Those of you who race how often do you replace the plastics?

[RC10th]

Those of you who race on a club, regional or national level how often do you replace the plastics? Do you replace them once a season, or buy a new car for the start of a new season? Or do you just run and replace them as needed?

Seems to me like modern cars develop slop quicker than old cars. I put it down to more powerful power systems and stickier rubber stressing the chassis more.

How much slop do you consider to be too much?

[Jay Dub]

Some of the factors you mentioned are at play here, however they are not everything. More to blame than power/traction are cheaper plastics, and looser tolerances -for less hand fitting. For the most part one can assemble a modern car and have the suspension and other systems be free moving out of the box. As for the plastics, most of the manuufacturers have opted for cheaper materials (for obvious reasons) and this means that the durability of the pars/car will suffer. I recently built a B44.1 for a big race locally, and after just one day of practice the rear arms looked like pretzles. Needless to say I was dissapointed. As for as how often you replace the parts? Depends on the car, however I can tell you that the AE factory guy will have a new car for every race day . -Jeff

[THUNDERSTRIKE1]

wobbling of holes and stripped screw holes we just doctored them up at the track or home after the races.I always tore mine apart clean inspect and relube.Unless i did great then used air clean it then.But there are epoxys you can use and glues for fixn wear an tare on anything,you can drill and retap holes after epoxed or super glued.Don

[vwjuice]

I replace arms, front and rear carriers, and arm mounts at the beginning of each season or as needed. One thing I have found is that my T4 FT needed the arms replaced once per season using the Factory Team arms. The T4.2 FT trucks use the rtr arms and they are worn out after two races.

My Hpi Blitz has been running the same arms for two seasons. They are still as tight as they were new, but even new they aren't as close in tolerance as they should be. I don't mind it as much on the Blitz because it's at least consistent.

I read in an interview that Ryan Cav replaces all the suspension plastics arfter every race weekend. That's expensive.

What I have noticed is that AE, Losi, and Kyosho develop slop a lot faster than other brands do. AE and Kyosho are definitely the worst from what I've seen. Losi really doesn't seem to be that bad, but it's still significantly more than Hpi, Team C. etc.

[THUNDERSTRIKE1]

I wonder if can drill the hinge pin holes out since worn anyways and put brass tubes in them to take on the wear factor plus making them live longer.Think thatd be feasable?Don

[vwjuice]

Hmm I have never thought of that nor seen it done. It might be worth a try on some that are worn out and useless.

[RC10th]

I agree 100% on the tolerance fit of new cars. Pre B4/T4 you had to hand fit every suspension piece. The more worn something is the faster it continues to wear.

When we ran the carbon arms slop wasn't too much of an issue, they'd last a season or two. Only the hubs and castor blocks would need replacing. I have 3 track days on my 4.2 and front arms are already at a point where I would normally replace them.

A loose sloppy car (to a point) is a fast car and easier to drive. A car that is too tight can be darty and harder to drive.

[terry.sc]

I wonder if can drill the hinge pin holes out since worn anyways and put brass tubes in them to take on the wear factor plus making them live longer.Think thatd be feasable?Don

Yes, it works. Done it many times with restorations as a 'temporary' measure until I find replacement wishbones/uprights at a reasonable price, I'm not going to pay silly money for suspension parts that are going to be used. Even if the brass tubes aren't a really tight fit in the arms the E clips or wishbone mounts either end will keep everything in place. The hard part used to be finding metric brass tube with a 3mm internal diameter, but it's easier these days now K&S make metric tubes. 1/8" stuff doesn't work, it has way too much play. I

Another trick for worn 3mm pivots is to run a 1/8" reamer through them and replace them with 1/8" diameter pins. A bit hard these days to find a wide range of 1/8" shaft lengths though.

[terry.sc]

I run on road pan car mainly, so the plastics never get replaced unless they break. The only part that wear is T-piece pivot ball mounts, and a quick sand of the mating surfaces removes the play in them. I would guess most of them are over ten years old with almost all original parts.

For touring cars I'm not serious about at all, so I don't shim out every last bit of play and constantly rebuild and adjust it. It means the setup I use works with a bit of play, so it has to wear quite a bit before it makes any difference. Only when a part is worn is when I will replace it, the one thing I won't do is buy a whole load of plastic parts just to have new parts on there.

[kaiser]

i maintain my cars very well (complete cleanings after race days) but i hardly ever replace anything. my first gen factory team b4 got its fist set of new arms this year. those old carbon arms were 8 years old. lol
and they are now backups. i don't know what it is about the og b4's but the materials are better. i wouldn't dream of getting rid of my b4 for a 4.2. i did upgrade to the 8+mm chassis and big bores though.(still run carbon arms)

my 1/8 gets things replaced as i see fit due to wear. my vintage rides get so well cared for they, like my b4, rarely need any new parts.

my carpet cars go years before needing any parts.

i tend to drive very clean, that helps alot.

[RC10th]

My point exactly about carbon arms not wearing, they were a tougher due to carbon fibers mixed in with the plastic. That said they were stiffer and slighty more brittle. Early B4/T4 arms had glass fibers which still resulted in tough components which had good wear properties.

The new plastics seem to have little fiber in them if any, havn't broken one yet to find out. I did notice a lot of wear on the new plastics, the same amount in three race days as I was getting in a full season with the old material.

[Lonestar]

the AE factory guy will have a new car for every race day . -Jeff

Jeff are you serious or you just use this as a metaphor?

[CAT3K]

I must admit that the last AE buggy I ever bought (a late gen B4FT) easily had the worst plastics of any modern car I've driven. Not that the buggy itself was terrible, it was a great handling car, but the slop it developed after only a few race weekends was shocking

Does anyone who owns the latest B4.2 know if the plastics have improved?

Paul.

[jwscab]

I wanna say part of this is due to the fact that the hinge pins got thinner. since the load area changes by a factor of PI(3.14), when you change diameter, you lose a decent percentage of load bearing. couple that with much stronger motors, 1/8 scale-like jumps and blue groove traction, and I would expect slop to occur quite quickly, especially if the composite has changed and has a faster wear factor.

[Lonestar]

I must admit that the last AE buggy I ever bought (a late gen B4FT) easily had the worst plastics of any modern car I've driven. Not that the buggy itself was terrible, it was a great handling car, but the slop it developed after only a few race weekends was shocking

Does anyone who owns the latest B4.2 know if the plastics have improved?

Paul.

I have had a first gen FT B4 and it was super-tidy even after two seasons... then a B4.1 and a B4.1 and the wear rate was shocking

Cost savings...

Paul