Hey everyone, sorry its been a bit, but really not a lot has happened lately in RC or really even hiking. Unfortunately we got a bit of snow the other day, which puts a bit of a damper on out door plans, as my muscles like to lock up if I stay out in the cold too long. Luckily with our weather here, the snow melts just as fast as it moves in. So I am hoping to make a trip or two to the track this week and try out my Slayers new suspension set up. I am quite happy with how it turned out quite honestly. I just went back to the stock set up that initially seemed sloppy, but remember how I had stated my shocks had come improperly built? I think that may have been what a large part of the issues. I then placed a large preload on the springs and did a drop test and checked my suspension...was quite impressed at how it was sitting, returned quite well to a height I agree with, at least for starting. I also loosened my slipper clutch just slightly, as I was not getting enough slip, and shocking my drivetrain as well (I had a broken spur tooth). So we shall get the truck to the track a few times and see how it performs now with the changes and go from there. I am thinking though that a middle differential may be a great investment...
But first, I plan to still build me that "hiking" truck rock crawler. Have not forgotten about that, couldn't even. I have actually been planning my build for this truck. Well originally I put in my order to buy one, but they, couldn't verify my bank account. I am not sure how they justified this excuse although as they took the money out of my account. You know those days you have too when you fight all day long to keep a great attitude and you look forward to that one thing, and that is what gets you through the day? Well that's what happened to me. I had a long, very long day, but I held onto the fact I had ordered my truck and it was going to be on its way. But then I get this email, stating they can not verify my credit card and that my order was on hold, but when I check my account they ran my credit card. My anxiety just skyrocketed and I lost it. I sent them an email letting them know I was upset, along with the proper information. But then I decided to write an email I wouldn't send, letting them know how upset I was. You know, like you have heard of therapists telling someone to write a letter to someone and then throw it away? Well...Do not do it on email, especially when you are being taken over by anxiety...you may twitch when you decide you are done, and send the email, instead of delete it. Sad day. Plus side, the only real damage I most likely did was tell them my real feelings of the situation, and cancel my order. And I think that may have worked out to the companies benefit. Now not only do I plan to buy the truck, but I have been spending a lot of time doing some research and trying to decide what to do with the truck. My goal is to come up with something that can cover a lot of terrain, while at times it can reach normal walking speeds, maybe faster. So here is what I have come up with.
The start of the truck will be Exceed's Maxstone 16. We will then upgrade the truck from its stock "3 link" to a full "4 link" design. The reviews state that the tires are too hard, contributed to the foams, so we shall inspect this upon receipt of the vehicle, and perhaps, if needed, adjust the foams. I also plan to add weight to the wheels while I have the tires off. They also complain that its slow, like slow for a crawler, so I want to upgrade the motor to a 370 brushed from a 270 brushed, just to get it fast enough to keep up with a casual hike. As most of the electronics are mounted fairly high, I plan to shift these to a lower mounted location, along with flipping the shocks to bring the weight down closer to the axel's and wheels. Four wheel steering will definitely help out once I find myself in tighter spots, so may as well add that to the build, and lastly if my budget allows I will include in the build a GT-3C from Flysky. While I know its not a "top of the line" controller, not only will it unlock "true" 4 wheel steering on my truck, but I can use it as an upgrade, and organize all of my trucks under the same controller system, for a very convenient budget friendly price. After all is said and done we will be looking at a price of about $210...What a mini rock crawler costs stock from almost any other company right now. So as soon as the company releases my money that they never took from me, and my budget from my birthday is finalized I will put in my order again and have an all new build on my hands! So stay tuned!
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
RC for your family hikes?
So I have found that the biggest downside to my hobby right now is that I actually can not make it to the track as much as I would want. I do have responsibilities now, after all, not just me myself and I when I am home, but I am watching my 3 month old son as well. We do not get to always get to the track too after my wife gets off of work as it could be cold, or we may decide that we need the exercise from a walk a bit more than just standing outside around a track. So what can I do? Typically speaking I would make sure all the maintenance was performed on my vehicles, than just sit there, in front of my computer and read forums. Forum after forum, usually ones that pertained to vehicles I owned, but not always, just absorbing all the information I could, after that I learned that I liked to watch video's on YouTube. You can learn a lot from those guys on there, in a very short amount of time, that has step by step instructions on "how to" usually along with an explanation as to why they were doing it or how it worked. After so long though you can only watch so many video's, so that is why I decided to try my hand at my own thing. I still watch there videos and do my research on the forum's but I have since added this blog to it all...but this still doesn't completely cover the times I can't make it to the track, so instead I got an idea, from a buddy. He has this RC truck that is a mini rock crawler.
It is about the size of my Mini 8ight, but is designed to go over much more complicated surfaces. They are not all that fast, but are not supposed to be either, so I could take it with us on our hikes. The problem being that I have a pretty restricted budget, but my birthday is right around the corner, so perhaps I could get it with all my birthday money? So the research begins. I needed to find something that was not only hobby grade but in a very tight budget. After some research I actually did not really find any other mini rock crawlers other than the one my friend had, which had just recently had production stopped, and was re branded with a few new bells and whistles for almost twice the price...ya that was definitely not going to work. When I was just about to give up on the idea, I came across this little crawler from Exceed. It was right down my budget range ($100), and except for weaker and cheaper electronics the chassis seems very close if not identical to the one my friend has (Losi). I am pretty excited about this and can not wait to put my order in, for the addition to my "garage". I looked around on YouTube and there was only 1 full review on this vehicle, so that made my digging for information a bit more difficult, but in the end, I decided it had all the equipment I would want on a rock crawler stock, with an easy conversion to four wheel steering. Because the YouTube content for this vehicle is so restricted, and I plan to do my own video's as soon as I finish getting my equipment and set up, This may be one of the trucks I do my first series on, so keep an eye out for that in the future too! This should give us something to mess around with while we are out on those fun hikes we are getting used to. I live at the base of the Rockies so finding a place to hike and play shouldn't be hard at all! If I decide to get competitive, they do have "rock crawler course races" too, that we could look into, and because it moves so slowly, it should be a great truck for my son to drive a couple years! its just win win all around the way I see it.
