ride height

[flip123]

does anyone no how to get a higher ride height on a king blackfoot

[mud4fun]

Hi flip123, there isn't any easy way to achieve this without spending quite some money.

First question is why do you need it? The blackfoot is a great truck but sadly it is only 2wd and the rear gearbox/driveshafts are weak and unreliable.

I guess if you want increased ride height you'd be looking for better off road capability? The problem with a 2WD vehicle of any sort but especially one for off roading is that the rear tyres have to have enough traction to be able to push the front undriven tyres up and over obstacles. I can assure you that it takes huge amounts of traction to do this. As an example, my bush devil can approach a brick slowly and then if you try and climb over it the front tyres will sit against the brick and not climb while the rears will spin. The same brick can be driven over easily at slow speed in even most 4wd buggies.

I'd really suggest keeping the Blackfoot stock and buying a cheap used Bush Devil or super blackfoot off ebay, should be no more than £50. The Bush Devil has a far superior rear gearbox which can handle really powerful motors. It also has proper dogbones which are standard across many older Tamiya cars so they are easy to get replacements for. The wishbone suspension on the Bush Devil is also far superior for both handling and for 'lifting'. The Bush Devil is still only 2WD though.

I run a modified Bush Devil with a heavy Land Rover shell on it and it performs extremely well, able to pull wheels and cross rough ground with ease. Pictures are in my showroom.

If you want to stick with the Blackfoot then I'd suggest the following:

1) Strip the gearbox, replace all the bearings with quality ball bearings.

2) Lock the diff using super glue or epoxy.

3) Fit ball bearings in the axles

4) Fit IMEX 2.2" Swamp Dawg tyres on HPI 2.2" wheels which come with an adaptor to mount those wheels straight on the blackfoot. (Remember you'll need a pair of rear wheels which are hex drive and a pair of front wheels which take bearings as your truck is only 2wd)

The IMEX Swamp dawgs are slightly larger in diameter than the standard blackfoot tyres AND they are far superior. If you buy the soft compound tyres they give awesome grip and will allow your truck to crawl over obstacles that you'd never have dreamed of before.

5) Replace the original hard plastic blackfoot shell with a lightweight lexan one instead. This will lower your center of gravity and it won't break when you roll over.

6) Change the front stock steering arrangement with a super blackfoot or bush devil one. The Bush Devil uses a central pivot point with two equal length steering rods. The blackfoot used unequal length rods which were rubbish as they caused one tyre to turn much more than another and have much worse bump steer than necessary.

7) Replace the steering rods with 3mm threaded rod instead of the stock 2mm rubbish which bends far too easily. This will give stringer steering for bashing over rough ground.

8) Fit a waterproof ESC such as the Mtroniks Sport RV at £40, worth every penny as it will run as low as a 15turn motor and will run underwater!

9) Mount your receiver in a sealed bag.

10) Fit a Kyosho Meyhem truck motor which is 23turn I think but has stacks of torque. Normally retail at about £40. OR fit a RS550SH motor out of a cordless drill. These are available on ebay occasionaly, they have huge torque at low revs so make crawling over hills and obstacles much easier.

Do all the above and your Blackfoot will perform much better although a 4WD truck will do SO much more! (good 4WD trucks in similar price to blackfoot would be wild dagger or twin detonator)

[flip123]

1) its all ballbearinged

2) im not sure how to lock the diffs or wat that does

3)ive already got a lexan shell

4) i fixed the steering

5)i'm looking for a 16t motor

6) im not looking for a crawler i just need to stop it bottoming out

[smallman28]

mud4fun,I think you are confusing the Blackfoot with the King Blackfoot flip123 is on about.

With regards to the drive train I have found it to be very reliable compared to the Blackfoot.

But there is no easy way to increase the ride height,the best bet if you are bottoming out is it fit some bump stops but that might make things worse but bouncing the car back up when it hits them.

[mud4fun]

oops, sorry my mistake, didn't read the end of the line properly! [:I]

All the same applies though, just saves you buying a Bush Devil [] King Blackfoot is same as bush devil, and with the nicer dark grey chassis I think which is what I've got fitted to my bush devil [8D]

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Are you running oil filled shocks? I fitted a nice setup of adjustable oil filled shocks to my bush devil and I don't have any bottoming out problem.

[flip123]

the biggest problem when it bottoms out is that the force of it makes the battery fall out

[smallman28]

quote:Originally posted by flip123

the biggest problem when it bottoms out is that the force of it makes the battery fall out

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id="quote">id="quote">

What are you doing to it!

Seriously though I bashed mine to badword and it always bounced back,is it just a case of the body pin coming out that makes the battery loose,if so why not just replace it with a piece of bent wire you can loop through a couple of times and twist closed.

[flip123]

thanks but yeah i think a roof is too big for it

[flip123]

is there any hopups worth getting

[mud4fun]

I think the oil filled shocks shoudl do the trick if you are currently running with the normal friction shocks.

[flip123]

do u no of any that are the same size because ive got some but there shorter than stock and can i change the gearing. would it be able to handle a 6t motor

[mud4fun]

Hi flip123, I managed to get mine from RCBoyz in the states, they are on ebay. I got 2 pairs of alloy adjustable bodied shocks including springs for just £25 including delivery. Mine are 'hot bodies' I think. You can see them mounted on my Bush Devil here:

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.a...=19337&sid=1721

I swapped out the original firm springs on the fronts to fit some softer springs but I use mine more for off roading. The firmer ones will probably suit you better. You can adjust the collar to make the springs stiffer or softer to suit the conditions. The ones I got were a little too long for the front but just right for the back end and it gave me some additional ride height. The fronts although being too long still fit and work well, just loose about 5mm of travel, although you get the maximum ride height possible.

As for a motor, the lowest I run in my Bush Devil is a 19t and more recently I prefer the 23t kyosho meyhem, again for off road use. It is a fixed pinion size so you'' run the risk of overheating/straining your motor and possibly overheating/ruining your ESC if you run much lower turns. I know some people do run low turns but with big tyres you really need a high turn motor for its torque. The King Blackfoot/Bush Devil aren't really race cars so their gearboxes weren't designed to alter pinion sizes to suit ranges of motors.

Having said that, mine went very well with a 19t Reedy quad spec which is the equivalent of many cheaper 15 turn motors. I have also fitted smaller diameter tyres to lower the overall height which helps handling at speed and compensates the overall gearing to allow the use of the lower turn motor.

Hope this helps,

Ian

[flip123]

thanks

[smallman28]

I run a cheap Orion Havoc 17 double on mine,I did use the standard wheels and tyres when I ran it but use a set of WW2 ones instead now.