Tag Archives: SC10

Radio Control, RC Trucks

MooOOoooOOOoOoooo – The Milk Man Delivers!

Leave a comment

Oh yeah, what a nice of racing!!!

This is the second outing of the ‘Mooo Mobile‘, drive by me, aka The Milk Man.

Had a good couple of hours of practice, and the truck was running pretty good. Did some baseline laps with the setup from two weeks ago, then I started tweaking the suspension.

For the last few days, I have been researching suspension from the other manufactures. Seeing what they do differently, and working up some research for a new iPhone / iPad App. Yes.. going to see about making this hobby pay off in $$$, not just silliness. During this research, I saw a possible solution to a setup problem in a set of springs designed for Losi trucks.

Here is the issue. For front springs, AE (aka Team Associated) maxes out with the ‘Red’ spring at 3.90 lb./in. Which is pretty stiff for a vehicle that weights maybe 4 lbs. total. The Associated spring is 2.25″ long, and right now I have to run it at the max length, just to get it to sit at the right front ride height. Adding to the issues, the setup sheets recommend cutting a coil out of the spring, making it shorter and stiffer. I’m thinking that cutting a coil will make for a sloppy suspension, since the top of the coil will no longer be flat, and not sit right on the spring perches.

Then I get this brilliant (well, different, if not brilliant) idea to purchase a set of the Losi front truck springs in the 4.1 lb./in. rating. They are close in diameter. Plus, the Losi spring is only 2″ long, also giving me the ability to lower the truck more using the shocks built in threads. Something I could not do with the stock 2.25″ spring.

It turns out, the Losi springs have a slightly larger ID. Almost too large. But, they fit well enough, and under tension do not move around adversely. So, I gave it a run tonight. And I must say, it did help quiet down the front handling, making the truck handle more neutral. Less sliding in the rear end. I took some notes tonight on what I tried, which I’ll be including in a different post later on this week.

I did OK tonight, again making the A-Main in Stock (17.5 motor) Short Course. We had a couple of pretty full grids tonight. I held my own in the main, finishing where I started, in 7th place. Not stellar by any means, but the track was also VERY loose, so those with better skills really dominated. Not finishing last is always a plus, when racing against so many more experienced drivers. Most of these guys have been racing for 10 years, a few more like 30! I’ve been at it for a total of 7 months so far… so.. I don’t feel to bad about my progress.

But, the best part of the night, was the post Main rounds entertainment. We call it Hack for Cash. This little race has a different set of rules. And they are pretty simple.

  • Race in an oval, skipping the inside, making the track 1/3 as long, and cutting the jumps down to 7 and 2 table-tops.
  • There are no corner marshals. You crash, tough. You wait out the race in humiliation, unless another racer hits you and accidentally knocks you back into the race. It happens a lot when things get dicy, so it’s truly not over until the fat lady sings.
  • Punting other trucks is encouraged. In fact the race leader has a big fat target on them, everyone wants to take them out
  • Last man standing, or the driver with the most laps when the 10 minute buzzer goes off wins the entry fees. Tonight it was 14 racers at $2 a head. 28 bucks on the table for the winner!
  • It’s OK to work as a team to take out other drivers, but in the end, only on person wins.
  • You cannot stop on the track. If you stop, you’re OUT! That does not include being crashed out. See the rule above about how you might get back into the race.

So, with 14 trucks in the race, starting in a modified Motocross start (trucks lined up side by side all the way across the lane in the back straight. Overflow trucks are placed *on top* of the front line trucks. When the buzzer goes off, it’s anyone’s guess who’s left standing. I was 2nd truck on the inside of the front row, so I started with a truck on top of me, as did most of the front 9. When the buzzer sounded, I made it 1/2 way down the straight before the truck that was on me, came up from behind and knocked me onto my side. I was out. I sat there for many laps being passed. Trucks trying to dodge me. Finally, I was able to wiggle sideways enough to get clipped by another truck and end up ride side up again, and back in the race!.

It was brutal. Crashing trucks, people yelling ‘Get the leader’. Take out the owner’s truck!! Brian, the owner, is a pretty damn good driver, and he’s won just about every single one of these Dash for Cash events. Tonight, we were all gunning for him. One of the racers said.. “It’s going to be tough to keep track of who’s in front.” I told him that it would be a little easier that he though, since he didn’t have to worry about it being me.