It is about the size of my Mini 8ight, but is designed to go over much more complicated surfaces. They are not all that fast, but are not supposed to be either, so I could take it with us on our hikes. The problem being that I have a pretty restricted budget, but my birthday is right around the corner, so perhaps I could get it with all my birthday money? So the research begins. I needed to find something that was not only hobby grade but in a very tight budget. After some research I actually did not really find any other mini rock crawlers other than the one my friend had, which had just recently had production stopped, and was re branded with a few new bells and whistles for almost twice the price...ya that was definitely not going to work. When I was just about to give up on the idea, I came across this little crawler from Exceed. It was right down my budget range ($100), and except for weaker and cheaper electronics the chassis seems very close if not identical to the one my friend has (Losi). I am pretty excited about this and can not wait to put my order in, for the addition to my "garage". I looked around on YouTube and there was only 1 full review on this vehicle, so that made my digging for information a bit more difficult, but in the end, I decided it had all the equipment I would want on a rock crawler stock, with an easy conversion to four wheel steering. Because the YouTube content for this vehicle is so restricted, and I plan to do my own video's as soon as I finish getting my equipment and set up, This may be one of the trucks I do my first series on, so keep an eye out for that in the future too! This should give us something to mess around with while we are out on those fun hikes we are getting used to. I live at the base of the Rockies so finding a place to hike and play shouldn't be hard at all! If I decide to get competitive, they do have "rock crawler course races" too, that we could look into, and because it moves so slowly, it should be a great truck for my son to drive a couple years! its just win win all around the way I see it.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Shock blow out: What caused it?
Hey everyone... So I had gotten to the track a few times lately with our better weather and all, and the slayer had seemed a bit sloppy in the rear. The response in the corners was just not was I was looking for, and the rear of the vehicle was just sagging more than I wanted, before it was even under power. SO...I did the responsible thing and looked up the set up guide on Traxxas' website. But that's about all I did. See I ended up having a problem with their set up guide. First it requires you to drill your pistons, second, the guide is for the slayer and not the slayer pro, and third it assumes that your track is a standard well kept American track. My truck is none of the above. Drill out your pistons? Ok, that really is not asking all that much so why do I not just jump right on it and do it? well because of the second issue. Being a Slayer Pro instead of the standard original Slayer, a lot had changed. My track foot print was both wider and longer. In order to achieve this larger foot print, it appears they just put in roughly an additional 30mm to the chassis.
So I am not exactly sure what this did to the weight distribution, but my best educated guess is that there is a majority more weight sitting on the rear than on the front, seeing as this empty space comes right after the front shocks. Definitely explains the massive sag and lack of responsiveness. But now I am back to square one with the "set up guides" and will have to pave my own path. I did a lot of asking around, I love to get opinions, even if I can make a rather close educated guess, because you never know if you may get an adverse affect you do not know about. The answers, of course as expected, varied extremely so. I got everything from "just tighten your stock suspension preload" to "drill more holes in your piston and run 50k diff fluid". Of course any of these could potentially work, but I didn't want to take the extreme options with out having a good explanation as to how it was not only beneficial but would not put increased pressure or damage on the equipment over time. What I decided on was trying to stay close to the Traxxas set up guides, with a few minor adjustments via the assistance of a friend also in school at VT for engineering. (Thanks Tony for the help!). We decided via a few different diagnostics that the shocks needed to have stiffer damping and stiffer springs. Unfortunately Tony was not available to see the actual track and we had to go off of general descriptions and pictures, so this was still a best educated guess. So I get to work and rebuild all of my shocks, with the variable valve kit. I rebuild the Front shocks to the same stock set up, but slightly raise my rear shock oil wt. The shock springs presented a problem for me though, and I knew this before I put them on the truck, but decided to try them anyways. For some reason, I am not sure why, perhaps its a common set up for the Revo or something, but for some reason the local hobby shop does not carry the one step up spring rate, or the 2nd or 3rd step springs that are stiffer.....nope, they carry the 4th heavier spring, than the stock set ups. You know I could do a whole post on the techs and the guys there. You stand and wait in line, because they have people who "can not come help you" for what ever reason. Then they act and pride themselves on the "knowledge" they have...but lets get one thing strait...its the knowledge you "should" have. Very few of the "techs" there are actually capable of telling you how to properly set these vehicles up. They seem to learn the band aid fixes for something and never really tell you what is properly happening. They tell you "oh that will be ok" instead of explaining to someone how it works and what they can do to get it into a premium mode. I have had to spend an insane amount of time doing my research into just finding out how these engines work, and I have come across some very good information to know, that is just never really said at the hobby shops, or because they give me a wrong "fix"....But hey that's just the rant of a parts guy that worked for a much larger industry in the past (Honda, Polaris, Kawasaki, Yamaha - motorcycles, atv's, boats, jet skis.... you get the idea) ....anyways I ended up trying the gold springs from Traxxas just because they were the only ones available and the ones I already owned. So I get the truck all back together, the shocks assembled with extreme care to make sure there is no "fod" (military term for ya, foreign object debris, because remember "fod kills"). I take the time to make sure there are no air bubbles and then I carefully place my caps on, ensuring that they are not over filled, or under filled, and lastly before placing them onto the trucks I make sure they compress and rebound without any binding. Well we got about 2 track days on them and I was not happy with the set up, but mostly it was because of the springs I think. Nose diving off of jumps, things like that. occasionally I would have issues just because our track was not smooth though...this tells me not only my springs are wrong, but so is my fluids. Oh well, I just didn't feel like rebuilding the suspension yet, and wanted to get a few more days of this beautiful sun, at the track. So track day 3 comes around and I have the engine running strong, there are a few other buggies at the track...race time! Nothing really special but still a blast to see how you hold up around other drivers. A few tuning points from the transmission became clear pretty quickly, such as how my slipper clutch was much too tight, and my engine was shifting much too early. But another thing was happening a bit more gradually. My truck seemed to handle the track in a less capable manner. Eventually I was getting to a point where my truck would roll over at this one turn in the track unless I took it extremely slowly, so, not realizing that it was my suspension that was causing the issues, I got tired of my "driving inabilities" for the day and packed it up and headed home. I sit down with the truck outside to start cleaning it off and see a lot of gunk all over the rear shocks and the engine on the block. "Great...an engine leak, right after I finally get it dialed in" First thought that comes to mind. So I start cleaning everything off and realized that the truck "felt funny", and of course investigate. It became extremely obvious early on that my "passenger side" rear shock was empty...happy: its not an engine leak ... anxious: did I damage my shocks? Well I just got them apart late last night, cleaned them out as they were completely covered in rocks and dirt, and started to get them back together.
