mad monkey carbon rear tower [Archive]

gordy

02-10-2011, 03:01 PM

Hi is there currently a carbon fibre rear shock tower available for the mad monkey? And if not, is there enough interest for me to get Full Option racing to start producing one?

daz

02-10-2011, 03:38 PM

If its carbon fibre then will it be flat? I ask this cos ive just made one out of alloy as a bit of a experiment. Problem I had was when it was bolted to the back of the mount, I had to place the shocks on the other side of the tower. And this made the shocks catch on the turnbuckles, tried to space them out on the wishbone and gave to much of a angle, also the wing mounts would be set really far back.

I also modified it to fit to the front of its mount, looked a bit better, but had to butcher it to make fit and couldnt be arsed to make another, so didnt really get the final verdict on it.

If you do design one, could you incorparate the camber links and add a few more holes so the camber links can be made shorter.

ConceptRacing

03-10-2011, 01:16 PM

lordnikon

03-10-2011, 01:54 PM

Sure TCModels do one already ???

http://www.tcmodels.net/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=71&category_id=49&page=shop.browse&limit=20&limitstart=20

gordy

03-10-2011, 02:42 PM

ok ill look in to getting some made.it will probably be billet and carbon combo.
i think the ones tc do are for the rat and truck looking at the part numbers. is everyone's towers braking in the same place?,

ConceptRacing

03-10-2011, 03:08 PM

Mine seem to break on the ear parts of the tower, ie the peices of plastic that form the part where you would fit the shock mount.

gordy

03-10-2011, 03:25 PM

i could do with every one that's broke one to tell me where it broke.if they all brake in the sane place then maybe we can make a carbon brace instead of a hole shock tower it would. certainly be cheaper

ConceptRacing

03-10-2011, 04:06 PM

Your more than welcome to have the one thats on the car at the moment, its cracked rather than actually broken.

RogerM

03-10-2011, 04:20 PM

I've already got the drawings gordy ;)

Speak to me on Friday!!

VintageRacer

03-10-2011, 05:12 PM

This is where my son seems to keep breaking his. I did wonder if a horizontal brace across the top would help.

stumpiey

03-10-2011, 05:43 PM

yep, thats where iv broken them, did 2 in one night, i now carry 4 spares plus one that iv filled the gap in with araldite:D

MrMagoo

03-10-2011, 06:37 PM

http://www.tcmodels.net/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=370&category_id=49&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=71

Looks like what you need. Annoyed I didn't spot it when I did my last order from them... only hop-up my X2C is missing now.

VintageRacer

03-10-2011, 07:03 PM

Gone Elvis

03-10-2011, 07:55 PM

This is where my son seems to keep breaking his. I did wonder if a horizontal brace across the top would help.

That's where mine went as well:thumbdown:

Tom3012

03-10-2011, 07:58 PM

As mentioned, that carbon tower will not fit the x2c or mad monkey, its is for the x2 and madrat, the four mounting holes are in different places...

Ive got a carbon tower on my x2c which i custom made, im going to re-design it and potentially sell if theres enough interest, but when i made the first one i had no interest...

Got a few other option parts in the pipeline too, watch this space ;)

MrMagoo

03-10-2011, 08:02 PM

Doh... should have known that as I have one on the back of my X-Pro!

budgio

03-10-2011, 08:07 PM

Tom
If you are going to make any more put me down for one please.
;)

ConceptRacing

04-10-2011, 10:19 AM

Its the one item that puts me off running this car much, cant really keep loads of towers as spares, never need to change the tower on the Rat, if anyone can release a better version that would really good and give me reason to run the car more often.

RogerM

04-10-2011, 11:40 AM

I will speak to Mr "Full Option Racing" next time I see him (Friday) and wil pass him the info I collected. I am sure he will be able to come up with something for you guys.

Robbiejuk

04-10-2011, 12:02 PM

considering I broke 2 yesterday at Broxtowe, yeah I would love to see a carbon version but not a flat one, if it could be shaped to retain the original shape that would be cool, I know a couple of people are using a perspex flat version, but I would prefer to keep the standard shape to save any messing about with shocks and camber links.

There isn't any messing about with camberlinks or shocks, You just need to mount the shock tower on the opposite side of the bulkhead :thumbsup:

Cross brace would be a good idea though then you don't need to find some way of stiffening up the back end. :)

ConceptRacing

04-10-2011, 12:05 PM

Sorry Robbie, I know you have been running your perspex version for awhile and dont have any problems with it, if there is no messing about with shocks and camber links then maybe a carbon version of yours would seem to be the answer, something needs to be resolved to stop this part breaking.

