weight placement advice on scout car
- Thread starter dan9592
- Start date
That's a good looking start! There is plenty of potential for speed with that chassis...
Are you drilling canted rears? Can you run oil? What type of track are you running on?
It will be easier for everyone to give advice if we better knew the rules you have to build to.
Use the rules as your guide, but you need to learn to read into the things the rules DON'T say.... We can help once we understand the rules!
Are you drilling canted rears? Can you run oil? What type of track are you running on?
It will be easier for everyone to give advice if we better knew the rules you have to build to.
Use the rules as your guide, but you need to learn to read into the things the rules DON'T say.... We can help once we understand the rules!
Oh yeah, you asked about weight placement! Well, if you fit 12 cubes behind the rear axle, and if the car can also take another 12 in front of the rear axle, the COM should take care of itself, at around 3/4" infront of the rear axle.
That would be my goal if I was working with that car, it would be agressive, but I think that wheelbase should be able to manage that.
If you want to be more conservative, add a balsa spacer in front of the axle and aim for a COM 1" in front of the axle...
That would be my goal if I was working with that car, it would be agressive, but I think that wheelbase should be able to manage that.
If you want to be more conservative, add a balsa spacer in front of the axle and aim for a COM 1" in front of the axle...
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Thanks on chassis design. Yes the rears are canted at 3 degrees, running oil, and Aluminum track. The left front is the steer wheel.
It sounds like everyone is making the non steer wheel fixed to the chassis so it cant turn is this true?
How much steer would you put into it? We don't have a test track only my counter top as a makeshift tuning board. Thanks guys in advance!
With a com of 3/4" you should steer it 4" over 4' into the center rail and you should be good. I like the lifted wheel to spin alittle for a scout race. I do this because, if it does spin the check in person may try to spin it or pull it out a little and mess something else up with the car.
The way I am testing my COM is I installed my weight lose with the car flipped upside down on a balance point with wheels and axles in. Right now to get this to balance on at .750 in front of the rear axle I have to move the weight forward. I will post a picture off my phone. The chassis weight with no weight, wheels or tires is about .45 of a oz. If that helps. ThanksWith a com of 3/4" you should steer it 4" over 4' into the center rail and you should be good. I like the lifted wheel to spin alittle for a scout race. I do this because, if it does spin the check in person may try to spin it or pull it out a little and mess something else up with the car.
With a 5-1/8" wheelbase you could be a little more aggressive with your weight placement. Slide some of that weight back towards the rear axle truss and bias the weight towards the DFW side. Try to keep the weight within the weight triangle, this is where the wheels make contact with the track, connect the points and you get a triangle. The car should be fairly stable with this wheelbase and 4" of steer (adjust as needed). IF you can get some practice runs on a track, by all means, take advantage of it. Good luck with the build.
That body is so clean, sharply cut and light! Beautiful job. We never progressed to anything like that. We usually had pieces spliced in where either I or my boy let the Dremel or router get away from us.
Our avatar car ran 5.5" wheelbase, 12 cubes behind, 2 cubes between rear axles, 6 cubes ahead of rear axle then 2 more ahead of those. Putty for the rest and most of that would get pressed to the underside of the rear 12 cubes and between the axles. We then put a little, thin, CA glue over the putty which gives it a hard skin so the putty didn't get smudged on the stop section. It's not so hard that my boy couldn't pick a tiny piece out at the scale for check-in. We ran .62 oz on the DFW which was something like .6725" COM. 3.5" of steer.
Our avatar car ran 5.5" wheelbase, 12 cubes behind, 2 cubes between rear axles, 6 cubes ahead of rear axle then 2 more ahead of those. Putty for the rest and most of that would get pressed to the underside of the rear 12 cubes and between the axles. We then put a little, thin, CA glue over the putty which gives it a hard skin so the putty didn't get smudged on the stop section. It's not so hard that my boy couldn't pick a tiny piece out at the scale for check-in. We ran .62 oz on the DFW which was something like .6725" COM. 3.5" of steer.
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