Strenghten rear shock tower

[mace]

any ideas of getting the the rear shock tower more resistent, I detroyed 4 of them last weekend:cry:

Greets

[i4n]

What car?

[mace]

oops, AC CR2

Greets

[Cooper]

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6J6Viu0M2HQ/S_LwbEWknGI/AAAAAAAANHY/5hqiQCxan4g/s720/IMG_2125.jpg

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6J6Viu0M2HQ/S_LwbwvsliI/AAAAAAAANHg/fc-ksUtUIGo/s720/IMG_2126.jpg

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6J6Viu0M2HQ/S_Lwcv8ibwI/AAAAAAAANHo/iJtRUfze578/s720/IMG_2127.jpg

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6J6Viu0M2HQ/S_LwdiiDs4I/AAAAAAAANHw/WzM_d0-Miqg/s720/IMG_2129.jpg



flipside tried to fix his one 4times on a race in germany lol

[OldTimer]

Got to be honest i have never broken one, were are you breaking them ?

[DaSloth]

I've broken a few now, but mainly through bad driving. doesn't bother me too much as they dont cost much!

the way i see it is that if you strengthen that part, something else will break so may aswell the leave the weak link the chain as the cheap part!

One thing i have noticed though is it normally happens either off a bad jump or if something around the rear transmission case is loose

[GRIFF55]

In two years of running the car, i, yes me!!! have only ever broken one:woot:, and that finished the race. really awkward landing on the rear of the car at tally. Where are you breaking yours?

[Rebelrc]

Why would a cheese slice make it stronger?:confused::thumbsup:

[flipside]

Hehe you have to be creative if you want to continue racing :) So cheese it was! (EA3 is also cheese btw)

Mine also broke from landing upside down from a jump.

But, I didn't have the rear pivot brace installed behind the tower, which seems to help for strength also! Also mount a longer screw in the tower so it doesn't get ripped out during a crash.

[Cooper]

but you did the very first time it broke, you had to drop it because otherwise the cheese wouldn't fit.

first time was bad luck I guess, after that it was already broken so it was cheesy chees.

[flipside]

No I used a very thin brace bacause i was running the alu pivot block and the std brace doesn't fit. So that didn't help much for strength.

Plus I had been dremeling the hole where the very long horizintal screw goes through, which made the tower prone to some movement, so that made it even weaker (small rotation allowed around that long screw, so the bottom shocktower screw could rip out easier)

[mace]

"Got to be honest i have never broken one, were are you breaking them ?"

in Langenfeld with some bad driving, here some pics

http://s345.photobucket.com/albums/p393/deadline2222/AMC%20Langenfeld%20Clubrennen%20Juli/?albumview=slideshow

[flipside]

Haha langenfeld and losi towers don't match, my problems were also on that track :thumbsup:

[crashingbird]

time for some upgrade carbon towers, don't you think ?

...or even better : a chassis with a slightly longer rear with vertical mounting positions for the shocktower, all problems solved then :rolleyes:

[mace]

something like the B44 front tower would be nice on the rear end and a stiffner for the rear end like the 1/8 ones

:thumbsup:I hope AC surprises me!:thumbsup:

[flipside]

Mwah no need for extra parts if two out of so many break a shocktower... I trashed dozens of front B4 wishbones and never heard anyone asking for reinforced ones :)

[rcjunky]

The AC CR2 needs something like this

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv323/rcjunky1/LMXrear.jpg

too bad PSI Racing beat you to it with the LMX, its a very similar car to the CR2 with the extra gear that is adjustable for differant spur gear but it uses the prefered stick packs (at least here, no one uses saddles in anything but 4wd buggy) and costs far less, for a brand new CR2 kit, it will cost me about $350ca, the LMX costed me $130 but its G10 (fiberglass) instead of carbon fiber, but judging by the set ups I've seen posted I think it handles better, you need to be crazy to run the narrow rear pivot in the back of a LMX, you'll have way more steering then you can ever get rid of. Sorry for smaking the CR2, its just not viable for me, sounds like its a good car

[The Hoff]

Looks like the LMX is for bashers and the CR2 is for racers. Even X factory are going away from the stick pack across the chassis and now making a saddle pack chassis for the X6.

True the LMX is a good price, but i have not seen it win any big meetings unlike the CR2 :)

[Lee Martin]

surely if the towers breaking at the point shown in pictures its not the mounting position that is its flaw?

[Nick]

Problem is if you land on the back tower it pushes it forward pivoting on the gearbox screw causing the bottom half of the tower to flex as this is the weakest point! Which was never a problem on the original Cr due to the extra 2 mounting points? Best way I found to fix the problem is to brace the top of the tower to the gearbox stopping if flexing if you do bin it over a large jump!

[Cooper]

surely if the towers breaking at the point shown in pictures its not the mounting position that is its flaw?

Yeah but it was also breaking at the bottom of the tower.

[Lee Martin]

aha, ok! ;)

[GRIFF55]

you animal!!! i've only ever broke it like wouters. still fin the race as the tower to gearbox screw held it tight:thumbsup:

[rcjunky]

Looks like the LMX is for bashers and the CR2 is for racers. Even X factory are going away from the stick pack across the chassis and now making a saddle pack chassis for the X6.

True the LMX is a good price, but i have not seen it win any big meetings unlike the CR2 :)

I don't think it has because its been available for like 2 months and its a 1 guy show who makes them (far less then 100 made). I wouldn't be surprised in there is a saddle car in the futur. Some of you UK guys should come over to the states and compare them side by side :woot:

[Northy]

I don't think it has because its been available for like 2 months and its a 1 guy show who makes them (far less then 100 made). I wouldn't be surprised in there is a saddle car in the futur. Some of you UK guys should come over to the states and compare them side by side :woot:

Ok, so lets go over a few of the points you made.....

