I'm checking my new style AE front end and have too much cater on the left side with both shims in the front. Is placing a shim under the rear part of the lower arm OK for taking caster out?

Jeff

p.s. I'm looking for a CRC 3.2 lower pod also!

rollover- The silver ones should be fine, if they arent a different height. I would stand the two side by side (if possible) and see if the height is any different, if so, you cant run half and half since you would really mess up the roll centers.

And for adjusting castor on the strut... use a RPM camber guage to check it, and then adjust accordingly, very rarely with the shims be equal left and right for equal castor.

I'd trust Storm here. I took his advice at the track this weekend and slapped the old front end on my rev 3 and the car was much easier to drive, and my new style front end is probably built as perfect as you can (but I did have a bad servo saver that was causing all sorts of strange problems). If I run the new style, I literally have to check the camber and shim angles after every run. It tweaks very easily. Its a straight bolt-on, uses the same holes and same servo holes.

Speedmerchant sells a full front-end kit for like $20. I think you can get it at their website or hobbyetc.com.

Also, the rev 3 is near bulletproof. The only thing I have ever broken (yet!) on this car is one front a-arm, and a few Jaco wheels. I hit more than my share of walls... Storm can attest to that!

Question for David Lee

Quote:

Dave-I dont know when your coming back to the Gate-so I need to ask you this here. To run the IRS front end on my Speedmerchant Rev.3, do I need to run the servo up on mounts (at an angle) or flat? Do you have a pic of that front end on your old Rev3?

Btw-your Rugrat looked awesome in the Main.

Thanks for your compliments, Ray. I have a lot of confidence in the car. I fiddled with motors during the qualifiers and made the 8 minutes for the first time with the 8 turn. Ran the 9 in the main and was standing on it from the horn.

Now about that suspension. I have it on the Rugrat the same as I ran it on the REV3. I am using the 10 deg reactive option with one caster shim in the rear. I was using .020 front springs with dampning on the king pin. The IRS pivots and king pin are the best. They respond well to the dampning greases.

Regarding the servo, I have it both ways. I used the angled mount on the modified car and lay the servo flat on the stock car. They respond differently and I haven't been able to describe it. But the mod setup has a tighter radius and is quciker. I use a 5 cell receiver pack that speeds up the servo and the pivot on the servo saver is at the maximum distance from the center. That also speeds up the steering. Funny thing is that I like less steering expo with the mod stuff I just described than the stock system. My feeling right now is the angled servo mount will be the best, but you need to try both and determine that for yourself.

Just recieved an e-mail from speedmerchant and there reply was this is not yet available because of machine shop vendor problems but will hopefully be available to public in spring.

I like the look of that front end, looks like it would be very strong as well...

So... I'm considering getting back into RC racing, I've been out of it for over 10 years. I had assumed I would need all new stuff, but the actuall cars don't seem to have changed as much as I might have thought. I believe my father still has a 12LW, and I have a 12L, an old Corally car (I believe it was their first 1/12th scale car), and a Trinity Evolution12 or maybe it was Revolver12 (still in the box and unassembled), would these cars still be feasable in competition today?

What about my electronics and such, will any of that still cut it? Futaba Magnun radio with the micro high speed servo, a high end Novak ESC from the time, Turbocharger, and a ton of other crap that I can't remember... I even still have some old TRC green dots in the packages (I bet they're a little dried out ), and I'm guessing the battery technology has changed quite a bit. At least I hope so, getting nice matched packs back then was a lesson in futility. IIRC Panasonic 1700 cells were the most common and sanyo (who ruled for years it seemed) had just come out with some new cells to compete with the panasonics.

Thanks for any help,
Ike

What is a good site to buy 1/12 tires for a reasonable. cheap price?

I dont have much time now, so just a few quick things

Spyderx- I attest! lol, and his car was alot better.

The v-force is by far the most adjustable front end out there, it will be worth the wait.

Bigtbone- Tower hobbies has Jaco's, which I wouldnt recommend, anyplace with TRC's, and they are all around $20 a pair. stormerhobbies.com I think has a good stock.

You can also try KT Hobbies or SpeedtechRC I believe they are both advertisers here. I think the TRC 1/12th tires are about $15/pair there. That's a good deal.

Thanks, ...

DavidL-I am not running 12th till after the Snowbirds (I am running Sedan only there to support Warpspeed Racing), so this gives me all the time to build up this front end on one of my two Rev.3's.

I know from watching Chicky running the Reactive AE front end he has more high speed steering than I do. OR should I say-he can achive high speed steering easier than I can. To turn with his car I have to run dbl pink front or turn in earlier with more steering input. That ultimately just leads me to crashing more!!

Thanks for the help,
Ray

Ike, this all depends on the level you plan on racing at. If it's just the club/local level, you cars will be fine as long as they are well set-up. The LW or Revolver would be the best, IMO (I'm not sure how the parts availability would be for the revolver, though). As far as electonics, the same goes...except maybe batteries, as the technology has gone through the roof. They now make 3300's, and they can't use the old style chargers as they are not NiCD's. I just had to go through this, myself, but I was only out of 12th scale racing since 1997 or so (ran other stuff in between, here and there).

Sorry, Storm, but I am going to disagree. This suspension does not have adjustment to camber gain. It also does not have adjustment to roll center. You can adjust camber, caster, springs, ride height, and that is about it.

Don't forget that I ran this suspension in development. It pushed like a dump truck out of the box. I suggested the in-line front axles to get it to enter the corner better. That helped, but didn't solve the overall problem. It has too much camber gain when the outside wheel is under the load of a turn. That disrupts the tire patch and there isn't enough traction to turn the car.

Another point is that the spring position is at a location where the K-factor of the available springs does not support the car. The ratio is 1.75 to 1. And since the springs are too soft, that means more chassis dip to the outside and more camber gain that upsets the wheel patch.

Bottom line is that more development is required.

DavidL- I remember you Eric and Bruce having a fun time last year with that,lol. I got the chance to try one out at the end of last season, and agree with you about the development, however with a few changes it could be extremely adjustable, and you can adjust droop too in the version i tried.