Me and some buddies are doing some 1/12 racing this winter season after getting into the rc hobby because of rc drifting. We all have 12L3s or 12L4s, we'll be running on carpet. What's a good basic setup for these cars? Right now I'm running with a 100 spur, 34 pinion with a 27T monster motor. I got the car used and my setup station is for 1/10 scale chassis so I have no way of telling what the settings are except by eyeballing it. Rideheight - really low. Lower than I ever ran my 1/10. It looks to be only 1-2 mm off the front 3 mm in the rear.

My speedo is a Keyence Zero Extreme V which seems to do the job. I love the response and smoothness I get from accelerating and smooth braking. The servo is a hi-tec hs-225bb. Mods done to the chassis as far as I can see is a CRC motor mount in the rear, and it has the 0.75 tbar.

I'm not sure what other mod is needed to get this thing running right, but to me it seems to run fine. But then again, I've never raced nor tried any other 1/12 chassis. Reading the other thread, people seem to like CRC 3.2Rs better - runs well out of the box without any hop ups needed.

Any setup advice or things to watch out for with these chassis or with 1/12 racing in general? Thanks!

OK, a few basics - applicable to almost all 1/12th cars

1) gear ratio you posted means squat without knowing tyre diameter - visit gearchart.com and aim for around 45mmpr with 6 cell stock (40 if it's a smaller track)

2) tyres - purple fronts and grey rears are the de facto standard - there are some exotic variations

3) ride height - min 3mm all round, 3.5 is better, but 4 is starting to get too high

4) change the kingpin springs from kit (20) to 18's

Learn to driver before you try to drive fast - 1/12th on carpet is not drifting!

Thanks for the tips. One thing I did learn from other threads was slow=fast so I think I've got that down. I went out and practiced the other day. I didn't do as bad as I thought I would do but certainly not as smooth and fast as you pros or even club racers. When I drift, I don't use a lot of throttle to begin with so learning to feather the throttle for drifting helped me a lot.

As for the kingpin springs, how would I know if they were changed by the previous owner? Do they come in different colors like shocks springs do in 1/10?

Other things I picked up from another thread is .5 degree toe in front, -1 degree camber. Is this true?

With these foam tires getting worn and trued ever so often, I guess gearing would have to be changed just as often.

Also, another question I have, how much difference in tire wear should there between the front and rear tires.

Ok, this will be my last question for this post. Someone is selling a used CRC Pro Strut end. Is it worth it? How much more superior is it compared to the stock AE one? At my level, would it really make that much difference?

Thanks for your help!

All the front springs are the same color. You'll need to hit them with a digital caliper to see the wire gauge, which is how they're measured. While you're measuring, check the uncompressed height as well. If they're off by .25 mm it may be wise to replace them as one of them is probably blown and the difference is more than you'll want to correct with shims on the kingpin. The thinner springs will go bad quicker than the thicker gauge springs will.

The toe in doesn't sound bad as a starting point. You can start with -1 degree camber and adjust from there as the tires begin to cone. You'll have it spot on when the tires wear flat for the track you're running on and you can carry the greatest corner speed.

If you've got camber set properly, you shouldn't have to true the tires that often. You'll need to cut them even less if you rotate left to right every heat or two. Front springs and center shock changes will affect the optimal camber setting, but you won't know which way to go until you run the car and get inside/outside tire measurements to correct from.

I would plan on the fronts wearing more quickly due to the cornering forces that act on them and the fact that the tire is smaller to begin with. As the fronts wear, you'll want to change the lower arm mount shims to keep the desired ride height. (You'll do the same in the rear, but less frequently.)

I would think in this case it would be beneficial to stick with the AE front end kit. Parts are widely available, cheap, and it's an excellent front end assembly.

Hope this helps!
Chris

Thanks for all the info. I didn't even know ride height was being set by shims. Any particular Associated part# you guys use for shimming?

One of the things I noticed about the Associated front end is the slop. Even if I hold on to the turnbuckles, I can still wiggle the wheels right at the axle. Do you guys shim this area too or is there something else I can do to minimize slop here. Also, I noticed I can slide the arms back and forth ever so slightly along the hinge pins. What size shims do you guys use here? Do you guys use those teflon coated shims or just regular shims?

Thanks for all the help!

