I forget which one, exactly, but FWIW, in one of the YouTube videos I watched, the reviewer mentioned that the potential cause of leaky shocks is that the insert placed between the O-rings in the shock body is just a hair too tall. As a result, the O-rings can get over compressed if you crank down too tightly on the lower cap... So the “workaround” has been to sand the height down just a hair on that insert. It puts less pressure on the O-rings when you crank down on that lower cap, eliminating the compression problem with the O-rings. The other option would be to not “crank down” when you tighten it, but that would be too subjective to determine how tight is too tight.

I know it was discussed in this thread before that there’s the chance of the lower delrin/plastic insert, that goes between the lower o-ring and cap, can be installed upside down, which applies too much pressure causing a leak. I haven’t read anything recently about leaks unless I just missed it.

On the last page, Zipperfoot had mentioned that his son has had issues with the shocks leaking on his 5.0.

This comes from a blog post Frank published in January... as it appears that the 5.0 springs were released in December of 2018, I THINK it’s still accurate?

Yes, I did read his recent post and iirc he mentioned it months ago also. I just assumed he had gotten it resolved and was just bringing up the issues that he’s had since he got the buggies, and not current on going problems. I read the whole thread prior to getting my AC, so the post about making sure that lower piece in the shock was installed correctly could have been before his issue or brought up when he mentioned that he was having a problem. If my reply comes off as being a d***, it wasn’t my intention.

Oh no - no worries. The way I read it kind of made it sound like his son has still been having the issue, but maybe I misunderstood.

Oh yeah - I kinda went running to find the springs chart as soon as I read that, and didn’t quite pay attention to the rest of the post.

Anyway, mes has a point. Because it’s on carpet, you’re kind of making the buggy an “on-road” car, except that it has to handle jumps as well. So if your shock package is good at handling the rough stuff, I wouldn’t touch them first.

DISCLAIMER - I literally bought a 22 two days ago - but coming from an on-road background, I can tell you that a little more caster will give you slightly less aggressive initial turn in, but will give you more mid to on-Power steering throughout the rest of the turn. That being said, you can try the next steering block available with less compensation for the arm kick-up, which should Give you that bit more caster. If the initial turn in fades too much, you could then try a softer roll bar (provided that you are not already on the softest) to see if that compensates for the lost turn in. As for some of the other more specific options available to the 22 (like the offset options available at the steering block, HRC changes, or more aggressive Ackerman), I’ll leave that to the vets who have been running the car a while; this is just the approach I would take from a general chassis perspective. You can easily revert the changes I suggested and give those 22 specific options a try. Anyway, I hope this helps, and again, if these guidelines are way off as far as buggies are concerned, feel free to call me out on it.

That sucks and sorry to hear that. I thought you got it resolved.

I’m in the automotive industry and that reminds me of something I have direct knowledge of. Flat rate tech is complaining about have two crap alternators in a row. He states they’re bad right out of the box. I take a third one out into the shop and watch the install. This one pops as soon as he connects the cable because he never disconnected the battery. Not saying that’s the case with the person with the ESC problem, but sometimes people are in such a rush they forget the basics. Could also have been due to the person building/soldering the ESCs at the factory. Maybe they were having an off day and built a small run of them incorrectly or forgot a step. In my opinion electronics these days, to a certain degree, are fragile. Sometimes you can only do something in a specific set order during installation or you’ll have a problem. Hell, I’ve seen excessive dust and static electricity cause problems with electrical components sometimes.

TLR probably has more than one mold pumping out duplicates of the same plastic/composite parts for the kits. I’m sure the tolerances on the molds aren’t identical. Could explain why some people have issues and some people don’t even if built correctly. Like your kit compared to your son’s. I have a new built/never run GT2 and a new built/never run BJ4 WE that I built around the same time back when the kits were released. Both have been sitting/in storage. The GT2 shocks are dry. The BJ4 WE is soaked in oil. The shocks between them are identical other than the BJ4 WE has blue aluminum Factory Team shock caps and that’s where they’re leaking from. One day I’ll get around to taking the BJ4 WE apart and cleaning it. I’ll probably leave the shocks empty this time. Btw my 22 5.0 has aluminum shock caps and my B74 has the stock composite caps...

I agree. Iirc not a lot of brand bashing happened in the thread.