Body canting

[savageone]

Long time lurker has a question. My son and I have been very successful in our Scout racing careers and we have two more years left to continue to make our cars better. We cant our wheels and some times we cant the body at an opposite angle than we cant the wheels, and some times we leave the body straight to minimize friction between the wheel and the body.

This year we are thinking of angling the body, at the axle locations, at same angle as we cant the wheels. That way if the wheels touch the body the angle of the wheel would not change and the alignment would stay the same. We know this way would give the wheel a bigger contact area on the body, but we were wondering if this way would be better because the canted wheels would always stay at the same angle.

Do the Pro's angle the body of the DFW, or any wheel, to match the cant of the wheel(s)?

 

[5KidsRacing]

On the rears I don’t think it really matter too much…. They shouldn’t hit anyway. Most pros will run washers on the rears and the washers are usually tapered…. Because the axle isn’t centered in the wheel bore the inside hub only hits on one spot on the washer. If the washer were flat then, yes, there would be a larger contact area, because the entire inner hub would contact the washer….. on the rears I don’t think it matters…

On the DFW I think it is better to hit on one spot, not the entire face of the inner hub. Like I said above, most pros run tapered washers which would make the wheel hit on one spot no matter if you angled the body or not…

Soooooo…… if you were making a scout car without washers…. the rears I would leave the body as is and just make a car with a solid alignment… shouldn’t hit anyway. The DFW I would leave the body with no angle so the inside hub hits on the bottom in one spot. I would make that spot hard and slick.

It is a good question…. But I don’t think many people have played with this much…. Probably because most people just throw on a teflon/Delrin washer and call it good….

 

[savageone]

We typically make small 3/8"x3/8" "pads" that stick out from the body 1/8" at each axle location, so no matter what body style my Son choses, there is no way any part of the wheel accept for the hub could hit.

This pad has a coat of epoxy on it that we polish to a super smooth finish that is pretty hard. I know some people use CA or finger nail polish, but the epoxy seems to work ok for us. Like I said some times we change the angle of the (body) pads. I think we'll make them straight this year with a slight convex bump.

Thanks for the reply 5Kids you are a great asset to these boards.

 

[5KidsRacing]

I would make your body narrower by 1/8" a side or put the pads into the body.... I find that sticking the rears out further like that scrubs off speed....

 

[Kinser Racing]

I would make your body narrower by 1/8" a side or put the pads into the body.... I find that sticking the rears out further like that scrubs off speed....

Ya, it kind of acts like a parachute so to speak. /images/boards/smilies/smile.gif

 

[savageone]

I would make your body narrower by 1/8" a side or put the pads into the body.... I find that sticking the rears out further like that scrubs off speed....

That's exactly how we do the rears and the NDFW. I described it wrong in the first post. We make the pad 3/16" deep on the DFW side, then shave 1/16" off of it, to give the appearance that the car is not narrowed in the front.

 

[davet]

On the rears I don’t think it really matter too much…. They shouldn’t hit anyway. Most pros will run washers on the rears and the washers are usually tapered…. Because the axle isn’t centered in the wheel bore the inside hub only hits on one spot on the washer. If the washer were flat then, yes, there would be a larger contact area, because the entire inner hub would contact the washer….. on the rears I don’t think it matters…

On the DFW I think it is better to hit on one spot, not the entire face of the inner hub. Like I said above, most pros run tapered washers which would make the wheel hit on one spot no matter if you angled the body or not…

Soooooo…… if you were making a scout car without washers…. the rears I would leave the body as is and just make a car with a solid alignment… shouldn’t hit anyway. The DFW I would leave the body with no angle so the inside hub hits on the bottom in one spot. I would make that spot hard and slick.

It is a good question…. But I don’t think many people have played with this much…. Probably because most people just throw on a teflon/Delrin washer and call it good….

Which way do the tapered washers get installed? Are they tapered opposite the cant or so the wheel rides flush to the washer?

 

[5KidsRacing]

No, tapered side goes towards the wheel.... the hub contacts the washer in one spot not flush. The wheel bore rides flush on the axle keeping it in this location.

 

[davet]

With canted wheels and tapered washers the wheel hub is contacting the washer at roughly 6 degrees then?

 

[5KidsRacing]

yes