After a few laps, a couple of trucks were upside down, and one of them even flew completely over the wall and off the track. That one was NOT coming back. It was about 1/2 way into the race when I got my truck jammed up into one of the upside down trucks in the main sweeper (corner for you non-racers). Nice high speed WHAM!, CRUNCH!. My front wheel was jammed up into the other truck’s suspension. A truck with a reputation for being built like a tank. The best outcome I could hope for was someone else understeered into us exiting the sweeper, snapped off my first right control arm and gave me a chance to drag the chassis around the track until the end.

I didn’t have to wait long. One of the mod truck guys went in to deep on the corner, hit the wall then shot off it into me, knocking me free of the big Traxxis 4×4. Except, it remained upside down, and I didn’t lose my control arm! And, I was back in the race!

Nearing the end, Brian was clearly the target, and I was clearly driving way too fast, at least that’s what everyone was yelling. “Slow down! Brian is behind you.. slow down and take him out!” So I sped up! And in a few laps had run him down, and I had him square in my sights. On the last straight to the main fishing I had my shot, and I had to make it good. It’s a tight left-hander to the Start-Finish. He was 3/4 of the straight ahead of me but going slow, trying to make sure he didn’t catch up too lap traffic and also make a clean jump. I punched it. Let all 250A blast into my torque motor and did my best to t-bone him as he made the turn.

I missed. And with ever bit of speed my truck could make, went straight into the cinder block wall on the outside of the turn. Completely perpendicular to the wall. I could not have hit it harder. This time, it was game over.

Or, was it? NO! It was NOT! I bounced off (thank YOU RPM products for not letting my frame snap in half) and ended up on the complete other side of the lane, across the start finish, pointed in the right direction! I punched it and chased him down again! This time there were three of us right on his tail, and we were going to nail him to the wall on the outside of the big sweeper. We lined him on the front straight, and at the last second he jammed on the brakes and two of us shot straight past him into the turn at full throttle. Again it looked like a trip to the parts store for me. But this time I was on the binders, slid the truck in backwards, tapped the wall and was off.

Back in the throttle again, I put the hammer down trying to catch up to Brian. I was concentrating on the fact I needed to catch up to him, I sort of missed the fact that he’s been clipped by the 3rd truck in our assault, and was on his side! I just kept pouring it on, and then I noticed, there were only two trucks still running in the race, Steve and myself. As the timer counted town, Reid (Race Director) called out for a big “Mooo” and to not blow it. I only had 2 turns and two jumps and I was going to take the checkered flag.

Which, of course I did, because, I’m The Milk Man. It was and EPIC Hack for Cash. high-fives for me all around. It was a blast, and at the end of the night, all my racing was paid for with the winnings, and I split the rest with Steve for being the driver to finally knock Brian out of the race for good! Thanks Steve!

What a night! What a great design and paint job on the body, courtesy of my daughter, and what a blast!! I just have one last thing to say.

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

racing, Radio Control, RC Trucks

Short Course Racing Status, January -> April 2011.

Leave a comment

BRCR implemented a track change in mid April, so I’ve closed out the previous dataset, and started a new one for updated track.

During that time I also acquired the TLR22 buggy, and sold off the AE B4 (took less than 2 hours to sell, yip!).

So, without yammering on, here is the graph from that dataset.

Right at the tail end, I was experimenting with some new setup strategies, and it’s clear that they were NOT helping out at all. The upper graph shows the upward blip in times during the heat races.

However the main events, which are the ones that matter, show that I continued to lay down fast times, when I went back to my ‘standard’ setup.

More to follow, including a different way of looking at the numbers. Those should be posted soon. I want to wait for a decent dataset (showing a trend of 2 days is not very useful) before I start trying out the new metrics methods and crunch the numbers.

RC Trucks

Converting from Open to Stock Short Course

Leave a comment

It didn’t take long for me to figure out that I had A LONG way to go before I belonged running Open Short Course trucks. Even though I had the monster motor in the class with a 7.5T Novak (most other racers were running 10.5T or 13.5T – lower the turns, the faster it spins up and higher the max RPM, more akin to 2-stroke, as opposed to the torque motors in the 17.5T and higher windings, which are more akin to a big displacement thumper).

Even with quite a power advantage… I was.. well.. toast. 5 laps down on the leader. This is no place for a rookie.

