Traxxas Slash 4x4 track setup #3

#3 Set the basics: toe, camber, ride height

OK, your truck is in decent order, you have the parts you want on it, it's time to actually do something.

Set your ride height so that arms are level. Better yet, get yourself a ride height gauge and set the ride height front and rear. For the LCG chassis with normal race tires, somewhere around 27-28mm is a good place to start, but whatever you do, set it and stick with it. Each day you drive your car, check it before you run out and make sure your ride height is the same as before. 1mm makes a big difference believe it or not. To set it, pick up the truck with body off and electronics on, drop it from about a foot off a flat surface, and then measure the height under each diff.

Set your camber to -1 degrees. You will need a camber gauge for this. You can use various degrees of camber, but -1 is a good safe number that will work in 95% of cases, so just go with it. Again, drop the car from a foot, measure, and then roll the car back and forth and check again. Tires are not totally round, so different spots on the tire will measure differently. Just make sure the average of the different spots is about -1 degrees (1 degree pointing inward on the top).

Set your toe-in to 0 degrees. This means your front tires should point straight ahead. You never want the front tires pointing inward. Pointing outward (toe-out) can sometimes be beneficial in some spots, but zero degrees is a good, safe number that will work in 95% of cases. I usually just eyeball toe, there are various ways to measure it, but eyeballing seems to work fine for me.

Set your rear toe-in to 2.5 degrees. This means using the stock black plastic rear hubs, and not the Traxxas aluminum carriers. The aluminum ones only do 4 degrees or 1 degree which is way out of whack unless you're doing speed runs or you're running on the loosest, lowest traction track in the world. 2.5 degrees is pretty close to ideal in 95% of cases, so use that! If you have a Platinum or Ultimate, it came with aluminum ones, but should have also come with the original plastic parts in the box. Put those back on.

After all this, make sure your truck still drives straight (set your steering trim) and it's not a bad idea to re-check your EPA/dual-rate on your radio.

Traxxas Slash 4x4 track setup #2

#2 Put whatever parts you want on, now!

Tuning is an iterative affair, meaning you will go through it, get it working well, make a change (new motor, center diff, etc.) and then have to start all over. Lather, rinse, repeat. If you're going to get an LCG chassis, put that on now! If you're going to use a lightweight battery, put that on now! If you're always adding new heavy aluminum parts, changing tires, moving your ESC around, etc., you are changing the weight balance, weight basis, roll, etc., and you'll often have to start over.

So get that stuff, put it on now, and then we can go about actually tuning the truck. Else you will get it working pretty good, change it, and then have to start messing with springs, roll centers, etc. again.

How-to Guide: tuning your Slash 4x4 for the track

I've been posting a long multi-part series on the Traxxas forums on tuning your Traxxas Slash 4x4 for the track and thought I'd repost it here for everyone else.  The goal was to write a fairly comprehensive guide to how to setup your truck for driving to its full potential on the track.  It's meant for anyone that doesn't understand what all of those little adjustments are for and to try to get the up to speed as easily as possible.

There's very little discussion of aftermarket parts in this guide.  Most people think tuning your truck means buying a bunch of aluminum and bolting it on.  That's not true -- tuning means using the adjustments that are available to get the truck to drive the way YOU want it to.  I'll try to put one up per day.

How to tune your Slash 4x4 for racing on the track

I'm kinda bored, so I figured I'd start a new thread on tuning your Slash 4x4 for racing. I don't claim to be some pro-driver or awesome racer or something, but I have a reasonable amount of experience in getting RC cars to drive pretty well and this is the part of the hobby I enjoy the most, so I figured I'd start it.

Words of warning: it's quite possible I'm going to say something that offends people (don't use aluminum A-arms), so I apologize, but I am giving my opinion and I will always explain to the best of my ability why I think that way. I'm also sure to be wrong on something, but we can't always be correct and hopefully I will provide more good in this thread than bad. This is also going to focus on racing at a racetrack (dirt, indoor clay, carpet, whatever). It's not mean for speed runs, crawling, jumping 30 feet in the air, etc. However, if you just drive at your local BMX track or homemade makeshift track, this should also apply.

This is going to be a multi-part series of posts, and if people have specific questions, I'll be happy to answer them as best I can. A lot of it will be obvious, but I'm going to start with the easiest/simplest stuff first and move on to more esoteric topics if people are interested. The Slash 4x4 is a pretty good platform, because it has a nice blend of adjustments, without having TOO MANY that you can get lost trying to navigate.

So...

#1 Get your truck in order!

Check all your bearings, set your end points, make sure none of your hingepins are bent, your shocks have oil in them, you shocks shafts aren't bent, etc. etc. Remove the shocks and make sure your arms move up and down freely by gravity alone. Clean out your halfshafts. Remove a camber link and spin a halfshaft/axle/wheel in the wheel bearings and make sure they move freely. Those bearings go bad really easily, so replace them often. Disconnect your servo draglink and make sure the bellcranks move smoothly left/right. Remove your motor or pinion and roll the truck on a flat surface and make sure nothing is binding/dragging. Hold down the center driveshaft and turn one wheel and make sure the other wheel turns smoothly (your diff is working properly). If something is not moving smoothly, it will be impossible to tune your car and you'll be chasing your tail trying to figure out why.