"it has because its been available for like 2 months" - How long is "like 2 months" exactly...? Is it 2 months, 3 months, 2 years, 3 million years?

"its a 1 guy show who makes them" - So is AC, JC is the man behind it all.

"I wouldn't be surprised in there is a saddle car in the futur." - But you said it is already designed around the "preferred" stick packs? :bored:


Its an AC rip off with some changes, that's all.

G

[Wacker 2]

Ok, so lets go over a few of the points you made.....

"it has because its been available for like 2 months" - How long is "like 2 months" exactly...? Is it 2 months, 3 months, 2 years, 3 million years?

"its a 1 guy show who makes them" - So is AC, JC is the man behind it all.

"I wouldn't be surprised in there is a saddle car in the futur." - But you said it is already designed around the "preferred" stick packs? :bored:


Its an AC rip off with some changes, that's all.

G


Here, here!

[rcjunky]

I'll go from the bottom up. Its in no way a AC rip off. Nothing between the 2 is the same exept it uses the xxx-nt front plate. There is no cf on the car due to the cost and the rigidity, we run 99% dirt here so the chassis needs to flex, but my car still weighs under 1550g's ready to run. This car is uses a main chassis and an upper deck with standoffs to seperate the two, the upper deck is about half the thickness. The motor plate is made of 3mm aluminum with a cam gear system so you can run any losi spur gear on it to get your desired FDR. The car has integrated servo mounts so you can remove the 2 top screws to give the chassis more flex for more grip in lower traction conditions. It also has a proper gear cover unlike the AC kit which on dirt it makes a big differance. The biggest thing that the AC kit doesn't have is its 100% bolt on, you don't need to by other parts from other companies (why would you run AE parts on a losi again?) The CR2 is as much of a rip off of the X6 as the LMX is of the CR2. More info can be found here

http://cgi.ebay.ca/PSI-Racing-LMX-Buggy-conversion-Losi-XXX-CR-buggy-/330453111980?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Radio_Control_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4cf08a54ac

Here in North Amarica almost everyone runs stick packs. But like everything times are changing and with other cars recently comming out with the saddle pack layout for high grip situations there might be a saddle version to please the carpet/turf guy around the world.

Chad (the guy who makes the kits) is limited by a few factor on how fast he can build kits, one of them is getting parts from Horrizon hobby and getting material (not to mension him using a 24"x12" cnc only can do so much so fast) , that along with the rest of his busy life including designing more cars, he has sprint cars, kits for the AE line of cars, on top of making 4 differant kits and another 2 in the final stages before production. He's a very busy man. Here's a pic of the jc relux inspired front wheels for the losi (those are relux wheels on the back)

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv323/rcjunky1/loluxwheels.jpg

I got the first kit and mine arrived around May 10th, so less then 2 1/2 months

We're a little off topic, but you started it :p I was showing a solution :woot:

[The Hoff]

Is this the PSI forum or the Atomic Carbon forum ? if you want to push the lmx why not start a thread in the "General Car Talk" forum.

I think the cr2 proto made the b final at the oz national the very 1st time it was raced, this is possibly the most competitive race series in Europe. And has gone onto win several of these meetings. I think that says it all really.

I don't think you know Atomic Carbon's history, they have been making mid motor cars for years. So i really don't think the CR2 is a x6 rip off rofl.

[Belsten]

still a rip off

and the solution is to stop crashing

[flipside]

Hehe funny thread :)

Both cars are no rip off. The psi has some good ideas in it, like the idler mount thingie. No need to compare the two cars to see which one is better. Just race whatever you like (but I prefer AC of course :))

But the thread was about the shocktower, and imho it doesn't break more than on ony other 1/10th offroad car. if you land upside down, with the tower touching the ground first, there is a fair chance of breaking it. Depends on the surface a lot, for example mine broke on very soft astro, which in fact is worse than hard clay, as it hooks in it and snaps immediatly.

I didn't have a spare one, so tried to fix it quickly with glue and anything I could find. Of course it snapped again, so fixed it better with some epoxy. Then it snapped somewhere else (where I drilled a small hole). Fixed again with carbon parts, snapped at the bottom, fixed again, etc... Pretty normal if you don't have any good tools and materials to fix it :)

Didn't break the shocktower since then, and did a lot of races on difficult tracks (robin hood, eden park, ...).

If anything is weak on the losi car it's the front arms, not the rear shocktower!

[GRIFF55]

Agreed there wouter!!! And yes , the car did make the b on its first proto outing, then later progressed to the A in the same guise!:thumbsup:
Psi looks good, but the cr2 is the bollo##:thumbsup:

[Chris Doughty]

I think its roots can be traced back 4 years...

http://www.oople.com/rc/photos/midlosi/

[rcjunky]

just out of curiosity, why hasn't AC made a cf rear tower to match there front tower and chassis, keep the tower flat with some cnc mounts for the front of the tower to attach to the tranny, and another block on the bottom to attach it to the chassis? Having a big solide tower like the x6 could probably fix the issue. I agree withh flipside that the rear tower isn't the weak spot, I've never seen one break, but the front arms brake much easyer

[flipside]

Cause there isn't really an issue with the rear tower, and all these extra custom parts would make the kit more expensive.

[OldTimer]

I don't see the rear tower as being a weak part, yes i could come up with something but then you will be breaking a £15-£20 carbon fibre tower instead of a £4 losi tower.