Open Short Course Racing

Still being fairly new to the hobby, I was a little light on motor options, having only a 13.5T Novak and the 7.5T Novak I was already running. Having been kicked up form novice, I was either stuck racing Open class with those motors, or I’d have to spend about $100 on a new 17.5T motor. And in stock class you can’t afford to skimp on the motor, you need the best 17.5T motor you can afford. Add that to the fact I HATE THE NOVAK GTB speed controller. It’s so complex to program with the little push-buttons and lights. And it never seemed to really take the programming, even though the status lights clearly showed that I’d done it right. It was frustrating to say the least. So, in a state of excitement, frustration and resignation to my own personal quirks (let’s just call them imperfections, shall we, at least I’ve learned to recognize them, if not yet fully control them), I knew I’d stew over the purchase for weeks and weeks, eventually it would become the source of anxiety and finally depression, after which I would spend the money. So, I saved myself the 5 states of loss and took the $270 medicine up front:

Tekin RS + 17.5T Kit

Thus, I set about removing my Novak GTB system and installing the RS. However, I had one unresolved matter I had to attend to first. My last race with at the wheel of the uber-powered truck, had really done a number on it:

Serious damage to chasis. Trucks are not supposed to be 'Two Piece' afairs.

The cost of a new chassis is not really a consideration (under $30), however, it’s the chassis! That means everything mounts to it. To replace this part would require a 50% rebuild of the entire truck. That’s potentially hours of effort. Effort that would have to be duplicated again if I have just one really bad landing, or under-dump and lawn dart the thing.

However, I did have a solution. One that requires the purchase of a $19 aftermarket front bumper kit, of which 2/3 are discarded, and the other 1/3 requires modifications to perform the job of taking the place of the broken chassis nose.

RPM to the rescue!

RPM SC10 Heavy Duty Front Bumper Kit (only lower section is retained)

Following the Frankenstein repair to the front clip, the next order of business was a complete rebuild of the front shocks including a re-valve, new springs and silicon oil change. Here is the final setup:

Rebuilt SC10 Shocks. Rear (l.) & Front (r.)

  Front Dampers Rear Dampers
Valve Piston: #3 #2
Shock Oil: 40 wt. 30 wt.
Spring: Red (3.90 lb./in.) Silver (2.10 lb./in.)
Down Stops 4 (.120″) 7(.210″)

Mounting the motor was very mostly straight forward. However, there was not enough adjustment in the motor mount plates to get the 29T pinion gear I needed to fit with my 84T spur, so I bought a new gear set with a 75T spur gear and 27T pinion. With the 15 degrees of physical motor timing (see photo) I have on pretty quick stock truck. Sure I’m topped out on speed by the end of the straight compared to the Mod trucks, but I have gobs of low-end torque that gets me up and over the jumps with almost no run-up. 6′ of air time is no problem at all with this setup. I can easily clear the 4-hump rhythm section with a quick punch of the throttle.

Some of you new or simply unfamiliar with surface brushless systems might wonder what the extra cable bundle is near the bottom of the motor. That’s the sensor harness. This measures the inrunner’s RPM, feeding back position and speed to the ESC, which allows it to automatically detected cogging at low RPM, and smooth the pulses, giving the driver very smooth and easy to control power compared to non-sensored systems. Having had both, I can say first had that this *DOES* make a difference. You lose some of the potential torque of the motor, since some magnet space is given up to the sensor, but power is nothing if you can’t get it all to the ground. The sensor provides the ability to do just that.

Tekin 17.5T mounted.

Mounting of the speed controller was simpler than the big and bulky Novak I was replacing. The profile is so low it barely extends above the sides of the chassis. The solder posts on the controller are also a thing of beauty. Vastly superior to the solder points on my Novak and most other ESCs I’ve seen so far. Easy to heat, plenty of post length, and slotted so you can mount wires horizontal (as I did) or vertical, depending on whim. The three wires on the left control the motor, the two on the right (with capacitor) are the battery power leads. Sensor harness plugs into side of ESC (right). Another bonus on the Tekin is the topside status LED bar, not on the side like the Novak and XP I’ve had in other vehicles. Another example of learning from racing. Put it where people can see it! Seems simple, yet.. so difficult for some companies to ‘get’

Tekin RS Speed Controller

The last two updates made with this conversion, was the witch to the light-weigh 2/3 height SAVOX SC-1251 Metal Gear Digital Servo. This is a lot smaller than the stock XP (sloooooow) or the black body SAVOX I was running before. Also in this photo is my personal truck transponder. Other than the ESC, this was the single most expensive part in the entire truck. This is the newest RC4 compatible hybrid transponder from MyLaps. A lot of tracks (including the one that I use) had track transponders available to borrow for a race. They are basically free. So why buy my own at such great expense? 3 reasons: 1) I can get my practice day times logged for analysis 2) the RC4 hybrid is about 2/3 the size of the others and also lighter 3) I can permanently mount it anywhere I need for best signal.

