Kennedy

Question.....Is there more chance of tweak if I use the carbon fibre battery strap as opposed to tape?

JohnMatrix

In my opinion yes, its two more screws that can tweak. Especially if you wrench down the screw on the top.

S-T-R-l-K-E-R

where can i get jilles' set-up sheet for the last reedy race?
i registered and i can wait for the webmaster to activate my account.

thanks a heap in advance!!!

HarshGuy

iTrader: (6)

Nick ....you got a defective one, I'll buy it off you for $5.00

HarshGuy

iTrader: (6)

I've thrown the car on my Hudy Tweek station before and after the strap and it doesn't seem to tweek it at all.

Smartarse88

My car holds a tweak if I twist it or crash it hard, it seems a little worse for that than the old car. It is also possible to put a tweak in when tightening down the top deck carelesslly.

There was talk of front anti/pro dive a few pages back. The hudy guide and set up sheet don't really use the correct words. At the front if the rear arm mount is lower,giving kick up, this is pro-dive. If the front mount is lower then it is anti-dive. It is relevant to when you are braking not accellerating.

When talking of rear anti/pro squat it is with reference to acceleration. The affect reverses between acceleration and deceleration.

Scott

Lonestar

iTrader: (14)

not if you don't crank it down like a madman. Just tighten gently, until the battery doesn't move at all, then unscrew 1/4 turn and you'll be ok.

kinda like the TC3 motor mount... most people were complaining it was tweaking the chassis, but when you were asking them "how far do you tighten the spring down", they were answering "to the very bottom, why?".... d'oh... why do you think they put a spring on there and mentioned you were only supposed to tighten the screw by 3 turns? Same thing here... if you crank the battery post screw down until the plate bends, then of course it'll tweak!!! Otherwise it should not. you can afford to have a tiny bit of slop on the battery slots, because the plastic holders on the bottom deck do a superb job anyway.

Paul

MartynD

On the subject of the battery strap....

The aluminum nut on mine came off. It is just press fit onto a short rod which has some threads on the end for the post. Now the nut is useless to me. I have to use a screw in the brace. I'll have to check the tweak next time with the brace tightened, i have a feeling the last time I checked it wasn't.

kidDynomite

Martyn, try some solder or JB. Then use a little e-clip to hold it on the strap.

teamgp

Wow

Now say it backwards... woW

This describes the first 5 runs of my newly acquired, slightly used, FK05. During the last couple of months, through numerous tips and tricks, I was able to get my now sold FK04 to run quicker lap times than at least a third of the local new FK05's. But unless I'm nuts, I'm sure I picked up several tenths, if not a half second, in lap times last night during testing.

To start, I decided not to waste all of the previous six months of hard work testing and tuning the 04. Plus, I run a very uncommon, dare I say unique (or some would say crazy), tire combination of Nitro Shoe foams (26mm 40 shore fronts & 30mm 30 shore rears). The artist in me demanding style with function, my desire for being different, & most of all my current economical situation ($10.50/pr with 3 days shipping from HongKong) pretty much made me decide to stay with my status quo of tire choice.

Build:

So I stripped down the FK05 chassis and bolted on the entire suspension combination from my 04, excluding rear pins/spacers. This included bumpers, roll bar, shocks/towers (including my very own creation of a slightly modified FK05 standard front tower that has mount holes that lower it approx 1mm lower than the new FK05 foam tower & has a camber link mount 2mm towards the inside of position 2 on the FK05 standard tower for slightly longer links), arms, hubs, & camber links. Of course I cleaned and relubed all the bearings and diffs. Unfortunately I didn't have the new Mdiff when building and I couldn't use the one-way from the 04, so I had to use a standard front diff. One huge tip of note that I received from one of the frugal local aces who had been running an 05 for a few months, is to use 3mm counter sunk aluminum washers under the top deck mounting screws. ( http://www.gsracing.com/web/page.asp...id=103&id=1118 ) I had put them on the FK05 rolling chassis as received before starting this build process and the difference in chassis flex of the stock 2.5mm chassis and standard top deck was amazing. I compared the newly found rigidity to my trusty FK04 3.5mm XRC chassis and found that the washers had actually made it stiffer than the XRC without the use of a thicker & heavier FK05 chassis or top deck (please forgive me Mario & Co., but I'm always pushing outside the standard rhetoric...er, I mean envelope ) Now all I had to do was figure out a way to protect the motor as well as mount my endbell fan low on the chassis. "Where's that beatup FK04 2.5mm chassis?" "Where's my dremel?" "Where's my dust mask? -cough...cough-" Voila
http://www.freewebs.com/teamgp/RC_Pi...Left_Front.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/teamgp/RC_Pi...otor_Guard.jpg
(Forgive me again since I didn't have the time or money to order the Xray version)
After cleaning up the wiring and mounting everything, the scales confimed that the new 05 was 45 grams lighter than the 04. On the 04, the weight was distributed between front and rear with a 51% bias towards the rear. On the 05 I now had the rear 40 grams lighter than the front (more steering anyone? ).

Setup:

Simple. I used the exact same setup as on my 04. You can find it at http://www.teamxray.com/xforum/xform...8&setup=t1fk05 .

