jlavador

maybe it was a defect it was just the front one, ive heard this problem is pretty common though, i didnt install the one way yet maybe thats why.

Erasus

Mileage does vary greatly for everyone it seems. Perhaps the front belt wasn`t tight enough, at least this was probably the cause for my front belt to skip, so the pulley heated up and melted, desintegrating both itself and the belt in the process. However, on my second and third attempt again I wasn`t able to tighten it properly via the diff hub on the bulkhead, so i put in a 14t in place of the 13t and the problem was solved for me. While I was at it I decided to swap all pulleys to aluminum to avoid any future problems with the plastic pulleys.

jlavador

waiting on the alum pulleys and a few other alum parts that I ordered. What Tires do you guys recommend, the stock ones feel like im driving on ice, maybe that's just how its suppose to be. I like how they spark though its cool looking.

Erasus

Depends on what surface you drift on and what kind of slipperyness (is that even a word??) you want I guess. A lot of people recommend HPI T-Drift tires for general purpose, both on carpet and on smooth to rough concrete. Also Yokomo seems to be a rather common choice for tires.
Tamiya super driftech tires also seem to be quite common, though they are 24mm.
I dont have any experience with all of these though because I still am an absolute beginner and the price tag of most "PRO" tire sets is a bit too high for my taste for gettting the general hang of drifting.

I personally use self made tires made of PE tubing. I think it is either PE90 or PE100 tubing, which translates into hard tires. I chew through tires at an alarming rate (smooth, not polished conrete in a skate park) and buying them is just too expensive for me. I am paying ~5 bucks per set (4), opposed to most aftermarket tire sets for 10 bucks up. It adds up q uickly when you are wasting tires like me.

I recon you might want to use some medium to soft tires (no rubber!), since you say the stock tires are too slippery for your taste. Also for beginners I would try to get cheap tires until you get the hang of drifting and can start to fine tune your car to your likings.

My tires tend to spin on the rims and I do not know how to stop them from doing so. Tried superglue but aside from making an absolute mess, they still move on the rims. Has anyone an idea how to fix that? Was thinking about putting some rubber O rings between rims and tires?

regards

Era

eunique

iTrader: (3)

Yes, those pins are notorious for coming off...so they need to be rebuilt from the beginning before even running the D3. You should use red thread lock on the set screws to prevent them from backing out.

eunique

iTrader: (3)

I was running T drifts for a while and they worked pretty decent...but now I mostly use Raikou's. they are great drift tires and fairly good price.


The Raikou's last quite a while and they work good for all types of surfaces. I have not actually replaced a set yet.
You can get them at raikoudrifttires.com

They also sell the rubber o-rings to make the tires stay on the rim. No super glue required.
Some people also use some foam wrapped with electrical tape to build enough thickness to give pressure against the rim and tires. I have personally not used that method. I use the o-rings and am happy with them.
Once in a great while, a tire might get pushed out of position. I just reposition it back onto proper alignment on the rim. Not a big problem and easy to do.

The stock knuckles are not KPI-able since the lower part is connected to the arm via a pin. In the KPI mod, you need the top and bottom of the knuckles to be linked by a ball cup so that you are able to vary the pick up points between the top and bottom, thus allowing you an "offset kingpin."

Erasus

Hey eunique, thanks for the reply!

Please keep in mind that I am running only on smooth, fine sandpaper like concrete, not carpet, I will, however , try out these raikous.

From what I`ve read, the D70SB will be the tires to go for me, it seems.

And finally, thanks for the explanation of the KPI Knuckles. But couldnt the stock knuckles be used to KPI by deleting the c-hub, using a ball cup in the lower hole of the knuckle and use an extension arm on the upper side to offset the knuckle?

FoiVoS_

You should buy the T-drifts copy from the r2hobbies.com site . They behave pretty much as the hpi ones but only cost 4$ per 4pcs

Erasus

yeah but aside from these tires i dont see any incentive to buy from r2hobbies, and the shipping costs to germany are high enough to not make me wanna do it

Besides, I might just continue to use my self made tires for the time being. They only cost me 2,50 a meter of tubing and a bit of work

Erasus

Another question popped into my mind:

Posican refers to positive camber, right? So Caseymacguyvers horizontal Damper Setup (aka the anti- anti- roll bar ) is not an essential part to go posican, ist this correct?

Also, does Posican mean positive camber in neutral wheel position or at full lock? If it is the second, Isn`t KPI basically Posican, as it kinda"tilts" the tires into the steering, resulting the wheels to lean over into a positive camber?

eunique

iTrader: (3)

yes those Raikous will be great! They are not just for carpet. There are a lot of drifters out here in my area also that go almost every weekend in concrete and asphalt like you describe and have been using the Raikoudrifttires with great success and like I said hold up very well longevity-wise and grip/slip. Tengu Drift Club here almost use those tires exclusively in all types of surfaces.

Yesn essentially how you are describing, if you mod the stock and use them that way then it will give you the same offset essentially and use them for KPI...as long as you have the offset between top and bottom kingpins.

yes, for posican, you do need the horizontal dampers to give you more of that positive camber on the inner turning wheel while giving you negative camber on the outer wheel. You will get some of that in a KPI mod if your wheels dont have much of a negative camber when oointing straight, but when set at negative camber which would be ideal for drifting, you won't get much posican. And the whole setup changes and the way the suspension reacts when using posican...so, no they will not be the same.

You dont necessarily need to go posican if you like the way KPI handles. I decided to try it on mine and like the changes even though the initial cost drove up to be able to do it. I did have a lot of the parts already as spares so I went ahead and did it.
That's what makes this hobby great...tons of options and not just one "correct way to set up." Ultimately your driving style and practice is what will get you good at it.

jlavador

also wheres a good place to get rims, almost everything i find is from hongkong, any shops in the states?

Erasus

http://www.rc-race-and-drift-japan.com/ has a ridiculous amount of drift rims and tires, it is almost absurd. They are, however, japan based as far as i know.

@Eunique, why are the horizontal dampers important for posican? As far as I understand, they only aid the car to roll in the opposite direction of the turn, making them the opposite of anti roll bars (hence the name anti anti roll bar ), don`t they?

And of course they kill the infamous jacking but how do they actively aid in increasing the positive camber (which is the whole point of posican, as the name implies), as they do not change the geometry of the front suspesnion all that much, at least not in terms of where the suspension arms are, the knuckles, the steering, etc.
I have the feeling I am missing something here.

Thanks for your replies so far, appreciate it.

FoiVoS_

Since we are talking a bit about rims does anybody know any good and cheap site to get rims from europe only ? Anyway yeah racing released their aluminum suspension arms for front and rear . They look nice and pinky to me so i am going to buy them and tell you the final result

Erasus

I was considering them myself, however, if you plan on doing the kpi mod it might not be the best of ideas, since you will have to pretty much delete the vital parts of the suspension arms.

The only european shop that comes into my mind is http://kayhobbies.at/shop/

For big scale RCs I could point you to dozens of sites, but for rc drift my knowledge is limited, unfortunately.