Bypass Shocks

[Big Rocks]

Not sure if this would be best area, but anyone know if scale, functional bypass shocks exist for RC crawlers/ U4 rigs?

[TheLetterJ]

I've not seen functional external bypass shocks (though I do have a set of non-functional 3d printed sleeves that fit over the shock body, that look like 3 tube bypasses with a bottom exit reservoir hose.) Axial and MIP make "bypass" pistons, but they are not in any way position sensitive, rather they just allow you to tune compression and rebound independently. This can be achieved by running a delta shim either above or below just about any piston and I've seen examples where people just cut a piece of an aluminum can to do this. Gmade and RCRun both have reservoir shocks with built in metering screws, but all that does is allow changing the resistance in both directions simultaneously without opening the shock. Maybe a combination of these parts could get you close enough to be happy?

If you were REALLY handy with the TIG torch, you could totally weld some tiny tubing to an aluminum shock body and just use a screw for metering. I might even question if epoxy would be sufficient for the cylinder pressures you're likely to see at this scale? That would handle the position sensitive part of the equation, but coming up with a check valve to keep the bypass tubes separate in each direction could get tricky. Maybe just a spring loaded ball check? I'd imagine you'd need to run a very low fluid viscocity and much heavier valving on the piston to be able to make use of such tiny tubes. Way too tiny for me to try, but there's guys here on this board that are capable of it.

I'd love to see someone pull it off, though I'm sure it'd have to be a labor of love because the man hours involved in hand building a set would be totally cost prohibitive otherwise.

[MAC FAB]

A buddy of mine and I toyed with this idea, and the problem is being scale. You can't get sufficient shock oil flow through a .030 ish sized tube. We were going to use steel and solder them. Thought about doing fittings and using hose for the tubes. Then there are the check valves for the metering. Nope, not happening in a 1/10 - 1/8 scale format.