Ultima RB5 setup discussion

[RogerM]

I have just got back from a day of experimentation at the Kidderminster track. I just want to share with you all a very hard learned lesson ....... You can't get the RB5 any better balanced on Astro truf than the set-up I have posted up for Coventry.

I tried this, that and every chuffing thing to improve it today and everything I did made the car slower or harder to drive!

Put the now generic Astroturf set-up on the car for the final (we won't discuss which one ... other than to say no the A) and all was well again.

Link to the set-up

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i..._Cov_Feb08.jpg

Only thing I changed were tires to suit the conditions today

Schumy green slim mini-spikes on the front, full

Ballistic green mini-spikes on the rear, full

I hope this helps somebody else not have as frustrating day as I did today.

As an aside I tried a different motor (swapped bonded rotor for sintered) after the meeting and a couple of different speedo settings (turned up power profile and reduced drag brakes) and I found that the above set-up could stand a lot more abuse than I have been throwing at it with my original motor / speedo. So I guess lesson 2 is don't be frightened to push the car hard.

[pete68]

hi guy's looking to get a rb5
what is the spares parts i need
and comparing to the b4 what r your opinion !!
thanks
pete68

[RogerM]

Pete68,

Spares are easy, arms, front castor blocks /knuckles and rear uprights .... that's about it. The car is near bomb proof.

You should carry a few spares though as the car is a little less popular (yet) than the B4 it's a little more difficult to find somebody trackside to yet stuff off in an emergency. I'll get you part numbers latter.

I would also go for the proline rear axle conversion so you can use B4 / Losi wheels, just makes it easer to get trackside again. The car is really easy on front tires so that is much less of an issue.

The car is a lot more consistent lap to lap than a B4, everybody I know who has switched to the RB5 agrees.
The RB5 is much easier to drive than a B4 too, think of it as having all the best characteristics of the B4 and XXX-CR built in to one car.

Trust me you won't be disappointed.

As far as set-ups are concerned your going to want at least three springs front and rear

front

#65 yellow
#70 silver (ZX5 kit NOT RB5 kit .... which are #35)
#75 light green

rear

#65 yellow
#70 silver (kit)
#75 light green

I would try and get #68 blue and #72 cobalt blue too.

I'm always happy to help and advise on this car (and the ZX5-SP) but please post in the main forums rather than PMs so everybody can see the answers.

Enjoy the RB5 .....

[pete68]

Originally Posted by RogerM

Pete68,

Spares are easy, arms, front castor blocks /knuckles and rear uprights .... that's about it. The car is near bomb proof.

You should carry a few spares though as the car is a little less popular (yet) than the B4 it's a little more difficult to find somebody trackside to yet stuff off in an emergency. I'll get you part numbers latter.

I would also go for the proline rear axle conversion so you can use B4 / Losi wheels, just makes it easer to get trackside again. The car is really easy on front tires so that is much less of an issue.

The car is a lot more consistent lap to lap than a B4, everybody I know who has switched to the RB5 agrees.
The RB5 is much easier to drive than a B4 too, think of it as having all the best characteristics of the B4 and XXX-CR built in to one car.

Trust me you won't be disappointed.

As far as set-ups are concerned your going to want at least three springs front and rear

front

#65 yellow
#70 silver (ZX5 kit NOT RB5 kit .... which are #35)
#75 light green

rear

#65 yellow
#70 silver (kit)
#75 light green

I would try and get #68 blue and #72 cobalt blue too.

I'm always happy to help and advise on this car (and the ZX5-SP) but please post in the main forums rather than PMs so everybody can see the answers.

Enjoy the RB5 .....

THANKS roger for the advice
pete68

[johnnyboy]

http://johnnyboydotca.blogspot.com/

There are posts there that list good spares to have and another of the various hop up parts (with part numbers too)

[shawn]

Advise please

This weekend is my first meeting with my RB5.
The track will be Bumpy grass and I am using 6.5 Brushless.

Can anyboby suggest a good set of springs or are the kit items good enough.
I have seen Losi Pink rear and Blue front recomended but the blues seem to be in short supply at present. Are there any other combo's which I should be looking at?

Normally I race Touring Car so any advise will be greatly received

[RogerM]

I would suggest #70 (silver) or #72 (purple / cobalt blue) in the rear (Kyosho)

The car can be made to work on Losi red rears but they are a little too short to be able to get a decent rear ride height (try using the JConcpets offset lower spring paltforms ... they help)

On the front I would go for #70 (Silver) springs .... Losi Blues work ok .... in the outer hole on the wishbone.

I will post up a set up tomorrow (too tired to go through the grief of getting it on here tonight).

The car works well on

2C pistons in the front 35-40wt AE oil with #65, #70 or #75 Kyosho springs
2B pistons in the rear 35wt AE oil with #70, #72 or in extreme conditions #75 rear springs.

Shortish angled link on the rear and longish parallel link on the front.

Feel free to PM circuit details to me and I'll help if I can.

I have been running a Novak 6.5L on 22/78 gearing.

[erkan]

Hey Roger.
Do you have any good setup for the rb5 on very loose and bumpy dirt tracks? =)

[bondy]

Muuuuhah hahhahaha I have one of the little buggers now !!!

