DWF cant and steering setup help?

[Bullet]

Hi all,

Was looking for some guidance on cant for the DFW...

The last couple years I've been running the DFW cant the same as direction as the rear wheels using John's bent axle. Last year I had one of my son's cars fly off the track at the council race. Needless to say, he was very disappointed. The car was then out of tune and never ran well for the next three runs...he was out.
Our pack race is on a smooth aluminum track and the council is on an old wood track. Thinking that with the cant same as rear, its running on the top of the inside guide rail rather than the bottom and it may be more misaligned at the joints causing the car to jump the track.
I understand most guys do a reverse cant on the front where the wheel rides on the body, therefore, the wheel contact is at the bottom of the rail where it may be more smooth at the joints? I tried to set it up this way for this year and it does not run near as smoothly. it seems to run on the ridges of the outside edge of the wheel and sounds terrible. Since its good to keep the wheels clean on the outside to run smoothly thought this was a bad deal. So which way do you suggest I set up the cant on the DFW?? Don't worry about it? Fixes?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Bullet]

One other important note, the DFW had good sized nicks out of the inside edge after inspecting it, not sure which track it was from though.

 

[Obsessedderbydad]

If it's running on the detailed bumps when running a positive cant on the DFW just decrease your axle bend

 

[Bullet]

thanks! I guess the correct term I was trying to use is the camber, just so I understand correctly I've been running a negative camber DFW in the past and was going to try the positive camber this year since it sounds like the way to go. Was hoping I could avoid the bumps at joints. Its just not as smooth sounding during roll tests. Is this the downside of running negative camber, or are there other reasons the positive is better. I also saw somewhere not to sand the ridges off the outside edge. The reduced bend would change running on the ridges as you suggested.

 

[Kinser Racing]

I would swap the DFW and the lifted wheel. Run it at the opposite can't as the rears. It may sound different to you but it is much faster and will guide the wheel past rough joints, due to the angle and radius of the wheel. It should sound like a little turbo charger due to the wheel ridges.

 

[Rocket car]

For a scout race your FDW should ride on the bumps. That is the fastest way. Yes it sounds bad. There is no way around it unless you cut them off. Which in scout races is usually illegal.

 

[Bullet]

Ahh, that's what I was wondering, if the sound of the ridges was bad or not. Seems to go against the whole smooth running, clean wheels, etc thing.

Sounds to me like leave it as is, run the positive camber DFW and don't worry bout the rough sounding roll test due to the ridges?

 

[Kinser Racing]

Yes. I'd swap the wheels around though and get those nicks off of your DFW. They'll slow you down considerably.

 

[Bullet]

Thanks all! Will give it a try. I will get few test runs before we race so I can compare to last years cars. Last year they were running between 2.49 ad 2.51, we must have had a shorter aluminum Best track than you guys run on. Maybe the variance in times was how many joints it hit. lol

 

[down4derby]

One thing I do is spin the dfw ridges against a sanding pad to knock them down a little. It's good for a couple thousands in my experience.

 

[Bullet]

Sounds good, will touch them up a little bit. Thx