SAVOX 1251 and MyLaps Transponder

I’ll say this right now, the position in the photos is good, but not ideal. The metal gear servo interferes with the transponder (another advantage to owning your own, you can test transponder positions to find the optimal signal). I have since found a better position for the transponder. However, it’s exact position is now a closely held secret and an advantage I have on the track.. so.. don’t expect me to spill the beans on the net, you’ll have to join me at the track to see what I’ve since done.

Radio Control, RC Trucks

Wednesday Night Short Course Racing – Another win!

Leave a comment

Ah.. it’s good to win. 🙂

SC10 Factory Team - in pit at BRCR
So, it’s still in Novice class, but it was not an easy win. There was one competitor (also named Dave) that was really giving me a run for my money, in fact he was just ahead of me when his truck broke on lap 5. He had qualified just ahead of me in the first two rounds, but not by much!

So.. here are the results… in all their ugly glory. It was a hard fought race, and I crashed many times, many more times that I should have. But I was victorious none the less. One more Novice win and they’ll kick me up to the big-boys. Which, I’m not that worried about since I raced them heads-up on Monday and came in 3rd. 🙂 

                             Bremerton R/C Raceway
Novice A Main                                                 Round# 3, Race# 2
9:16:02 PM  02/09/2011
________________________Driver___Car#____Laps____RaceTime____Fast Lap___Behind_
              Demartini, David    #3      17     8:03.504     24.370           
                      A, Steve    #5      16     8:11.161     27.822           
                      O, Johny    #2      15     8:20.383     28.348           
                       F, Jeff    #7      14     8:24.719     25.223           
                    T, Garrett    #1      13     8:06.876     24.525           
                       R, Dave    #6       5     1:58.614     25.758

Unfortunately, this will likely be the last race for this truck’s body. There are now parts of it missing, and one crack that extends from the front wheel well all the way into the windshield. She’s just about dead, Jim. I did keep it together by drilling 6 holes along the crack and using zip-ties to keep it from breaking completely in half. It looks pretty rough. The paint touch-up I did this morning is really of no consequence now. I already have a new body ready to go, but I’ve come up with a brand new concept I want to debut for this Saturdays race (it will be my first Saturday night race with the big crowds). But first I need to get some vinyl graphics cut for the truck, and even before that, I need to design them!

This hobby is not cheap (but not that expensive in the grand scheme), but it’s good clean fun, lots of great people to meet and talk too. I’ve even run across a number of people racing R/C that I used to race with when I was running my Porsches with Bremerton Sports Car Club. Some people are just gear-heads, and I’m one of them.

Radio Control, RC Trucks

Monday Night Racing results

Leave a comment

Wow, it was a challenging night at BRCR on Monday. Turnout was a little down so Alex (race director) combined what is typically 4-6 racing classes down into two.

Class 1 – Novice, Stock and Open Class Short Course Trucks.

Class 2 – Stock Stadium Truck, Stock Buggy, Open Stadium Truck, Open Buggy.

So, instead of racing just Novices (we are allowed to basically run ANY set-up in our Short Course trucks), I was racing against Stock, Modified and Open class Short Course as well. Field was 8 entries deep:

   Demartini, David    #1    (novice)  
   Kuiphoff, Chris    #2       (novice)     
   Arns, Zach    #3                
   Hansen, Dylan    #4     
   Livingston, Wes    #5     (open)          
   Wirtanen, Tony    #6      (open 4x4)        
   Pergam, Ewan    #7        (open)     
   Cigledy, Mike    #8

Still sorting out some handling issues from last week, I was not running at my best, yet, I managed to complete the two qualifier rounds and start in the 4th grid position for the final A-Main!

The race itself was a little chaotic. With the fast drivers and fast trucks picking their way through the slower traffic. Again, I had problems getting my track rythem until the last few laps. Really not my best work at all. I was really concentrating on getting good laps in and not paying any attention at all to my position in the pack. I knew I’d been lapped at least twice by someone, but when the 10minute race was over, I was VERY happy with the results!!

