New alloy pod and damper issue.

[BeachBuggyPhil]

I fitted the new 2012 alloy pod with carbon braces but it rubs on the damper mount and effects the movement of the rear suspension.
Only solution I see is move the damper mount or leave it off.
I can't move it due to the battery mount location.
Any fixes out there?

[jasond43]

cut and shape the damper post so it dont rub

[BeachBuggyPhil]

I started to do that then the ball cup on the damper hits the top of the pod.

[Karl Dransfield]

Hi Phil,

If you remove the front carbon brace then the pod will not be obstructed by the damper post.

Karl

[jasond43]

ive moved the position of mine to on top of my battery tray

[SlowOne]

Originally Posted by Karl Dransfield

Hi Phil,

If you remove the front carbon brace then the pod will not be obstructed by the damper post.

Karl

That's my fix too and it works perfectly. HTH

[BeachBuggyPhil]

I've decided to leave the damper off for the start of our season but once I have the car settled I'll remove the brace and stick the damper back on to see if I feel an improvement.

This is the car.




See any room for improvement or tips for extra performance?

[Chippy96]

Yep,I can see loads of room for improvement.....but i`m not tellin ya cos u keep beatin me !!!! Seriously Phil,it looks good.I didnt get on with the "resin" chassis,its too flexible for me,I may go back to the aluminium one or the carbon-what do you think??

[jasond43]

Carbon chassis is best love it and phil mount the damper on ur battery tray but cut the post down or use a smaller one, try and get nige's king pin supports, move servo to the other side and remove the weights cheers

[BeachBuggyPhil]

To mount the damper on my battery tray would involve shortening the damper, would that be ok?
I don't feel it did a lot and people that have broken them have said they've felt no difference when running with out it.
I have shoe goo'ed the booster to the servo so unless I break the booster or servo I'll run it that way for now but I have centered the servo on the chassis. The weights will be coming off and the car will be corner weighted and balanced and I still have to attach my transponder next to the servo but it's still in my buggy until Sept.

Are the king pin braces you mention the little Kevlar shapes that you can get on eBay? We only run Mardave parts so not officially allowed. I did try my Mardave kingpin brace but it was for an alloy chassis and gave the CE chassis a lot of camber.

[BeachBuggyPhil]

Originally Posted by Karl Dransfield

Hi Phil,

If you remove the front carbon brace then the pod will not be obstructed by the damper post.

Karl

The pod doesn't flex to much with the front brace removed?

[SlowOne]

Not at all. I was concerned about that, but the top brace is very stiff and bolts on in four places. I couldn't make the front of the pod move despite giving it a very hard squeeze!

With the motor in place I can press down on it pretty hard and not see any movement in the pod. I'm happy to run it without the front brace. HTH

[Karl Dransfield]

Originally Posted by BeachBuggyPhil

The pod doesn't flex to much with the front brace removed?

Nope, not at all you'll be absolutely fine running without the front brace.

[Karl Dransfield]

Originally Posted by BeachBuggyPhil

I've decided to leave the damper off for the start of our season but once I have the car settled I'll remove the brace and stick the damper back on to see if I feel an improvement.

This is the car.




See any room for improvement or tips for extra performance?

If you want a more predictable car then the carbon chassis is a worthwhile investment. Failing that just get the carbon top deck, as not all the fibreglass ones are perfectly straight after a crash.

Put the servo mounts back to standard. The angled ones produce understeer.

Running the damper does make the car much nicer to drive.

Karl

[BeachBuggyPhil]

I have been known to crash!

Cheers guys.

[BeachBuggyPhil]

I removed the lower brace causing the interference with the damper and put the damper back on. Pod does indeed seem plenty stiff without the brace.
Unfortunately putting the damper on ruined my new battery hold down method so I flipped the black battery mount on the chassis and cut Velcro to length and put that round the battery & under the mounts and it works great.

If the angled servo mounts do induce under steer I'm going to stick with them because I can control under steer with the throttle but oversteer will end up with me spinning out which is harder to recover from! Finding front end traction is never a problem on our surface.

[Rossi25rc]

I actually rang mardave on the problem with the brace and damper tube, he said that you don't need the brace on it, plus the original plastic pod didn't have a front brace and that was fine.

[BeachBuggyPhil]

Yeah, I'll refit it if I break or remove the damper but it seems stiff enough.
The 4 screws on the top brace came loose after two nights racing so keep an eye on them.