New Wraith setup questions

[extremeshannon]

Hello everyone,
I bought my wife a Wraith 1/10 kit. I am putting together and will have some questions along the line.

Shocks what should I set them as. Variable or fixed? Soft Medium or hard. She has several other rc buggies. This is her first rock racer and I am a heli guy personally so I am learning as I go on the car setups. Any help with shock set up would be great.


Shannon

[StomperCrawler]

Originally Posted by extremeshannon

Hello everyone,
I bought my wife a Wraith 1/10 kit. I am putting together and will have some questions along the line.

Shocks what should I set them as. Variable or fixed? Soft Medium or hard. She has several other rc buggies. This is her first rock racer and I am a heli guy personally so I am learning as I go on the car setups. Any help with shock set up would be great.

Crawling: soft
Trailing: medium
Speeding: hard

[extremeshannon]

Thanks we are going to setup for crawling. Questions on the shocks. I am having a hard time putting them together corrctly. After filling with 30 WT oil I can only compress a half in or so. I should be able to compress them all the ay?

Any help would be great.

[rdearolf]

I run the stock springs that came with my wraith for crawling. Run the spring tension as loose as possible in front and 1/4 way down in rear. Sounds like you have to much fluid in shocks if they wont compress all the way but double check its not hitting bump stops. I also weighted the wheels with stick on wheel weights which helps with the suspension for a little better flex

[Eric0424]

Yes, you should get full compression with the rod end and bumper installed. If you can't get full compression you've got too much fluid in them. They're rough shocks once assembled, not smooth like I'm used to. They may smooth out a little after some usage, but don't expect much from the kit shocks. Mine will be replaced by Team Associated 1.39" stoke Team Shocks soon.

I'm building mine now, variable rate pistons, stock springs and 30wt shock oil for now. A few things to note, the instructions are off, a few mislabeled part numbers but you'll see the correct part when you look at the parts tree. The back of the manual has the variable rate description backwards, the pictures of the piston set-up are over the wrong description.

Also, the rod end for the shocks is #8 on the tree, it's the medium length rod end that should be used. Although yo may already know all this by now.

[extremeshannon]

thanks everyone.
I found a video and I was not doing final assembly right. I had the rod at bottom not top. So I had to much rebound.

I have the Wraith together for the most part. Yes I found many mistakes in the directions. I got it figured out I think but will see.

Thanks

[Eric0424]

I like the idea of the variable rate pistons, I may see if they fit the Associated shocks. Both are 10mm bore so I'll see what's compatible. I'm building a Dingo as well (nearly complete) and it got a shock upgrade without even putting the kit shock together, 7mm bore, all plastic and poorly molded. I just didn't see the point.

[rdearolf]

Variable rate springs are great for bashing or baja but for crawling would use single rate

[Eric0424]

Originally Posted by rdearolf

Variable rate springs are great for bashing or baja but for crawling would use single rate

I was referring to the variable rate piston option for the Wraith kit shocks. You can set them for fast rebound with slower compression or fast compression with slower rebound. Haven't tried any variable rate springs yet.

[extremeshannon]

OK good and bad news

Good news got it all together and was able to drive around the house.

Bad news front right knuckle and shaft broke. Wife never got to drive it and it never left the house.

I am really thinking after the direction mis-prints and the directions being horrible that axial is actually not a good platform. I spent a week building and 1 min before it broke. I guess I have to hop it up if she wants to drive it.

Let start with the best CNC complete front end. I am thinking about Integy anyone suggest these are something different. Thanks for the help everyone.

Billet Machined T3 Complete Front Axle Assembly for Axial 1/10 Wraith for R/C or RC - Team Integy

I am not trying to start a flaming thread against Axial Just not happy with the end result.

Shannon

[Eric0424]

From what I've read Integy is not the best quality, but haven't seen any of their stuff in person. It's just a general consensus of their overall quality.

I would put a new universal axle and c-hub on it then check the front axle for excess drag or any binding before dropping over $130 on a new axle assembly.

When I built my axles, initially the front was damn near locked up. Almost like someone was applying the brakes. The ring and pinion checked out okay, they rotated easily with or without the universals installed and the gear mesh was quiet. However, installing the c-hubs and then knuckles started adding a lot of binding. Knowing the manual is full of errors, I started swapping the hubs and knuckles around to see if it helped, didn't improve much at all.

With mine the problem came from tightening the c-hubs and knuckles to the axle. They were not overly tight, but the whole axle spins much easier with those screws barely snug. Now I can rotate the whole drive train (without the motor) from each axle with just my fingers on the threads. Before the only way to turn the drivetrain from any of the axles was with a hex driver tip in the axle hex drive pin hole.

My theory is this. With the front axle having three bearings in two separate parts within a 1-1/2" space at the ends the axle. I believe the plastic parts are getting tweaked enough to pull the bearings out of alignment with each other enough to induce the binding in my front axle. With them lose the bearings are centered a little better and the whole assembly moves much easier.

The rear axle actually needed the pinion shaved about .007" to move freely with the ring gear, just like both axles on my recent Dingo kit build. I like the concept and the design of these trucks, but Axial could nave done a little better on the execution.