5LikesSC10 4x4 Thread
05-30-2012 | 12:26 PM
In my opinion it is worth every penny over the regular kit. I worked out the price for a friend that just bought everything and it is literally only a couple dollars more expensive once you factor in the swaybars and other extras that you need to make the standard kit work. The shocks are butter smooth, my regular ones are smooth but the FT ones are that much smoother.
If the FT kit was out when I bought mine I would have got it, I ended up getting the upgrade kit but of course it doesnt come with all the cool goodies like the ti turnbuckles and all the bling blue hardware.
I was looking at doing it but I dont see how you can remove that "fin" that attaches the center chassis to the rear without having major flex. What have you done if anything to correct this?
Got any pics of your setup? It would be nice to be able to run sticks or saddles, I'm guessing that with saddles it is an inline setup rather than side to side?
If the FT kit was out when I bought mine I would have got it, I ended up getting the upgrade kit but of course it doesnt come with all the cool goodies like the ti turnbuckles and all the bling blue hardware.
I was looking at doing it but I dont see how you can remove that "fin" that attaches the center chassis to the rear without having major flex. What have you done if anything to correct this?
Got any pics of your setup? It would be nice to be able to run sticks or saddles, I'm guessing that with saddles it is an inline setup rather than side to side?
At work so not much time. Advanced search for this thread using sctdan for search by user name. Pics of carbon fiber plate and cut outs posted. Regular chassis brace fixs most if not all flex issues with the mod. I beat the cra&%$@p out of truck and have no durability issue.
05-30-2012 | 12:52 PM
I've been going over a year on the stock bearings and if the bearings fail at this point I might as well buy a whole new car. 
05-30-2012 | 01:33 PM
Well I was just looking at it, I was doing some work on the rear and had it all undone and even with the 4 outer screws tight the center didnt suck up flush between the two pieces if that makes sense. I did have the chassis brace off so that may have stabilized everything if it was connected. I will probably investigate it more when I get home. All those parts are cheap so even if you dont like it later its not a huge expense to replace those two parts.
05-30-2012 | 01:49 PM
05-30-2012 | 01:55 PM
Tech Master
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 1,192
From: São Paulo, Brazil
I was thinking about cutting off the sides of the rear bumper since I never will use the mudflaps. My bodies are not too bad but it seems a bit funny to have that wide part hanging out there for nothing. Does the RPM rear bumper for the SC10 2wd fit the 4x4?
05-30-2012 | 02:17 PM
I cut the sides off and it works fine. Seems like less wear and tear on the body
05-30-2012 | 02:22 PM
Regarding rear bumpers, I was practicing one day with some people and a couple guys had1/8 scale buggy's. No problem as long as they respect my ride and vice versa it should be ok. Well my truck died on the track due to a brownout issue (way before they came around) and I tried to get off the stand to grab my truck as fast as I could cause I just knew these dudes were not going to see..
Now before I got off the stand AND despite me shouting and yelling out LOOK OUT FOR THE BRIGHT ORANGE TRUCK!! An 1/8 scale buggy slammed into the back of my truck. I was pissed. For as hard a hit as it was , I only cracked the bumper. I thought he destroyed the back of my car. I was seriously fuming pissed. Dude was like 'oh sorry bud'.
I'm guess I'm saying keep the rear bumper ya never know.
Maybe I'll punch him in the back of his head next time and be like oh sorry bud. LOL
Now before I got off the stand AND despite me shouting and yelling out LOOK OUT FOR THE BRIGHT ORANGE TRUCK!! An 1/8 scale buggy slammed into the back of my truck. I was pissed. For as hard a hit as it was , I only cracked the bumper. I thought he destroyed the back of my car. I was seriously fuming pissed. Dude was like 'oh sorry bud'.
I'm guess I'm saying keep the rear bumper ya never know.
Maybe I'll punch him in the back of his head next time and be like oh sorry bud. LOL
05-30-2012 | 02:37 PM
Tech Apprentice
iTrader: (1)
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 50
I am glad you brought this up. I was checking mudflap alignment the other day and with the way the toe in is set the mud flaps are virtually useless. I was debating getting rid of them to save a little weight too. When you get on the gas most of the rooster tail goes straight by the flaps.
