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Effigy3

2016 Racing Experiences

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I was debating on how to post about my and my sons racing exploits this year. I think a single thread, in this forum will be the best way. I apologize in advance for any rambling i do, it may end up being a fair amount. :o

Last spring my wife gifted me a TRF 201 for my birthday. I built it up with lots of great suggestions from you guys on the forum but I haven't been able to race it. The track closest to me didn't have it's 1/10th scale track operational. It had been struck by lightning which took out the lap counter system. A change in ownership this past fall and we're finally getting a completely new 1/10th scale track. It is currently under construction as I write this post. Hopefully it will be ready to race on in a few weeks. I had some issues finding an ESC to fit under the body shell of the 201. I had planned on using a Duratrax Intellispeed 12T ESC along with a Sport Tuned motor to start, then moving up to a Super Sport BZ. The heatsink on the ESC rubbed the body shell, scratching the paint job a bit. I figured that was just asking for melting so I bought a Mamba Max Pro with the intention of just removing the cooling fan. That plan backfired when I realized that the fan was non-removable and the vendor wouldn't take the ESC back. :( So I currently have a TBLE-02S in it paired up with a Trinity D 3.5 17.5T motor. I have a low battery warning alarm and I'm using a Duratrax Onyx 5000 mAh 35C LiPo. I've fitted AKA Vektor (soft) tires front and rear. I'm using a Futaba 3PL transmitter and receiver. I've run this guy for just a couple of packs on the old, unmaintained track. It was wicked loamy and the Vektors couldn't grip at all. The big 1/8th scale track was just too huge. I still need to get a transponder so for the time being I plan to use a "house" transponder. They'll loan out one per drivers license on race day. So it's been over a year since this venue has had any 1/10th scale racing. I'm hoping that the new track will attract the racers but only time will tell if it takes off.

Last spring we also built my son a DT-02 Desert Gator so he could race in the beginner class. That class is a "run what cha' brung" affair. Since our local track wasn't in the 1/10th scale racing business last year, we tried the next closest track. It's about a 90 minute drive. It's got a VERY nice, indoor clay track. They don't loan out transponders but a very nice gentleman loaned Garrett one when he realized it was for a kid. Keep in mind this was the first time he ever had his buggy on a track. Previously we only did a very limited amount of test driving around the yard. Before he had run his first pack dry during practice runs, he had twisted one of the front uprights due to excessive contact with the corrugated plastic pipe they use for lane barriers around here. So I moved the transponder to the "loaner" Arrma Fury SCT I just happened to bring along. By the time that battery was flat the steering arm had popped off so many times it wouldn't stay put just with steering input, let alone survive more impacts with the lane barriers. What's more the beginners ranks were full of Traxxas Slash 2WD SCTs. His little DT-02 would get crushed if we kept him running in that class. That day ended in two did not starts. Practice laps killed both rigs we have available to race. So for his birthday we gifted him a RTR Losi XXX-SCT. A spendy gift for an 8 year old but he REALLY wants to race.

This year we have raced once, on the big, local 1/8th scale track. The further track was way too serious for us at this point. The local track has a much chiller vibe. His SCT works fine on the big track and we've practiced there a number of times prior to his first race a couple of weeks ago. He's seriously in love with the big track! Everything was stone cold stock out-of-the-box on his truck. There were 3 beginners, one other 8 year old driving a Traxxas Rustler and an adult driving a Slash. It takes 4 to make a heat so the RD combined the 2 adults driving 4WD SCTs into the beginner heats. This being his 2nd time out ever he TQed and won his class. Granted racer #2 was DNF and Ayden was driving a Rustler (no real competition to Garrett's XXX-SCT) but compared to the adults driving 4WD SCTs I think he did quite well indeed!

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During this race there was some damage done to a front lower suspension arm. Also, his unmodified body was parachuting like CRAZY. There was a periodic headwind and every single time he jumped into the headwind his truck would get forcibly body slammed on it's roof. BAM! So I ordered up a set of arms, boiled them for good measure, and we installed them last weekend. I also decided that if we were going to make a go of this racing thing we had better do it right. We rebuilt his shocks since they have never been done. We then discovered that one of the shock cartridges had blown up. In order to make the shipping costs worth while I ordered up a front sway bar and different springs. We're taking cues off Casper's XXX-SCT race setup so pink springs in the rear and black springs in the front. He's now got 30w oil in the rear and 35w oil in the front. I reamed out 5 holes in the rear bit of his truck body, and a row of smaller holes along the lower line of the windshield. A year of bashing has taken a toll on his shell so I used some fiberglass sheet rockers tape and Shoe-Goo to shore up the body all along the lower portion. Essentially one tape-width worth. It'll add weight but the increased durability is well worth it at this point.

