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Golden

VQS on High Caps - high ride height...

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I’ve just fitted some new High Caps to my VQS - having waited ages for stock to come in - and followed the instructions carefully.... but it looks like the buggy’s now on stilts - with around 3.5cm to 4cm of ground clearance!

Is there any way to adjust this down a bit....?

Grateful for some advice. 

Many thanks!

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As far as I know, you have the following options:

1. If it is about look on the shelf only, you could use larger spacers on the piston rod.

Using other parts:
2. Softer springs will help. The front springs of the Manta Ray and rears of the Grasshopper should fit

3. Changing the lower spring retainers to lower ones

4. Replacing the upper spring retainer with a lower one.

5. Not recommended for driving, but same effect: Shorter springs: Buggy front springs for the rear and soft touring car one for the front (Tamiya bright red)

That is all my knowledge regarding the newer HiCaps as I adapted them for performance on my Fire Dragon.

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Many thanks for this. Will have a tinker. 

The standard CVAs don’t return the car to a decent height and leave it too soft so it can bottom out quite easily - whereas the high caps feel a lot better - albeit I haven’t run the car on them yet (but just from squishing it down and doing a few minor drop tests.... Not sure if it’s spring related - or spacer related as you suggest in one of the options you’ve set out.... but it sits pretty high.
 

Be interetsed in whether others find increased ride height with the high caps (or perhaps I have done something wrong - but I have followed the manual!!!). 
 

Thanks again.

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I was curious if this would be an issue. When Tamiya first introduced these Hicaps as well at the first time they re-released them (this is the second time Tamiya has brought this particular set back), they included a taller front shock tower for use on the Vanquish. It wasn't as tall as the original Egress tower, as the Vanquish lacked the original Egress's lower shock mounting brackets (BF8, BF9, I think) but it was taller than the stock one. Tamiya strangely cheaped-out this time around and omitted the tower. Now it seems the shocks are too long from what you are saying.  

The new re-release Egress did away with the lower BF8/BF9 mounts and used a different front tower to compensate for this. Its my guess that this same re-re front Egress tower could be used to fix the Vanquish situation (assuming the hop-up Hicaps can be/are built the same as the stock Egress re-re Hicaps.). Checking out the various manuals (original and current) should help clarify. Hope this helps.

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Ah that’s interesting. The high cap instructions direct you to use the top fitment holes in the rear upright (so one set of holes higher up the upright) than for the CVAs) - so the bolts actually touch the spoiler/rear wing - I guess to compensate for the increased the shaft length. I guess the high capacity is a combo of wider diameter and stroke length of the shock. 

I might play around with internal spacers - and see how I go... but the damping is definitely improved. 

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You're definitely using a mixed set of standard (rear) and mini (front) Hi-Caps? Rather than the Top Force set (4 x standard)?

A pic would help.

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Yep. Brand new set of VQS High Caps from Tamico. They advised to remove the front shock collars - and insert larger spacers at the rear. Will have a play but the car sits about 3.5-4cm high under the chassis. Will post a pic shortly…

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With a nimh battery pack on it’s end to give an idea of the gap - didn’t have a ruler to hand!). Am certain I’ve followed the instructions and double checked etc.

130FB1A2-6E46-4133-9451-9D6F6E96B52E.jpeg

6D2CED5D-17D1-48AE-BFE6-209ECBF3010E.jpeg

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@Golden

20210605_071836

Here's an old catalog shot showing the front "mini" Hicaps and the shock tower that Tamiya left out this time around that was intended for use on the Avante and Vanquish. Also in the shot is the rare Avante ball ends covers (wear on the beautiful aluminum Avante joints must have been an issue even back then) and the ultimate Avante/Vanquish hop-up, the Carbon Graphite Chassis Set.

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Inread about the old egress hop ups having an additional strut tower to raise the attachment height. Interesting they haven’t done so now - but I suppose it would start to make the high caps pretty expensive on what is already an expensive kit. Although Tamico currently have it for EURO 277 until midnight tomorrow!

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I put a set on my super astute and built them as instructions but the spacers the instructions tell you to put inside made the buggy sit far to low to the ground so I took them out and it was far better for my super astute without the spacers inside the cylinders it give me more damper travel 

20210320_161815.jpg

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Yep. Just like real cars! I’ve got an old BMW M3 - and one of the best shock and damper set ups (at reasonable cost…..) is a bilstein kit, which provides an amazing ride and great body control - but aesthetically, isn‘t too popular, as it makes the car look like it’s on stilts!

The struggle is real... 

That Super Astute looks really good. Nice build.  I can see the rear shock collars look to be maybe 10mm down the shock to tension the spring - presumably adding tension raises the ride height, as well as stiffening the ride…? So spring length AND internal spacers to limit shock travel contribute to ride height?

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50 minutes ago, Golden said:

Yep. Just like real cars! I’ve got an old BMW M3...

What do you have? Mine's a 3.2 e36 coupe in Estoril Blue.

