Thanks for the comments. At the end of our article we mentioned about the motor and battery and how far they are away from center will affect the final balance. Honestly, the Serpent buggy is the best dual pack layout buggy because the ESC is far out on the right to balance out the motor better.
But others that put the ESC on the center diff or above the batteries really suffer (hence the article).
One thing I would note on the scale readings on the Serpent however is the difference (balance) between individual wheels.
Yes, when you add both the left tires vs. the right tires you come up with a good balance. And also when you add both the front tires vs. the rear tires. But the readings between diagonal pairs varies quite a bit. This will result in inconsistency. So, here's another critical measurement to look at.
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Serpent 811Be:
Right Rear = 833 (43.4%)
Left Rear = 1087 (56.6%)
Difference = 254g (>9oz)
Right Front = 1025 (55.3%
Left Front = 827 (44.7%)
Difference = 198g (>7oz)
Diagonal
Right Rear + Left Front = 1660g (~44%)
Left Rear + Right Front = 2112g (~56%)
Difference = 452g (>16oz, more than one pound different)
Total weight: 3772g (8.298lb)
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Tekno RC EB48:
Right Rear = 860 (49.7%)
Left Rear = 870 (50.3%)
Difference = 10g (.36oz)
Right Front = 820 (51.2%)
Left Front = 780 (48.8%)
Difference = 40g (1.43oz)
Diagonal
Right Rear + Left Front = 1640g (49.2%)
Left Rear + Right Front = 1690g (50.8%)
Difference = 50g (1.79oz)
Total weight: 3330g (7.326lb)
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Given the above numbers based on the two (non-USDA certified
) scale readings for the two cars, you can see that the EB48 is well balanced left/right, front/back and
also on the diagonal. The Serpent, while well balanced left/right and front/back has a very heavy left-rear and right-front to the tune of over a 1lb difference when compared with the other diagonal pair of wheel measurements. That's a lot of weight that is not in balance.
The other notable measurement is overall weight. The Serpent is almost 1lb heavier than the EB48. I realize some of the equipment is different, but we've weighed a couple other Serpents around here and all of them were about 1lb heavier with similar equipment.
We sincerely appreciate your post and comments as it really brought another aspect of balance to light. We're definitely not hating on any of the other cars or companies out there. We're simply trying to show (what we think is) an even better way of designing a 1/8th electric buggy. We hope you'll agree and share this info with other Serpent and dual pack owners.
Thanks!