The track is closed down for a rebuild, and as I said the 1/10th scale track is also under construction. I hope to get back down there the 2nd weekend of March to race. At least he should be able to run his SCT but I'm really hoping I can run my 201 too. (crosses fingers)

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When you're ready for a new SCT body check out Pro-Line Racing's Flo-Tek for the Slash. It has sections specifically designed to be cut out to reduce the parachute effect.

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Hey effigy, nice write up. I was wondering on your 201 if you have a problem mounting brushed motors besides the super stock bz? I just ordered its little brother Zahhak cause you can't beat the price $90 dlvd. It states in various boards and shops online that you can only use the bz motor. It doesn't matter since I have one but was curious because my wife wants to use it and that motor might be to fast for,her to start. I was thinking using a sport tuned get at first

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RB, I don't know how much of a difference there is between the Zahhawk and the 201 but if you've already ordered up a Zahhawk then I suspect you'll be in a good position to know if something other than a SS BZ motor will fit soon enough. ;)

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No racing for us this weekend. There was a big pro race happening at our home track so we watched most of the mains and talked to some of the racers down in the pit area. There were racers from 3 states away, which considering this track is in the middle of freaking Texas is saying something. The 1/10th scale track is only 1/2 done and they say it won't be done next weekend because the other track in this area, one that's even bigger, is having it's grand re-opening. I've asked them if my son can race his SCT in the novice class. Usually novice class is run what cha brung but I don't know if they'll allow a 2WD SCT on the track. We'll see.

In the mean time I found that his steering servo has some play in it.

I replaced the stock RTR servo with a Savox S-0230MG. Unsure of how well the stock ESC will handle the notoriously thirsty Savox servo, I also installed a glitch buster capacitor. It turns out though that the Savox servo spline has a different number of teeth than the Spektrum. Here I thought Spektrum was just rebadged Savox. So I ordered up an aluminum servo horn but the only one I could source is for the TLR 22. I think it'll work but just to be on the safe side, I also ordered the XXX sprue with the plastic horns that I know will fit. The parts should arrive by Thursday, well in advance of this weekends race. I hope they let him race. It's a pretty amazing track!

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Today was the grand re-opening race at the farther away from us track (a 90 minute drive if there’s no traffic). In preparation for the race I replaced the steering servo (the TLR 22 servo horn did work), added a glitch buster capacitor, and reamed out a number of holes in the body both at the base of the windshield and in the "bed" area of the truck.

Two days before the race my son came down with strep throat. Even though he has been on meds, as of last night he was still running a fever. No racing this weekend for him. I had already paid the entry fee but email requests to defer the payment for a future race went unanswered. Rather than let the $40 go to waste I decided I'd make the drive alone and see how I fared in the novice class with his truck. Let me get this out of the way first. I'm NOT a fan of the big track. It's like 200 ft by 120 ft so this thing is a monster. I was definitely feeling a bit out of my depth. I figured WTH, I had already made the trip down... There were 265 entrants in total and the novice class was filled with kids all of whom were running 1:8th scale buggies. There was one other SCT in the field. I couldn’t tell if it was a 2WD or 4WD.

My practice laps earlier harshly affirmed that the holes I had bored into the body shell were not going to be enough. Wide open throttle down the straight and I’d get the nose to lift. Full speed was not going to be an option. :/ Regardless of what speed I took a jump, any jump, and the nose would point to the heavens. Hitting jumps at anything faster than about ½ throttle would result in back flips Mary Lou Retton would be proud of. If I was hard on the throttle and then hard on the brakes just before a jump or turn, the truck would immediately do a pirouette. Needless to say I was pretty frustrated.

I elected to go for broke. I bored out the holes below the windshield to the maximum diameter my body reamer would but and I used a blade to cut a huge hole in the back of the SCT body. It did absolutely no good. The best I could manage was about ¼ throttle around most of the track. In the speed sections I could get up to maybe ½ throttle.

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Going up against a pack of 1:8th scale buggies with such a handicap resulted in exactly what you might expect. I came in 2nd to last. Every single buggy spanked me. The only racer to finish behind my time was the other SCT. I couldn’t bear to look to see how old of a kiddo it was. I was too ashamed.

Just before the heat started my wife texted me informing me that our other child was complaining of a sore throat now too and they had a Dr. appointment for later that morning. After my abysmal showing in the first heat I decided to call it an early day. I didn’t like being at the track solo because this was supposed to be a dad/son thing. I certainly didn’t care to leave my wife home alone with two sick kiddos while I was at the track. The best case scenario for the day that I could envision was I could continue to beat the other SCT in the novice class finishing the day out at 2nd to last. Worst case scenario I could imagine was that I break my kids truck trying to finish ahead of an 8-10 year old. Discretion is the better part of valor so I packed up my gear, marshalled the race immediately after mine, and I drove home.

