Page 1 of 2

Can someone explain to me how to jump properly?

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 5:21 pm
by RC104ever
What I mean is, what is the proper technique when you are trying to jump your car over a hump? I've been experimenting just on my driveway and hitting the grass (has a slight incline), and a few times I got it right and the car sailed over the bump, nice and flat and landed perfectly. But most of the time, it will go nose into the ground, then flip over, sometimes a lot.

My understanding was that you have to give it some gas just before or just as it hits the bump, is that right?

Diagrams / pics are always helpful too!

Thanks - I think this is why I'm not yet ready to go racing.

Re: Can someone explain to me how to jump properly?

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:27 pm
by SoloGraphix
Gas while in flight brings the rear down (or nose up depends on perspective), brakes while in flight brings the rear up (or nose down).

Re: Can someone explain to me how to jump properly?

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:50 pm
by RC104ever
So are you saying that when I hit a jump I should just stay on the throttle the whole time?

Re: Can someone explain to me how to jump properly?

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:08 pm
by slapshot1979
No not exactly.
Its something to be perfected by doing not reading but we'll try anyways.
No 2 cars will jump exaclty the same way. shock set-up, weight distubution, etc etc all play a part in take off, flight and landing.
What the last poster was saying is that with the power available now when the car is in flight you should have some control over the cars angle as you approch the landing area, if car is in the air and you notice its nosediving increased throttle will make the nose come up and if front of car is high tapping the brakes will bring the front down. now this is all trial and error stuff. Jamming the brakes on in the air will more than likley send you out of control flight. Watch some youtube videos of offroad races you will see how they control car in the air.
As for taking a jump, this also has many factors and no 1 anwser sovles all.
I typically will start off with a nice transition jump as fast as you care to hit it but squeezing a bit more just as your car has all 4 tires on the face. Then start adjusting from there.

Re: Can someone explain to me how to jump properly?

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 10:12 pm
by farmer
well i cant do the diagram thing, but i can give you a few pointers. first a hump style of jump (a jump that really does not have any discerning lip ) is kinda a harder jump to hit with out the rear end coming over just due to the nature of the design of the jump ,its kinda like hitting a speed bump, what happens as your front end is going over the hump the front end compresses for a second than rebounds and proceeds to go over the hump, than the rear hits compresses than rebound rite at the point that the front end is following the apex ( <-sp?) of the hump since the is no lip on a hump there is really no true launch point, yes you can still get air and still jump it,but it would be more discribed as a hop. as far as the getting on and off the gas before the face of the jump that would be called preloading the shocks. On some jumps that works and on some jumps it doesnt ,preloading on a hump style of jump should be of a help if the front wheels were already up the face of the and rebounded already to get the front end to float over the top and power through the rest like almost pulling a wheelie,if you ever watch moto supercross when they come up to a whoop section they useually get the front wheel up and just try to power over the tops of the whoops (humps) also more into perspective imagine a half circle and you where a micro lil man and you and you where runing over the top of the circle , you will fallow the trajectory of the apex of the circle, but if you had a triangle and you ran up ,well you get the picture ,well i hope that helped some things ae ment to jump and some things are ment to be hopped over. Preloading the shocks adds a lil more launch off the top do to the rebound of the chassis moving upwards in a verticle trajectory

Re: Can someone explain to me how to jump properly?

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 9:20 am
by ireg
maybe you can get something from this :D
[youtube]T_OIm0NsRrY&feature[/youtube]

Re: Can someone explain to me how to jump properly?

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 9:28 am
by Lonestar
slapshot1979 wrote:Its something to be perfected by doing not reading
voila :)

Just for the record... practicing on "not real" jumps is a recipe for disaster. If you want to learn proper jumping techniques, you'd better practice at the track where jumps are designed for our little cars :)

The throttle vs. nose thing in the air is kindof obvious in the end, the tricky part is getting the right speed/air combo... practice makes perfect but really one of the key principles is to never be full throttle while on the jump's face unless the face's length is many times that of the car , but to get the right amount of speed BEFORE the jump and then let it go :)

Paul

Re: Can someone explain to me how to jump properly?

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 2:50 pm
by RC104ever
Thanks guys. I wanted to go to my local track but I'm a bit nervous as they say you. Have Marshall one race after, not sure about practices though. I guess i'm nervous just cause I don't know what to expect.

Re: Can someone explain to me how to jump properly?

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 3:10 pm
by jwscab
go that way....really fast. If something gets in your way...TURN!!


hhahhah, sorry....only thing I can say is practice practice. these guys have given some good pointers. But in general, hard throttle just as you hit the jump base, throttle back lightly before you hit air, and then attitude adjustments while in the air. more throttle nose up, less throttle nose down. How hard you get on the throttle before the jump is determined by how far you need to go to clear the jump.

Re: Can someone explain to me how to jump properly?

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 4:20 pm
by SledgeHammer
yah, if you don't practice jumping you tend to brake alot of parts trust me a rc10 rly dosent like nose diving....

Re: Can someone explain to me how to jump properly?

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 7:55 pm
by slapshot1979
Being new at track day is tough but remember everyone was new "once" . there are always Great people at every track (and some knobs) but it is for fun.

Re: Can someone explain to me how to jump properly?

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 9:50 pm
by Orange
For that particular jump... Go balls fast towards the jump, right before the incline, let off throttle then right back on throttle on incline... Simple. Does that make sense?

And when you go to the track and your car starts going ass over, then use the same technique. Sometimes on jumps you can go 1/2 to 3/4 throttle towards the jump and then punch it on the face of the jump.

Re: Can someone explain to me how to jump properly?

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 3:33 am
by Nemer
I've never been a huge fan of jumps, but reading this thread actually made me realise that I've been jumping "wrong" all along!

Never really gave much thought to the physics of it (and still didn't, lol) but atleast now I know how it should be done. Thank you guys :D

Re: Can someone explain to me how to jump properly?

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:42 am
by RC104ever
Thanks guys, appreciate all the input!

Re: Can someone explain to me how to jump properly?

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 10:10 am
by flipwils11
I went out last night and messed with this on a jump I set up. The car is my new (expensive and heavy for bashing, but oh well, it's fun as hell) RC8Be. Lo and behold, it really worked, but working on the timing and getting less abrupt with my mid-air adjustments is a to-do for me.

But sure enough, I could usually launch the car nose high and then at the last minute apply some brake and get it to land on all four.

It's pretty cool to see that it really works!