Why do you clock axles?

[rockin]

I have seen lots of post latly with ppl asking if some one is going to clock the berg axles. I understand the method of doing it, but why do you do it?

[Gatekeeper]

To rotate the low hanging motors up a little

[binaryterror]

Well Gatekeeper is right, I'd like to add.

To swing the motor up for more clearance is easy, just use a longer upper link like most of us do in the rear right? Well the problem then becomes theHubs on the axle will cause a terrible positive caster effecting how the wheels turn. We clock to make the clearance high and allowing for proper steering geometry.

[LIKES2CRAWL]

I've seen how bad the motor hangs below the axle but some may have not and don't understand why people clock the axles. Could someone post a good picture of a stock axle to show how far the motor hangs down? Then they might understand why people do it.

[rockin]

Thanks for the replies guys makes more since now.

[Kamikaze]

I don't clock mine, the rear can be clocked with link geometry and the front doesn't rear bother me.

[dezfan]

Originally Posted by Kamikaze

I don't clock mine, the rear can be clocked with link geometry and the front doesn't rear bother me.

I agree, never had an issue w/ the front not being clocked.

[oberon crawler]

I see wheel adapters for other trucks to make them wider, seems that OCM were trying to help and allowed for this by making longer axles so we can run a wider track straight out of the box, but then it seems EVERYONE is running narrow offset wheels so we are right back where we started. Plus now with narrow wheels you have to cut and retap the steering arms or they rip your panthers! someone mentioned that the tyre rip was a "berg" problem but i tend to think it's a narrow offset wheel problem. Surely the berg designers thought they were doing us a favour with the wider axles???
Is the extra 1/2" really a problem? or is it just a case of no one likes the factory beadlocks?

[Robb]

Originally Posted by oberon crawler

I see wheel adapters for other trucks to make them wider, seems that OCM were trying to help and allowed for this by making longer axles so we can run a wider track straight out of the box, but then it seems EVERYONE is running narrow offset wheels so we are right back where we started. Plus now with narrow wheels you have to cut and retap the steering arms or they rip your panthers! someone mentioned that the tyre rip was a "berg" problem but i tend to think it's a narrow offset wheel problem. Surely the berg designers thought they were doing us a favour with the wider axles???
Is the extra 1/2" really a problem? or is it just a case of no one likes the factory beadlocks?

Widening axles for 2.2 Comp use is kind of become a lost practice since TLT's were the big thing. Shafty 2.2s have been dominated by AX-10 for the past year or so, and widening of such axles usually isn't needed.

Running wide axles is a benefit is regards to stability while just running around on the rocks, but when comp time rolls around, the fine line between stability and narrow track-width becomes blurred. The narrow'r the better when clearing gates.

To be honest, I ran stock bead locks for quite some time, and overall, the wide track wasn't a big issue for me. The stock locks are fine for an "out of the box" crawler.

I don't think that the OCM designers were actually all that involved in building axles around the true needs of crawlers.........................but the more I work with the axles, the more I think they got it right. As the narrow wheels become more and more available, the more it is shown that OCM gave the user the ability to use as much as the width of the axles as they wanted. I thought they f-ed up big time with the width at one point, but now I like the ability to be creative.





edit: Oh, and to the original topic. I saw "night and day" differences after clocking my front axle. My front hang-ups were often and noticeable, and since clocking, they don't exist.

[oberon crawler]

Originally Posted by Robb

Widening axles for 2.2 Comp use is kind of become a lost practice since TLT's were the big thing. Shafty 2.2s have been dominated by AX-10 for the past year or so, and widening of such axles usually isn't needed.

Running wide axles is a benefit is regards to stability while just running around on the rocks, but when comp time rolls around, the fine line between stability and narrow track-width becomes blurred. The narrow'r the better when clearing gates.

To be honest, I ran stock bead locks for quite some time, and overall, the wide track wasn't a big issue for me. The stock locks are fine for an "out of the box" crawler.

I don't think that the OCM designers were actually all that involved in building axles around the true needs of crawlers.........................but the more I work with the axles, the more I think they got it right. As the narrow wheels become more and more available, the more it is shown that OCM gave the user the ability to use as much as the width of the axles as they wanted. I thought they f-ed up big time with the width at one point, but now I like the ability to be creative.





edit: Oh, and to the original topic. I saw "night and day" differences after clocking my front axle. My front hang-ups were often and noticeable, and since clocking, they don't exist.

Thanks for that, I'm only new on the scene and I don't know much about TLT's etc but now it makes sense.

On the clocking, I had to do both of my axles as i'm running 4ws so it was a pain but i think it'll be good to have the axle housing as the lowest part of my rig