What seems to have happened is 1 of 2 things. First for some reason my damaged shock did not move as smoothly, once cleaned up, as the undamaged...but this seemed to have cleared up once I put a different piston from the variable valve kit. I put the original piston back in, and it was still gone? I originally thought the piston was mis manufactured, because it didn't look damaged at all. But its possible that a very micro piece of dirt was sticking to the side, that I got off when inspecting it, as like I said, it seemed to have cleared up once I used a different piston than came back to it. Second, its possible that my lower shock caps were not tight enough, or rattled themselves loose enough to blow out. Luckily I had a few spares I just took one off of my Jato, as its not running right now anyways.
So instead of getting to the track, we got out and had a family short hike, just to get us all some sun! Hopefully the weather does not get nasty and cold this week as it is supposed to, and we will be able to get back to the track. I plan to rebuild the shocks back to stock oil, stock spring, and see exactly how it reacted on the track, and then have another diagnostic session, as I failed to mention my stock shocks were improperly built, discovered when I went to rebuild them the first time. Since this could have had an affect on our original diagnostics, I plan to run a few tanks through the truck on a stock set up (with roll bars and Variable valve shocks) again, and just see what that does.
So I am not exactly sure what this did to the weight distribution, but my best educated guess is that there is a majority more weight sitting on the rear than on the front, seeing as this empty space comes right after the front shocks. Definitely explains the massive sag and lack of responsiveness. But now I am back to square one with the "set up guides" and will have to pave my own path. I did a lot of asking around, I love to get opinions, even if I can make a rather close educated guess, because you never know if you may get an adverse affect you do not know about. The answers, of course as expected, varied extremely so. I got everything from "just tighten your stock suspension preload" to "drill more holes in your piston and run 50k diff fluid". Of course any of these could potentially work, but I didn't want to take the extreme options with out having a good explanation as to how it was not only beneficial but would not put increased pressure or damage on the equipment over time. What I decided on was trying to stay close to the Traxxas set up guides, with a few minor adjustments via the assistance of a friend also in school at VT for engineering. (Thanks Tony for the help!). We decided via a few different diagnostics that the shocks needed to have stiffer damping and stiffer springs. Unfortunately Tony was not available to see the actual track and we had to go off of general descriptions and pictures, so this was still a best educated guess. So I get to work and rebuild all of my shocks, with the variable valve kit. I rebuild the Front shocks to the same stock set up, but slightly raise my rear shock oil wt. The shock springs presented a problem for me though, and I knew this before I put them on the truck, but decided to try them anyways. For some reason, I am not sure why, perhaps its a common set up for the Revo or something, but for some reason the local hobby shop does not carry the one step up spring rate, or the 2nd or 3rd step springs that are stiffer.....nope, they carry the 4th heavier spring, than the stock set ups. You know I could do a whole post on the techs and the guys there. You stand and wait in line, because they have people who "can not come help you" for what ever reason. Then they act and pride themselves on the "knowledge" they have...but lets get one thing strait...its the knowledge you "should" have. Very few of the "techs" there are actually capable of telling you how to properly set these vehicles up. They seem to learn the band aid fixes for something and never really tell you what is properly happening. They tell you "oh that will be ok" instead of explaining to someone how it works and what they can do to get it into a premium mode. I have had to spend an insane amount of time doing my research into just finding out how these engines work, and I have come across some very good information to know, that is just never really said at the hobby shops, or because they give me a wrong "fix"....But hey that's just the rant of a parts guy that worked for a much larger industry in the past (Honda, Polaris, Kawasaki, Yamaha - motorcycles, atv's, boats, jet skis.... you get the idea) ....anyways I ended up trying the gold springs from Traxxas just because they were the only ones available and the ones I already owned. So I get the truck all back together, the shocks assembled with extreme care to make sure there is no "fod" (military term for ya, foreign object debris, because remember "fod kills"). I take the time to make sure there are no air bubbles and then I carefully place my caps on, ensuring that they are not over filled, or under filled, and lastly before placing them onto the trucks I make sure they compress and rebound without any binding. Well we got about 2 track days on them and I was not happy with the set up, but mostly it was because of the springs I think. Nose diving off of jumps, things like that. occasionally I would have issues just because our track was not smooth though...this tells me not only my springs are wrong, but so is my fluids. Oh well, I just didn't feel like rebuilding the suspension yet, and wanted to get a few more days of this beautiful sun, at the track. So track day 3 comes around and I have the engine running strong, there are a few other buggies at the track...race time! Nothing really special but still a blast to see how you hold up around other drivers. A few tuning points from the transmission became clear pretty quickly, such as how my slipper clutch was much too tight, and my engine was shifting much too early. But another thing was happening a bit more gradually. My truck seemed to handle the track in a less capable manner. Eventually I was getting to a point where my truck would roll over at this one turn in the track unless I took it extremely slowly, so, not realizing that it was my suspension that was causing the issues, I got tired of my "driving inabilities" for the day and packed it up and headed home. I sit down with the truck outside to start cleaning it off and see a lot of gunk all over the rear shocks and the engine on the block. "Great...an engine leak, right after I finally get it dialed in" First thought that comes to mind. So I start cleaning everything off and realized that the truck "felt funny", and of course investigate. It became extremely obvious early on that my "passenger side" rear shock was empty...happy: its not an engine leak ... anxious: did I damage my shocks? Well I just got them apart late last night, cleaned them out as they were completely covered in rocks and dirt, and started to get them back together.
