Conference vmszoo::rc

    There was a question in 4.34or 35 from kane::abrams about beefing
    up the front steering of an RC10.Thought I would answer here.
    
    A company called Hot Trick makes front and rear suspension parts
    that basically don't break!Included is a wider front shock mount
    that widens the front suspension about 13/16".The whole smear costs
    about $40.If you don't want to go that route you can keep your 
    front servo saver (I assume you are using the stock one)from 
    continually breaking by tying two tie wraps around it.
    
    As far as suspension adjustments if you are running on a track with
    jumps use the gold springs on the front with some tension on them
    with the spring clamp.On the rear try silver springs with the clamps
    down about 1/2".It should jump and land with the front end slightly
    higher than the rear.
    
    Let me know if it helps.
    
       Reis Ritz

    
    A cheap solution might be adding a better bumper...
    
    I might suggest an OPTIMA or ROCKY bumper, they are very wide and
    protect both front wheels from a frontal impact.  They are very
    lightweight and indestructible and should cost you below five dollars.
    
    While it will not cure your problem, will certainly help a lot since 
    the front wheels won't get 100% of the impact.
    
    Regards,
    Orlando.
    

    
    
    	I just ordered some parts for my RC10 that are suppose to solve
    my breakage problem with the servo/servo arms.  What I ordered is
    a servo saver out of a Super Champ, this servo saver is spring loaded
    which will release on impact and will spring back.  Also the the
    spring tension is adjustable so you can set the release point in
    order to save the servo/servo arm, but not release on a sharp fast
    turn.
    
    	Thanks for the info on the different front end parts, I will
    be looking soon for different thing to beef up the car to make it
    bullet proof.  There are alot of different companys making add on
    parts for the RC10 so anybody with experience with any of the add-on
    parts would be appreciated.
    
    			thanks for the info
    				george
    

    I Would like any ideas on "street tires/wheels" for the RC10.
                                                             
                                                            
    Best source and those that have had the best results using them
    
    on this off road car......any chassis tips on street set-up?


                                                 G Quist
    
    						ELWOOD::QUISTG       	

           Hi my name is Mike and me and my friend Steve started out
    with PRO LINE asfalt tire's, they cost us about 10 dollars apair
    and the're not worth the money.
         
           And then we tried AJ'S compitition sponge tire's and rim's
    the're adaptable for all cars they cost about 20 dollars for the
    rear, and 12 dollars for the front, And they come with the rim's.
           We like these tires for the price and handling, But we had
    to move on to the best asfalt tires,
    
    
           The GRAND PRIX NATIONAL mini mag series tire they are real
    rubber and come with tread or slick type, But they cost about 40
    dollars for the rears and 30 dollars for the fronts, And thats without
    rim's (MINI MAGS), and adapters, The mini mags are about 20, to
    30 dollars apair depending on style, And the adapters are about
    7, to 9 dollars depending on rc cars needs.
    
    
                 P.S. The GRAND PRIX'S have been good for us!
    
           

    I've and my son have been raceing our (i'm pit crew and sponsor)
    RC10 for over a year now. We've suffered many defeats in the feature
    race after blowing everyone off the track in the qualifing heats,
    simplely from inexperience in not knowing how to protect the car.
    "We have since learned", after spending megabucks on the car,some
    parts and tricks to keep the car running and most of all, takeing
    the "BLUE RIBBON".
    	We first bought the 6010 kit for the RC10. Immediately added
    the bearing kit, 360st engine, electronic speed controller. We
    then added a front bumper, a rear bumper,nerf wings,heavy duty
    linkage (front and rear),servo saver,anti-roll bars
    (front/rear),support bearings for better power transistion to rear
    wheels,good set of spiked tires for front/rear,and a sufficent number
    of battery packs so we wouldn't need to quick charge on race day.
    	The reas from a "hacker" and busted the endbell on a 480G motor.
    The heavy duty steering linkage was a result of the stock linkage
    busting loose when we hit the wall/car/marshall. The nerf wings
    keep other cars from rolling up on us, plus they absorb the wall
    hits...not the tires.
    
