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The Buggy Damper Thread.

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If you sell any of these nice dampers please let me know . I’m looking for big bore and normal aeration 

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How do the Schumacher Big Bore shocks compare, they're similar in price to the DF03 dampers, and you can get an array of spares/springs etc. (Although I've picked 2nd hand sets up for less than £40) 

 

2020-07-30_10-49-46

 

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I'm not sure if this is the right thread for this question...

Can someone suggest damper replacements for a vintage Fox?

Thanks!

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Excellent thread. Just received my what I thought were aluminum DF-03 dampers, but seems it's the aeration set. I was planning on using these for my Egress ReRe which I'm building, but now I am not sure if I go ahead with these or if it is better to order the "correct" set of DF-03 dampers... Choices choices...

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Yes, helpful thread, thank you.

Can somebody explain to me why the big bore front springs are labelled as 2WD? Is the expectation that you run rear (longer) springs up front if you have a 4WD? That seems weird to me.

Also, does anyone know where to buy either Tamiya big bore springs for something close to their retail cost <US$15 or what alternative brand springs are confirmed to work with the Tamiya shocks?

Cheers.

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1 hour ago, djmcnz said:

Yes, helpful thread, thank you.

Can somebody explain to me why the big bore front springs are labelled as 2WD? Is the expectation that you run rear (longer) springs up front if you have a 4WD? That seems weird to me.

Also, does anyone know where to buy either Tamiya big bore springs for something close to their retail cost <US$15 or what alternative brand springs are confirmed to work with the Tamiya shocks?

Cheers.

Interested in the answer to this as well. Finally managed to grab some big bores but no springs available!

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1 hour ago, djmcnz said:

Can somebody explain to me why the big bore front springs are labelled as 2WD? Is the expectation that you run rear (longer) springs up front if you have a 4WD? That seems weird to me.

Also, does anyone know where to buy either Tamiya big bore springs for something close to their retail cost <US$15 or what alternative brand springs are confirmed to work with the Tamiya shocks?

Big Bore shocks have two different front spring sets available for 2WD and 4WD

https://www.tamiya.com/english/products/54506/index.htm

https://www.tamiya.com/english/products/54507/index.htm

I have not build my 2WD shocks yet but looking at the picture they appear to be softer and have different color coding. I can compare stiffness later.

Both spring sets are still available at Autopartner but they may not ship outside Europe.

https://www.autopartner.se/bilar/reservdelar/tamiya/tamiya-54506-bb-buggy-front-spring-4wd

https://www.autopartner.se/bilar/reservdelar/tamiya/tamiya-54507-bb-buggy-front-spring-2wd

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Very helpful @Gazebo, I appreciate that, I didn't know about the front springs. Unfortunately they have no rears in stock.

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On 9/24/2021 at 5:29 AM, Gazebo said:

I have not build my 2WD shocks yet but looking at the picture they appear to be softer and have different color coding. I can compare stiffness later.

The 4WD front carries extra weight, from the extra gearbox.  So the front springs have to be stiffer to set the proper ride height.  I got the DF-03 (4WD) Tuning Spring set with soft, medium, and hard rates for my DT-03 (2wd). 

The DF-03 rear soft set was identical to the DT-03 spring rates (DF-03 was also ~6 mm longer).  The front springs were a different story.  The DF-03 front soft set was 70% stiffer than the DT-03 spring!  The hard set was 90% stiffer, and the DF-03 front springs were ~3mm longer.

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Hi guys.

I am tingering around with replacement for Sleeved Damper (SD). They have no bladder so they have a maximum upand dow travel inside the damper body.

For replacement I have a set of Kyosho Ultimate, short and long ones. Front works fine but rear are a bit tricky. I will cut a shaft for my needed lenght from eye to eye measured.
But now I need the compression to make the buggy "bottom-out" at the rear. This is where the shaft will bump into the bladder and hole it earlier or later.


Btw. I am not afraid of drilling new holes in the upper damper stay, also the buggy is made for smooth fast tracks, so not so much travel needed as the SD allowes you.