A new Pro-Line EVO SCT body is now on order and is scheduled to arrive Thursday.

lproc1317.jpg

That should give me enough time to paint it up for the race next Saturday. That’s the first in a 5 race series, on the smaller track of the further away raceway. I really hope the nearer raceway finishes up their 1:10th scale track soon. Double the driving distance really doesn’t seem worth it.

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Yesterday was the first in a 5 race series. The track is about an hour and 45 minutes drive south through terrible congestion thanks in part to ongoing construction on the Interstate. My boy and I were up at 6:30am to load the car and make it to the track by 9:30 when practice was schedule to begin. I was also hopeful that they would have a track transponder for me. As it turns out, they have 4 loaners and I was able to race using 1. :D I signed myself up for 2WD stock "blinky" buggy class and my son for Beginner class which is a run what-cha-brung class. Most in that class run 2 or 4WD SCT but there was one kid running a Losi 8ight-e. IMHO an eBuggy should not be allowed in the Beginner class since it's a far more capable rig than a SCT or 1/10th scale buggy.

Here's my TRF 201 waiting to practice:

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The day would have 3 heats for placing into the mains. There was one round of heats for 9 racers in beginners and 3 rounds of heats for the 2WD stock buggies. Each buggy round had 8 racers per. There would be an A and a B main for the buggies.

In the first qualifier round my son placed 3rd, a good showing I think considering it was his first time racing at this track and with AVC disabled. I placed last. I had considerable trouble navigating the first jump of the double. It was quite the span for a 17.5T motor to propel my buggy over. I had to hit it what which was quite the feat considering it began right after a hairpin. :o

In the second qualifier we both had a bit of bad luck. The solder leads on his ESC came off. Seriously? I did up that lead almost a year ago. Months of hard bashing, hours and hours of practice on an 1/8th scale track, and at least one other race under his belt and the lead lets go now? Luckily a nice guy at a nearby table had a soldering iron and was nice enough to let me mend his connection. For me, the ball connector on my steering bell crank came off. Whaaaat? How does that happen?

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While I was working on my steering, my table neighbor, Tony took an interest in my car. "Is that a Tamiya? I didn't think anyone raced those things anymore!" He said. He thought that my suspension was a bit too stiff and proceeded to smoosh it. He also thought my ride height was too low. I informed him that I had built the car to manual specs but he got out his ride height tester and decided that I need more. After asking permission he adjusted my height to 25mm (I think) but said my oil was probably too thick. I told him that I had used 400 CST all around. He asked me to convert that to weight so I said it's about 32.5 or 35. He said he'd suggest 20w to start.

Round 3 came up and my poor little guy didn't even get through the warm-up laps and his SCT was done. He had destroyed a rear hub. :wacko:

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I on the other hand was staying very consistent with my first round qualifier and I came in dead last. It was taking me the first few laps to get into a rhythm but by the time I was feeling comfortable, I was already too far behind to catch up.

It was finally time for the mains. I was in the B main, by default. Everyone gets to race in a main. There would be 10 racers in the B and the top two finishers would be bumped up to the A.

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Here I am waiting for the previous race to finish up before hitting the track. I'm sure I can take these two Losi's! ;)

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In my main I was very consistent. I started off at the back of the pack and I finished at the back of the pack. I'm thinking I might have to change my forum name to "Caboose". :P While I technically finished 9th, beating a DNF is no victory...

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Once my stint at marshaling for the A main was complete we packed up and made the drive home, pulling in at 8:30pm. A 14 hour day! I was beat.

So... What did I learn? Lots! First and foremost, racing is freaking fun! It was a great day spent with my boy. I wasn't nearly as rusty as I thought I might be. After I get some experience under my belt I think I'll be giving them something to think about. During qualifying runs I'm currently 1 lap behind 8th and 9th place which means if I can make up just one lap, I won't be last. I'm 4 laps behind the top B main driver and that my friends is a surmountable challenge. So my near term goal is to not be last. My long term goal is to mix it up with the leaders in the B main. The fellas up in the A main are uber serious. New tires (with custom sauce) every race day. $400 transmitters. $120 batteries, one for each qual and 2 for the mains. It's serious up there. Also, I lost 2 screws during the first qualifier run and was lucky that someone in the pits had some metric hardware on hand. It's crazy to think my day might have ended early because I forgot to bring my spare hardware. :o I do like racing something different from the pack. I know this car is above my ability but I wonder if at some point I will out grow it. It's of a dated design and better suited to lower bite tracks. I'm certainly fine for this race season and like Tony my pit neighbor said, "If you can get fast driving that, you'll be fast driving anything."

