A couple of DEX210 issues/questions...

[Shimmy]

Hey fellas,

I just finished building my DEX210 last week and just had my first test run on the track and it feels really good.

I have an X6 Sq and a XXX CR, and while I'm not exactly a good or quick driver, as soon as I put the DEX down I was about 3 sec a lap quicker (I could never get the X6 to run right for me, and didnt really bother much with the XXX CR).
It felt really great with just a basic setup and 2 functioning shocks (forgot to threadlock the screws into the shock shaft, was just bouncing on the springs).

After reading of others using shorty lipo packs in their DEX's I ordered a couple myself, not sure now if that was a wise move or not and it seems to have plenty of grip and steering as it is.
But I spose I could put weight in more strategic places with them.
I plan on getting the DEST210 when it comes out aswell, will use my stick packs in that.

Anyways...

Just wondering if its normal for the rear shock shafts to be soo long?
My rear shocks, the piston extends past the shock body, although it bottoms out on the chassis first but just wondering if this is a normal thing?

The linkage from the servo horn to the steering rack, is there any other ball cups that could be used?
Mine are so sloppy, the plastic is very soft.

During the build I noticed quite a few bits not lining up properly or not 'keying' in (such as the front side bulkhead bits), or just generally didnt fit properly (eventually got it all together though).
Is this a normal thing?

I think there was a couple of other bits aswell, just cant remember them right now.

[Aran]

Rear shock shafts are too long, i ran them for a while and never had a problem but have upgraded to the option shock shafts which are shorter and smoother.

Not sure about the ball cups, I know some people have had issues with them but i found its taught me not to crash :P.

I found the front end was a tight fit when I built mine too, never caused a problem and is solid in a crash.

Hope this helps

[Shimmy]

Originally Posted by Aran

Rear shock shafts are too long, i ran them for a while and never had a problem but have upgraded to the option shock shafts which are shorter and smoother.

Not sure about the ball cups, I know some people have had issues with them but i found its taught me not to crash :P.

I found the front end was a tight fit when I built mine too, never caused a problem and is solid in a crash.

Hope this helps

Fair enough, thanks for the reply.

I wouldnt mind getting the new shock shafts but the way I see it is I shouldnt have to, since it shouldnt have come like this to begin with.
I might just take off the 3mm from the thread and see if I can get the rod end on all the way.

The ball cups I have issues with are only the servo-steering rack linkage, was real sloppy when I built it, isnt any worse now and doesnt pop off but is the cause of some slop in the steering.

My front end was a very tight fit, I had a clearance issue of about 2mm, pretty much had to force it together, didnt like it but had no choice.
And the screw holes did not line up properly, pretty much had to force the screws in on an angle.

As nice a kit as they are when built, I think the build quality sucks.
But saying that, I'm going to be ordering the DEST210, lol.

[cigbunt]

are you sure its not the droop your talking about?

[Shimmy]

Nah, the piston clears the top of the body, my thinking is that shortening the shaft and trying to get the rod end on all the way will give a shorter overall length, so the piston wont clear the shock body.

If that makes sense?


Also, on the topic of droop, with the rear droop screws do others put the screws in with the flat face down? as its shown in the manual?

[tomvanelsen]

have you got the lower spring holders and the rubber washer on your shaft?
just do the droop screws how it's told to you in the manual.

[Shimmy]

Yup, I have the spring retainer and the rubber bump stop thingy installed, yet on full compression there is about a 2-3mm gap between hitting the rubber bump stop.

Probably not that much of an issue, but It's just something that I would prefer it not to do, as the way I see it, in any tumble or bad landing, the whole weight of the buggy landing on a back rear wheel would be on that piston bottoming out on the shock cap.

Durango sells the option shock shafts which are 3mm shorter I believe, removing this issue.

But as I said, it cant be too much of an issue as others would be complaining by now.

[jkclifford]

3 seconds a lap faster!!!

Mate does a bit of slop and 3mm on a shock shaft really matter?!

The 210 is tje best car I have ever owned.

As for forcing screws in the first parts are no differnt to last ones that were injection moulded, so not sure why your having problems.

[av4625]

Originally Posted by tomvanelsen

have you got the lower spring holders and the rubber washer on your shaft?
just do the droop screws how it's told to you in the manual.

Dude he is saying when you push the piston up it come out the top of the shock body mine is the same the 210 comes with a 3mm longer rear shock shaft than the 410 he doesnt mean droop or how far down it goes

[Shimmy]

Originally Posted by jkclifford

3 seconds a lap faster!!!

Mate does a bit of slop and 3mm on a shock shaft really matter?!

The 210 is tje best car I have ever owned.

As for forcing screws in the first parts are no differnt to last ones that were injection moulded, so not sure why your having problems.

Yup, I'm not the greatest driver and while 3 sec sounds like a lot (it is), my personal best lap is about .3 quicker (with the x6 Sq), but my average lap was quite slow.
With the 210 I find it much easier to be consistent with and feels like I dont have to push it so hard and make as many mistakes.
I find it's quite hard to upset the 210 and when things do start to look a little bad, it just recovers really easy.
I even found I could have my brakes set quite strong and could get away with it.

As for the slop, I would expect that after a couple of meets maybe but this brand new out of the box, for some reason I just expected more.

I have a couple of pics to talk about the issues I had with screw holes and the bit up front not keying in.