                             Bremerton R/C Raceway
Novice A Main                                                 Round# 3, Race# 1
 8:24:46 PM  02/07/201
________________________Driver___Car#____Laps____RaceTime____Fast Lap___Behind_
                Wirtanen, Tony    #6      21     8:21.280     21.988           
               Livingston, Wes    #5      20     8:22.139     22.404           
              Demartini, David    #1      18     8:20.438     24.441           
                 Hansen, Dylan    #4      18     8:26.542     24.410      6.104
                  Pergam, Ewan    #7      17     7:54.331     23.808           
                 Cigledy, Mike    #8      17     8:00.449     25.100      6.118
               Kuiphoff, Chris    #2      16     7:55.236     26.385           
                    Arns, Zach    #3      13     6:37.676     26.224

Racing against some of the best Short Course competitors in the area, I managed to pull off a podium finish. I even turned my 2nd fastest lap so far! I think that if I’d not spent the first 15 laps crashing and lawn-darting the jumps I could have been right up there with the top 2 guys on the lead lap.

There’s always Wednesday Night Short Course racing! 🙂

racing, Radio Control, RC Trucks

Team Associated releasing a 4×4 SC10! Oh, is this a must have?

Leave a comment

While checking on the RC10.com site for blank setup sheets (I want to record the current tuning of my Factory Team SC10), I am faced with this:

NEW Team Associated SC10 4x4

SC10 4×4 Kit

1:10 Scale 4WD Electric Short Course Truck Kit.

Experience the thrill of four-wheel-drive action and performance with the SC10 4×4!

* Unique dual gearbox drive train coupled together with a 5mm heavy duty belt system with external tension adjustment
* 32 pitch front and rear gearboxes with sealed fluid filled differentials
* Decoupled center slipper clutch allows for front and rear wheel drive to slip independently, resulting in more traction and stability on bumpy track conditions
* CVAs with captured drive pins and heavy duty 6mm alloy axles
* 12mm hex drive KMC® replica wheels front and rear with aggressive short course racing tires
* Championship short course racing body (clear), with Team Associated decal sheet
* 13mm blue aluminum big-bore threaded shocks with low friction X-ring seals
* Composite modular tub chassis with Low-CG and Low Polar Moment design
* Enclosed water-resistant receiver box, and removable ESC tray for easy clean up and maintenance
* Ball bearing steering system with adjustable steering stops
* All metric hardware and ball bearings throughout
* Uses most 540 and 550 brushless motors

Video preview of the upcoming truck. Looks slick, and it looks like they addressed a few of the remaining issues in the 2WD SC10 (like the shocks, which are now being dwarfed in size and performance by competition, such as LOSI). Having just sheared my Factory Team truck in half tonight during practice (more on that in another post), this updated truck seems like a must have? But, is it? I don’t know. Yet!

More on this as information becomes available.

racing, Radio Control, RC Trucks

New Short Course body completed.

Leave a comment

Photos of my new SC10 body in progress, along with the final result.

Test fitting the new body, and marking for the body clip posts:

SC10 Body B - measuring for mounting holes.

Masked and ready for paint:

Body masked for the first stage of painting (main color)

Primary color applied. This silver does not adhere well, so I had to apply 4 main coats:

First few coats of main color go on.

After the 4 main coats of silver, 2 rounds of spot touch-ups were required:

After 4 main coats and 2 rounds of touchup. Main color is complete.

Next the detail colors were laid down. First the Competition Orange applies to fenders and sides. Next was the black layer for door stripes, and finally, a small layer of white for the detail stripe down the door stripe center. My experiment in using Sharpie pens to add some line detail to the body, mostly failed. I was able to apply the lines with acceptable results, but contact with the paint caused the lines to start bleed, making them puff-up, which is what you see in the photos. Big, soft Stay-Pufft like lines. It was a useful experiment.

Nearly completed result after 3 more colors applied.

After completing all the layers and a little touch-up in corners, all the masks are removed to reveal the bare painted shell.

Paint completed and all masks removed.

Finally, the end result, at least for now. A small amount of decals applies to give it some visual interest. The challenge here is to resist the urge to over-do the decals. I have piles of them, and the temptation to turn the thing into 3lb. rolling bill-board is sometimes bothersome.

Final Result.

A few of you may have noticed that this is not a Team Associated body, in fact it’s manufactured by their main rival. I selected this body for several reasons:

  • Price – it was $10 cheaper
  • Design – body has high wide wheel openings
  • Convenience – body was already fully trimmed.

Do you know who made it?

RC Trucks

Monday night R/C Racing at BRCR

Leave a comment

Monday night was another great time down at Bremerton Radio Control Raceway.