My son appears to be quite a decent driver. I'm already working on a new body for his SCT. Something with real race level air flow. I've ordered him up a set of wheels and clay compound tires so he isn't hampered by the stock tires and their general purpose compound.

The next race in the series is in two weeks. Just enough time for the parts for my sons SCT to arrive and do all the work that needs to be done to our rigs.

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It's good to hear your enjoying yourself while out there. I just have a couple of quick questions.

First, are you getting a lot of over/under steer with your current setup?

If you pull on the throttle quickly do the rear wheels spin up and spin the car around?

Last question comes with some info first, and question last, so here goes, with the wheels on the car and on a hard flat surface like a table (not the dining table unless the car is clean and with wifes permission) or work bench, push the front and rear to full compression and let it rebound back. With that done, look at the drive shafts and front lower arms, are they parallel with the table?

Same questions for your lads sct. :D

Edited by Darat76

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The steering seems to be good. I'll have to really pay attention to it the next time I'm on the track but thinking about the first hairpin: I can go into it what and with letting off the throttle (with drag brake on my TBLE-02S set to 30%) at the start of the turn, I can easily navigate the 180 degrees with good control.

I do not do donuts. I can go from 0 to what and stay in a perfectly straight line down the strait-away. When I come out of the 3rd hair pin and have to immediately be at what to clear the first jump of the double, I launch perfectly in whatever direction I'm facing. ;)

Yes, the rear drive shafts are parallel with the table after a smoosh test.

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I tried to video my B main event. I got the warm-up laps and about 1 minute of the race then the battery died. Stupid battery!

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I tried to video my B main event. I got the warm-up laps and about 1 minute of the race then the battery died. Stupid battery!

I would get totally lost, I feel sick just trying to watch a car go around there.

Once muscle memory kicks in and you start working on instinct then your lap times will fall.

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I tried to do a track side update post a'la MadAx but the forum won't let me post from my Blackberry. :/ I'm also going to break this update up into 2 posts. One for my son and another for me.

Race 2 of the 5 race spring series is behind us. I'm not going to post point totals because well, I don't really have any. ;) At least not enough to mention.

Son

So my son was one of 5 racers in Beginner class. He was the sole 2WD SCT. There was one 1/8th scale eBuggy (totally unfair IMHO but I'm not the RD so whatevs), the rest were 4WD SCT. Obviously my son is at a distinct disadvantage given his truck was the lightest rig on the track. Naturally the eBuggy ran away with it. No one could come close. During the 3 quals my boy did me proud and had some really fine runs! Here's a shot of him going over the first jump during warm-ups:

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A long day of racing took it's toll on the body that I spent like a week painting for him.

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I reminded him that this body needed to last him all racing season so taking it easier on it might be wise. All-in-all his strong qualifying runs landed him in the 2 spot for starting the main, the eBuggy of course was in the pole position. The first half of the 8 minute main he was doing great. He held his 2nd spot for a while but a couple of mishaps resulted in loss of position which in turn resulted in frustration. He started to drive harder, and make more mistakes, which led to more frustration... I think you know where this is headed. He spent more time being marshalled in the main than he did in all 3 quals. Predicably he finished 4th, just ahead of the Traxxas Slash that was DNF because it liked to turn itself off more than run. He took it pretty hard. Thankfully after some talking and hugs he got past it and is still looking forward to race 3 in two weeks time.

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Dad

Race day was going to include 3 quals and a main. There were 3 heats of 2WD stock buggy class which would result in 3 mains; A main, B main and C main.

I finally got my transponder! No more borrowing from other racers or hoping there's a track loaner to bum. It only took like a year but I have it now so yay me! My 201 has a nice hole in the chassis that was perfect for mounting up the transponder holder. I just needed to add in like a 2mm spacer and viola:

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Changes I made to my car on the bench at home before race day include:

  • Built the shocks using the bleed screw in the shock cap. 300 CST (orange) in the front and 400 CST (yellow) in the rears.
  • Set my ride height to 24mm (down 1mm)
  • Removed about 10cm of motor wire by direct soldering the ESC wires to the motor. This saved me some weight but now the wires rub between the body and shock tower. I'm going to have to cut the wires and install some bullet connectors so I can run the wires through the shock tower.