What seems to have happened is 1 of 2 things. First for some reason my damaged shock did not move as smoothly, once cleaned up, as the undamaged...but this seemed to have cleared up once I put a different piston from the variable valve kit. I put the original piston back in, and it was still gone? I originally thought the piston was mis manufactured, because it didn't look damaged at all. But its possible that a very micro piece of dirt was sticking to the side, that I got off when inspecting it, as like I said, it seemed to have cleared up once I used a different piston than came back to it. Second, its possible that my lower shock caps were not tight enough, or rattled themselves loose enough to blow out. Luckily I had a few spares I just took one off of my Jato, as its not running right now anyways.
So instead of getting to the track, we got out and had a family short hike, just to get us all some sun! Hopefully the weather does not get nasty and cold this week as it is supposed to, and we will be able to get back to the track. I plan to rebuild the shocks back to stock oil, stock spring, and see exactly how it reacted on the track, and then have another diagnostic session, as I failed to mention my stock shocks were improperly built, discovered when I went to rebuild them the first time. Since this could have had an affect on our original diagnostics, I plan to run a few tanks through the truck on a stock set up (with roll bars and Variable valve shocks) again, and just see what that does.
Friday, February 21, 2014
My family plans for the Jato.
I know I mentioned earlier that RC has been something to help me adjust again to life, and it gave me a good source of anxiety and stress relief. I didn't exactly mention what some of those anxieties were though. I did mention I had been in the military, and that is part of it, but really that is just things that have "jump" started everything if you will. Sadly, now, it is just so easy for me, with my anxiety to lose "calm" demeanor and start to have a panic or anxiety attack. Now I am having to add a new thing into my life though, which can at times make my anxiety a bit harder to control. For a few hours a day, not long, I have to stay at home alone with our 3 month old son. With the welcomed addition of a son, comes a lot of happy moments. Watching him smile or giggle at something happening can hold relief and happiness just in itself. Having your first child can raise anxiety, though, in almost anyone, so it has been a rather large change in my already complicated life. So after this time my wife spends working, I pick her up, and on the nice days we have tried to make it a habit to do something more outdoorsy this year, such as go to the track. Originally she didn't really mess around with any of my trucks, I didn't know this but I guess it was not due to lack of interest but instead, because she didn't want to break it and I not have something running or we not be able to afford to get it fixed. She really is awesome.
Recently however I purchased a Mini 8ight, with all the money I got as Christmas presents, so thanks to everyone that told me to get myself something fun! I did! One night we were sitting in a parking lot waiting to pick my mother up from work once and I had just gotten new Li-po batteries, so I wanted to try them out. My wife made a comment about how fun it looked, so I offered to let her try it, she declined, but said perhaps at another time. Well the snow has been melting and we have been making our way to the track more. One day when I was working on getting the slayer up and running after sitting for the winter, I put the Ni-Mh battery in the Mini 8ight and handed it to my wife, said, "here see if you like this." She ran it long enough to kill the battery, handed it back to me, apologizing for having played with it so long. I laughed and said "hun, I think we may need to get you a truck" Well over the past couple track days, I have let her toy around on my mini, while I tinkered around with my Nitro (was working on a new carb, not stock and had no reference on where to start), but now my Slayer is up and running very nicely, so I handed her that controller too. Definitely seemed to like the response from the nitro engine better than the electric motor, so we talked it over and decided that since I was looking to rebuild the Jato anyways, I would rebuild it for her, so she had a truck she could drive at the track. So I covered a little on the Jato earlier, and the condition I got it in from Craigslist. Since buying it, I have put some upgrades into it, but still not quite the ones needed to help it on this track. Also the Jato was set up originally, and again later by myself, to run on asphalt, so I will need to basically do a complete overhaul of the Jato. To me, rebuilding these trucks, can be some of the most frustrating experiences, but they can also be the most rewarding and quite fun if you just take it slow and enjoy it. So ideally what we will be doing with the Jato is it needs the differential fluids replaced, the shocks rebuilt, the brake replaced, the engine needs to rebuilt and sealed, and I will need to swap some tires from one set of rims to the rims for this Jato. Hopefully I can cover these pretty well over the build on the blog so everyone gets a good idea not only of what I am doing, but why I am doing it that way, or in other words why I chose the path I did. At the same time I will continue to do set up and practices on the track with the Slayer. The review, as promised for the Slayer, will still be a few days before I get it up, but I plan to start typing it out tonight. I want to spend a couple days making sure I have it right, as there does not seem to be a lot of 2nd hand information out there on this truck...So make sure to watch out for it!