Now, when I put on the Kyosho Ultimates which are a bit shorter then SD, I can set the buggy bottom out. Okay. But when I lift the chassis to the max.. both suspension arms are absolute parallel to the ground (my tabel now). Ground clearence is still enough given, but shouldnd the arms point downward then?

I hope you can understan what I am behind and someone can give me a good advice?

 

@ruebiracer Youare  into damper business, right?

 

Cheers.

edit: This are those dampers:
trf212G_003.jpg

 

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Okay, after a good sleep I tried again with SD shaft and the bladder turned around. Now it looks like this. The head/mount is from two parts, the inner plastic part with the mount and aluminum screw around, like a fitting or so...

Now its the question, how can I fill the damper with oil only and the bladdern around? Putting them together in a small pot filled with oil is a bit weird but can work. Filling the bladder with oil and quickly putting them on the filled damper? Living with some air in the shock?
 

Or, using a o-ring instead of the bladder and using a thin and greased o-ring between head/mount and fitting (see the red dots)? 

 

kyosho_damper_01.jpg

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Sorry but I don't understand why you want to put the bladder in upside down?

You realise that the bladder moves when the shock is compressed, the bladder is only there to separate the oil from the air, and the air gets compressed when the damper is compressed?

The only time you'll damage a bladder is when you have the shocks fully bottoming out - i.e. the shaft is still exposed at full compression. You'll end up damaging more than the bladder in that scenario.

Basically, the shocks you've chosen are too short for the application. There are multiple ways of addressing that, none of which involve turning the bladder upside down.

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13 minutes ago, sosidge said:

Sorry but I don't understand why you want to put the bladder in upside down?

You realise that the bladder moves when the shock is compressed, the bladder is only there to separate the oil from the air, and the air gets compressed when the damper is compressed?

The only time you'll damage a bladder is when you have the shocks fully bottoming out - i.e. the shaft is still exposed at full compression. You'll end up damaging more than the bladder in that scenario.

Basically, the shocks you've chosen are too short for the application. There are multiple ways of addressing that, none of which involve turning the bladder upside down.

This does not satisfy me :lol:

I want to make it working with those Kyoshos, somehow. Both shock bodies are almost the same lenght, the SD have 1mm more space inside, but they dont have the bladder.

Shure, the shaft hits the bladder when it it is fully compressed but it would be less impact, If I can turn the bladder around. And no, the shaft does not touch anything else then the rubber when fully compressed.

 

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Just now, Collin said:

Shure, the shaft hits the bladder when it it is fully compressed but it would be less impact, If I can turn the bladder around.

 

No, it would be almost exactly the same - at full compression the bladder has inverted it's shape, and the air behind it has been compressed.

When you compress a shock, the shock shaft takes up space within the body. This is why you need air in the body (somehow) to compensate for that. All that a bladder does is separate the air from the oil.

I was looking for a diagram and looks like the best one was created by someone on Tamiyaclub already:

 

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Now I got you...

Since I am doing dry builds (no oil yet) I could spot a difference with bladder upside down, so no rebound from it when fully compressen. This made me think I could go this way.

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8 hours ago, sosidge said:

No, it would be almost exactly the same - at full compression the bladder has inverted it's shape, and the air behind it has been compressed.

When you compress a shock, the shock shaft takes up space within the body. This is why you need air in the body (somehow) to compensate for that. All that a bladder does is separate the air from the oil.

I was looking for a diagram and looks like the best one was created by someone on Tamiyaclub already:

 

 

Mate, thanks for pointing to this thread. I used 49mm shafts from Dyna Storm now and the tip of the shaft touchs the bladder only a very little. I also added a small piece of earplugs, the very, very soft ones, above the bladder. It all looks great and works as it should.

And today I learned, modifying longer Kyosho shafts on my small lathe is impossible! This is such a hard material, incredible.

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On 4/20/2021 at 3:07 PM, Cameron PS said:

I'm not sure if this is the right thread for this question...

Can someone suggest damper replacements for a vintage Fox?

Thanks!

Vintage kits to fit Kyosho dampers are commonly available on US eBay.

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Hi there !

I'm looking for information on the dampers shown below : these are aluminium dampers with Axial spring, RC4WD alu lower ball cup and Tamiya (?) alu silver retainer.
For information, the body is composed of 3 alu parts : the main body for the oil, the upper caps and the lower part which acts as rod guide. No aeration in the upper caps.