The car seemed to handle pretty well but I honestly couldn't tell much of a difference due to using the bleed screw shock building method vs. the aeration style a la the instruction manual. What was different is that I can more easily balance the shocks left-to-right.

I found my fast guy helper Tony in the pits and told him about the changes I made to my car. His comment after smooshing it were, "Those are really smooth shocks. They're better than mine!" He's driving an Associated RC10 B5M Factory Lite. Most of the fellas at the track are running either Associated or Losi but there are a couple of X-rays and me with my Tamiya. There might be other brands represented that I don't know of yet but I am most definitely the only Tamiya pilot at the track. Everyone thinks I have an RC10 B4 until they see the Big T stickers on the body. ;) So I asked Tony if he wouldn't mind taking my car for a few laps around the track to give me his impression of it. After a couple laps he was like, "This is really smooth. It handles well considering it's a rear motor." Another few laps and he said, "We're running the same motor but I have a lot more power, what's your gearing?" When I told him 25 pinion and 79 spur he said, "Well that's why you don't have any power. Your gearing is way off. Do you know your final drive ratio?" We went back to the pits, I dug out my manual and showed him the chart. I knew I wasn't geared properly but wasn't sure how to correct it. Luckily I listened to Speedy Beans and others last May when building my car and I had purchased a couple of Associated spur gears. A 69T and a 72T. With some maths and test fitting of pinion I ended up with a 33T pinion and the 72T spur. Of course I didn't have a pinion anywhere near that big but luckily the hobby shop did. I spent $4.99 on a Robinson Racing 33T 48P aluminum pinion. I wanted Mod 1 but the aluminum was all they had. After building up my slipper with the new spur I couldn't get the slipper to engage properly. Tony said my pads were probably glazed and should be replaced. Unfortunately I hadn't bought any spares so the racer next door to me in the pits suggested that I just lock the slipper down stating, "That's how you have to run the slipper on this track anyway." I followed his suggestion but I have some slipper pads purchased from eBay as of last night. I don't want to trash my gearbox just because my slipper pads are glazed. So new gear box build is in, let's see how I run with it.

At the end of the first qual here were the standings.

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As you can see I am defending my title of "Caboose" but I'm in the hunt just one lap back from not last. 14 laps and I am aiming for 18-20 by the end of the season. I'd love to be in the 16 range by the end of this series. I can tell you that the gear change made a HUGE difference. I was actually able to clear the table top jumps the majority of times. When I didn't it was because of a bad line not due to lack of punch. I'm running zero timing on my motor (which I thought were the rules) but Tony says his is turned all the way up. I might dial in 20 degrees next race and see what that nets me for power. My motor temps now are like 80 degrees.

Qual 2 and I'm still running 14 laps. A DNF pushed me up to 2nd to last but I still consider myself last. Beating a DNF is no victory.

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The third and final qual has me once again not last due to another DNF. When you look at my times I'm a good 2 seconds per lap and 4 laps total behind the top qualifiers in my heat but well behind the pace set by the TQs overall.

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I was told this track is a tire graveyard. It's wicked abrasive. Here are my tires after 6 qualifying races and 1 main. As you can tell, the right side tire is wearing quite a bit faster than the left. I was noticing a bit of push when driving so I swapped them around for the main.

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The outside edge of the right tire is mostly worn away and there's an odd wear line about 2/3 of the way in as well. Shrug. If you're going to race you're going to buy tires. A lot of them apparently.

I don't have the main results sheets yet. I presume they're going to post them to the tracks online discussion forum. When they post I'll share my times but get this. In the C-main I started in the dead last position (natch) and by the end of the first lap I was in... 2nd! Yeah, that's right. 2nd. Shocker right? In fact, I held 2nd position (looking for the bump to the B-main) for most of the race. One error cost me my position (6:12 in the video) and I dropped back to 3rd. The car was handling really well with that tire swap, and I could finally effectively span the jump up to the table top. I almost had 2nd place back when I had a couple of mishaps. I failed to negotiate a corner well because I was trying to let first place by and I ended up eating a pipe. Then I had 2nd in my sights and I tagged a pipe again (9:10 in the video), but the marshal was watching the race instead of his zone. A marshal from another zone had to rescue me. This was so close to the end of the race that I couldn't make up the gap and I finished 3rd in my heat, missing out on the bump.