(My amazing family!)
(The Jato Project)
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Track day, and some sun!
Well it has been a few days, but that isn't because I didn't want to get on, but more because I am working on getting a few different projects going, including this blog, in addition to it having been some much nicer days out. My family and I had gotten out to one of the larger parks in our city, my wife went on an extended walk to exercise with a friend and the kids, while Blu (my blue dog)
and I decided to just meander on the inside of the park where there are several awesome looking land formations. This got us all a bunch of exercise and sun, which I am sure we all needed. Up until recently I really haven't wanted to get out and try to get much exercise, as my back can make my mood go down pretty quickly. But I have been trying to strengthen it up lately and this was just what we needed. After some much needed sun and exercise we took a break, ate up, and then headed to the track! Oh such good times to be had. So I know I have not done a review yet on the Slayer, and I promise that it is coming, but tonight I just wanted to talk about some of the fun we had at the track and what I am currently working on. Now the track for me its just, its that its something to help clear the mind, while at the same time, exercise your mind, and give you something to think about. Such as: Is my suspension too stiff? Why am I so slow to turn in that corner? What is the faster line on that strait away? Is there a reason that my truck is nose diving, most particularly on 1 jump, and not the others? Are my tires getting the best traction for the track? and if not how do I fix this? Well these were all things my Slayer Pro 4x4 still have that need to be addressed, to make it a faster truck. On the upside, I was keeping up (while all 4 tires were down) with 8th scale buggies, some of which were running larger engines, than my stock 3.3. I have decided to try and take one issue at a time, but to decide, which issue is most prevalent? Personally I like to start at the shocks. If my car is under steering, over steering, nose diving under braking, under powered braking, traction rolling... or just in general not handling properly, all of this is related to the shocks. Will it control and tune out all of your issues? No, not one bit, but you can not properly diagnose under steer with an improper suspension, either. The upside to this build is that it is using a formula style cantilever lay down suspension.
Wow those are a lot of words right? What does that mean, well, it actually means that when addressing the shocks themselves you don't have all the variable mounting positions you would see on other RC vehicles, but that also means your shocks are not mounted on a variable plane, but just 1 plane. This means that the forces from the tires will only act in one direction on the shocks, instead of at least 2, minimizing the chances of damage to a properly set up suspension. It also means that I can generally have a more progressive damping than if I had a traditional set up. Once again, what does this mean? It means that when the suspension is properly set up it will have less suspension resistance early into its travel while increasing at a predictable rate. So that is where we are at right now. The Slayer Pro 4x4, while a fast truck, seemed very sloppy, with slow response for my extremely tight track with its high frequency bumps (not smooth surface, at all). So what we will be doing over the next track session is try to take close notes at to how the vehicle is responding on different parts of the track. We can then take a look at the those locations on the track and attempt to diagnose what is having the largest impact on the truck, is it the drive line that the driver is taking, or is the suspension in general wrong, and if so, how? My thoughts are that the suspension is not properly set up, and if that is the case, we will take a look at the track and go from there. Questions we will need to ask when at the track, where am I having issues, what does the track look like in those segments, and of course, what is my current suspension doing to the truck.
and I decided to just meander on the inside of the park where there are several awesome looking land formations. This got us all a bunch of exercise and sun, which I am sure we all needed. Up until recently I really haven't wanted to get out and try to get much exercise, as my back can make my mood go down pretty quickly. But I have been trying to strengthen it up lately and this was just what we needed. After some much needed sun and exercise we took a break, ate up, and then headed to the track! Oh such good times to be had. So I know I have not done a review yet on the Slayer, and I promise that it is coming, but tonight I just wanted to talk about some of the fun we had at the track and what I am currently working on. Now the track for me its just, its that its something to help clear the mind, while at the same time, exercise your mind, and give you something to think about. Such as: Is my suspension too stiff? Why am I so slow to turn in that corner? What is the faster line on that strait away? Is there a reason that my truck is nose diving, most particularly on 1 jump, and not the others? Are my tires getting the best traction for the track? and if not how do I fix this? Well these were all things my Slayer Pro 4x4 still have that need to be addressed, to make it a faster truck. On the upside, I was keeping up (while all 4 tires were down) with 8th scale buggies, some of which were running larger engines, than my stock 3.3. I have decided to try and take one issue at a time, but to decide, which issue is most prevalent? Personally I like to start at the shocks. If my car is under steering, over steering, nose diving under braking, under powered braking, traction rolling... or just in general not handling properly, all of this is related to the shocks. Will it control and tune out all of your issues? No, not one bit, but you can not properly diagnose under steer with an improper suspension, either. The upside to this build is that it is using a formula style cantilever lay down suspension.
(this was taken strait after the track, before maintenance so its dirty,
I do not drive with an air filter like that)
Wow those are a lot of words right? What does that mean, well, it actually means that when addressing the shocks themselves you don't have all the variable mounting positions you would see on other RC vehicles, but that also means your shocks are not mounted on a variable plane, but just 1 plane. This means that the forces from the tires will only act in one direction on the shocks, instead of at least 2, minimizing the chances of damage to a properly set up suspension. It also means that I can generally have a more progressive damping than if I had a traditional set up. Once again, what does this mean? It means that when the suspension is properly set up it will have less suspension resistance early into its travel while increasing at a predictable rate. So that is where we are at right now. The Slayer Pro 4x4, while a fast truck, seemed very sloppy, with slow response for my extremely tight track with its high frequency bumps (not smooth surface, at all). So what we will be doing over the next track session is try to take close notes at to how the vehicle is responding on different parts of the track. We can then take a look at the those locations on the track and attempt to diagnose what is having the largest impact on the truck, is it the drive line that the driver is taking, or is the suspension in general wrong, and if so, how? My thoughts are that the suspension is not properly set up, and if that is the case, we will take a look at the track and go from there. Questions we will need to ask when at the track, where am I having issues, what does the track look like in those segments, and of course, what is my current suspension doing to the truck.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Jato 3.3 Overview and Review: What is it, and how does it perform?
