chris moore

iTrader: (96)

That is just one piece of the frontend, if you go to that page linked in the post you can click the pull down menu and see all the parts including the complete frontend.

True for most of us , but as long as you enjoyed the event its all good.

InspGadgt

Well good luck to those trying the R5 front end, I hope it works out for you in the end. When I talked with Jason back at the birds he mentioned a problem with the caster on the front end. I don't recall specifically what the caster issue was though. So far I've tried the stock front end, a stock front end modified to a longer upper arm, the CRC front end, and the Serpent front end. Of all of those my personal preference is the CRC front end. This past week for IIC I replaced the long ball upper arm suspension for the long arm upper arm with the short ball which fixed the caster issue I was having with the long ball and the car worked really well with it. The stock front end runs great when built properly. But if you are wanting to run something different my suggestion would be the CRC front end with the long upper arms. If you trim the lip off the bottom of the arms and sand it flat you can even use the BMI spacers with the front end.

GWH74

iTrader: (13)

Good work Clegg.
Be interested to seeing how the R5 front end works.
Could you post the HyperDrive part numbers for the bulkheads that are the correct height? And where they can be purchased?
I posted in the 1/12 scale forum a few weeks ago about these bulkheads and did not get much interest. It is good to see someone giving them a try.

Clegg

iTrader: (9)

Hey guys, I talked to HyperDrive, and Lefthander. Lefthander is going to get the 1/12th size fronts in stock on Thursday it sounds like. These are the real R5 front end size mounts so there shouldnt be any ride height issues.

I also ordered 2x sets of the 3x10mm screws in Ti from Lunsford (8x screws) which that along with the Ti ball studs should drop the weight of the R5 front end considerably to bring it into spec with the L4 front end.

About the discussion on Caster issues on the R5 front end... I am trying to se how its any different than the L4 front end on the BMI, I have compared my build up R5 front end and I have less lash and play and the geometry seems almost exactly the same when the caster is set the same as it is on the L4 dynamic front end. Its pretty easy to do a "long arm" roll center change on the R5 by adding some shims/spacers between the caster block and the Alloy mount. But you lose the ability to run the center brace... which I am very fond of being someone who hits walls too often

And just to be clear, my L4 spec front end on the BMI works great!, it just develops lots of play over time, and I dont like the IRS lower arms which break way too easily. (which you can see in my pics I am using the old L4 gen IRS lowered arms which are much more beefy but limit how low I can run my fronts). The R5 front end is good for the reason that I feel its much more robust and made of better plastic quality than the IRS/AE L4 front end, and most R/C shops carry R5 replacement parts now and arent carrying as many L4 front end parts anymore.

And I have a fully built CRC front end here... which I dont like at all. Worked fine, but just didnt help much on the BMI. The fact that the bolts to get it on the chassis required the larger metric screws from CRC which have the wrong head angle, and can easily bust up the chassis.

InspGadgt

I don't recall what the caster issue was with the front end. Jason explained it to me months ago and it made sense back then but I've since forgotten what it was he said.

chris moore

iTrader: (96)

I may be mistaken but I think it was a molding issue and has since been fixed.

Ffejdat

iTrader: (5)

If you read thru the 12R5 thread, there was never any "official" problem with the front end, but a few people had a problem with the front end theading together crooked, or not the same left to right, causing uneven caster left to right. Some believe it was a problem with the molds, like maybe the pin that goes in to the mold to make the "hole" in the part was going in crooked, or being rmoved before the plastic was cool enough, etc. etc.., The other "problem" with the R5 front end in my mind is, the upper arm plastic is somewhat soft and rubbery, if you start threading the arm together crooked, it will stay that way. the problem was very minor, and not an issue to worry about, it is an easier to build front end than any other one out there, and VERY durable, IMO....

Clegg

iTrader: (9)

Ahh good to know. Mine both line up very good and consistent side to side.

And about the softer plastic, Yep I could see that, but when a set of new arms cost a total of $2.00 thats a cheap thing to keep spares of.

InspGadgt

I had the same problem with the CRC front end using the long ball in the standard arm. The long ball was always more of a temporary solution until the long arm was made. I switched to the long arm this past week and found the pillow ball threads in very straight on both sides.

RcWorkShopp

Hello guys I just wanted to drop in and say hi. I just bought the DB12RR and it will be my first time running 1/12 carpet. Jason at BMI Racing was real helpful and a great guy to deal with.

Does anybody have any tips they would like to share that might help me.

Thanks, Randy

Clegg

iTrader: (9)

What class you going to run with the BMI?

RcWorkShopp

I will be running pan stock road course with a 1c Lipo 13.5 brushless motor.

Clegg

iTrader: (9)

What I would do is read back a few pages, there are a few setups posted. Incuding one by me. The setup for 10.5 and 13.5 will be pretty much the same.

Depending on which traction compound you can use at your track, foam choices may differ. if Jack is being used, Black/Yellow is a great combo. I have found Black/White to also work well (but at an accelerated wear of the back)

chris moore

iTrader: (96)

Search this thread for posts by Mike Ivy, he posted a great starting setup for 1s/lipo a few pages back. And no disrespect to Joe but black fronts are not a good tire for most tracks, the standard is to start with yellow rears and lilac or magenta fronts.

Clegg

iTrader: (9)

Yep depends on the track/surface. No one at our track runs Lilac anymore as we found them to just get gummy and get some insane traction at the end of the race resulting in some serious over steer issues. Blacks are less grippy, but more consistent for us at our track and from what I hear from others who race at tracks near us.l