Here's a video of my main. I forgot the tripod at home so tasked my son (upset from his recent loss) to record me during my main. As you can see, an 8 year old is not the best videographer ever but I appreciate that his did his best. Next time I'll remember the tripod. ;)

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Great write up effigy3, what motor were you using with that brushless I'd assume? I am still tinkering with my Spurs and pinions

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Great write up effigy3, what motor were you using with that brushless I'd assume? I am still tinkering with my Spurs and pinions

Thanks. ;) I'm using a Trinity D3.5 17.5T stock brushless motor. From what my fast guy guru Tony was telling me about the gearing on the 201, it's really setup to run mod motors, like 7.5T or so. The lowest gear ratio I can get using Tamiya sourced spur gears is almost 8 but my 17.5T motor should be closer to 6. That's why I have to use an Associated spur gear. I can tell you right now though, the AE spur gear feels like a toy compared to my Tamiya parts. The quality of this spur gear alone would keep me far away from buying a Team Associated car!

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I went to see if they had posted times from the mains but they haven't. What they did post were the point standings for the series.

My son:

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He's just one point away from a plaque at this point! Keep in mind that one poorest race day is dropped from the calculations...

Me:

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Caboose iz in da howz! ROFL. Considering how horribly I'm doing in the quals I'm not too far off from not last. I can do it. I know I can. Not last is certainly plausible!

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Turns out the results are posted to LiveRC. Here are my sons and my results from our respective mains.

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This past Saturday was race 3 out of 5 in the spring series. It was a bit of a rough one for Team Caboose. :mellow:

Just prior to my sons first qualifier, he knocked his transmitter onto the ground from about 2 feet. During the run he complained that his SCT wasn't driving right. I checked out his gear and it turned out that the steering wheel on his transmitter was no longer auto-centering up. I think he must've snapped the spring in it when it got knocked down earlier. I told him we couldn't fix it and he either needed to finish out his day like that or we could go home. He elected to stay for the day. He finished his 3 qualifying runs in 3rd, 4th, and 6th place. Not too bad considering! Sadly he tagged a pipe in minute 6 of 8 in his main and cracked the bulkhead on his XXX-SCT ending his race early. Poor guy had a DNF after all that hard work keeping his truck on the track all day. ;(

There were 2 eBuggies in the class this time and they finished 1 and 2. :angry:

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My day wasn't nearly as exciting as my boys. I finished up my 3 qualifying runs in 6th, 5th and 8th place out of 8 racers. The new Exotech slipper eliminator and gearing (30T pinion / 72T spur) is really working out well for me. I have nice punch off the line and am now able to clear the table top jump with no problems provided my line is good. The trouble is, my car is pushing into the corners, a lot. While I'm turning in, the car keeps going straight. :o Once enough speed has scrubbed off through a combination of drag brake and turned tires, it will suddenly get traction and then hook hard. If I'm not on the ball to adjust quickly, I'll over-steer by a lot and end up nose first into a pipe patiently awaiting a marshal to come rescue me. This is getting really hard on my front tires, especially the outside edge!

This is just 2 race days worth of wear:

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So I all day I was messing with my toe-in, camber, and ride height. I ended up running my main with about 1* of toe-out, -2* of camber and 20mm of ride height. If you recall, my first mile stone is to be "not last". I wasn't last. I was 7th out of 8 but #8 was a DNS which is no victory. I'm open to any suggestions on setup for my TRF 201 running on a high bite, indoor, black groove, clay track!

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As you can see, I was 3 laps down from my race day 2 pace. :huh: That's the wrong direction!

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So today was race 4 of 5 of the spring series.  I reset my setup to the manual specifications: stock toe-in, camber, and ride height.  I'm running 400 CST oil in the front shocks and 350 CST oil in the rear.  I'm also running hard springs at all 4 corners.  I discovered that on of my turn buckles and one of my tie rod ends were on backwards which really made setting those adjustments a pain until I sorted out that mistake.  I'm still using the same tires, AKA Handlebars in clay compound.  They are quite worn, not bald but getting there.  At $40 a set I was hoping to extend the life of them.  The track has its own special tire sauce, high and medium traction compound.  I hoped it would improve the traction enough that I could keep using them, but no such luck.  :(

I ran last in each of my 3 qualifying races.  The car is still pushing in the corners, causing me to run way wide, blowing my line.  In the main, I of course started last in line.  I quickly moved up up a place in lap 1.  By lap 3 I moved up to 3rd.  So far, so good.  By lap 5 the car was starting to push again and by lap 8 I was in last again.  Up through lap 14 I was back and forth with 5th place but I finally settled in at last because I just couldn't keep my lines.

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I'm going to put new rubber on the rims for the race in two weeks.  It'll be the final race in the spring series and I'd like to finish strong.  Of course there's no where to go but up.