On the heels of the 4 hour Enduro race just 2 days before, turnout was pretty light for a Monday night. In fact, there really wasn’t enough depth in each field to run the normal Novice, Stock and Open class for each vehicle type. So, instead of being able to race in Novice class, I was pitted with the Stock and Open truck racers that have been doing this for a long time. It was going to be a learning experience!

This week I was prepared with plenty of battery power, a dialed in rear differential, upgraded toolbox and new carrier box too. My pit space was a lot more organized than last time.

SC10 being prepped for the first race.

We ran 2 heats and a main event for “Truck” and “Buggy”. I held my own in the first two heats, finishing near mid-field, and certainly not last. I’d learned quite a bit in my first race the week prior, and it was paying off.

At the end of the first two heats, I have qualified 6th in a field of 10. Not amazing, but better than I had expected, considering I was not racing all Novice racers, and not all stock trucks (some of them were a lot faster on the long straight than my 13.5 powered sled).

We ran a 10 minute main event. It was chaos. Lots of vehicle contact, more a lot of rollovers. We kept the track marshals very busy. About 15 laps or so into the race I was starting to find my pace, and able to get all the way around the track without a running across the edges, without crashing out (without being crashed out by others) and hitting a pretty good rhythm on the double-double and double-triple jump sections.

To my pleasant surprise, I managed to cut a couple of very fast laps, that got the attention of the race caller and timer. What I noticed on the runs I did really well on, despite a sea of surging Lexan, if I put all the other vehicles out of my mind, not looking at relative speed to the other races, or where they were lining up their trucks, basically running like I was the only person on the track, I was much smoother and much faster. Sure, a couple of times I got pitted around by another truck, and I did t-bone another racer on who was much slower on the long straight, but, nobody got broken, and neither of us had to be recovered. It’s not going to be a strategy that will work 100% of the time, but I found that greater concentration on the line that is best for MY truck, my tires, my drivetrain and skill, I do much better.

In the end, the 6 1/2 hours I spent at the track testing, tuning and finally racing was so much fun, I was smiling for hours and hours afterward. And one of the test parts of all this, the 6 1/2 hours of entertainment, and friendship, cost me a grand total of $9.37. That’s a pretty good value, don’t you think?

SC10 ready for action. But not so pretty any longer.
Radio Control, RC Trucks

R/C racing on Monday Night.

Leave a comment

This past Monday, I took the plunge and ran my first full race with the re-bodied SC10 truck.

SC10 truck in the pits during Monday Races at Bremerton RC Raceway.

It was a real blast, but I have A LOT to learn about truck setup before I’m going to be competitive. The most challenging issue I’m facing right now, is the speed of the steering servo. It’s too fast! It makes the truck feel really loose. When hitting full throttle down the main straight, it’s very difficult to put in a little steering correction. Instead, I’m finding myself loosing control, needing to slow down, and often getting passed while trying to regain control of the truck.

The RC controller I have is made by Futaba. A well known, and respected name in Radio Control for decades. Checking through the manual, I was disheartened to find the radio I’m using does not have any ‘Expo’ (a configurable low-action or dead-zone) settings. It does, however have a Dual-Rate capability on the steering channel (#1), which might allow me to tone down the very fast steering servo. My concern, having not tested it, is that it might make the steering too slow, making the better servo a moot improvement. :/ Things you learn, right?

Even more daunting that the steering issue for me last Monday, was the fact that 45 minutes before the first heat race, I completely destroyed the stock rear differential I’d put after breaking the output shaft on the race differential that came with the truck. Ugh! With not much time, I had to rip apart the entire back end of the truck, remove the transmission, split it’s case and try to slam in a brand new Team Associated ball differential. With the cost of a rebuild kit of the stock costing $30, and a complete new competition ball differential being $40, the decisions was pretty easy. Go for the adjustable diff and learn to set IT up as well. Having been a racer for a long time (full-sized vehicles, that is), I’m well versed in the climbing of the learning curve. You just have to do it. Good racers have a lot of wheel time.

Upside for me, was that Brian (owner of BRCR) was kind enough to build the differential for me, while getting everything else ready for the race, so I could concentrate get the truck apart and back together in time for the race. Final 5 minute call to line up for the race came as I was putting in the last two screws. I selected one of my qualifier battery packs, ran from the pits down to the track and got in line, JUST in time for first heat.

I finished last, several laps down from the leaders, but it was great experience, a lot of fun, and I plan to race again this coming Monday, assume I’ve not broken the truck in the mean time. 🙂