Originally Posted by
M1Combat
I've moved from Gold to Blue springs on the front and removed all "pre-load" spacers.
Uh-oh. That's too low.
I'm running 2.5* camber front and whatever it came with stock on the rear.
Camber is really a personal thing. When I first started racing waaay back when I always ran more camber than just about everyone else (2 or 3 degrees). As tires have gotten softer and servos have gotten stronger, I don't run hardly any (.75-1 degrees) anymore.
I moved the front upper damper mount inboard one hole compared to stock (It's now as far inboard as it'll go).
That's okay, see above.
Rear is bones level, front is a bit lower than arms level. If I lift the front there is about 1/16" "slack" in the springs. By that I mean that they end up that distance from actually sitting against the top of the damper. Essentially "no preload" what so ever. 1/16" free damper with no spring at full extension.
That's no bueno for a couple of reasons. First, the roll center is all wrong. Second, you have rake the wrong way. Third, having the spring unload like that is asking for all kinds of wild inconsistant handling issues. Lastly, with the front already that raked (all the factory guys run the front end slightly high, like 1 or 2mm more than the back), it can make getting in the corner really erratic, or push off.
But I think the reason it works in your truck, and the reason you can get away with all that camber, is...
Tires are stock... so stock SC10 front and JC Subcultures rear.
The whole reason you're able to get away with this is the front tires are like rocks compared to the JC green subcultures. I almost always run the same tires F/R, and on surfaces like you describe, I either run Double Dees in green (if the track is starting to groove up or is blown off with a leaf blower where there is little dust) or Subcultures (if it's loose on top and not starting to groove up)
All of these things were done in order to get the truck to continue turning once on the throttle. It tends to be very drivable and to be honest "quite nice" coming in (10% drag brake) and across the apex, but any time I get on the throttle and/or have a bit of dust/berm under the front tires while I'm on the throttle it just doesn't want to turn.
That's a combination of having those rocks up front and the bizarroworld setup to make them work.
I'm assuming that everyone will tell me to use something like Subcultures or Calibers on the front... but that would throw off my corner entry... I'd like to leave that alone.
Have you considered it might make it better? Borrow the rear tires off your kids truck, stick enough spacers under the spring to get the front slightly higher than the rear, and drive a couple of laps.
I'm running the slipper tight enough that it will extend the front dampers but it doesn't lift the wheels off the ground or anything.
Sounds okay.
I'm sure it's easy to drive, but if it pushes that much it's easy to drive, it's sure to be slow compared to somebody else who's got enough front grip where they can make the corner and not have to use full lock to get there. You might also find it to be more consistant and easier to drive.
I almost always run the same tires FR and on both the 2w and 4w.
Also...
I've left the dampers alone since I got the truck... but I did buy 25, 30 and 35Wt AE oil. As I recall it comes with 30Wt. Does one generally find that the damper build on an RTR is done competently or should I just go ahead and rebuild all four dampers?
I'm a big fan of my standard setup sheet for tracks like the one you are running on: Change to whatever tires you think work best and have at it.
http://teamassociated.com/pdf/cars_a...rnats_2010.pdf
CraigMBA...
Does "CC" mean anything to you?
Maybe: I'm kind of partial to #5. And I knew a lady with a similar name long ago. Sweet girl.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=CC