Well, now I had a Jato 3.3. What did that mean? Could I go strait to a track and start racing? Or would it need some time and work? Well to answer those questions we should take a look at the Jato 3.3. Since the name includes the engine alone, why don't we start there. The engine is a 3.3 Traxxas Race engine. Now when I say "race" that is just because it is quite literally part of the name of the engine, but there is not really anything about this engine that makes it a "race" engine. As I had mentioned in an earlier post, Traxxas likes to consider themselves "The fastest" in RC, so that helps us understand this engine. You may not hear this much, as a matter of fact when I said it earlier today I had a friend look at me weird wanting to know what I meant....but as I was saying, you may not hear this, but vehicles can actually have too much power for their size and or track they are racing on. The 3.3 is too much power for both its size and the track it would race on. What makes this even more disappointing is that its not a very high quality .21 size (the size the engine actually falls into, even though Traxxas uses a different measurement system to reach the 3.3). The engine is quite literally called a "throw away" engine. You could put about 6 gallons of fuel through the engine, and instead of rebuilding it, you send it to Traxxas with $100, and get a new one. Not a bad deal if you do not like working on engines. Otherwise its a very weak engine overall, and from everything I have read, does not hold up to modifications very well (we'll still see in the future, as I plan to port and polish one of mine). The carb on the engine is not properly sized either, something that should be noted. Traxxas decided to use the same carb that they do on their 2.5R engine, for the 3.3. What does this mean? Well the flow through the carb is smaller than the engine can actually handle, restricting throttle response. The engine was also electric starter and came with a "tuned" blue pipe. All in all its a rather odd set up...Traxxas is going for a very fast vehicle out of the box, yet they have an engine with a restricted size carburetor, and the extra weight of an electric start motor?
Stemming from there we have the transmission, which is the typical Traxxas dual gear, auto shifting transmission, this all seems pretty typical and works well, however we move into the brake. The brake is ridiculously underpowered. It sits on the transmission of a 2wd, which makes it a rear brake. The problem may not actually be the brake which is a solid fiber disc of sorts, the problem also may not be the metal plates used to pinch this fiber disc, and the problem may not be the plastic arm that activates the brake is very weak and bends, but the problem could actually be a combination of all of the above. Either way the brake experiences drastic and sudden brake fade early into the drive. Not a good combination with an overpowered vehicle.
Then the power from the engine reaches the pavement. The Traxxas Anaconda tires come stock on the Jato. They have very little traction, and the front and rear would slide around through turns on asphalt. They are not sticky, but they tend to last quite some time. Pretty typical of an RTR kit, but if you want to control your vehicle at the advertised "70mph" speed, consider tries with better traction so you don't destroy your truck. The angles of the tires, both front and rear are completely adjustable as you would expect.
From the tires we naturally arrive at our suspension. The suspensions are plastic body, but they are the oil filled GTR shocks from Traxxas. They do have aluminum upgrades, variable valves, multiple spring rates available, and threaded shock bodies to get your ride height dialed in. Altogether not bad shocks but its best to keep an eye on them, as the tops are known to pop off. There are a few shock mounting locations both top and bottom on both the front and rear. Not as many as you may find on a 1/8 scale buggy, but still a fair amount. The center of gravity is actually really low as well, and the weight is mostly in the rear.
Now is when I would typically do a review on the electronics, but because I purchased this vehicle used, I can not do a proper review at this time on this trucks electronics.
So for a recap, we have a very low center of gravity, rear wheel drive truck, that is incredibly over powered, under braking. When the truck wants to respond, its actually a rather fun truck to drive. Personally I have it currently still set up for asphalt, but I plan to do a quick rebuild to make it more dirt track friendly. I will be covering that in the future as I get funding. Can it be a race truck? Ill cover that in the future too!
Well guess that is all for now, thanks for stopping by everyone, hope this helps you out!
Stemming from there we have the transmission, which is the typical Traxxas dual gear, auto shifting transmission, this all seems pretty typical and works well, however we move into the brake. The brake is ridiculously underpowered. It sits on the transmission of a 2wd, which makes it a rear brake. The problem may not actually be the brake which is a solid fiber disc of sorts, the problem also may not be the metal plates used to pinch this fiber disc, and the problem may not be the plastic arm that activates the brake is very weak and bends, but the problem could actually be a combination of all of the above. Either way the brake experiences drastic and sudden brake fade early into the drive. Not a good combination with an overpowered vehicle.
From the tires we naturally arrive at our suspension. The suspensions are plastic body, but they are the oil filled GTR shocks from Traxxas. They do have aluminum upgrades, variable valves, multiple spring rates available, and threaded shock bodies to get your ride height dialed in. Altogether not bad shocks but its best to keep an eye on them, as the tops are known to pop off. There are a few shock mounting locations both top and bottom on both the front and rear. Not as many as you may find on a 1/8 scale buggy, but still a fair amount. The center of gravity is actually really low as well, and the weight is mostly in the rear.
Now is when I would typically do a review on the electronics, but because I purchased this vehicle used, I can not do a proper review at this time on this trucks electronics.