I'd disagree about tyre wear. My rears wear far more than my fronts (I use a harder compound on the front as well). Aim for 4mm between front and rear diameters (eg 50mm r / 46mm f down to 46mm r /42mm f)

As for slop, sounds like the balls/ballcups are worn - cheap fix is to take a thin plastic bag, cut a disc 10mm diameter and use as padding, you may need more than 1 depending on how much play you have.

I run 0 toe in/out, -1 degree castor on a L4.

Also check your width, the L4 is quite narrow and you need to shim it out at the rear - but wheels must be equidistant from centreline

Keep in mind that all wheels aren't created equal. The mounting plane from the outside edge of the wheel will vary between wheel styles - even within the same manufacturer. Easiest way to do this is to measure the front of the chassis and find the centerline, then measure the rear of the main chassis plate and find the centerline. with the rear pod attached, place your straight edge (or ruler) at the center of the front and center of the rear main plate and mark this on the rear pod. Now measure from this reference mark. This is because the rear pods are all offset for the gearing. I have my rear track width set at max, and have to adjust the shimming for each different style rim.

good luck.

A quick check for your 1/12th front springs is to both springs over a screw driver of the right diameter (on top of each other) and then compress the top spring over the bottom spring. If both springs are equal, then they will compress at the same rate and be fully compressed at exactly the same time. If one is stronger than the other, it will compress at a slower rate meaning that the weaker spring compresses fully before the stronger one does. I hope you see what I mean by that and you would be amazed how far out some 'pairs' of new springs really are!! All the best, Chris.

Thanks for the tips, gents. I'll let you guys know how I do at the races.

Hey's guys need some help can anyone please tell me how to gear these 10.5 Brushless motors. The track Im racing on is a carpet ozite 100x50 with a 88 spur and a rear 1.78" tire size what gear would you suggest? here are the motors listed below.

Orion 10.5
Novak 10.5

Just thought we would jump in with some quick race updates on the CRC Pro Strut Front end....

This past weekend at the IIC race in Las Vegas, Team Corally Driver Marc Fischer was really struggling with his Corally 12X. For the front end, Marc used a Associated front end with a lot of CRC option parts on it.

Running out of ideas on how to get his car competitive, he dropped off his Corally in the CRC pits and asked us to give the new CRC Pro Strut a try on his car. We put a Pro Strut front end on his car (yes, CRC guys working on the Corally!).

Until that point, Marc's best lap was a 10.3. On his 3rd lap after installing the Pro Strut, he nailed down a 9.9 and came back from practice with a big smile on his face. His car felt great and he went from off the pace to contender, just that easy. Shortly after that, a few other Team Corally drivers were busy fitting their cars with the front end.

Obviously, the Pro Strut was on the CRC Generation X cars. Three cars made both the stock and modified A-mains.

Don't be afriad to give the Pro Strut a go. With the new molded ride height spacers (ditching the culprit red washer/spacers) we have practically eliminated lower arm failures. The newest plastic is very tough and many of the parts have been beefed up and improved. In fact, we had ZERO lower arm failures in Las Vegas. It's durable, much easier to adjust the play and fit of the various parts as well as having all the adjustments needed to get your car dialed in.

Any hobby dealer can get the parts from Horizon Hobby Distributors or directly from CRC. In addition, obnline shops like Ashford Hobby, Stormer Racing and Superior Hobbies stock the parts. Also, we ship right away from our web store.

Thanks,

Team CRC

I upgraded my tfource to the new pro strut front end as soon as they became available and then a few months ago I switched over to a genX car. Running twice a week with 19 turn motors for months, I can honestly say that in all this running over an extended period of time iv'e yet to break the first part on either car with the pro strut front end. Also, since it's possible to adjust out the slop that develops thru normal wear, I've yet to find the need to replace any worn parts either. When you combine that with how sweet the handling is and how easy it is to make tuning changes........what else could a racer ask for?? I did start out with the grapite 3mm spacers and those do seem to eliminate the breakage that others were experiencing early on. But hey, if you run carpet and use small tires, then you'll need the 3mm spacer anyway just for ride height. CRC's new front end is in my opinion the most valuable upgrade that anybody has offered for 1/12th scale cars in years. These guys just know what they are doing an their whole business is geared around the 1/12th scale scene. It shows in both their product offerings and their race results.

Is the front end availble as a kit?

I'm driving the orion 10.5 with a roll out of 54mm and perhaps I can still go a little higher...
Perhaps someone can calculate it to inch

from www.teamcrc.com
3240 - CRC Pro Strut Front End 1/12th
SKU: 3240

Complete Pro-Strut Front End