could this work?
 

I had a strange idea this summer... could you build a 1/10 off road buggy/truck without shocks? Instead you could have turnbuckles to set the ride height. If it works it could be the ultimate indoor weapon. I am in no position to do it, but one of you could attempt it!

No, without shocks then every time you land a jump either the towers or arms will snap, also stiff suspension isn't the best for carpet, I always ran 30-35 wt oil when I raced in carpet

What a stupid idea

??????
 

Even Touring Cars have shocks. one little bump, anywhere and the car would bounce all over the place....
Bad Idea.....

May be you can try with little shoks ( touring ) and adjust them to work

But yes, you NEED shoks

There´s no stupid ideas men...:yawn:

Mardave minis used to have no suspension at all.
(Still may do)

they have got a grp chassis with slots cut into it for chassis flex.
Front and rear axles bolted directly to the chassis.

Fun to drive !!!!

A standard buggy with turnbuckles instead of shocks - no, can’t see it working at all for reasons quoted above.

However, if the indoor track was fairly smooth with no big jumps you might get away without shocks if you introduced some other type of suspension and damping. I can’t personally think of anything that is going to work as well as a shock but it does not mean it is not out there – just have to question why you would want to get rid of something that works well.

There are instances of successful cars that were a bit more radical and different from the accepted norm though. Back in the day of rough riders, holiday buggies and kyosho scorpions, there was a Bolink Digger buggy (think it was run by some of the early Schumacher team drivers but I might be making that bit up) which had a fibre-glass chassis, solid rear axle and limited suspension – almost a pan car with buggy wheels. On the smoother tracks it was a real winner right up to National level as it was a lot lighter and more efficient than the opposition. Mate had one and he used to dominate locally when we ran on smooth tracks until we moved to a much rougher club track and his Dad spent ages trying to improve the suspension which usually ended up weakening it and he would go home with a car in two bits when the rear pod fell off!! Don’t think a solid axle would be legal now and lack of power is not really an issue so advantage would not be there.

Good to see people thinking outside the box, though.

Rob

you would be able to make 1 but would be in a class of its own. but and the big but is you would want to use inflatable tyres which will be impossible to get for 1/10th scale you would have to make them somehow.it will act as a sort of suspension but more of an absorber and will handle like nothing ever made before more then likely.

me and my brother had a go of some devil karts in les gets france basicly a buggy with inflatable tyres but no suspension was absolutely crazy at speed!

google image of 1
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...59oXq-0rBihc0Q

absolutely insane! but that in rc will be so much fun if you make it strong enough

Thanks for the comments... it has got me thinking, what strange damping solution could you come up with? I need some inspiration!!!

Its not just damping you wouldn't have, you wouldn't have camber change, roll centres and allsorts of things that you require!

Come up with form of trailing axle or something if you want a project related to suspension..

If you are looking to reduce your Suspension Travel then I suppose you should do these sorts of tests in steps :lol: I think the main benefits would be less suspension travel with a stiffer setup and a lower CoG? If you try it, perhaps you could look at fitting touring car shocks or front buggy shocks on the back and touring car shocks on the front? That way you can test the concept that removing some of the 'buggyness' on the car you could make it quicker.

If you really, REALLY, want to try a suspension-less car on a buggy track, get the old Mardave on the carpet and give it a shot :lol:

abit off topic but are the person i met at oulton park talking about this idea? (i was on the rc car stand with the sc10 and the hpi blitz)

In the very early days there were quite a few that didn't have effective suspension with over hard springing and no real damping, and relied mainly on the tyre flex as suspension. The difference between then and now though is that now we have low profile tyres that need foam inserts to support them instead of the firmer semi pneumatic tyres we had to act as suspension back then, and we weren't trying to jump our cars six feet into the air on the tracks back then either.

Off topic reply... yes it was me at oulton park.

Fit it with torsion bars

Peugeot and citroen used them for years on the rear and my mercedes sprinter 4x4 has them on the front

lots of full scale 4x4 vehicles use torsion bars in the front as the axles go right through what would be the spring and shock on the 2wd counterpart, and the torsion bars go behind that. I can see that working if done right on an rc car

If you locked an anti roll bar that would possibly be the easiest way to try torsion bars

Not sure about shocks, would maybe allow you to re locate them to give a lower centre of gravity and decrease wind resistance.

Well, the project could be back on - I have a complete-ish donor truck, and there are two ways I could attempt this. First is the great torsion bar idea (I really really do like it!), and the second has been done but it's quite fun - one horizontal shock each end like on a tamiya hotshot. Ironically, the only bits missing from my donor car are the shocks.

i reckon you will need to make some sort of drop link and mount the torsion bar where the shock tower would be

people say a picture paints a 1000 words but mine are literally crap

hope you get the idea tho