So for a recap, we have a very low center of gravity, rear wheel drive truck, that is incredibly over powered, under braking. When the truck wants to respond, its actually a rather fun truck to drive. Personally I have it currently still set up for asphalt, but I plan to do a quick rebuild to make it more dirt track friendly. I will be covering that in the future as I get funding. Can it be a race truck? Ill cover that in the future too!
Well guess that is all for now, thanks for stopping by everyone, hope this helps you out!
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Jato 3.3: Craigslist Experience and Buying Used
As I had mentioned earlier, my first RC purchase recently was a Jato 3.3 off of Craigslist. Now you can be on the very beneficial end of a deal on Craigslist, but the question always ends up being, who was on that beneficial end? I had no idea what I was getting into. The last RC truck I had owned was on the better side of a decade, and apparently electronics have improved quite a bit over the last 6-7 years. I had no idea, didn't do any research or anything...just jumped right into it. Looked around on craigslist for a couple weeks, and found this Jato 3.3. The owner was willing to run it for me, and had all the extra goodies most people wouldn't include, such as a quick battery charger for the starter battery, a couple extra starter wands, a crate to keep everything in, and of course the truck. We decided to meet up at a local parking lot, where I could try the truck out, and everything seemed to work great. We decided on a price tag of $150, I walked away with a truck, he walked away a little richer. The Jato 3.3 is a very fast truck. Some consider it too fast, and for its race categories, it most definitely is too fast, you would need a smaller engine. Not Traxxas though. No Sir. Traxxas likes to be known as "The Fastest". So instead of getting a race ready truck, instead you get something that goes like a bullet, 70 mph on the stock set up. So even though this was a truck, it had a low center of gravity, was advertised and sold with on road tires, I decided to set the truck up for the road. This is when we started finding all of the issues. Many parts throughout the vehicle were already cracked, to include the rear diff case, the battery case, and the electronics tray are just a few I can remember. One of the drive hex's was damaged and stripped the first run I opened it up. The engine itself leaks oil and fuel all over the inside of the truck, directly onto the brake, which even when clean is not enough stopping power. The steering servo is metal! woo!...but unfortunately it doesn't have enough power to turn the truck...booo!...As mentioned earlier the roll cage was beaten up, but when I pulled it off, it was actually so bent, that I had trouble getting it to fit back on. And lastly, though this is not too much of a downside, it has a 27mhz controller still. Apparently, these are outdated. I am still going through and having to replace the electronics on it, as I bought it, expecting it to be ready, and did not have a lot of extra to put back into it. The Plastics were probably under $50 all in all to replace, so I guess it was not all that bad of a buy. There is however a lot that can be learned from my experience.
This can be a rather complex hobby at times, I mean in many cases we build these cars, and then the points by which we have to tune them can seem innumerable at times. We still benefit though from understanding all of these points of tune, so that our trucks and cars can perform at their optimum. When someone has a vehicle that does not quite understand it, or as in my case, not give it the proper care and maintenance it deserves, you can see some of these factors usually before buying. Before asking to drive it, ask to know what electronics are on it. Servo's can be expensive for a good one, and you want to make sure that you will not need to put one into it right away. There are several things you want to know about your servo's. Is it Digital vs Analog? Is it Coreless. Is it Metal Gear (at least for steering)? How much Torque does it have and at what Speed? All things you want to know. A high torque servo that is 5 yrs old, will not be the same "high" torque of todays servo's, so don't just settle for them telling you it is "high torque" Ask for a model number. If its 27 MHz transmitter, understand that it is old technology. Before your test drive you should look over all the plastics. Make sure that the A-arms are not cracked, the diff case and transmission are solid, and any plastic trays that hold your electronics. Impacts from the front tend to transfer this power into these trays and they can crack or break where screwed down. And lastly after driving, check around the engine. It will be hot so be careful. You want to check around the seems where the metal is supposed to have seals. If oil is leaking out this could mean you have a engine rebuild project on your hands.
While I had a lot of issues from mine, that I hope anyone can learn from, I do not, at all feel that I got a bad deal. I paid for a working (albeight needing a lot of TLC) what some can only get a roller for, but it is because I have no issues with turning a wrench either and that can take time. Even now not all of those issues have been addressed, we will go over some of them as I prep the Jato for the track, and how we will go about it. If your wanting something that is perfect and ready to go, you should consider brand new.
This can be a rather complex hobby at times, I mean in many cases we build these cars, and then the points by which we have to tune them can seem innumerable at times. We still benefit though from understanding all of these points of tune, so that our trucks and cars can perform at their optimum. When someone has a vehicle that does not quite understand it, or as in my case, not give it the proper care and maintenance it deserves, you can see some of these factors usually before buying. Before asking to drive it, ask to know what electronics are on it. Servo's can be expensive for a good one, and you want to make sure that you will not need to put one into it right away. There are several things you want to know about your servo's. Is it Digital vs Analog? Is it Coreless. Is it Metal Gear (at least for steering)? How much Torque does it have and at what Speed? All things you want to know. A high torque servo that is 5 yrs old, will not be the same "high" torque of todays servo's, so don't just settle for them telling you it is "high torque" Ask for a model number. If its 27 MHz transmitter, understand that it is old technology. Before your test drive you should look over all the plastics. Make sure that the A-arms are not cracked, the diff case and transmission are solid, and any plastic trays that hold your electronics. Impacts from the front tend to transfer this power into these trays and they can crack or break where screwed down. And lastly after driving, check around the engine. It will be hot so be careful. You want to check around the seems where the metal is supposed to have seals. If oil is leaking out this could mean you have a engine rebuild project on your hands.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Welcome! RC Truck Racing: The Experience
Hey everyone, first off I just want to welcome you to my brand new blog! The plan for this blog is just to hopefully show the transformation of a "basher" or RC addict that does not compete, into hopefully, a competitive racer. I have a lot I need to learn and will be covering much of it as I go through the fun adventure.
