vivo quevas

iTrader: (19)

I am trying to get my car to have the least amount of rolling resistence. I need a education in bearings I want to replace my bearings in my TC.
I want bearings that will give the car maximum free spin and free the car up making it more effeceint and not break the bank if it isn't necesary. Many of you guys are very smart and I need help so please educate me on what brand and how to determine a bearings speed.
Thanks

Steve S

iTrader: (5)

So long as they are clean and smooth, bearings are extremely efficient so there is very little to be gained. My personal preference is to use the cheap bearings and then at the first hint of damage or dirtiness, they can be replaced with a brand new one for less than $1 in many cases.

Generally, I think you will make much greater performance gains by focusing your time and effort on nearly any other aspect of your car's setup.

roche.hk

If you would like bearing with least resistance. Open the shield of all bearings. Clean them in solvent to remove all the grease. Apply light bearing oil to the bearing and reinstall the shield. But this way you will need to oil and clean the bearings very often. But it will have very low resistance.

IndyRC_Racer

iTrader: (9)

Something that can affect bearings is how easily they fit into wheel hubs, steering knuckles, etc. If you have to use force to fit the bearings into any part of an R/C car, there is a chance you are compressing the bearing itself. In other words you are squeezing the balls inside the bearing, which will affect how efficient the bearing works.

Depending on the quality of a kit or tolerance of a manufacturer (r/c part or bearings), bearing fit can be very good or very tight. If you work on making the bearing slide in easily, you will see an improvement in rolling resistance. Be careful not to overdo it though, as you don't want the bearing fit to be sloppy.

Steve S

iTrader: (5)

This is a really good point. If I have a bearing that's a tight fit in any part, I use an end mill to ream it out. Example:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HSS-Milling-...item4ac8c0f5f2

valk

iTrader: (13)

You might have to do some shimming of axles ect to have them seat right on the bearings. Ive had a few cars where wheel bearings get compressed by wheel hex's. Expensive cars.
Dont discount a good set of ceramic bearings. Im running avids which are midrange. Had to clean them out on delivery but only oiled them once this year so far. Very free.
Otherwise belts and cvds need attention and occasional replacment. If belts are frayed or roughed up, replace. A spot of bearing oil on cvds does wonders and doesnt make paste like grease.
I wouldnt mess with reaming as the bearings can be easily misaligned. Also make sure all my bulkhead bearing carriers are aligned properly. This can free the car up considerably.

Josh-n-ya

iTrader: (95)

Hey Brian, I have bought Bolca ceramic bearings that cost $120 plus shipping that were shit! I since then have gone back to high speed xray bearings for $40 a set that when kept clean are very effective. Like Valk said start with bulkheads then move outward. If you spool not connected to anything bolted down does not just spin free as hell then you know you have a problem. I always use a bearing blaster after every other race. Then soak them in motor spray and then a couple drops of spin lube bearing oil. Hope that helped.

Racing4Evo

iTrader: (2)

+1

Even in the slightest crash you will end up with tweaked bulkeheads causing the misalignment. After a hard crash I loosen all the bukheads and shock tower screws and give it a wiggle to untweak the car. This makes a big difference not only to the handling but also drive train efficacy.

PROMODVETTE

iTrader: (70)

Of course the biggest thing like everyone has said is soak the grease out. The stronger the solvent, the cleaner they will be. I use a 0w2 synthetic oil in my bearings. I have found that of the shielded varieties, metal shields are much more free than rubber shields. You do lose that extra protection you get with the rubber though, same goes with the bearings too.

valk

iTrader: (13)

bearing seals will depend on racing condition. if its outdoors, you will want to run rubber sealed bearings and indoors would be metal or fiber. though ive found it very difficult to clean metal sealed bearings with any certainty. what ive done with my stock bearings is remove one of the rubber seals from each wheel bearing, the seal seated on the cage and have those side facing together inside the upright.
my avids have a metal shield and rubber shield so indoors ill take the rubber seals out and point the open sides in toward each other.

this doesnt help for dif bearings really but its a start. good quality rubber seals are actually quite good just be careful not to bend the crap out of them when pulling apart to clean.

xray bearings are very good for stock bearings as are serpent though you need to properly clean and lube any steel bearings upon first use before they have a chance to gum up and grind.

low friction belts are definitely not just for show, as are hard coated pullies. though any non carbon plastic pullies work quite well. nylon or ptfe the like.

you can spend quite a lot of time building a car to make it right. I spend quite a lot of time building the bulkheads and drive train, ensuring they are as straight as possible. you can tell right away if any tweak is present when you tighten the screws which is why its very important to very loostly install all the screws and tighten them down in sequence, giving each part a little wiggle before tighting more.

I dont claim to know it all by any means. im a noob of 3 years but my serpent is freer than a lot of much more experienced drivers ive met

Mr.juarez

iTrader: (37)

Tamiya stock bearings are just as good. I will never spend another 100 bucks for ceramic bearings like i did with my associated before. Like someone mentioned above when one goes grity ill toss in a new avid one which is only $1 each. Cant beat $20 bucks for a kit give or take the cars bearings count.

Brian last weeks track was spotless. It was near impossible to see any major debri on our cars, heck I didn't even blow my car off!