Robbiejuk

04-10-2011, 12:18 PM

Only problem with mine is that it makes the back end flexible as there is no way of mounting it to the gearbox. So you either need to make a block like tom has, or my soloution which is to make a block to fit bewteen the gearbox and the bulkhead and then drill some holes into the bulkhead to secure it all together with bolts. My solution only really works on the plastic rear bulkhead unless you are man enough to drill the alloy one :D

I say tom's the man for the new shock tower. I meant to come and have a butchers at your car at southport how does that block attach to the gearbox tom?

Pictures of toms shocktower can be found here...

http://www.oople.com/forums/showpost.php?p=478982&postcount=4

daz

04-10-2011, 02:14 PM

Am I the only one who hasnt broken one yet? Had car for 5 months now with no breakages at all. :thumbsup:

(Now ive said this, I have ordered 2 spare ones just in case, lol)

Robbiejuk

04-10-2011, 04:12 PM

Your obviously not driving hard enough Daz!! :D Spank that monkey! Guarantee the next time you drive it you will flip it and the whole wing mounting section will pull out now you have said that.

I never broke a shocktower on the X2, but I did one on the x2c second time I drove it. Came short on a ramp and it flipped the back end over, dug into the ground and snapped a corner off. Same meeting Andy Pearson (who had lent me his spare shocktower) did a similar sort of thing and the whole wing mounting section ripped out leavign a perfect square.

I personally think the sweep in it makes it prone to breakages.

Tom3012

06-10-2011, 10:01 AM

This is the tower im running at the moment and have been since febuary...

Currently a 3 part tower, 2 carbon halves and an aluminium mount to screw into the gearbox... Im going to redesign it so the tower is all one piece and the aluminium mount is smaller and looks nicer but you get the idea!

Anyone interested?

Tom

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/3572/picture102t.th.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/12/picture102t.jpg/) http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/641/picture103cx.th.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/850/picture103cx.jpg/)

stumpiey

06-10-2011, 06:44 PM

looks very good:thumbsup:

ConceptRacing

06-10-2011, 07:13 PM

I would be interested if it saves breaking my towers, might enjoy using it a bit more rather than worrying if the next time i crash and land upside down it isnt going to break.

Tom3012

06-10-2011, 07:16 PM

As i say, used it pretty much every week since feb and not had a problem with it :thumbsup:

gordy

06-10-2011, 10:36 PM

i think full option will do something similar to that but it will be all cnc machined and anodized

Tom3012

07-10-2011, 12:52 PM

The carbon was done by fibre lyte, the aluminium was just a rough part made for testing... Ill be changing this shortly to make it look 'pretty' :blush:

colmo

07-10-2011, 02:47 PM

Currently a 3 part tower, 2 carbon halves and an aluminium mount to screw into the gearbox...

Leaving the tower as 3 piece leaves the option of replacing only one half at a time, and those halves would be identical anyway, so can be cut from smaller CF sheets - not sure if it would work out cheaper or more expensive, though.

jim76

07-10-2011, 03:25 PM

Should be cheaper if they use less material and one pair would cover 2 crashes, so you would get double the life from"one"shock tower

gordy

07-10-2011, 10:50 PM

Dave at Full Option Racing has now got my car, and is going to do the prototype tower this week. Hopefully there will be some pics up soon.

Tom3012

08-10-2011, 01:47 PM

Leaving the tower as 3 piece leaves the option of replacing only one half at a time, and those halves would be identical anyway, so can be cut from smaller CF sheets - not sure if it would work out cheaper or more expensive, though.

That was the idea, but nobody seemed to like it beig two seperate parts... The tower as it is was £18 from fibre lyte in 4mm carbon, the aluminium cost me about £5 off the net... Getting the aluminium block milled will bump the price up a little so finished product would be around the £30 mark, which is a lot of money considering the initial cost of the car, however if people are interested i will get some more made up...?

daz

09-10-2011, 08:35 AM

LongRat

09-10-2011, 06:33 PM

Dave at Full Option Racing has now got my car, and is going to do the prototype tower this week. Hopefully there will be some pics up soon.

I posted a new thread about this to avoid burying it. They will be £27.50 complete, shipped with all necessary hardware included. Daz, I guess you won't be needing one!