a little question about weight?

[Highmark]

I'm not sure I agree with that. Lighter rigs tend to do better in almost all types of motor sports. Lighter rigs will be more nimble. Balance of the weight you have is way more important.

Correct me if I'm wrong Jason, but you guys want your comp rigs as light as possible. Any weight you can loss without sacrificing strength is a bonus.

Sure a big ungodly beast with wieght thrown all over the place isn't as nimble as a lighter rig, but if you keep that wieght low it can be a great aid. Think; you can build a rig out of carbon or aluminum or titanium if you wish but if you have the battery setting 23" off the ground you're going to have a fun time getting over much more then a M&M. But as you guys have stated with the water trick- a well balanced rig with a low center of gravety works. Like I said you have to have the umph to back up the wieght-big ol' servos,motors,gear reduction and of coarse everything has to be beefy. In the same respect, My 2.2 tired jero wieghs in around 5 pounds loaded. Clods and Jugg go around 10 and they crawl at a higher level. It is ALOT easyer to build a better proforming light wieght rig however.

And uhh I gotta try that water trick

[MaxxZilla]

There is only two bad things I see about running BB's, one is the breakind drive shafts (allready said) and the noise of them rolling around in your tires.

[rockdawg]

As soon as i find a way to mount my battery packs inside my tires I'm goin to crawl all over you guys!

[Russell]

A few good points but as i have always said ,the lighter the better.
A ,lighter truck does not have to generate as much traction to move it forward therfore a heavier truck needs more traction to move it.Once you have gained more traction ,either by fitting larger or wider tyres you have then gained more weight and need to generate more traction.
A lighter truck needs less than a heavier rig so it can run thinner tyres which give better steering response ,more nimble trucks are more competitive in a full on series.
Running ball bearings or water in the tyres on a truck can give more weight at a very low COG ,but if the truck doesn't need more weight you go back to the first point i made.
A low COG is VERY important but at the price of extra weight is not worth the strain on your truck.
A heavy truck can bag up a set of tyres though, which creates traction but this can also be done by cutting tyres in certain ways as to soften the side wall and tread of a tyre.
Sitting your truck on its side doesn't mean you have a good crwler cause you shouldn't be driving it like that in the first place
Also if you do have more weigt in the tyres when you are about to flip over sideways ,if the tyre is heavy, it is more likely to flip than if you run lighter tyres.Just imagine balancing a broom handle ,easy,then place a weight at the end of the handle that is in the air ,once it goes over a little its very hard to stop.
Hope this is of some help.Hope i explain things ok.

[MaxxZilla]

Yea, it makes perfect sense. I think the best place to put weight would be right in the middle of the axle.

[firstumustcrawl]

wow thanx alot guys this really helped i relocated all my stuff and did a few other things and this thing crawls so much better now because i have all the wieght in different spots n the truck and its really nice noww

[zBigBadWolf]

BBs or water in the tires will also work against you, especially going down hill. Remember those things generate momentum which will actually equate to more weight to slow or stop than they physically weigh.

And, as explained, once your truck starts leaning over, the extra weight in the tires may cause it to tip over prematurely as your tire spins and sends much of the weight towards the top of the truck that is hanging in the air.

[jmirsberger]

i found that a light truck isnt that great i just finished a custom chassie and set up for my clod and wheighted down with 2 batts it only wheighs 7lbsand it is too light to gain the tractoin it need when i go to crawl half the time the truck just buncis around instead of crawling up but then again my diff's arnt locked.............yet

[Russell]

Originally Posted by jmirsberger

i found that a light truck isnt that great i just finished a custom chassie and set up for my clod and wheighted down with 2 batts it only wheighs 7lbsand it is too light to gain the tractoin it need when i go to crawl half the time the truck just buncis around instead of crawling up but then again my diff's arnt locked.............yet

Use different tyres or different shock set up.
Also a bad point about the ball bearings in the tyre is that when you are trying to get up a step and the front tyres are up on the ledge and the rears are still on the ground the ball bearings sit in the spot where you do not want all the grip to come from and thats on the back of the rear tyres,this will make you flip easier,same goes for going down a large step where the grip will be where the tyres will want to flip the truck end over.

[DirkDigler]

All fine points ladies but there is a balance with everything. Yes, too much weight in the tires can really screw things up but you can add and take away weight until you have found a good balance. I use bb's in the fronts and rear and I experienced all of the problems you guys are talking about but I have also eliminated all of the problems too. Sure, I could fill them up with bb's and the truck would be planted on the ground but instead, I used just a little to keep the front end down on the steepest verts. This mod also will work different on different based platforms, such as a clod or a TXT. The wheel base and track width will also come into play. You really can't generalize this mod and say "it does not work"! I wouldn't give up the bb's for anything now! It's a great mod if done right!

[jmirsberger]

Originally Posted by Russell

Use different tyres or different shock set up.
Also a bad point about the ball bearings in the tyre is that when you are trying to get up a step and the front tyres are up on the ledge and the rears are still on the ground the ball bearings sit in the spot where you do not want all the grip to come from and thats on the back of the rear tyres,this will make you flip easier,same goes for going down a large step where the grip will be where the tyres will want to flip the truck end over.

im playing with any of that yet becouse im still working on a rool cage so that should add the that it needs

[firstumustcrawl]

you guys have been huge help thanx alot.

[jmirsberger]

yup