 

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Ah - I’m desperately after one of those! Very jealous. A good friend of mine has a coupe with 40,000 miles on - in estoril blue with the grey vedars…. It is lurrrrrevly  - and one of the few cars to recently put a massive grin on my face when going for a blast. It is immaculate, save for some loss of the paint to the rocker cover which can be easily rectified. 
 

I’ve got an E46 SMG coupe - trying to work out what to do with the suspension on that too as it happens. I swapped the shocks for bilstein b4s - to keep it standard - as it’s a pure road car - but they’ve gone off after 10,000 miles and am working out whether to go for KW v3 or ohlins r/t…. But again - ride height is an issue as don’t want to slam it too much!

 

Like I said. The struggle is real. Is good to only have first world problems thankfully!

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11 hours ago, Golden said:

Yep. Just like real cars! I’ve got an old BMW M3 - and one of the best shock and damper set ups (at reasonable cost…..) is a bilstein kit, which provides an amazing ride and great body control - but aesthetically, isn‘t too popular, as it makes the car look like it’s on stilts!

The struggle is real... 

That Super Astute looks really good. Nice build.  I can see the rear shock collars look to be maybe 10mm down the shock to tension the spring - presumably adding tension raises the ride height, as well as stiffening the ride…? So spring length AND internal spacers to limit shock travel contribute to ride height?

The shock springs on the vqs hi-caps are quite soft so that's why I have the collars so far down and also you forget how heavy  5000mah Nimh's are! I can adjust them further up when I have a 2s lipo in it because they are considerably lighter! I only noticed how soft they are when I built the topforce evo the springs on that are a lot firmer!

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I did some higher shock towers made from PCB Material (FR4 and Aluminum). Looks better that way. 

IMG_20220308_194838.jpg

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On 6/5/2021 at 12:37 PM, Saito2 said:

@Golden

20210605_071836

Here's an old catalog shot showing the front "mini" Hicaps and the shock tower that Tamiya left out this time around that was intended for use on the Avante and Egress. Also in the shot is the rare Avante ball ends covers (wear on the beautiful aluminum Avante joints must have been an issue even back then) an the ultimate Avante/Vanquish hop-up, the Carbon Graphite Chassis Set.

The extra tower was just for the avante I think. The vqs/vanquish already has a longer front tower albeit in plastic.  The ride height is just what those older cars were like when off road racing was proper off road

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4 hours ago, slimleeroy said:

The extra tower was just for the avante I think. The vqs/vanquish already has a longer front tower albeit in plastic.  The ride height is just what those older cars were like when off road racing was proper off road

Indeed. I screwed up the original post (now corrected) by stating the tower was intended for the Avante and Egress. That was incorrect. I meant to type Avante and Vanquish. The Egress came with a taller, different tower than the Hop-up shock version. 

Perhaps you're right. I've seen the hop-up tower in use on Vanquishes such as @94eg! 's beautiful example but the original manual doesn't mention it. Sorry if I misled anyone.

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2 hours ago, Saito2 said:

Indeed. I screwed up the original post (now corrected) by stating the tower was intended for the Avante and Egress. That was incorrect. I meant to type Avante and Vanquish. The Egress came with a taller, different tower than the Hop-up shock version. 

Perhaps you're right. I've seen the hop-up tower in use on Vanquishes such as @94eg! 's beautiful example but the original manual doesn't mention it. Sorry if I misled anyone.

Yeah the vqs has a longer plastic tower that bolts onto the top of the gearbox where the avante dampers mount

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1 hour ago, slimleeroy said:

Yeah the vqs has a longer plastic tower that bolts onto the top of the gearbox where the avante dampers mount

Correct, just like my original Vanquish. In @94eg!'s example, that plastic tower is removed and replaced with the even more taller hop-up tower.

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The hop-up front tower is only illustrated being installed on a vanquish in the original hi-cap "mini" shock tower instructions. It shows it being installed upsidedown (vs Avante) to clear the body canopy.  Being reversible, This tower is slightly narrower than the plastic vanquish shock tower. Therefore the setup is slightly different.

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On 5/19/2022 at 1:43 AM, 94eg! said:

The hop-up front tower is only illustrated being installed on a vanquish in the original hi-cap "mini" shock tower instructions. It shows it being installed upsidedown (vs Avante) to clear the body canopy.  Being reversible, This tower is slightly narrower than the plastic vanquish shock tower. Therefore the setup is slightly different.

Thank you. I was beginning to think I was imagining things when I didn't see that tower referenced in the Hop-up section of the original manual. I swore I saw installation illustrations for it somewhere though...

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So, does this high ride height with the hi-caps make it undriveable? As for me who does 90 % of my driving on a bumpy homemade track, the VQS is quickly moving up the build queue. 

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I have a runner VQS , standard front tower with the VQS high cap set, I am amazed at how well it drives, it feels more planted than my Egress, they are both running the 3rd centre ball diff and the VQS is running vintage ball diffs also.

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