Steering

[Tracyd85]

On the stock caster blocks there is a second hole for camber. pulling in the camber and moving the tie rod arm. what would this do to handling. does any one know. any answer would help.

 

[WoodiE]

@Tracyd85 camber is typically used to improve cornering. As your RC turns the chassis will roll, this rolling causes tires to learn over towards the turn which will cause less tire surface to be in contact with the ground. To help with this issue you can adjust the camber positive or negative as needed.

 

[i_r_beej]

Unless you are using adjustable turnbuckle links, DO NOT re-position the stock plastic links. Doing so will result in too much change. You're not going to break anything if you do, but you won't be changing the handling of your car in any beneficial way. The stock setup is a nice happy medium. Camber tweaks have more affect on a race vehicle where corner handling can make or break a race.

Tire leaning in at the top=negative camber. Decreases lateral traction, less aggressive steering. Improves steering in the middle of turns (as the car rolls to the outside and more of the tire comes into contact with the ground).

Tire leaning out at the top=positive camber. Increases lateral traction, more aggressive steering. Improves steering responsiveness going into a turn, decreases steering response in the middle of the turn (tire is rolling over onto outside edge).

Additionally, the length of the camber link affects the rate/amount of change during suspension compression. A shorter link increases the rate of change and a longer link decreases the rate of change.

 

[daprib]

If you do want to make adjustments to your camber and toe, I would suggest looking at the Traxxas parts available at you local rc shop. I'm using them on my Torment Track SCT. Otherwise like i_r_beej said "DO NOT re-position the stock plastic links." Because if you do, you will be creating more bad than good.

 

[i_r_beej]

Traxxas links are nice enough, but I have my concerns about using their captured ball rod-ends for front camber links and steering links. I prefer to use RPM's heavy duty rod-ends with ECX ballstuds. They will pop off under the force of a hard hit. I'm sure that they've saved my car's front end from damage many times on the race track. The only possible drawback is that after too many "overload dislocations" they may become loose and more prone to popping off the ball studs. I've been using them racing and bashing for almost a year now and I'm still using the same set. So they last and hold up to hard use.

 

[Tracyd85]

Thanks for the pointers. Ill definitely look into the traxxas parts and the rpm parts. ive also noticed that the lower control arms are real sloppy. what should i do to tighten the back up.

 

[i_r_beej]

@Tracyd85 there's not much you can do about the swingarm itself. The ECX cars are inexpensive and that's just the way it is. In fact, even the expensive race cars, like the AE B6 and my TLR 22 3.0 develop a little play around the hinge pins (but not nearly as much as my ECX cars). You can try shimming, but the play really doesn't affect the car's handling in any noticeable way. Just drive and enjoy!

 

[Tracyd85]

Thanks i_r_beej. I don't really notice any difference in handling.