    					Rick

    
    
    	I would also like to know what the different opinions are for
    tires on the many different surfaces that you can race on.  I have
    seen races on carpet, concrete, asphalt, stone dust, and dirt and
    would like to know what surfaces that you have raced on and what
    you have found as a good tire for that surface.  There are also
    many different tread patterns that are available and would also
    like your recommenations.
    
    			thanks
    			george
    

    
	The top tires in 1/12 road racing (asphalt) are manufactured by
	TRC. There are a couple of other brands just starting to get a
	little more popular. TRC makes around 5 different compounds for
	rears and 4 for fronts. They are available mounted and trued,
	unmounted and trued, or unmounted and untrued. The range of 
	compounds are excellent. Most of the people I race with on asphalt
	use the softest, as our parking lot tends to be on the slick side.

	Our carpet season is short, so most people are just sticking with
	the soft compounds and dealing with too much traction by changing
	their driving style rather than their tires.

	I've tried a variety of sponge tires for 1/10 asphalt racing and
	have found that Parma works the best for me. To the best of my 
	knowledge, they make only one compound but I find that in 1/10
	tires are a lot less critical.

	Last month TRC announced they will start manufacturing 1/10 tires
	in the same mounted/trued variations as 1/12 (wheels for RC10 or
	Tamiya). They will be offering 4 rear and 4 front compounds.

	Chris

    

    
    
    Congratulations, your article on RC10 suspension was very good.
    
    I usually race 4X4 offroad on our local track. The car I race with
    is a Kyosho Optima. I'm interested in details on how to tune suspension
    for purely off-road racing.
                      
    Any hints on offroad Tread pattern for different terrains will help
    a lot.
    
    Thanks,
    Orlando.
    

    In the UK the RC10 retails for around �100-120 (x 10 for Francs)
    depending on model.  If you can get any of the UK Car Magazines
    they list many retialers who will be happy to trade via mail order.
     I have just spoken to my local shop and got the following quote:
    
    RC10 �120
    Body approx �10
    Ball races �39.95
    
    Motor, radio and electrics extra.
    
    I've been racing mine for over 2 years now and prefer it to my
    Schumacher CAT.  One of my sons also drives an RC10 and is converting
    it to belt drive.  See you at the Euro GP?
    
    Rob                               
    
    

    Although this is an old note, we found .0 very helpful when setting
    up my son's RC10 for on-road.  He lost interest in on-road racing
    and has focused on off-road circuits. The same info applies here,
    but the effects may not be as obvious as on-road.
    
    I thought our experiences would be helpful since we dont see much
    written up on exactly what folks use that works for them.
    
    We have experimented all summer with set-up and tires for racing
    at RCPC in W. Bridgewater, as well as a test/practice track in the
    back yard.  In both cases the soil is loose and fine.  It is usually
    wet down prior to use to keep the dust down and add a bit of stickiness
    to the track. There are no spots of standing water.
    
    So far we have settled on 40W shock oil, gold front springs if there
    are jumps - silver if not, silver rear springs and CRP CAT spikes
    all round.  
    
    The tires have indeed been the key.  We first ran the Associated 
    knob/groove tire on the front, and several types of Associated
    rears (knobs, spikes, paddles) where we found the car balanced but
    very loose.  We then switched to some short soft spike from indoor wood 
    floor racing on the rear, but the car pushed too much.   We changed 
    the front to CRP CAT front spikes which caused a serious oversteer.  
    We ran this set-up quite a while, thinking that it was just a matter of 
    learning to drive better and tweeking the sway bars and steering.  I 
    rationalized this, thinking that the rear tire spikes were as long as 
    those run by others, and the tire had 6 rows of spikes which is better 
    than the usual 4.  During this time my son never placed higher than 3rd 
    in a heat and never placed in a main event.  After the second heat
    yesterday at RCPC, and realizing his lap times were going up when
    everyone elses were going down, I decided to try a new set of rear
    tires (the CRP CAT spikes).  He had a 2 lap practice, then led the
    first couple laps of his final heat. I think he should have finished
    second, but the automatic lap counter seemed to have credited at least 
    one car behind him a extra lap around lap 4.  He completed 11 laps
    in the first heat, 10 in the second, and 13 in the third. The handling
    of the car is suddenly very predictable and balanced.
    
