Slash 4x4: chassis brace

So one of the popular upgrades for the Slash 4x4 is to get a chassis brace.  People think they need one to add stiffness to the chassis (which is not actually a good thing when it comes to traction), or to make the car more durable  in crashes (debatable).

But the real reason to get a chassis brace is this:  on my LCG chassis, the rear spline gear does not line up perfectly straight with the center driveshaft, mainly because of the flex in the chassis.  In fact, because the front has a big heavy weight hanging off the front (the entire front assembly) and the rear has a big heavy weight (the entire rear assembly), the flexible plastic chassis tends to bow in the middle, and what happens is the drivetrain does not line up straight.  You can see it here in this picture:

The black rear spline coming out of the motor mount section is at a slight angle and points a little bit upwards with respect to the blue aluminum driveshaft.  This puts extra stress on the driveshaft, the spline, and most importantly the center motor bearing that is under the most amount of duress.

With my VG Racing center brace installed, the driveline is perfectly in-line, and will always stay in-line despite how the chassis flexes