So just a weekend update.

After last week and the issues I was having on the big triple, I rebuilt all 4 shocks with the block CSI pistons, 40wt front, 30wt rear. I went back to blue front, yellow rear springs as well. 6 inch drop and no chassis slap. 12inch and I got a little in the front. Saturday we went out to Dalton, and between the setup change and the change they made to the triple, car was much much better. Took off flat to a little bit of nose up. Landings felt smooth and controlled whether flat, nose, or tail first (slight angles not lawn darting it). My timing is still inconsistent, but the car was much easier to jump with.

1st qualifier went well (and was my best) logging several 31 sec laps (my best last week was 36, though the fast guys were doing low 30's and high 29's). I finished 3rd in the qualifier and was 4th overall. I was craving a little more infield steering and changed from the Opt 2 bar to the Opt 3 and dropped from a 16t to a 15t pinion. 2nd qualifier, the set screw in the rear driveshaft to pinion came out after my warmup lap so logged a DNF. Only had enough time to get it fixed before the next run. Car felt pretty good, and ran pretty consistent though mixed on the gearing change. I noticed the speed decrease on the straight but didn't feel as much of a torque increase that I was hoping for. Going to fiddle with the IX8 a bit and see if I might have some opportunity there.

Car feels really solid in the sweeper. Friend suggested I drift it more, but I could not get the back end to swing around. On the infield, it rotates well off the back without being difficult to control. The only times I spun out were doing something too aggressive and while off line in the loose clay. I am pleased with the setup overall. I am thinking about adding half a degree of front toe out and going one step softer on the front sway bar to see if I can get a bit more mid to late corner steering. It feels like others are able to get on the gas sooner then I am coming out of a corner.

Looking forward to next weekend and the first race of our offroad state series.

They will run series to the ESC and parallel to the servo i will post pics later this week when i have it wired up.

it requires a wire coming from the pos and negative of each pack, joining into 1, and going to the servo. They will be soldered into the same plugs as the ESC and jumper between batteries. The pic will help clear it up

How much rebound do you build your shocks with? Rebound makes your shocks progressively stiffer as they compress, and might enable you to tune your car to handle the bigger jumps without chassis slap and very little compromise on the rest of your setup.

Im just really getting back into 1/8th scale after a long period, but shock rebound was always one of the setup changes i found would solve the "too soft for the big jumps" problem without much of a compromise elsewhere. It can also help get more lift off jumps

About 25% rebound on all 4. Built similar to the instructions above. Serpent webbed bladders. I have the CSI bladders but have not tried them yet.

I am still very new to the offroad thing, but enjoying it as I go.

if you want more exit steering get the 14 or 16 degree caster blocks. A bunch of guys down here have made the switch and swear by it. I'm still in the dark ages with 10's on mine

Interesting. I have 10's as well. I'll go through my parts bin this week and see if I have anything else. I know 12's seem pretty popular as well.

Thanks!

DS, if you like those changes i suggested then go to a 2.3 front bar 2.7 rear bar white rear springs and 12° caster blocks

Sorry i meant orca

Ya I never even liked the 12s, so I doubt I would like the 14s or 16s. 10s just seemed to have the type of steering I like. Amazingly enough the car, even with a ton of steering, has never had that "rear loose" feeling. Where it feels like the car wants to rotate in the middle of the car instead of steering from the front.

Have the front and rear of my 2.0 kit together now, only ran into one issue with what appears to be the wrong Orings were included with the center diff. I spoke with Serpent America and emailed them pics last night.

I need to take my front diff back out and pull a shim or 2, it is to tight after getting everything on there, so i will also check the obvious that i don't have anything binding our out of alignment causing it as well.

The parts quality, fit and finish of this kit is as expected, which is AMAZINGLY good compared to other kits i have built.

Hopefully i will have it on the track this weekend, i have another Center diff (old Style) that i can run until i get the correct O rings

This may sound strange ds but i don't put the 3 Phillips screws in the diff cases at all and it helps free everything up

hmm i could check that, it was a little tight before i put it on the chassis though, and very tight afterwards, so i think i did something then.

was late last night when i did it, so i might have been a little sleepy

Softer front sway bar then rear? Feels so backwards hehe. Looking like rain this weekend so we will see. Bigger race and supposed to go up Friday, but all weather dependent. I also noticed I have the -1 rear hexes. Might be worth swapping back to the standards to see what happens as well.

Thanks!

With the 2.0 rear end you have to run the -1 hubs to keep it legal width.

That would explain it. Thanks!