05-30-2012 | 02:42 PM
Running the Flo tek silverado. I reinforce all the critical areas with 2 oz fiberglass cloth and shoe goo before using. They hold up well and with the vents cut out parachute much less. I always place the body over the mounts before painting and mark it with a Sharpie. I've found the pre made marks don't always line up.
05-30-2012 | 05:07 PM
Something to keep in mind, and this is based on my experiences with 1/8 electric back when 20C was considered "High" and we pushed it to the limits on cutoff voltages. If you are not balancing your packs every charge, if you do have a situation of a weaker cell, you could potentially be over discharging that poor voltage cell during use since cut-off voltage is a measurement across all cells combined, not individually. (now, that would be all cool feature on an ESC!)
And if you have a weak cell and you are charging your packs without regards to the voltages seen across each cell (which usually a balance charge setting takes into account, though it may be different on other chargers), you could *potentially* overcharge one of the cells.
We had someone do this who was new to lipos. He went ahead and charged a pack he had been using for awhile (7.4V pack) without balance charging it.
His charger without that setting turned on ignored the individual voltages of each cell and just went for what was the total voltage to charge to. Well, one cell was very low, the other higher, and he ended up from what we can tell spiking that other "high" cell way up there causing a severally puffed pack. Pretty surprised it didn't just burst as we are talking stovetop popcorn size and cause a fire which considering where he was charging the pack (and not in a liposack) would have been quite expensive.
So in short, can you do it? yes, you can charge your lipos without balancing them and probably 99% have no issues. My luck though, I end up being the 1% that does.
But considering that in general the amount of time saved at least from what I have seen on my chargers is extremely minimal (especially with packs that don't have issues as when in use, the voltages should be pretty close anyway during discharge) I don't see a benefit in not balance charging the lipos.
Just my opinion, ultimately people have to make there own decisions on what they want to do.
And if you have a weak cell and you are charging your packs without regards to the voltages seen across each cell (which usually a balance charge setting takes into account, though it may be different on other chargers), you could *potentially* overcharge one of the cells.
We had someone do this who was new to lipos. He went ahead and charged a pack he had been using for awhile (7.4V pack) without balance charging it.
His charger without that setting turned on ignored the individual voltages of each cell and just went for what was the total voltage to charge to. Well, one cell was very low, the other higher, and he ended up from what we can tell spiking that other "high" cell way up there causing a severally puffed pack. Pretty surprised it didn't just burst as we are talking stovetop popcorn size and cause a fire which considering where he was charging the pack (and not in a liposack) would have been quite expensive.
So in short, can you do it? yes, you can charge your lipos without balancing them and probably 99% have no issues. My luck though, I end up being the 1% that does.
But considering that in general the amount of time saved at least from what I have seen on my chargers is extremely minimal (especially with packs that don't have issues as when in use, the voltages should be pretty close anyway during discharge) I don't see a benefit in not balance charging the lipos.
Just my opinion, ultimately people have to make there own decisions on what they want to do.
You're right about the lipocutoff, however: I have a simple cellchecker when i'm testing and priming batteries, new and on the watch list. If a battery is working properly it will never have the concern of that 1% you speak of. I do totally 100% understand being that 1% though. believe me.
You guys can balance all you want but I really think if it's being done every single time out of a kind of fear, I think you need to re-evaluate. My Airplane customers balance once a SEASON. (that's 5 months) Using massive 5-6cells in parallel to attain 12s in their 30%'s etc etc. They cellcheck out of pure random thought and the only issues that occur were never going to be fixed by balancing.
Bottom Line: Occasional Balancing is never an issue unless a cell was inherently bad and then you can get it to the warranty faster because you're not bandaiding the issue before it's too late to notice. Food for thought.
(just this last month I had a brandnew Reedy4s for my RC8 that wouldn't balance properly the day I got it... So I babied it till it puffed and they're fighting me for the warranty because it was "almost out of warranty" (sent the battery back 2weeks of owning it))
05-30-2012 | 05:22 PM
-little longer
-more shit dangling off your charger
Your response is 'then who cares, do it every time'. That's fine, but I really don't care for a bunch of wires hanging all over the place and chipboards on my dusty bench. I do that at 'home'.