Testing results:

First run - I quickly realized, as my car wanted soooooo much to take a right turn, that I needed to adjust the servo steering link to bring it inline with my transmitter wheel center. Next, I aligned the EPA settings on the track running very slow speed semi-circles. Then I ran about 5 mins on the first pack while the diff rings were breaking in. I had set the front diff to medium-heavy and the rear to low-medium. The car handled great, although the diffs started slipping right away and they couldn't transfer the torque until halfway down the straight. But when they caught, it felt like I was hitting a NOS button and the car would almost launch itself into the boards if I didn't turn in fast enough for the sweeper at the end.

Second run - Tightened diffs back to Medium and Low and she became a rocket. Whoa now boy! The car was turning into the corners way too fast and I kept ending up "hitting" the apex's. What was interesting was that, although it was turning an arc previously unheard of with the 04 at insane corner speeds, the rear was perfectly hooked. I came to realize the "rails" just got tighter, so I had to dial out 15 points of steering throw on my XS3 Pro (maybe the third position on the knuckle extensions may work for me now?!?). On to the next issue...now I could definitely tell that I had a diff in the front! The car was on rails, just like the 04 with this setup, until I gave it the gas on corner exits. Without the one-way, the excessive torque coming through the 05 drivetrain would send the car out to the boards with a lot of push. I kept breaking it in and about halfway through the pack, the diffs were slipping slightly again.

Third run - Tightened the diffs a second time and raised the rear ride height by .25mm to help with the exit push. This seemed to give me enough steering if I drove smoothly and put aside my naturally aggressive style. However, if I missed the apex I would have to let off the gas in order to keep my car from becoming one with the barriers. "Wooossaaahhhh..Hhhmmmmm..."

Can I say WoW again

Fourth run - Just as it was gettin' goooud (American southern accent intended) I found the only gripe I have with the 05. After getting happy, pushing hard and making a slight mistake which sent the entire front end through...I mean "into" the boards, I noticed the car had completely died, while I was trying to figure out what it was that had just passed my car flying in the same direction. Ooops,...was that my battery that had been slung out and over the car Yup! Back in the pits I tried putting some sticky foam above the inside two cells, the outside two cells and all of the cells, but each time the chassis would bow down in the middle when checked using the ride height gauge. Not gonna work And I had grown so accustomed to the firm but non-tweaking twin straps in the 04 But alas, with everything else, maybe a change was needed. Even us R&D engineers get too comfortable at times. A trip to the front counter, a few bucks lighter, & after spending a few moments getting acquainted with all this new sticky STUFF, the car was back on the track and flyin again. Maybe it was just a mind thing, but I may have been able to notice the weight savings there. Although I didn't take the time to weigh the strap, and I didn't properly reset the spring tweak (just a few mm turn out on the right shock collars and in on the lefts), I'd say maybe 10 to 15 grams difference? Ok, 5 maybe? "I'll have to find out tonight at the bat cave."

Last run - After being informed that the store had actually received a few more Xray parts (thank you Lord), I was EXTREMELY pleased to purchase my very own Mdiff. But alas, not enough time to put it in before my last run. Now I'm hearing rumors that the track "powers that be", a.k.a. "they" or "them", might start running the new track layout backwards this weekend. I decided to test the car in the counter clockwise direction for the last pack. WoW, one more time...anyone? The difference in the flow of the track was significant and it suddenly became a bit more technical and slower with a more balanced combination of slow speed left and right corners. However, the FK05 didn't miss a beat. In fact, the cars ability to handle lightning quick steering transitions in a smooth manner, without any hint of over rotation, was confidence inspiring. Within three laps, I was comfortable tightening up the corners and aiming for the apexes without worrying about the few times I had to make slight corrections on turn-in with all of this new steering I'd found. "Now thats why Josh C and others were running the left side of their saddle packs all the way forward on the 04!"

In closing, all I can say is...

WOW

m8commando

iTrader: (7)

Y ou have to be Kidding me!

Steve Bahnatka

iTrader: (5)

how long ago did you start typing that?

teamgp

Hey, I love to write. And no, I'm not kidding ya m8.

When you cross free-time with passion, its always scary.

acutts

If you are running anti squat then you will have less grip when accelerating and more under braking and opposite with pro??

Hope to see the Rizla up the front again soon

Scott

teamgp

I forgot to add the non OEM aftermarket parts list:

www.teamtamale.com
* 6 degree caster c-hubs (will not bend)
* 1 1/2 degree built-in toe rear hubs (built-in toe stabilizes rear end)
* 2mm lowered bottom shock collars (Allows springs to be mounted lower and use of my own homegrown lower-than-foam-tower front shock tower)

www.pdubracing.com
* Xray bumper (is worth its weight in gold, oh its fairly light though )

www.teamtrinity.com
* Cobalt motor fan (mounted on motor guard for lowest possible CG)

www.jwerksrc.com
* FK Titanium screw kit (replaced all, except the easily strippable pin holder screws)

www.gsracing.com
* 3mm countersunk washers (not sure, but I'd be willing to bet they provide almost, if not equal to, the same amount of rigidity as the 3.0mm chassis; but is definitely stiffer than using the standard chassis with the wide top deck)