xr10 chassis mantis vs traditional style

[J21]

I have had my mantis up and running for a few weeks now. I do still have some tuning to do and have some small issues here and so it is not perfect but it is on the rocks and I can tinker now. My brother and I have just gotten our cars now( he has a new bully2) and I have been noticing the difference between the crawling abilities of mantis vs the bully, and this last weekend we were able to mess around with another xr10. Not sure of the chassis but it is fully suspended but has high clearance delrin rear links. This chassis needs some work but almost seemed to out perform the mantis and the bully. I love the mantis but I see some weaknesses. This is what i notice The mantis can break over taller objects, doesn't get high centered as easy, and seems to span gaps a little better, but where it seems to have problems compared to the bully, seems to want roll easier, doesn't flex as much( torsion I know) so it seems to have problems not being able to have as many points of contact which seems to be more unstable have less traction and get stuck in more holes. It seems to take more effort and line choice to make obstacles but if I can hit them I can usually make the other obstacles the bully has problems with. My question is not that im going to get heavy into to comps or events but If I do go to them how are they laid out. What kind of chassis set ups are the courses laid out to benefit more. Is there enough obstacles for the mantis to take advantage of or not. How do the mantis's perform on the courses. is there a way to maybe tune the mantis chassis better. Im looking for opinions and tips not really looking for any chassis or car bashing saying one or another is just junk. I love the mantis but Im looking performance now.

[Robbob]

Ive never owned/driven one but I competed against one for a couple seasons by a veteran driver that knew his truck well. Heres what my honest opinion is of it.

It definitely requires a different driving style to them and has its pro's and cons when it comes to driving them. You've pretty much nailed exactly what I always thought of them. Break overs it was an animal, there wasn't much it couldn't climb over as long as the front stayed down.

But its weakness was off camber angles. Side hills didn't seem to bother the truck much because of the lack of rear suspension. But you had to pick your angles carefully.

In my eyes though if you can work and tune the torsion effect of the rear tail spacing it can help make you a better driver. IT will teach you how to not try muscling the truck over things. I see many MOA drivers get the 'I can climb anything' mentality and lose in the end. Focus on your truck and not comparing it to other MOA's.

Spacing of the tail pieces to the top of the axle and also lower link locations on the chassis are key tuning areas. They help change torsion effects of it. I would say you want soft ..... easy flex/articulation of the rear axle to help the truck.

As for what courses are like in the comp scene ...... it all depends on the builders. Best thing I can say is go see a couple being held, talk with veteran builders, even bring yours just to run a course after they are done on it. Stay focused on your truck, tuning and practicing. If you start competing with it and start winning I could almost bet you will see courses become harder due to builders trying to make it tougher for your truck. I use to run a LCC against MOA's and I saw courses go from difficult to virtually MOA only because I knew my truck and would beat them on their own courses. The good thing to that is you all have to run the same course so if its harder for you its probably gonna be even harder for them lol.

Do you guys play around with gates on courses or just free cawling? Throw some gates together and you might even see that those other trucks have difficult lol.

[motoj550]

I have a Mantis and just love it, i've been winning my local comps with it for couple years now and even got top ten finish at Battlegrounds couple years back. just tune the rear to the softest you can and i even leave the screw a little loose on the rear chassis to axle mount. you need a little more weight in the rear compared to other chassis', i've been running about a 55f and 45r bias where as most chassis like a 60/40 bias.

[Curcal]

each course in unique..... because they are built by different people and in different areas. this is nothing like racing where you learn to hit your marks and its all muscle memory. This is all about knowing your car how it reacts, and then picking your lines to match your car.

[J21]

So we messed around with some gates but so far our courses have been somewhat small as we just make do with what rocks we have been able to find at home and while on camp outs.

While messing around with and without gates I have just noticed that I have to be a little more precise with my lines compared to others. If and when I can find the right line it usually makes the obstacle fairly easy. Seems to just not have as much room for error.

As for tuning I am open for suggestions. I have some some weights up front Im not sure what brand or how much as they were on the axles when I bought them. The look like an old version of dlux knuckle weights. They are all brass with a main piece that fits around the knuckles and the mount for servo arm then there is two half circle pieces mounted to each other on the bottom, but have the option of front top and rear. I have nothing on the rear axle. what is being used to weight the rear and how much? I also have the smallest rear chassis brace removed for more flex. Would removing the next one help or hurt performance.

And I get that each course is unique and crawling is different than racing. But my question as to if courses being built towards certain chassis may be unclear or may be that with no experience I am just over thinking it. But as an example of what I am thinking of would be with dirt bike racing. So 10 to 15 years ago before the modern 4 stroke motocross/supercross bike took control of the sport the tracks were laid out differently. The 2 stroke bikes didn't have as much power and didn't get the power they did have to the ground as well so courses were tighter and jumps were smaller. Then the 4 stroke came around and was able to get better traction plus had more power. They began to over ride the track over jumping having hard time slowing down to make corners right after a jump or fast section. Thus the courses began to adapt to the machines capabilities and now the 2 strokes have a hard time on the bigger track. this is just a generalization. So what I guess what i was asking was are courses being built to favor one style of chassis better than others since that is what is most commonly used. For example lets say break overs. It seems this is one of the strengths of the mantis chassis. And since most chassis being used don't do break overs as well and there may not be many mantis chassis competing, so no big break over obstacles are being used. Or vice versa if most of the rigs competing are mantis based the courses may be built more towards break overs. Just racking my brain like i said I haven't been to any events yet so maybe I am just way over thinking this.

Little bit more tuning, dialing everything in, practice and hopefully I'll be messing around at a local event, whether for fun or a real shot at a win.