XX4 with tough belts - use belt rollers or no?

[Top_Billing]

This topic came up in a Facebook group recently and I wanted to run it by you guys here. After some research a while back, I thought the consensus was that you did not need belt rollers when using tough belts. Now I'm coming across some folks who feel strongly otherwise. What's the right way to go?

[pedro]

I personally only ran the tough belts once and I think I ran them too loose and the rear belt was skipping, as we know the original car had them to run the black belts and I think this may have had something to do with running them a bit looser (run time was an issue back then) The new car runs belts that are similar to the tough racing ones but they seem to be run a bit tighter in my opinion. The green belts on the xx4 were probably the most efficient but they would have all fallen to bits by now even if they are new in bag.
So I think you possibly don't need the rollers as long as the belts and pulleys are new and the rear one adjusted properly but I don't think it would hurt to put them in anyway and if you use bearings instead off the bushings/rollers it should all run pretty smoothly anyway.

Also it would depend on what motor you are running I last raced mine about 5 years ago now with a 6.5 in it with no troubles just as long as the slipper is working, it would probably be a good idea to put as much of the 22-4 slipper parts in there as you can to get away from the mixed slipper pads on the old car.

peter

[matt1ptkn]

I've been racing my XX4 on carpet off road with a 13.5 using the tough racing belts and the rollers. I haven't had any issues or slipping (knocks on wood). If the rollers are used, just ensure that they are clean and spin freely.

[Top_Billing]

Also it would depend on what motor you are running I last raced mine about 5 years ago now with a 6.5 in it with no troubles just as long as the slipper is working, it would probably be a good idea to put as much of the 22-4 slipper parts in there as you can to get away from the mixed slipper pads on the old car.

I'm running a 17.5 in it now, but eventually like to move up to a 13.5 as my skills improve.

I had not heard about using the 22-4 slipper upgrade before. Can you provide some more detail? Is it as simple as taking all of the 22-4 parts and adding them to the XX4 slipper shaft? I'm trying to get into racing after a long time away from the hobby and I'd like to bulletproof the buggy as much as possible since I know I'll be crashing a lot until I've had more practice.

[pedro]

If you are running stock I would think the stock slipper would be ok, it's when you run faster motors that you need the slipper to be working and that's when the steel drive plate that sends drive to the rear wheels can get quite warm even hot to the point that the rear slipper pad (dark grey one) seems to stick to the steel drive plate after cooling down heating up etc. This inconsistent slipper seemed to me to be when you snapped belts as the slipper had effectively locked up drive to the rear, keep in mind I was always running the green losi belts that are possibly weaker than the tough ones. The 22-4 has the same slipper pads front and rear and hard coated alloy drive washers that seem to solve this and I think they would fit but I must admit I haven't tried it as when the new car came out I was happy to retire the old fragile one.

peter

[Top_Billing]

Got it. Thanks. What about the bearing blocks? Right now, I'm running the B version with the arrow pointing towards the rear.

[pedro]

Sorry I have no idea about the what tension you would run with the tough belts depends on how used the pullies are also.

[Brent J]

Hi,

Before the 22-4 was released I ran the xx-4 WE with a 6.5T, Tough Belts, without rollers and using the kit slipper. I also used the kit setup for the bearing block positions. Worked perfectly fine. Brushless power was taxing on the diffs (particularly rear) nut was fine if maintained well.