Team Associated ProSC10 review

Overview:
Team Associated has come out with a new line of rear-motor RTR vehicles, the ProSC10, the Trophy Rat, and the Reflex DB10.  All three vehicles are the same kit, just with different bodies.  I decided to get the ProSC10 version, which is a short course RTR based off of the B5.  It's a rear motor, plastic chassis, metric RTR.

Build: 4
For the most part, the truck was assembled properly, but there were a few things that were issues.  One rear shock was mounted with too short of a screw.  Fortunately I found it before it stripped out and replaced it with the proper length.  The shock cap o-rings were excessively large and had to be replaced.  The gear diff also was assembled almost dry -- it just had a dollop of anti-wear grease in the middle of the pins.  Finally, the motor mesh was set too tight.

Other than that, the build was put together fairly well and was certainly driveable out of the box.  The radio controls were setup perfectly.

Design: 9
The ProSC10 is basically a plastic chassis rear-motor version of the SC5M with some simplification of parts.  Most of the B5/SC5M pars will mount right on -- there is a long list of factory option parts in the manual if you so choose to upgrade.  The plastic chassis is light and durable, overall it's a big improvement over the previous generation of trucks; the SC10/.1/.2/.3 which were based on the B4.  Rear motor helps in loose traction surfaces, and also allows a full size lipo to be used in the chassis.  The truck can run 2S or 3S right out of the box.

The kit is also fully metric which is a welcome change.  Overall, I think the design lends itself well to bashing and some light racing at the club level.  It performs well, has waterproof electronics and a lot of tunability.  Team Associated removed some of the adjustments that are available in the SC5M -- the spindles no longer have adjustable trail or caster and the rear hubs do not have adjustable inserts.

The parts also seem to be made of a softer composite from normal Associated race kits, which makes it a little more durable and able to handle crashes better.

Performance: 9
The truck drives great and handles well.  Overall, it's very light on its feet and jumps and lands well.  For outdoor rough terrain, the stock suspension works well, but you will want to upgrade the springs and shock oils if you run on higher traction surfaces.

Stock tires are only suitable for the street, for dirt, grass or clay you will definitely want to get new tires.

I did not test out the stability control, opting to turn it off, but it is there if you want it with 7 different levels of engagement.

The stock servo is reasonably quick and seems to have enough torque for the stock tires.  On 2S, stock gearing was a little low, but should be perfect for 3S.

The radio is not the greatest, but has all of the adjustments you need for setting up your truck and actually surprised me with how decent it was.  There's a fair amount of play in the wheel and trigger, but for some bashing and light club racing, it's actually not that bad.


Durability: 9
I found the truck to be very durable and did not break a single part.  The body is made of PVC or some other type of plastic, and is not going to hold up to serious bashing, but that's really the only durability concern I had.  Overall it's proven to be a very durable truck and even after letting my 10 y.o. son drive it, nothing broke.

Value: 10
The basic ProSC10 sells for $299 in the U.S.  It's main competitors are the Slash VXL ($319), the Kyosho SC6 ready-set ($349), the Losi XXX-SCT ($329), and the HPI Blitz Flux ($315).

It's the cheapest of the group, and definitely the most modern and durable and capable truck.  There is no other brushless RTR out there from a major manufacturer that is this capable, durable, and low in price.

Support: 10
Team Associated is a major force in the U.S., and availability of parts and support is hard to beat.

Maintenance: 6
Short course trucks in general can be a bit difficult to work on because of the amount of body mounts, bumpers, and stuff that gets in the way, but the ProSC10 is reasonably easy to work on.  The rear transmission comes out fairly easily leaving the arms and chassis intact, and the diff can be split without removing the motor from the motor plate (leaving your mesh the same).  Overall, a pretty good truck to work on.

And the big one -- the whole kit is metric, which is a huge improvement from the SC10 line of trucks.

Dislikes:
I wish the truck came with the V2 shock caps out of the box, the stock shock caps have no bleeder holes which makes it impossible to properly build your shocks.  Other than that, I have no real grips with the truck.  It's a great platform.

Conclusion:
Overall, the ProSC10 is a welcome update to Team Associated's line of RTR short course trucks.  It brings it into the modern era in terms of durability, easy of maintenance, and performance and is a huge upgrade from the SC10.  It also performs extremely well on the track and is the perfect blend of bashing and racing.  If you want an RTR truck (heck, ANY short course truck) that can do both, I think the ProSC10 is the top choice out there.

I'm a big fan of this truck and think it makes an excellent first, second, or even third RC car.  It can do everything you could want, provides excellent performance, durability, and value, and really has no faults.

Overall rating:  9

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