DT-03 front suspension shafts

[skom25]

Hi,

Can I use in DT-03 on front this...

instead of this... ?

I think I saw somewhere that it is not good idea, but I am not sure. I will run it only on asphalt/ pavement, no jumps etc.

What do you think?

[alvinlwh]

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[skom25]

Are you sure that it is the same for DT-03?

Shaft goes through that part on left, so it is separated from chassis.

[Twinfan]

The U-shaped part holds the front end of the two chassis parts together, there are no screws in that area bolting the two halves together.  You run the risk of stressing the shock tower and splitting the chassis without it.

[skom25]

4 minutes ago, Twinfan said:

The U-shaped part holds the front end of the two chassis parts together, there are no screws in that area bolting the two halves together.  You run the risk of stressing the shock tower and splitting the chassis without it.

That block on the left has four holes and it is attached to chassis by four screws. This element has also two holes for shaft.

It is hard to imagine, that in that case it holds anything.

[Twinfan]

Well try it without it and see how you get on then?

[skom25]

I am not afraid about chassis halves, but more about front support. Hard to say. Maybe someone tried already.

[alvinlwh]

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[skom25]

4 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

Having a look at the instructions, it seems that swapping it for shafts does nothing, other than a satisfaction of changing absolutely everything possible.

Yes. I want to do this, because I went so deep with Hop Ups in DT-03, that I want just modify every possible part. Just for pure fun, nothing else. 

I have these shafts and no plan to use them in different kits, so just want to try.

[BuggyDad]

Even for light running I think you'd want something strong enough to brace left to right off the front, which you'd lose if you moved to straight shafts, unless you made/used a new different front suspension mount to tie the two shafts together somehow. For me though, the old U shaft solution is a decent one, I mean it's not adjustable (although question what adjustment you'd want to make here on a DT-03, and anyway to make things adjustable you'd need extensive mods including losing the existing block) and it perhaps has a little slop that could be modified out, but it does the job. If I was to list shortcomings of the DT-03 that I'd like to improve upon, I'd have other things higher up the list than this, eg rear toe-in adjustment, diff adjustment, weight distribution, steering geometry, chassis nose strength. It's changing the subject but adding rear toe-in using 3d printed uprights made a huge difference to how mine drives. 

Edit: Now I think about it, in suspension mounting terms, I think the rear with straight shafts is in a way worse than the front U shaft, because it puts all the force through the gearbox casing, creating a known (albeit not that serious for most people) weak point. This is why I modified mine in that area to introduce carbon fibre braces across the gearbox between the suspension shafts. 

[alvinlwh]

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[BuggyDad]

1 hour ago, alvinlwh said:

I believe there is even a carbon/aluminium chassis available.

Really? Can't see it but sounds like an interesting potential project, replace the DT-03 chassis with some carbon, also to enable fitting bell crank steering. 

[alvinlwh]

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