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RichieRich

DT03 Damper Question

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Hey guys! I got a Neo Fighter for Christmas. I thought I'd take a break from my normal race RC10s and Ultimas. I've purchased a few basic hop-ups including bearings and the turnbuckle set. I know there's a damper set specifically for the DT03 but pics online seem to show an integrated metal shock shaft and piston. Is that how they come? 

I have about 6 or 7 sets of black plastic CVA shocks so I may be able to build a set of dampers out of the parts I have. Does anyone have the measurements of the front and rear lengths?

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Yep, the DT-03 feature a fixed piston on the rod. It's a bit of a crap design as it just removes one of the adjustable elements of the shocks. Although, tbh probably most DT-03 owners will be more than happy with the shocks as they do a good job in stock form.

The rods you need are as below -

Front rods - 50601 (34mm)

Rear rods - 3455168 (47mm)

If you can pick up a set of the Blitzer Beetle shocks, they are the same but with the upgrade piston rods, as detailed above.

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I thought all the later Neo Fighters came with the CVA's as standard? 

If you've got the turnbuckles, it opens up to pretty much any 1/10 off road buggy shock (doesn't have to go through the upper wishbone on the front).

I'm running Schumacher Big Bores on mine, but I think the modern Associated shocks would fit too tbh. Got a set of RB6.6 RTR shocks for under £30 (Plastic version of the RB6.6), that I was going to throw on, for beach running.

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3 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

I thought all the later Neo Fighters came with the CVA's as standard?

I assume most have the sticker with the cvas/torque tuned, XBs like mine were pogos.

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5 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

I thought all the later Neo Fighters came with the CVA's as standard? 

They do have CVAs, but with a one piece shaft and piston in place of the normal shaft and plastic pistons. The kit CVA piston has a flat spot at one point on its circumference, instead of holes, and is a slightly loose fit in the bore. 

9400414 is a cheap alternative hop up - set of shafts, red o-rings and springs (no pistons - I assume they're to use the black ones on the kit parts tree) for the CVAs. I have bought this but not used it yet. Another issue with the kit is the rear springs are a bit soft, and it could be these ones are harder as well. 

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9 hours ago, RichieRich said:

Hey guys! I got a Neo Fighter for Christmas. I thought I'd take a break from my normal race RC10s and Ultimas. I've purchased a few basic hop-ups including bearings and the turnbuckle set. I know there's a damper set specifically for the DT03 but pics online seem to show an integrated metal shock shaft and piston. Is that how they come? 

I have about 6 or 7 sets of black plastic CVA shocks so I may be able to build a set of dampers out of the parts I have. Does anyone have the measurements of the front and rear lengths?

@Kol__ has the right parts. You will have the pistons on other sprues. You need to build both ends with the long eyelets in the longest setting (70mm and 94mm respectively). I would recommend the 1 hole pistons, and get some red o-rings as well. 

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Thought I'd open up 9400414 to have a look. 

Here's what's in the bag:

20230109_093206

Same rod lengths 34 & 47mm. No e-clips, no pistons, but handy to get some red o-rings and the rear springs are a viable harder option. Much harder than stock, in fact I'm going to give them a try - on the bench they seem about right. I've barely run the DT-03 stock rear springs - they just need so much extra preload that some harder rear springs were my first upgrade. 

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Agreed, the DT-03 rear shocks are way under sprung, shockingly so imo (pun maybe intended). It was also one of the first mods I did. I remember us chatting about that last year @BuggyDad👍

I've got no idea what replacement rear springs I fitted, as I just pulled them out of my spares box. I reckon a 4WD rear shock spring would be suitable, from something like the TT02-B, as they're heavier sprung than the 2WD buggies.

That little shocks kit 9400414 looks like a good little find🙂. Given that it's supplied with hard damper oil and Tony's Tamiya lists it as being for the DF-03 4WD chasiss kits, I reckon the rear springs will also be more suited to the DT-03 than the stock ones. Definitely not the front ones though, they'll be way to hard.

On that note, as it's a 2WD buggy it has very little weight over the front end. I use a 3 hole piston in the front with a very soft oil and 2 holes in the rear with a hard oil.

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7 hours ago, BuggyDad said:

They do have CVAs, but with a one piece shaft and piston in place of the normal shaft and plastic pistons

Just had to have a look (mine are still nip) and yeah..., I had in my head, they where exactly the same as the cva shocks on the DF03!! 

 

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10 hours ago, BuggyDad said:

Thought I'd open up 9400414 to have a look. 

Here's what's in the bag:

20230109_093206

Same rod lengths 34 & 47mm. No e-clips, no pistons, but handy to get some red o-rings and the rear springs are a viable harder option. Much harder than stock, in fact I'm going to give them a try - on the bench they seem about right. I've barely run the DT-03 stock rear springs - they just need so much extra preload that some harder rear springs were my first upgrade. 

Yeah, i got this for one of my DT03 builds.

The dark grey colour polishes off a treat.

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Thanks guys. I have a complete set of CVA dampers from my TD4 that I didn't use. I think all I need are the shafts in the 9400414 set and maybe the springs since it was mentioned that they may work better on the DT03.

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Just a quick update, I used the rear CVA dampers from my TD4 with a longer ball end for the DT03 rear. For those of you in states, I was able to order the 9400414 set that everyone has mentioned with the 34mm front shock shafts for $1.99 from Tamiya USA. I guess that set is on sale at the moment. Regular price is $11.50. I'm using the 34mm shaft with another set of CVAs for the DT03 front.

