Aluminum vs Brass

[Gamer707b]

Hi all,
broke my plastic axle housing in the back and want to upgrade. I will buy the Redcat aluminum and outer portal housing for the back Now for the front is where Im not sure. Being that I do both trail and rock crawling, should I go with mainly brass in the front or all aljuminum? I was thinking maybe brass c-hubs and brass portal housing with brass diff cover along with the 3 piece redcat aluminum axle housing. Is that too much brass or not? Should I skip all the brass and go all aluminum in the front too? Just curious on the Redcat aluminum. Would one say its about twice the weight of the stock plastic?

Also, besides redcat's own axle housing, is there a better aluminum axle housing from someone else? Ive heard mixed things about the 3 piece housing. is Treal's axle housing any good? Thanks for whatever suggestions you might offer.

[ferp420]

personaly when i upgraded my gen8 i went with aluminum portal boxes and the half round waights front and rear i like the wait bias of the rig and wanted to keep that as.close to stock as posable
i dont know anything about the aluminum axle housings other than there realy exspensive
i havent herd anything good about treal but there stuff looks good in the pictures
redcat has a new plastic axle housing out thats saposed to be alot stronger thats the way i would go untill the potmetal housings come out

the aluminum portal boxe is vary light its hard to tell the differance between the plastic and aluminum but the aluminum is still heavyer
i used some axial brass wheel waights to lower my center of gravity i dident want to add to much weight to this rig its already heavy the more you add the more you drag up hill with you and the more bite on the tires so its a ballancing act
the center of gravity is much better now

a pic of my weights for referance

[Gamer707b]

What are the "potmetal housings" you mention. Never heard of them. When and who is making them? Thanks for the tip on Redcat's improved plastic housing but I wanna go aluminum for the housings. Im just debating what aluminum housing to go with cause the ones from Redcat have mixed opinions. My other thing Im not sure about yet is how much brass do I want to put up front. When I go up a steep rock climb , the front keeps wanting to pop up. I might not even need a lot of weight up front. maybe just a brass diff cover. That's what Im trying to figure out. BTW. I like your set up.

[ferp420]

Originally Posted by Gamer707b

What are the "potmetal housings" you mention. Never heard of them. When and who is making them? Thanks for the tip on Redcat's improved plastic housing but I wanna go aluminum for the housings. Im just debating what aluminum housing to go with cause the ones from Redcat have mixed opinions. My other thing Im not sure about yet is how much brass do I want to put up front. When I go up a steep rock climb , the front keeps wanting to pop up. I might not even need a lot of weight up front. maybe just a brass diff cover. That's what Im trying to figure out. BTW. I like your set up.

potmetal is a term given to cast steel kinda like cast iron without the iron mostly steel and nickle they are still vary hard and slide on the rocks the aluminum housings will hang up on everything there soft and dont slide well



just add alittle brass at a time then test it just dont go crazy

[Gamer707b]

Thanks for your input buddy. Ive been sold on not doing aluminum axles and going with Redcat's heavy duty upgrade. problem is now, cant find it anywhere. Its all good. In the grand scheme , its just a first world problem. lol. I will heed your advice and put a bit of brass at a time. I was planning to go bat crazy with brass. Thanks again.

[Nogman]

Ive been running the treal brass in the front on 2 of my rigs (gen 8, and a gen 8 axled toyota rig) and im very happy with it. Good weight balance. C's+inner and outer portals. Havn't tried the diff covers yet since i dont see a practical upgrade from them other than weight. I run the aluminum portal set out back. Having the same problen with the housings breaking and havnt heard good things about treals or redcats al. Units. I just keep a spare hpusing on hand until i can get the hd set or more solid info on the al. Housings.

[fyrstormer]

Aluminum is a sticky metal and not suitable for axle housings, because it will drag badly on rocks. Brass is better, but plastic is best. The best arrangement is still plastic on the outside with brass or steel (for weight and strength) on the inside.

As other people have said, extra weight should be added in steps, until you get just enough weight to keep the truck anchored to the ground. Any extra weight is wasted money and unnecessary load on the motor. I usually end up with plastic beadlock wheels with steel rings, steel center driveshafts, and brass hubs or portal housings. A couple of my trucks have brass Beef Tubes axle inserts as well. You'll note those are the lowest parts on the chassis, which is the best place to add weight for stability. Any upgrades I do above the axles are aluminum or titanium to minimize weight-gain above the axles.

[Gamer707b]

Originally Posted by Nogman

Ive been running the treal brass in the front on 2 of my rigs (gen 8, and a gen 8 axled toyota rig) and im very happy with it. Good weight balance. C's+inner and outer portals. Havn't tried the diff covers yet since i dont see a practical upgrade from them other than weight. I run the aluminum portal set out back. Having the same problen with the housings breaking and havnt heard good things about treals or redcats al. Units. I just keep a spare hpusing on hand until i can get the hd set or more solid info on the al. Housings.

Im thinking about Treal's brass portal box with Treal's brass weights in the front.. That's the set up Im thinking but someone said that the brass weights are only compatible with the plastic portal boxes. Not he Treal Brass portal boxes. Any truth to that?

How about some Treal C-hubs? is there any tire rub with that or are they a good fit? Im thinking about going brass on the C-hubs, portal boxes and maybe some weights in the front.

With the axle housing being the Redcat plastic heavy duty revision for the front and back. And maybe some weights in the back for a bit of balance. On steep rock climbs , my Gen 8 struggles and the nose want to always come up. Is my wish list set up sound good? Or too much brass? I mix some rock crawling with trail crawling. maybe a bit more rock crawling.

[ferp420]

the weight bias of the truck is a prefferance thing everyone has there own idea as to whats right for them so your kinda on your own there
i went through the same thought prosses you are now i couldent decide what i wanted in the end i went with aluminum c-hubs and aluminum portal boxes and added weights to as low as posable that i went with the same amount front and rear
there are some bolt on weights that bolt to the portal boxes but i dident want that much weight and im happy with the results

keep in mind not only dose more weight make it harder to climb its also harder on parts your portal gears and shafts will break more and your bearings will fail sooner your wheels take more of a beating and your battery runs down faster

[Gamer707b]

@ferp420 you are right in that Im on my own in what and how to do weights. I just like to pick different people's brains and then go from there.

[Nogman]

The brass c's are the first thing ive put on both sets of axles i have. They work great, the shock mount is turned 90* from stock, but works fine unless you're trying to run ridiculous shock angles. I took one look at the stock plastic c's and i was worried they would b4eak easily, not sure but just the tall design looks weak, never actually ran the truck on em though.

[celticsun33]

Since I'm a machinist by trade I like to make any mods I can myself. That being said, I run an E10. It's pretty top heavy and liked to do back flips down hills. I wanted to put weight up front but didn't want to tax the drive train too much with wheel weights etc. I made a new servo mount out of brass. I also made a brass skid plate to lower my COG. Thing will climb up a wall now.

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[Flamnpede1]

Is there something wrong with RER11939 housings? Mine have held up so far and have 35+ miles on them. My son managed to break his RER11339 housing the second run.