Now, why would someone without any race ready vehicles want to jump into racing? Well its best to figure out why we are here, first. To start with, I was in school for Mechanical Engineering. I called it my "grown up dream" but I wanted to be a Formula 1 Engineer. I just wanted to make things go fast, and learning how to do that was my goal. Unfortunately time had a different idea for me. See, when I was in High School I had joined the Army National Guard. Normally this is not a problem, but when you mix that I didn't know I had a higher susceptibility to mental illness, going to war, can cause quite a few problems. It turns out I have "Severe and Chronic Anxiety" and now that is "exacerbated by PTSD". Now what does that mean for my ability to do math or sciences? very little, actually. The problem was not that I could no longer do my work, it was that I had trouble sitting through entire classes, and eventually I struggled attending class as it were. I was able to maintain my job quite well, for some time till my physical health went along too. Over time my wife and family watched me shrink into a smaller and smaller world, not willing to even leave my apartment on many occasions. Close to 2 years ago, I had expressed my interest in purchasing an "affordable" (read used craigslist item) RC truck. My wife and I did a look around to find something we could afford and I got this old, beat up Jato 3.3. Well guess it wasn't that old, seeing as its a 3.3, but more on that in later posts I am sure. Well this Jato gave my mind so much to absorb. I had books to read on how to set it up. I had to figure out how to tune it. Suddenly my mind was moving in a positive manner again. Problem was the Jato had just too many issues to get it fixed up on my budget. That's ok! I did what I could. Luckily, after some time, my mom had access to some funds, and wanted to help me out, so she asked me what truck I wanted. Still being newer yet to RC I was not familiar with too many trucks or chassis that were out there. All I knew was the Revo had formula style suspension, and the Slayer (Revo Chassis) looked like a race truck......Boom, got a slayer. Now that took some time and tuning because they have a very high center of gravity, which not only occupied my mind, but it got me out of my house. Unfortunately not far, but that would come after about a year. That brings us almost up to today. Not long ago, probably a little over a month I started looking into tracks, and racing. Why? Well we came across this track in our town that runs completely off of donation. Now if you remember, I had at one point, years ago, wanted to assist in the designing of the most elite race vehicles in the world. Finding a track to race a vehicle on, may be leaps and bounds away from this, but it still...well it just well makes me happy. Ever since finding that track me and my family have been able to get out of our house more and get more sunshine. I find myself looking forward to the next day, not anxious about what it may bring. The hope is that this can help me find my focus again. So we have decided (my family and I) to try to slowly work our way into racing and then things more competitive.
The hope is to best be able to show the full experience, starting with casual track practices/races with current vehicles to improve skill on tracks, to picking out the right race vehicles, to setting them up, learning to best drive in the "crowd", and beyond. There may also be side notes on separate vehicles as well, just because.
Now, why would someone without any race ready vehicles want to jump into racing? Well its best to figure out why we are here, first. To start with, I was in school for Mechanical Engineering. I called it my "grown up dream" but I wanted to be a Formula 1 Engineer. I just wanted to make things go fast, and learning how to do that was my goal. Unfortunately time had a different idea for me. See, when I was in High School I had joined the Army National Guard. Normally this is not a problem, but when you mix that I didn't know I had a higher susceptibility to mental illness, going to war, can cause quite a few problems. It turns out I have "Severe and Chronic Anxiety" and now that is "exacerbated by PTSD". Now what does that mean for my ability to do math or sciences? very little, actually. The problem was not that I could no longer do my work, it was that I had trouble sitting through entire classes, and eventually I struggled attending class as it were. I was able to maintain my job quite well, for some time till my physical health went along too. Over time my wife and family watched me shrink into a smaller and smaller world, not willing to even leave my apartment on many occasions. Close to 2 years ago, I had expressed my interest in purchasing an "affordable" (read used craigslist item) RC truck. My wife and I did a look around to find something we could afford and I got this old, beat up Jato 3.3. Well guess it wasn't that old, seeing as its a 3.3, but more on that in later posts I am sure. Well this Jato gave my mind so much to absorb. I had books to read on how to set it up. I had to figure out how to tune it. Suddenly my mind was moving in a positive manner again. Problem was the Jato had just too many issues to get it fixed up on my budget. That's ok! I did what I could. Luckily, after some time, my mom had access to some funds, and wanted to help me out, so she asked me what truck I wanted. Still being newer yet to RC I was not familiar with too many trucks or chassis that were out there. All I knew was the Revo had formula style suspension, and the Slayer (Revo Chassis) looked like a race truck......Boom, got a slayer. Now that took some time and tuning because they have a very high center of gravity, which not only occupied my mind, but it got me out of my house. Unfortunately not far, but that would come after about a year. That brings us almost up to today. Not long ago, probably a little over a month I started looking into tracks, and racing. Why? Well we came across this track in our town that runs completely off of donation. Now if you remember, I had at one point, years ago, wanted to assist in the designing of the most elite race vehicles in the world. Finding a track to race a vehicle on, may be leaps and bounds away from this, but it still...well it just well makes me happy. Ever since finding that track me and my family have been able to get out of our house more and get more sunshine. I find myself looking forward to the next day, not anxious about what it may bring. The hope is that this can help me find my focus again. So we have decided (my family and I) to try to slowly work our way into racing and then things more competitive.
The hope is to best be able to show the full experience, starting with casual track practices/races with current vehicles to improve skill on tracks, to picking out the right race vehicles, to setting them up, learning to best drive in the "crowd", and beyond. There may also be side notes on separate vehicles as well, just because.
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