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After installing the CVA dampers (I guess I got a cheap kit that didn't come with any of the upgrades mentioned :lol:), I noticed there's a lot of slop using the kit supplied step screws and brass tubes. I have 5mm Tamiya ball connectors, so I can fix most of that. The problem is, I can't find a 5mm ball with a 3mm hole for the lower mount for the front shock. Does Tamiya make something like this? Or is there a suitable item from another manufacturer?

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31 minutes ago, RichieRich said:

I can't find a 5mm ball with a 3mm hole for the lower mount for the front shock. Does Tamiya make something like this? Or is there a suitable item from another manufacturer?

You mean like a ball stud without the stud? One that you would affix with a screw instead? If so Tamiya make these -

TAMIYA 53599 - Fluorine Coated 5mm Aluminum Ball Nut (10pcs.)

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I recommend leaving the front springs stock and get the DT02 spring set and install the red spring in the rear.

use the one piston hole front and rear and use the shock oil that comes with it.  If you want more than that you can check the buggy damper thread.

If you decide to get the aluminum dampers like the tt02b/df03 damper kit you will want to make some changes building them.

Build them per instructions however use 3 hole pistons front and rear.  use the oil that comes in the kit.   ZERO internal spacers in the front and 2 in the rear (instructions are for a 4wd and they have you put like 3 internal spacers in the front and 4 in the rear which is just ridiculous)

Do not use the springs from that kit.  use the stock front springs and Red rear DT02 springs.

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1 hour ago, RichieRich said:

After installing the CVA dampers (I guess I got a cheap kit that didn't come with any of the upgrades mentioned :lol:), I noticed there's a lot of slop using the kit supplied step screws and brass tubes. I have 5mm Tamiya ball connectors, so I can fix most of that. The problem is, I can't find a 5mm ball with a 3mm hole for the lower mount for the front shock. Does Tamiya make something like this? Or is there a suitable item from another manufacturer?

make sure you  have the brass piece at the lower part of the damper.....to keep it from slopping around you will want to fit a spacer down there to remove the slop.  the spacer will need to be able to slide onto the brass.  I used a piece from another kit

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1 hour ago, Kol__ said:

You mean like a ball stud without the stud? One that you would affix with a screw instead? If so Tamiya make these -

TAMIYA 53599 - Fluorine Coated 5mm Aluminum Ball Nut (10pcs.)

Yes. I guess what I'm looking for is something like these pillow balls on the left from Schumacher. This is p/n U7367.

schu7367.jpg

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19 minutes ago, RichieRich said:

Yes. I guess what I'm looking for is something like these pillow balls on the left from Schumacher. This is p/n U7367.

schu7367.jpg

I wouldn't call that a pillow ball, it's a collar as far as I know bud, pillow balls are a ball for starters. Tamiya do these basic collars...

Tamiya 50591 (SP591) 5mm Ball Collar (5pcs)

For the shock set up I would go 3 holes on the front pistons will a light oil and 2 holes on the rear with a heavy oil. Theres hardly any weight on the front end and quite a heavy rear end. For the rear I fitted the stiffer rear springs from the TT-02B 4WS and they are spot on👍

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2 hours ago, Kol__ said:

I wouldn't call that a pillow ball, it's a collar as far as I know bud, pillow balls are a ball for starters. Tamiya do these basic collars...

Tamiya 50591 (SP591) 5mm Ball Collar (5pcs)

For the shock set up I would go 3 holes on the front pistons will a light oil and 2 holes on the rear with a heavy oil. Theres hardly any weight on the front end and quite a heavy rear end. For the rear I fitted the stiffer rear springs from the TT-02B 4WS and they are spot on👍

I went pretty much same as @Kol__. On the front there's so little weight that the challenge for me was to find a setup that would be active and still rebound. So I ended up with 3 holes on my aluminum TT-02B/DF-03 dampers, light 100 cst (or maybe it's 150) oil, and the soft springs from the DT-02 set which are red. Essentially that's about the minimum damping I could get, which was necessary to allow the soft spring to work.

I also used the 59591 collars, filing down one end for them to fit. More recently though I've mounted my shocks in front of the arms, so back to ball studs/nuts, but this is for other reasons. 

On the back, kit springs are too soft, so I went up to a spring that seemed about right and then adjusted damping accordingly. On my aluminium shocks I think I'm at 400 oil and 3 holes. This is definitely not overdamped and would be too light for some. 600 oil in kit CVAs is a more heavily damped outcome. The 9400414 springs are ok I think, as are some other options (Fastrax, Schumacher). 

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27 minutes ago, BuggyDad said:

I also used the 59591 collars, filing down one end for them to fit.

I did this as well.

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2 hours ago, Kol__ said:

I wouldn't call that a pillow ball, it's a collar as far as I know bud, pillow balls are a ball for starters.

Please excuse my ignorance. 
 

https://www.amainhobbies.com/schumacher-cat-l1-wide-rod-end-socket-pillow-ball-set-schu7367/p766188

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4 minutes ago, Kol__ said:

Oooh sensitive aren't we?😂

Banned. 🤣 I'm totally kidding, don't want this to get out of hand. 😜

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2 minutes ago, RichieRich said:

Banned. 🤣 I'm totally kidding, don't want this to get out of hand. 😜

😂👍

On a serious note though in my experience for most RC manufacturers, like Kyosho, Team Associated and Arrma for example, a pillow ball is like the Tamiya ball studs. Even the Schumacher packaging for the item on that link you provided doesn't state the word pillow, although could just be shortened for the label.

So back on the jokes... your ignorance is excused😉

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I think that's part of the problem. Not knowing what to call it is making it hard to find. There needs to be some sort of picture glossary.

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