My sons SCT has nearly bald rear tires.  His fronts are wearing much better than my buggy tires but those rears, wow.  I'm 99% sure it's because his Losi XXX-SCT has an unsealed gear diff.  I can't use diff oil in it because it'll just leak out.  Because his diff is so loose, as he corners under power the tires are spinning up pealing the rubber off, balding them out fast.  This also makes it harder to control.  Luckily I found that Kyosho makes CST rated gear grease.  I've ordered up a pot of 5,000 CST gear diff grease.  It should arrive in plenty of time for race 5.

As far as race 4 went, There were 2 e-buggies running in beginner class and of course they took 1st and 2nd every qualifier.  In the 3rd qualifier, somehow his power switch cut off and he lost power.  The marshal checked his battery connection but didn't think (or know how) to check the power switch.  Doh!  All he had to do was switch it back on.  He was seeded in 7th starting position and worked his way up to 4th!  He did so well.  I'm wicked proud of him.  His 5th race ever and he's finishing 4th in his class, 2nd if you discount the two e-buggies.  ;)  Once I fill his diff with that grease and mount up some new tires, I think he could take places from those e-bugges.  All with a modest XXX-SCT 2WD.  (Proud papa here!)

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Sounds like a great way to spend time.

What tyres are others running on that track? Do you think your diff could be part of the cause of the running on? 

keep up the good work, love reading about other peoples experiences 

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I don't think it's my diff.  I had one of the "fast guys" check it and he said that it's really close to perfect.  Slightly tight but so minor that he'd not make any changes.  In fact he commended me for getting it so good saying that's one area new racers always get wrong.  I was quite please since it's the first ball diff I ever built.  :D

I do think it might be partly tires.  I'm running AKA clay compound Handlebars now.  I have tried AKA super soft Vektors but they didn't work as well.  I purposely tried to run these nearly bald Handlebars with the tire sauce because that is what a lot of people are running but it just didn't work for me.  Pro-Line Electrons are quite good.  It's what I put on my sons SCT and before the rears went smooth (in 2 race days I might add) they were working quite well for him.  Ions are also another popular choice.  I have a couple of pairs of JConcepts Dirt Webs for the front and Bro-Codes for the rear so I'm going to change out these nearly bald Handlebars for those and see how it handles with that combination.  I also ordered up some Pressure Points for the rear and Diamond Bars for the front.  I have a good feeling about the Diamond Bars...

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OK, well I just noticed that I made 23 laps in the main yesterday and 2 weeks ago I made 21 laps in the main.  So there you go, a 2 lap improvement over last time.  I might still be coming in last but I'm creeping up.  :D  The top 5 racers in this class are putting in between 30 and 32 laps in the mains so I'm a good 8 laps down from them.

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They finally have the point standings posted to the website and my boy is 4th overall.  Considering he has one DNS and one DNF I'd say that's pretty strong.  If he can place top 3 in the race 2 weeks hence, he has a chance at a plaque.  If he can TQ and take first, I think a plaque is guaranteed.

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Yesterday was race 5 of 5 in the Spring Series.  I made a couple of changes to my boy's XXX-SCT.  I replaced the bald rear Pro-Line Electrons with some JConcepts Pressure Points.  The Electrons are great tires but at $22/pair are spendy when they only last about 45 minutes of track time.  :o  I also tore down his transmission and cracked his diff.  There was only a thin film of grease on the gears, so I cleaned them up and packed it full of Kyosho #5,000 diff gear grease.  It's a bit thicker than what people have told me (after the fact) I should have used but it seems to have a similar diff feel to the ball diff in my 201.  While I was in there I applied a thin coat of Tamiya Moly grease to the gears in the transmission.  They were completely dry from the factory.  :blink:  Note to self.  RTR status or not, tear it down and rebuild it "right".

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He was really excited to get racing, and the days field was shallow.  Usually there are nearly 10 racers in Beginner class, today there were only 6 signed up.

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His SCT was running really poorly during practice laps; nearly no go power at all.  I checked his battery and it was fine.  I check the diff spin: fine.  The gear mesh: fine.  Tires binding? No.  I was stumped.  I was testing it outside of the pit areas and one of my fast guy helpers asked what was up.  I went over it all and in 2 seconds he said, "Your slipper is too loose."  SMH  Duh!  I never set it after all that transmission work.  A few minutes later and viola!  Plenty of power and punch.  I have his transmitter set to 65% power and it's plenty quick down the straight, and lands in the middle of the table top.  He was in business.

It was nice and sunny during the 2 hour drive and all through practice laps and lunch.  Beginners run first, he placed 3rd in his qual.  I was race 4 and just as we were getting our buggies onto the track a storm moved in.  The track crew moved quickly to close the tarp over the opening at the far end but the rain was really coming down, blowing in despite the tarp.  They worked hard on getting the driving rain blocked while the thunder and lightning were going off like 4th of July.  The back straight was getting soaked and we had a rain delay (on a covered track)!