Originally Posted by av4625

Dude he is saying when you push the piston up it come out the top of the shock body mine is the same the 210 comes with a 3mm longer rear shock shaft than the 410 he doesnt mean droop or how far down it goes

Thank you, that is exactly what I am trying to say.
As I said, it cant be that much of an issue otherwise more people would be complaining.
But it sure would be nice if Durango supplied the proper sized bit in the kit to begin with.

[zleader]

Hey are you running in mm.. I looking for advice for shorties in mm.. Sorry for the hijack... I had a 22 but trying something else.. I did find running the shorty forward helped the buggy..

[Shimmy]

I am running rear motor at the moment, gonna try out mid sometime soon, see how it compares to the X6.

I was expecting my shorty lipos today, didnt turn up unfortunately.

[steveproracing]

durango specced the car with this length car for a reason. (consider the fact that they have had a new part made, they could have easily just used the 410 rear shaft at a cheaper cost than creating a new one.)

the extra 3mm is to give you the ability to run 3mm extra droop
this is so that you can transfer more weight to the front during deceleration?braking, thus giving more steering going into a corner.
its a nice tuning aid to have.

running the 3mm shorter shafts has the opposite effect. it creates less weight transfer to the front during breaking thus giving more consistent braking as less weight is lost over the rear tyres. also a nice tuning aid to have in certain situations.

still, i understand your concerns re up travel and the piston rising above the shock body. the solution is to place 2-3mm spacers on the shock shaft externally between the shock bottom and the rubber cone washer. i found that with 2mm spacers, the spring seat and the cone washer in place on the shaft then the piston stays nicely inside the shock body.


what will reducing the up travel do to the car handling over bumps etc i hear you say!!!???? nothing detrimental. if your in a bump that has caused your wheel to go so high that it is now above your chassis line then your chassis has slapped the floor and your car is now flying off the track somewhere at great speed!! no amount of up travel could have saved this.

hope this helps
steve

[Shimmy]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I understand about using the extra 3mm for droop but on the 210, you dont get that.
the shocks are longer than the amount of travel the arm has (even with the droop screw all the way out).

I might just space up that rubber bump stop like you said, its a band aid and dont get the extra up travel but its not the up travel that I want (as you said, the chassis will hit the ground before the shock bottoms out) but rather in the case of a tumble/crash or bad landing, I do not want that piston to hit the shock cap, possibly causing damage.

Originally Posted by steveproracing

durango specced the car with this length car for a reason. (consider the fact that they have had a new part made, they could have easily just used the 410 rear shaft at a cheaper cost than creating a new one.)

the extra 3mm is to give you the ability to run 3mm extra droop
this is so that you can transfer more weight to the front during deceleration?braking, thus giving more steering going into a corner.
its a nice tuning aid to have.

running the 3mm shorter shafts has the opposite effect. it creates less weight transfer to the front during breaking thus giving more consistent braking as less weight is lost over the rear tyres. also a nice tuning aid to have in certain situations.

still, i understand your concerns re up travel and the piston rising above the shock body. the solution is to place 2-3mm spacers on the shock shaft externally between the shock bottom and the rubber cone washer. i found that with 2mm spacers, the spring seat and the cone washer in place on the shaft then the piston stays nicely inside the shock body.


what will reducing the up travel do to the car handling over bumps etc i hear you say!!!???? nothing detrimental. if your in a bump that has caused your wheel to go so high that it is now above your chassis line then your chassis has slapped the floor and your car is now flying off the track somewhere at great speed!! no amount of up travel could have saved this.

hope this helps
steve

[Big G]

I think if you run the shocks on the outside hole they require the longer shafts to take advantage of the extra travel. you can get the same droop running the inner holes.

[tomvanelsen]

But the 3mm extra length doesnt matter, because your chassis plate will hit the ground far before your shocks bottom out, so i dont get the problem

[Big G]

but if you landed on the 1 side your shocks would bottom out then while the car is leveling out.

[Shimmy]

Originally Posted by tomvanelsen

But the 3mm extra length doesnt matter, because your chassis plate will hit the ground far before your shocks bottom out, so i dont get the problem

As I said before, it cant be that much of a problem as no one else is complaining about it.

How I saw it though, is if I got into a bad tumble/roll or landed badly on one wheel, that shock will fully compress, which will put the whole weight on that piston, possibly causing damage to the piston (and maybe score the inside of the shock body).

I dont know how I can explain this any clearer.
Of all the other RC's I have/had I have never seen a shock/build like this.
As with a few other things I've noticed with this kit (previously mentioned), its an awesome buggy when built but the build quality could be better.

Also for all the parts bag that gets checked for being complete?
Mine was missing a few screws and something else I cant even remember now.
Now I may have high expectations but I honestly expect better QC and tolerances in parts than this.
I also thought some of the plastics were pretty poor aswell, although should be fine aslong as you do not abuse or over tighten any parts, especially the little plastic shims (I noticed a couple of other bits which were quite soft but cant remember what they were and I'm pretty sure it was just small stuff).
I can kinda understand why they did this though, they offer the aluminium shims as an option part.

I'll leave the subject alone now though, I'm not gonna start an argument or anything over this.

[tomvanelsen]

But its still quite strange that youve got 3mm extra on your shafts, mine just go in fine.
Maybe its from a different batch

[jkclifford]

As explained you need.the extra length to get full droop on the outside holes.
shiming the bump stop will get rid of what your worrying about. Honestly though if you have bad enough crash to hit something at the right angle to push one wheel to full travel, you will have been proper unlucky. More likly for tje nut to dig in and bust the tower or rip the cap off.

Lots of drivers remove the droop screws this gains 2-3mm, handy on bumpy tracks when jumping and landing on rough ground.