    In the main event he placed 1st in the B main stock completing 14 laps.
    He could have completed at least 2 more is he was being pushed (he would
    have been racing in A main if he had started the day with the CRP CAT
    rears).  For reference the A main winner completed 16 laps with a lot
    of stimulation.
    
    This might heve been a great discovery, except we then noticed
    practically everyone there running those same rear tires (funny how
    you never notice a particular model car on the road until you buy
    one?...same thing I guess).
    
    Since the CRP CAT is for a 1.9-2.0 rim, we picked up a set of Pro-line
    2.0 rims to replace the 1.6 associated RC10 rears.  The TQ10 rims
    would have worked as well as many other brands.  We also put Pro-line
    2.0 rims on the front since the 1.9 Associated rims were just a teeny
    bit small in diameter for the front CATS which made them shift a bit on
    the rim.
    
    Walt

    			     -< or soft dirt v2.0 >-
    
    So we dont get bored, and to help unburden those with excess money
    in their pockets, RCPC changed the track for last nites races.
    
    The layout itself isnt why I am writing, although it consisted of
    some very long straights and resembled a distorted oval more than
    the usual off-road circuit.
    
    Last nite it was evident they had added a lot more water than usual
    to the track.  The soil was very heavy and packed easily, although
    it did not ever harden up like a clay surface might.  Being indoors,
    the added moisture did not evaporate thru the evenings races.
    
    The setup on my sons RC-10 of CRP CAT spike tires all round was
    once again oversteering, as were most cars that arrived and practiced.
    Although my son did not have the resources to buy yet another set
    of tires, and chose to live with the steering until a differential
    bearing failure forced retirement, we did investigate what was and
    would have worked well.
    
    Remember this is the same soft soil I talked about in .2, just with
    more water added.
    
    Advice given us and obtained by looking over shoulders indicated that
    the best tire for the rear was probably the Schumaker CAT hard spike,
    which is very like the CRP, but with a stiffer spike. These are some
    stiffer than the CRP CAT spike which is about the same as the medium
    Schumaker compound. With the additional control of the harder tires
    changing the front would not have been necessary, but the deep spikes
    there were probably overkill in the heavier soil, perhaps slowing us
    down. It appeared from the JRX-2's running that a ribbed tire would
    have been fine.  Most drivers were still running spikes on the front 
    but since the JRX-2's were doing better against the RC-10's than usual
    I attributed the extra speed they showed to the lower loss ribbed
    front tires.
    
    Its too bad last night was my son's last race around this area until 
    next summer. This was getting interesting, though expensive for a 
    13 year old.
    
    Walt

    I've got a question conserning the use of BEC in the RC10. Im 
    installing a new radio in my car and would like to try BEC. The
    problem is, all my batteries and charger's have the tamiya plug
    and the directions with the car show the asscociated plug (three
    pin) set up. Acording to the directions with the car, you use the
    black and green wires for six cell packs and the black and red for
    seven cell packs. This set up would be OK if Im only gonna use one
    type pack but what if I want to mix'm up, go back and forth? Should
    I use the set up for the seven cell pack for both uses, will the
    reciever get enough juice if I run a six cell pack with this set up?
    Im using the stock speed control if thats any help in getting an
    answer. Thanks in advance for and help.
    
                                              Jim

    re. .13  BEC on a stock RC10 wire wound speed control
    
    Jim, I can't speak from experience on this particular speed controller,
    but I do have a suggestion: use two battery plugs on the speed
    controller.  Wire one up for 6-cell, the other for 7-cell and label
    them appropriately (or even key them differently and make an adapter
    to use with your charger for whichever packs have the odd plug).
    
    You might find that your receiver has a wide enough input power
    range to work with a 6 or 7 cell pack connected to either pair of
    speed controller battery input leads.  If I were going to try one
    or the other, I'd start with the 7-cell leads and see if a 6-cell
    delivered enough to keep your new receiver happy.
    
    Hope it works smoothly,
    
    Greg