what these guys are thinking will work won't . you can't take a belt tunnel and strengthen it has too many pieces to be strong enough to warrant flexing . i have been racing all kinds of RC vehicles for the past 27 years . my sc10 4x4 works great without pinning it but i am pinning mine soon and give it a try because the way this truck was designed to me is like a touring car so pinning the front slipper plate would make it more like a touring car . as far as the graphite rod for strength again the truck was designed to flex some so you don't break parts all the time if you are using a regular 2 cell lipo battery . a chassis that is to rigid can cause more wear on some parts that normally wouldn't get it and cause breakage . but however i would think that if you go with the B44 battery setup i would say yeah it got to have some strength someplace and a brace would be needed .