Shocks?

[VincentVisser]

Good Day to all that are online..

It was a good Sunday of racing at Robin Hood Racing track and as this was my first ever outdoor race meeting and also competion I was chuffed as chips when I had to nurse my rtr mad rat over the line for a 4th place in the D final. There was only 4 but 4th is better then 5th so I was happy.

Problem was I kind of wrecked my rear shock in the turn after the straight and well its non fixable.

So as they say. out with the old and in with the new.

Thinking of these to replace the plastic ones.

http://www.modelsport.co.uk/index.php?product_id=33115

I might get a x2c soon so dont want to go full adjustable.

This car will become my wifes car as she want to try 540 in our local club when I get the pro model.

Has anybody tried the above and what would you rate them?

[Mad-Wolfie]

Originally Posted by VincentVisser

Good Day to all that are online..

It was a good Sunday of racing at Robin Hood Racing track and as this was my first ever outdoor race meeting and also competion I was chuffed as chips when I had to nurse my rtr mad rat over the line for a 4th place in the D final. There was only 4 but 4th is better then 5th so I was happy.

Problem was I kind of wrecked my rear shock in the turn after the straight and well its non fixable.

So as they say. out with the old and in with the new.

Thinking of these to replace the plastic ones.

http://www.modelsport.co.uk/index.php?product_id=33115

I might get a x2c soon so dont want to go full adjustable.

This car will become my wifes car as she want to try 540 in our local club when I get the pro model.

Has anybody tried the above and what would you rate them?

I've been running them for a couple of years, never really had much problem with them until yesterday where i think they probably passed their best so need some fettling & i'm going to adjustables, but will be fitting the ones i take off back onto my older rat to keep it as a spare. I changed from the plastic kit shocks as i got sick & fed up of the top on the plastic kit shocks popping off on landings

the springs with the alloy ones are rock hard so don't use them - keep them if you need them, but i never have, however what i did was strip the mad-rat kit shocks down & put all the parts to one side & then strip the metal shocks down & basically transplant all the rat kit shock innards into the metal bodies & use the kit springs & bottom eyelet - effectively changing the plastic shock body for the alloy one. You will also need to add a couple of spacers (about 3mm on each shock) to the top of each shock so they stand-off the same as the kit ones, unless you whip out the pivot ball & use the kit plastic spacer. On the front i run the 75mm shocks (201000037) & on the back the 95mm shocks (201000039) & added a bit of fuel tube inside just to stop the shocks dropping too much.

I've run mine with 40wt oil in the front & 30 in the back with 1.6mm holes in the piston, but if running without modifying the pistons, run lighter oil, 30 in the front & 25 or 20 in the rear i was advised to try.

I have had the plastic bit on the top break off a couple of times, thankfully i had an old ARE-1 which i fitted new shocks to so the old tops came in handy, but they do stand up to a lot of punishment & unless you have a really hard knock they shouldn't break & when i broke mine it was usually because i drove into something solid or the car dropped from a big drop onto it's roof, regular jumping & landing shouldn't weaken them like it does with the kit shocks.

[VincentVisser]

Thank You very much for that reply.

It sounds like its the next step from the plastic so deffo will give them a try.

I was looking at the adjustables but jespares have them at £100+- for both front and rear and I might aswell just buy the x2c kit and get all the extra carbon bits.

[Mad-Wolfie]

Originally Posted by VincentVisser

Thank You very much for that reply.

It sounds like its the next step from the plastic so deffo will give them a try.

I was looking at the adjustables but jespares have them at £100+- for both front and rear and I might aswell just buy the x2c kit and get all the extra carbon bits.

£100 seems excessive, sure they aren't the big-bores? There are a lot of people running the X2/X2c who have opted for the Losi or Associated shocks, instead of sticking with the adjustable kit ones. So that means there are a lot of unwanted or unused X2c/X2 kit shocks sitting about doing nothing in people's pit box so chances are you may do like i did & drop on a set. Why not post an ad in the wanted section on here & see if anyone has any they can let you have or look on the bay of E to see if anyone has any they don't need or want.

[VincentVisser]

I like that Idea.

[Mad-Wolfie]

I know it may be a long shot, but you may be able to get a set of FTX vantage shocks to fit, i'm not 100% sure on the measurements, but we measured the shocks on a vantage with a ruler that the shop had in stock as a mate wanted to get some cheap adjustable shocks for his SCT & they looked like they would fit OK & they seem to be a bigger bore - without taking them off we couldn't check 100% & as it was a new car in the shop we didn't want to start taking liberties & start ripping the shocks off to test fit them on an Ansmann.. however a guy i race with at club had a similar idea & bought a set to fit to a macnum & they seemed a lot bigger - almost 8th car sized, although he may of brought the wrong ones as he bought some rears off ebay, so they may have been listed with the wrong description. The good thing is though they are only about £12 a pair so if money is tight it may be worth a punt, i'm not sure if they are any good or not as i've never used them, but i have seen a couple of Vantage's running & they seemed to handle OK. if anyone has a vantage & can measure the shocks & they are roughly in line with the 75mm/95mm the rat uses, then go for it.