[RogerM]

I'd just use my basic set-up and tune from there .... possibly 1 spring down all round (Yellow).

If you PM me an e-mail addy I'll mail you my basic starting setups as they are too big to host here.

[Richard_Griffiths]

HI GUYS PURCHASED AS RB5 a few weeks ago and at last put my motor and esc in.

Motor being run is a GTB/Velociti 5.5R System.

I was wonding what setup you would run at a clay/grass track.

The reason i ask is that i am due to run at ledbury on sunday in a big 10th race and the motor just mfakes the car pull wheelies. Which looks impressive but you cant steer when the wheels are in the air.

I need to make the front wheels more planted.

Cheers

PS anyone else going to ledbuy on sunday

[Pledger]

*double post*

[Pledger]

Hi! I'm new at this with off road, I went from mini-z racing to this! (pretty serious mini-z racing though)
Pretty recently I bought a RB5 and have now made my first run at the racetrack. My present setup is basically the original from the manual and it feels like a pretty good basic setup. Now I want to start experimenting with the setup but I have no clue what a harder spring makes, a shock piston with bigger holes, a higher wing angle and so on... Are there any good threads/blogs/sites were I can get some answers about this?


My local race track is a a Astroturf track so I will definitely try your setup Roger! Are there different types of Astroturf or are they all the same?

Pics of my local racetrack:



I also have to ask about this... On my two days at the racetrack i broke two Ball end caps (long) and two of the part i don't now the name of witch comes in "UM501". What do you call this part?

The hole fore the ball stud broked. Don't seems to be common to brake, right?

/Calle Pledger

[DanW]

First thing to do is to remove the kit (silver!) springs from the front, they are way to soft and replace them with the zx-5 (silver!) #70 rate (W5181-09).

At the rear I would recommend the light green spring #75 rate (5181-75).

Pistons should be the largest 2 hole at the back and the smaller 2 hole at the front.

Associated 30wt oil rear, 35wt front.

Outside holes on the wishbone front and rear seems to work best for high grip tracks, but you can customise shock angles and down travel to suit the conditions. Many people are running the atomic carbon rear tower to get the shocks more upright, personally I run the stock tower.

The most important thing i've found in the RB5 is weight distribution, i have always run the batteries in the front poisition and added extra weights to the front end.

As a fine tuning I have removed 1 spacer from under in the front inner camber link ball stud to get the front end to roll in a bit more. Makes the car a bit more aggressive.

I think one set-up will suit most astro-turf tracks, there are different types of astro-turf but normally all that is changed is tyres. So for very high grip astro maybe mini-pin rears and stagger rib front, for less grippy tracks mini-spikes all around.

By the way your track looks very smart!

[Pledger]

Big thanks Dan! So the RB5 and the ZX5 springs aren't the same. That was new to me!

What i meant with this was that I would like to learn which adjustments affects what.

Originally Posted by Pledger

Now I want to start experimenting with the setup but I have no clue what a harder spring makes, a shock piston with bigger holes, a higher wing angle and so on... Are there any good threads/blogs/sites were I can get some answers about this?

I use the Kyosho shock oil. Is the kyosho 400cps almost = 40wt? Softer or harder?

[DanW]

Kyosho shock oils don't correspond with AE ones, they are on a different scale... if you search the forums you will find a topic about shock oil comparison.

There are too many things to adjust on a modern buggy to be able to explain all the changes.

I have a general buggy tuning guide somehwere, if i can find it i will send it to you.

The kit RB5 springs are different to the kit ZX-5 spings even though the colour is the same. You will notice a big difference between RB5 silver front and ZX5 silver front.

[jim76]

get some lead weights (the adhesive type used for alloy wheel balancing from a tyre garage) and add 30g to the front of the car. As much around the steering rack as you can squeeze in.
This is a definite must for you Richard if your car is pulling wheelies! But then again the 5.5 is a little agressive for a 2wd! Try fitting a 12.5mm rotor to it that will ease the acceleration a touch.

[Pledger]

Can't find the thread you are talking about

I meant the basics like springs and stuff like that. If you could find your guide I would be really grateful!

So the ZX-5 spring scale isn't the same as the RB5 either I made this spring list but if the scale isn't the same I have to make some changes. >>Link<<

Edit: Made some changes on the list: >>New link<<

[DanW]

The spring chart you have is correct and all those springs fit RB5 and ZX5. The only springs that are different are the RB5 kit springs, the fronts are something like #40 rate!

Its shcok oils that are different, Kyosho 400 is not the same as Associiated 40wt. The japanese use a linear grading system for oil, but the americans use a sliding scale. Somewhere here on oople is a discussion about it. Here is the link to shock oil comparison chart... http://www.twf8.ws/php/tip/shock.html

Kyohoso 400wt = 411cts nearest Associated is 35wt = 425 cts

[RogerM]

I have my desk PC up and running again and will get the sheets off to somebody to host in teh next day or two.

Super happy with both Kyosho cars now, certainly wouldn't change. It looks like I'll be doing very limited racing for the rest of the year due partly to work commitments but also due to lack of funds, I'll try to keep the set-ups up to date for the last half of the year though.