increased clearance

[makg]

anybody have any ideas on increasing the clearance to make it climb better? cause that would be sweet...thanks

[Steve]

Originally posted by makg
anybody have any ideas on increasing the clearance to make it climb better? cause that would be sweet...thanks

Not so sure you want to increase clearance to climb better. To climb hills, you wanna be as low to the ground as possible, or at least your COG needs to be low, or you'll just roll over backwards.

To climb OVER obstacles, ground clearance is a good thing. Taller tires or an articulation mod is about the only way you're gonna get more ground clearance, unless you can find a way to make the rear end drive and suspension independent like the font.

The articulation mod that "Diets" did improves off road performance on these little trucks by about %1000. Seriously. I'll post a video shortly that shows two trucks, one pretty much stock, the other with the articulation mod, and its amazing the difference.

[makg]

i know that but to rock crawl, you neeed clearance to go over the rocks w/stopping

[Steve]

Articulation is key, and remember too the scale of these things. Rocks that might seem like pebbles are HUGE boulders to these tiny trucks. So for a MT to crawl over anything bigger than a ZipZap car is an achievement as it means whatever it is is bigger than a car (at least to the MT)!

Slightly taller tires might help, though it will raise your CG and be sure you still have clearance to steer.

Softer tires would be great, if you can find them. These trucks are sooo light.

Gearing waaaaaay down to give you control is pretty important. Without control, chances are you'll just case the truck instead of keeping your wheels on top of the obstacle.

The rear axle is straight, so you're limited to the height of the wheels in terms of clearance.

[micro kid]

low CG is extreamly important incrawling, the key is striking a balance between breakover angle (basicly the amount of belly clearance) and keeping it low enough to keep from rolling. Soaking or spraying your tires with a solvent like brake cleaner will soften them.

[frizzen]

The solvent soak for softer tires, permanent or do they go hard again once solvent has flashed out?

[micro kid]

It depends on the rubber some compounds will be soft and harden back up, and some will stay soft, some may even fall apart. I dont have an MT(yet) so I dont know what the tires are like.