[Appie53]

http://www.modelsport.co.uk/index.php?product_id=33115
I use those in front, but leaking like h..., changed the above blue o-ring with one from the plasticshocks, now works great

[VincentVisser]

bought front and rear today so will see what they like at RHR on Wednesday.

Cheers peeps.

[Mad-Wolfie]

Another trick you could try (i forgot about this myself) if you want to upgrade your shocks from standard is you can just buy the shock parts & convert your basic rat/monkey/macnum/hotrod/SCT kit shocks into pro adjustable's.

You need Ansmann part 125000465 for the front & 125000466 for the rear damper parts - each set costs about £20. You will also need a pack of the seals - part number 125000468 & of course the top eyelets 125000430, but for about £45-£50 you can turn your standard shocks into pro ones by ripping the guts out of your kit shocks & transplanting the option bits onto them, but for the sake of saving yourself a fiver, you may as well just buy the adjustable's in the 1st place or do what i did & buy the metal bodied shocks for less than a tenner & use them as donors to upgrade your plastic shocks to metal, at the end of the day all you are doing away with is the adjustment rings & faffing with c spacers to adjust the ride height.

However the thing i don't understand is you can buy touring car shocks in 2 formats, standard shocks with c spacers (Ansmann part 201000036) which are the same as the buggy shocks, just 55mm long instead of 75mm/85mm/95mm or they do adjustable 55mm ones (Ansmann part 201000018) for about £15 for all 4 corners, i really can't understand why they don't have the same option for the longer shocks.

[VincentVisser]

Put them on and they look the business. Hopefully they work as well as they look.

[Mad-Wolfie]

Originally Posted by VincentVisser

Put them on and they look the business. Hopefully they work as well as they look.

excellent.

To be honest, i can't really tell much difference between running them & the adjustable Ansmann pro shocks once i grafted the kit shocks parts & springs onto them - I've run both the pro shocks & the alloy bodies ones with kit innards & springs - other than they are non adjustable so you are a bit limited on finer adjustment & it's a bit more of a fiddle to set them up as they don't have a bleed hole so getting the air out & filling them to the right level is a bit of a faff, but once done & with the damping set right there is no real difference in performance. They are certainly a 90% improvement over the running the plastic kit bodies which are like cheese.

[VincentVisser]

Well a update on this.

I finally got a race at the North East regional.

And low and behold the brand new stronger shocks failed in heat 2. Same rear shock position and same problem. top cap totaly failed on me. To make things worse the inner ruber seal went missing in the process and now I have 3 shocks that work and one that does not.

Worth a buy? I dont think so.

Ansmann must be weak shock builders as the jump I did was done by every person there and the only time I actually tried to clear the jump as the other drivers did the shocks fail... not impressed.

[nivek]

same thing happened to david"s rat he did two shocks in

[Smartalec]

Hi mate,
You need the shocks from the x2c, there's no point in wasting your money on anything else to be honest. These are made for the job (racing), and are extremely good at doing just that, they build well, don't leak and don't break. There's always a reason for things being cheap, they don't work as well, the £100 price tag you mentioned must have been for the big bore shocks, you don't need these to make the car really good.

Just my opinion

[Robbiejuk]

Originally Posted by Smartalec

Hi mate,
You need the shocks from the x2c, there's no point in wasting your money on anything else to be honest. These are made for the job (racing), and are extremely good at doing just that, they build well, don't leak and don't break. There's always a reason for things being cheap, they don't work as well, the £100 price tag you mentioned must have been for the big bore shocks, you don't need these to make the car really good.

Just my opinion

+1 on the X2c shocks being great. Original mad rat shocks can be upgraded by buying the alloy bodies and the x2c plastic tops.

[Karting]

Get Associated Shocks mate, cheaper and hundreds to choose as the AE brand is more popular and people upgrade. Also more spring rates to choose from.

Its what i did

[Mad-Wolfie]

Originally Posted by VincentVisser

Well a update on this.

I finally got a race at the North East regional.

And low and behold the brand new stronger shocks failed in heat 2. Same rear shock position and same problem. top cap totaly failed on me. To make things worse the inner ruber seal went missing in the process and now I have 3 shocks that work and one that does not.

Worth a buy? I dont think so.

Ansmann must be weak shock builders as the jump I did was done by every person there and the only time I actually tried to clear the jump as the other drivers did the shocks fail... not impressed.

The top eyelets are the weak part, as i said in my previous reply & i've had it break a couple of times, Also as Robert Said, the Xpro/X2c shock-tops are what you need - part number 125000430. As for the bladder, the translucent one that came on the shocks & the red ones from the standard kit shocks are interchangeable so should one get lost they will fit.

Also make sure you use the kit springs & not the ones with the shocks & change the oil as out of the packet the shocks are rock hard & nobody has a clue what oil is in them when they build them, the harder they are the more likely they would be to fail & make the car undrivable.

I've run with the X2/X2c adjustable's & the mod of changing the plastic bodies for metal ones on the rat/monkey kit shocks & the shocks are not that much different in terms of how they feel & perform, however the adjustable's are a lot easier to set up (so less of a faff to bleed & set height)