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It got so dark they had to bring up the lights, the electricity flickered a number of times so they shut down the computer lap timer system.

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After about an hour or so of torrential downpour the storm passed.  They used huge blowers and shop brooms to dry out the back straight.  We lost a qualifying round to the storm but the race was on.  I got last in my heat.  Again.  Just call me Caboose!  In the pits between heats one of the other fast guys asked me how it was going.  I told him I was still wrestling with under-steer.  He suggested that I remove the 2mm spacer from under the ball stud where my tie rod connected to my chassis and move it to the back.  What I ended up with was 0 mm spacer on front and 2 mm spacer in rear (replaced the manuals configuration of 1mm).  The new JConcepts Diamond Bar front tires and Pressure Point rears weren't impressing me. Especially the rears.  Those Pressure Points (clay compound) are just too hard for this track.  They don't really feel like rubber, more like soft plastic.  Blech!  I went to the hobby shop and bought some CA glue and tire foams.  I had a fresh set of rims and my last set of AKA Handlebars in my box.  I figured if I couldn't get these JConcepts jobbers to break-in or grip during my 2nd qual, I could swap over to a known value with the Handlebars.

In the 2nd qualifier my son took 3rd again.  I marshaled the back corner just after the table top to try and get some pics of him coming over.

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My 201 had a noticeable handling improvement but I was still under-steering.  As I was coming down off the rostrum the same fast guy asked me how it went.  I said, "Much better, thanks, but I'm still pushing in the corners."  He said, to get more steering you'll need to lay down the front shocks or stand up the rears, or both.  So back in the pits I went.  Lower front shock mount out one hole, lower rear shock mount in one hole.  I also swapped out the tires to the Handlebars.  I swabbed the traction compound on them and let them stew for like 40 minutes before the C main.  I wanted to video record the mains but it was still raining and I decided not to get myself soaked heading to the car in the rain and mud to get the tripod.

So my son was lined up in 4th position for his main and he finished his race in 3rd place.  His SCT was so quick but I could tell his rear tires weren't biting the way they should.  I know it was the Pressure Points on the back.  In the hair pins he would plant the front and the rear end would swing around as if a pendulum then he'd blast out of the corner.  I'm glad he was able to compensate.  I'm not excited that I bought a number of sets of these because they were on sale for $8 a pair.  If we were on a looser track they'd be great...  Through out the race he was battling it out with Roper (an adult) who was driving a Traxxas Slash 2WD.  Garrett's Losi was so much faster.  He left that Traxxas in the dust.  It was a wonderful sight to see him blow by that orange truck.  :D

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I had a good race for 3rd in my main as well.  I was concentrating on keeping a good line and running cleanly.  An early pipe jump lost me 3rd place near the start but I got it back when Klemick landed the table top on his lid.  We were back and forth with each other toward the end and I honestly don't remember him overtaking me on the final lap but it was a fun run and my car was handling so much better with the tweaks and the Handlebars.  I ended the main with 24 laps which is 1 up from last week.  I also wasn't last which was my goal for the series so I'm pretty pleased with this on the whole.

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The other BIG change I made to my buggy was the ESC.  I debated for weeks what ESC to transition to from the TBLE-02S.  I ended up going with a Novak Impact primarily due to its uber compact size and somewhat due to its 365 day warranty.  I can tell you I'm not disappointed with its performance!  I was really afraid that I wouldn't be able to tell a difference between the (essentially) free TBLE-02S and the $180 Novak.  Dash those fears good people.  There was a noticeable improvement in punch and top speed.  With the TBLE-02S I could hold full throttle off the main straight into the right-hand sweeper, with the Novak, I have to let off throttle or I will push wide into the pipe.  That's how much more speed I'm carrying.  Even with the new Handlebars I could hold the line but I could hear the tires screaming as rubber was scrubbed off in sacrifice to the speed and traction gods.  With the TBLE-02S I would have to line up the table top just perfectly in order to clear it well.  With the Novak I can now clear the table top even on the inside which many of the stock buggies can't manage.  Finally the brakes.  With the TBLE-02S if I used the push brake, I would end up in a spin-out.  To compensate I set the drag brake to 30% and never used the push brake.  On the Novak, the drag brake is set to 20% and the push to 40%.  Neither brake will result in loss of control.  It's pretty cool.

Since it was the final race of the series, they handed out plaques.  Sadly there is no plaque for "Not Last".  :(  Shocker, right?  But my sons 3rd place finish in his main boosted him one position overall and he finished the series with a 3rd place plaque!

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