whilst the TC3 is still pretty much the way AE made it, my Yoke is fairly WAY OUT. I have deliberately built mine to encourage flex, with a totally different top plate, lots of soft suspension travel etc. I even have TC3 shocks on it, which have slightly longer shock shafts. It covers up for my driving mistakes, and it seems to work for everybody tells me that our cars are the best handling cars at our track.

Lots of travel and soft springing has actually been my theory with both cars. We have some killer bankings on the inside of high speed corners at our track, and our cars ride them well. Other cars that get on the bankings flip over.

I think that as long as you can concentrate the weight as close to the car's centre and as low down as possible then you can afford to run softer. The MR4 chassis is quite a bit narrower than the TC3 so you don't have much choice with placing stuff. That's why I want to do a new TC3 chassis which will concentrate the weight closer to the centre.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a new narrower chassis from AE in the not too distant future.

Finally I agree that there are too many TC3 threads. Why don't we concentrate all our info on one thread.

Regards

Joe from sunny Malta.

Mike F

Thanks spaz456. I replaced my fron plastic diff with the solid axle by IRS and I have no shim up front either and I took the one out of the rear and noticed that it was more free then with it on.

I also replaced the spur adaptor with the IRS blue alum one but I notice it has some back and forth play, anyway to fix that?

John Stranahan

iTrader: (27)

Joe-A couple of thoughts come to mind. Our track is a high grip indoor technical track. Motor temperature are about 160-190 F. Three TC3 that I have examined all have the same tweak problem. They end up with the right rear collar set quite a bit lower than the left rear (or the left front and right rear if you split the tweak problem between the front and the back). I have put two of the cars which regularly finish first and second on the scales and the weight is very even left and right. Maybe your track does not develop as high of a motor temperature.

The other thought is maybe the little spring actually creates the problem where a solid screw will actually loosen and relieve tension as things get hot. Or maybe your larger screw supports the side of the holes better keeping the chassis flat.

After I installed the lower motor mount block, I took a heat gun and rebent the right rear chassis brace which had taken a set for the worse. Chassis is flat now and spring collars are even left and right.

johnbull

Hi guys. Greetings from Malta.

JOHN S.

Now that you mention the heat problem, we do have more problems with tweak in the summer months, when it's really hot.

Our track is a large, fast outdoor track so we don't have the problems associated with indoors, especially in the winter when it's cold. It was pretty cold and windy last Sunday.

Also the 3mm motor clamp screws are a fairly tight fit in both the motor clamp and the chassis, so perhaps as you say, they could be holding the whole thing together better.

One of our club members has just put our club website together. He is still playing with it and it gets better each day. I don't know if there are pictures of our track yet, but i have just mailed him quite a few photos to put on the site. If you wish to have a look it's at: www.irmcc.com

I know very little about computers but Mark has done a great job. I just feed him the stuff to put on the site - results, reports, etc and he puts it all together. He runs a Losi XXXS and writes quite a bit under the name SENNA.

Regards

Joe from sunny Malta.

John Stranahan

iTrader: (27)

Joe-Thanks for the reply. In the meantime I confess, I looked up Malta in the Atlas to see where it was and what the weather is like. Sounds very pleasant. I live in Houston, Texas, USA. Track temperatures indoors in Summer reach 98-100 F on some days in the Summer. Outdoor track temperatures run up to 150 F on the black asphalt. I'll take a look at your Web site.

What kind of 3 mm nut did you use on the bottom of the chassis and how was it installed?

johnbull

Hi guys. Greetings from Malta.

JOHN S.

Glad about the geography lesson. Yes we live in a good place, though it's just a little too small at times.

For clamping the motor I used ordinary steel 3mm lock nuts. What I did first was went through the holes that hold the factory nuts - from underneath the chassis, with a slightly bigger drill than the hole. In fact the drill size is 5.5mm. I then used longer screws to draw the nuts in through the bottom. They are now a very tight fit and i have no worry about them falling out when i undo the motor clamp. That's why i used good quality steel lock nuts as opposed to alloy nuts - bacause these are there to stay.

I have this set up in both my son's TC3s, and I have done it on quite a few customer cars too. It works OK.

Glad you liked our site. Mark is still working on it and i am feeding him more stuff daily. I'll log onto yours as soon as I have finished this reply.

Regards

Joe from sunny Malta.

tirbolag

Hi all, just made the switch to AE from HPI Pro 2. Gotta say the FTTC3 is really smooth and hooked!

Gotta question and it maybe a silly one. Question is....does it matter on what side of the rear shock tower the body posts are mounted? Reason why I'm asking is cuz I noticed that on the rear of the shock tower, there is an oval pattern that is the same shape like on the base of the rear body posts. So I placed the body posts, matching the pattern (rear of shock tower).

According to the instructions, the body posts are supposed to be mounted in front of the shock tower.

Any enlightenment would greatly be appreciated!

Kenneth Tan

iTrader: (1)

Just a question about tweak... Doesn't removing the 4 chassis braces and re-tightening them when the chassis is forcefully flattened on a setup board help to untweak the chassis? Thanks...