donoman

I saw a local driver with one today, he is blazing fast with it and said it was much better than his TC3. But this guy could probably still TQ and win races if he was driving a buggy on the track.

ml

By easier to tweak, I mean that after setting the tweak with a tweak board, the car drives evenly on the track. With the TC3, there were times I would need to adjust the tweak slightly off level on the tweak board to get the car to drive evenly on the track. Of course, that was likely due to me not having the lowered roll center adjustments exactly even, but that is not a problem with the TC4.

-Mike

Brandon Melton

iTrader: (7)

ml- when you guys are setting the tweak on this car, which method have you been using. You said "setting tweak with a tweak board" does that mean using something like the MIP station, or setting it on a flat board and using the xacto. You would think that if you got it right one way then it would check using the other method as well, but I know with the TC3 it rarely happened. So which way has been checking out good for you? Thanks for the time on here, I know Mike B. and Barry get really busy as I'm sure you do as well, so it helps to have another source for some reliable feedback.

Eric Desrosiers (Old)

What's up Mr. Lufaso?? How have you been? Good Luck at the classic wish I was going....my crew backed out on me... I'll see you soon, at least by Cleveland. I've had a few weeks with the car on carpet if you want to bounce ideas around email me. [email protected]

ml

Brandon,
I usually just lurk on here to avoid starting any flamewars. Mike B. and Barry B. are the experts and the guys to ask the best way to setup the car.

I don't claim to know the best way to set the tweak on the car. I'll describe how I set the tweak using a Niftech tweak board. Feel free (anyone) to send me a suggestion on a better method. First make sure the tires sizes are close to even. Check to make sure the shock springs are the same length (these do vary!). Make sure the shock to beginning of ball cup is the same length. Set the ride height to 5 mm at each corner. Remove the wheels and set the droop (equal right to left) to whatever is appropriate for the roll center setup, tire size, etc.. Reinstall the wheels and have all equipment installed like the car will be raced. Ensure tweak board is level in all directions. Place the rear tires on the solid portion of the tweak board, with the front chassis flat on the part of the tweak board that rotates. Adjust the shock setting to obtain an even tweak for the rear. Now place the front tires on the solid portion of the tweak board, and rear part of the chassis on the part that rotates, then adjust the tweak for the front. After the front and rear are adjusted separately, place all four wheels on the tweakboard. The tweak should be very near level. Perform any slight adjustment if it is necessary, but don't make all the adjustment in a single shock, spread it out evenly over the 4 shocks. Be sure to press evenly on the center of the suspension after each step and adjustment to make sure there is no bias and to settle the suspension. I record the distance between the collar and shock hex.

In my opinion, it doesn't matter at all what the tweak board shows, it's how it handles on the track. After following the above steps drive the car on the track in practice. If the car doesn't handle evenly on the track, then adjust all four shock collars until it steers evenly left and right. After getting the car to handle evenly, put the car back on the tweak station with all 4 wheels. I measure/estimate how much the bubble is off center and write it down. I do the same thing for the front and rear, with the chassis resting on the tweak plate, recording the values for the tweak offset on the tweak board. I remeasure the shock collar to hex distances. Now I have a setting that will allow me to purposely adjust the car so that although it is not tweaked according to the tweak board, it handles evenly on the track.

I have not tried adjusting the tweak by the X-acto blade method, but it seems to me it would be very critical to have identical droop settings.

/lunch break over

P.S. Eric, too bad you can't make it to the Classic. Missed you at the Portland Nats too. And it's Dr. Lufaso - Just kidding, I'm giving you a hard time. See you at Cleveland.

evok

I just saw the Tc4 for the first time on the track... damn it looked good!
It looked a lot more stabil than the "old" tc3, and easy to drive. It was even faster than Teemu.L with his MI2 driving on his home track...
Can't wait to get my own

Brandon Melton

iTrader: (7)

Thanks for the reply. I always thought when using the tweak board, if you had the front end on the rotating part, you adjusted the front collars, and when the rear tires were on rotating part, you adjusted the rear collars. Not to say that it wouldn't work though, obviously your car is always very fast. I thought you only adjusted the opposite collar when using the blade method. I tried the blade method a couple times, but even with identical droop it would NEVER work when the ride height was the same everywhere, and to get the rear tires to lift the same, the rear droop was all cocked up, even with an even set of rebounding fresh shocks.

JimmyMac

iTrader: (2)

Tweek? What's that? haha... I never adjust it.. hehe

Javen13

the only time i adjust the tweak is when the car handels funky

Speedo

I've always set front tweak with the rear shocks and vice versa...

ml

When I'm adjusting the front tweak, the rear part of the chassis is resting on the rotating part. Only the front two tires are touching anything (the solid part of the tweak board), so I adjust the two front collars. I know what you are talking about, that way works if the chassis is resting on the solid part and the tires on the rotating part (the opposite way of what I described previously). Try it both ways, it should give the same result. I hope this explanation hasn't made anyone more .

imprsme

iTrader: (91)

Mike- How is the turn out at MIMI'S? I am trying to talk some of these guys into coming up. Also are they still hosting the Trinity race there? If so when is that?

BTW- Is Vanilla Ice's "HOLE" still there?

Nightbreed

the TC4. I just don't care for the AE shock design. It takes too much time getting them to rebound the same. In the last 17 years I have been in RC, AE still has not changed the shock design much.

JimmyMac

iTrader: (2)

Just get some Yokomo Shock caps/bladders. They are direct fit on the AE shocks.

JDM_DOHC_SiR

iTrader: (31)

Or Tamiya ones