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Mark_C

M06 chassis ride height / suspension

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I grabbed a Lowride Pumpkin kit and frankly I'm pretty unimprssed with the chassis.

If you set the front upper arm length as per spec you end up with massive positive camber: I resolved this by shortening the top arms.

4h6LeASl.jpg

The biggest problem I have is the way the car sits. Although the front springs (silver) are softer the geometry of the shock mounts mean that the front arms sit up in the air and the suspension is noticealy stiffer than the back.

On the back, the springs aren't even long enough to fit, let alone be under slight compression if you lift up the back of the car. This means the back sags terribly and to make it worse the rear is very soft and easily grounds out.

PHPa9WIl.jpg

You can see the ride height difference here, the back has barely 10mm to chassis

4mre1Ohl.jpg

I've checked and re-checked and all the parts and its constructed correctly, its just poor design.

Whats the fix ? is there a better spring I can use ? do I just go for oil shocks ? do these have a better spring fitment ?

 

 

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Regarding the positive camber: 

Read the instruction carefully. Ball adjusters in the front have to be cutted before screwing in the rod. Seems you did not cut the ball ends, so the distance you adjusted was correct, but total length of the upper link too long. 

The ride height can be adjusted in the rear with adding the C-Clips on the upper spring end. But to be honest, the friction dampers are just spring holders. If you want to drive properly, you should get some oil dampers. (e.g. CVA super mini, Yeah Racing, or what suits your wallet).

For the springs itself I´d recommend you the spring set of the M06 Pro, Tamiya 42168. Overall I have now 3 M06 Chassis since 2010 and it´s still one of the best RWD M-Chassis made so far. Very stable and can be a beast on a carpet track with the right setup. Also nice is the adjustable wheelbase as S, M, and L. It´s also nice, that Tamiya brought out a real rear motor chassis for the corresponding bodyshells that reflect the 1:1 setup.

In the end you will have a lot of fun with the M06, I´m quite sure.

 

Br,

Matthias

 

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You're right about the ball joint ends, what a bizarre thing to do instead of using shorter pieces. I guess they just decided to use whatever they had.

Really surprised the suspension is this bad though, if driven stock the back end must get scraped up really badly, its so soft, I'd say its pretty much unusable as it is.

To have to pay £75 for shocks and springs that will actually work is a joke, its over 50% of the cost of the kit.

I did think of c-clips but don't have any.

Thanks for the part number for the springs, I'll look at some 3rd party shocks too.

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lunch box body is miles off fitting, even at 210mm (shortest wheelbase for the chassis) the wheelbase is too long and tbe entire thing is too wide, quick snap, sorry for the bad photo

F0DURdUl.jpg

t4KvEBSl.jpg

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5 minutes ago, Mark_C said:

lunch box body is miles off fitting, even at 210mm (shortest wheelbase for the chassis) the wheelbase is too long and tbe entire thing is too wide, quick snap, sorry for the bad photo

F0DURdUl.jpg

t4KvEBSl.jpg

I don't mind a little width :)    As we say in the euro scene down and out.  But yeah I'd have to grind that front fender.   No thanks.  hmmmmm maybe it's back to pan car options.

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i just looked at the manual and was surprised to see that there are no spacers to preload the springs.  Fortunately the parts trees with spacers are inexpensive.  They can also be improvised with cable ties if you're in a bind.

 

IMG_0705.PNG

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3 hours ago, Mark_C said:

You're right about the ball joint ends, what a bizarre thing to do instead of using shorter pieces. I guess they just decided to use whatever they had.

Really surprised the suspension is this bad though, if driven stock the back end must get scraped up really badly, its so soft, I'd say its pretty much unusable as it is.

To have to pay £75 for shocks and springs that will actually work is a joke, its over 50% of the cost of the kit.

I did think of c-clips but don't have any.

Thanks for the part number for the springs, I'll look at some 3rd party shocks too.

With 2 Tamiya 50746 sets you spend about 34€ for some very well oil shocks. Another 10€ for the spring set, still affordable. Be Aware that none of the M-kits with body comes with oil shocks, no matter if M05 or M06.

 

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Thanks for the replies, yes, no c-clips included, which given the miserable state of the rear suspension is pretty bad.

Does anyone know the length of the 50746 cvas ? ideally I want to go for 55mm. I think 50519 are 55mm but not sure if the springs are strong enough.

I think its terrible that the suspension is this poor and you have to spend 30% of the kit price to make it even usable. As it is there isn't even enough clearance for the car to run over the box spanner, if you tried to actually use the car it'd just get smashed to bits. I appreciate Tamiya stuff was never top of the tree but this is awful and I'm very disppointed in the kit.

I know pgo stick shocks are used on the TT chassis and others too, but at least on those they do actually hold the car up. I can only assume tamiya couldn't be bothered to select a spring that would actually work on the M06.

I think I'll stick to buying used cars off ebay in the future and not waste money on new kits that are fundamentally wrong.

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