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.
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