The only thing I don't know is : is this damper a Tamiya one ? If so, which part # / model ?

Damper 1.jpg   Damper 2.jpg

 

I actually would like to find plastic replacement parts in order to replace the plastic part in the left upper part of the pictures above, because as of now, the upper caps is fixed once screwed on the shock tower and does not allow any play according to damper travel,...

Many thanks for your help !

G-rem

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Nevermind, found it after extensive searchs B)

Those are Tamiya #53492 hop up dampers, originally made for the TXT-1. Unfortunately discontinued as of today.
Per instructions, it doesn't seem to accomodate balls for upper clamps ; so I'll have to find an alternative solution to keep using them ;)

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Hi Guys.

I spent my day measuring and writing down spring rates on my Dyna Storm buggys, some are modified with short (modern) front shocks. Now I found out that new(er) 2WD buggys with shorter front damper have often very hard springs with spring rate around 3.8 - 4.0 lb/in at the front and softer springs a the rear (~1.8lb/in). Also the TRF201x has hard front and soft rear springs. Standard Dyna Storm hat 1.7 at the front and 2.5 at the rear or something around, so saied soft at the front and hard in the rear.

Can anyone explain me? Does it have something to do with the lenght of the used spring? Spring rate is linear as usual, so I dont understand it yet.

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Here is a list of several buggy and other springs.  Are your TRF 2wd front springs around 2.5ish?  The DT-03 springs that come with the CVAs are both around 2.5 front & rear.

 

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4 hours ago, SlideWRX said:

Here is a list of several buggy and other springs.  Are your TRF 2wd front springs around 2.5ish?  The DT-03 springs that come with the CVAs are both around 2.5 front & rear.

 

The TRF 201 has the white Tamiya tuning springs installed, both front and rear are blue coded. I cant find a official spring rate for them, only some papers saying soft/med/hard.

I measured it with a analogue kitchen scale and a caliper, but measurings for other springs did show the correct value.

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9 hours ago, Collin said:

Hi Guys.

I spent my day measuring and writing down spring rates on my Dyna Storm buggys, some are modified with short (modern) front shocks. Now I found out that new(er) 2WD buggys with shorter front damper have often very hard springs with spring rate around 3.8 - 4.0 lb/in at the front and softer springs a the rear (~1.8lb/in). Also the TRF201x has hard front and soft rear springs. Standard Dyna Storm hat 1.7 at the front and 2.5 at the rear or something around, so saied soft at the front and hard in the rear.

Can anyone explain me? Does it have something to do with the lenght of the used spring? Spring rate is linear as usual, so I dont understand it yet.

It will be to do with the longer stroke on the dynastorm. Sticking with inch measurements, if your dyna front shock has 1 1/4" stroke (approx 32mm), the force exerted by the spring at bottom out is 1 1/4 * 1.7 = 2.125lb.

Modern shocks are shorter stroke. Let's assume 5/8" (around 16mm). At 3.8lb/in, these springs will exert a force of 3.8 * 5/8 = 2.375lb at bottom out. So, a modern buggy does have a stiffer front spring, but not by as much as you think.

Also, modern buggies are mid motor with much more forward weight bais, and also run lower ride height on much higher grip surfaces, all of which require much stiffer setup. 

Tamiya TRF spring rates are listed on the petitrc buggy spring chart

https://site.petitrc.com/reglages/UniversalSpringChart.htm

The tamiya red and blue springs are from the TRF501X set. The TRF201 springs are softer, marked green, brown and black. Tamiya red is 3.3lb and blue is 3.8 according to this chart. 

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32 minutes ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

Tamiya red is 3.3lb and blue is 3.8 according to this chart. 

This is what I measured. Front white TRF with blue measured with 3.9 lb/in.

Now I see it makres sense to compare long and short springs with calculation full compression force. I^ll do my homework and will post my thoughts later then.

 

 

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Hi guys, I see my spring measurement thread referenced above.  If you find any errors in the table or have entries to add, please let me know and I'll incorporate fixes/changes as necessary.

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