another convert-limiting straps ROCK!

[microgoat]

After crawling on my rockpile this morning and whining for the 10,000th time about the rear tires rubbing the body, I decided to try a set of limiting straps, just to see what all the fuss was about. Most of the thread I've seen said stuff like "you should use them" without going into why, exactly.

Why, exactly, is that these stupid little nylon straps (in my case made from the wrist strap from my temp gun and some CA glue) are some damn fine performance enhancers!

Before: Rear tires rubbed the body. Annoying. After, no rub. This is the least of the improvements, but was the whole reason I tried them.

Before: Tire would wedge in a crevice and pull the whole chassis out of shape trying to drive into it. After, the tire won't go all the way in, and the truck sort of skips over the crevice. The straps keep that wheel from getting the whole truck into trouble.

Before: Too much artic in the rear would let the truck get tippy on side hills as the chassis rolls. Weight transfer from the uphill tire would let the truck roll. After, the uphill tire stays planted.

The whole project took a half hour, including making the brackets. Well worth the trouble. And they look cool ,too

[mikhail]

They look very professional for the time you have into them. How did you determine what length to make them?

[1BadJeepBruiser]

They definitely look very cool!


MIke

[microgoat]

I installed the straps at the top and left the bottoms loose. Since they're only CA glued together (very strong bond, try getting it off your pants sometime if you don't believe me) it was easy to position the axle where I wanted max extension to be and put the lower ends together.

Hint: do one side, cut off the excess material, then cut the same amount off the other side before you glue 'em up. That way you're not lopsided

[Tuffguy]

I know what you mean, when I built Tuffscale I designed the suspension to not have alot of articulation. I have found it will go almost just as many places as my other crawlers. It does lift the tires alot more though and might not look as impressive, but gets the job done.
Kevin

[TWINSET]

Do they work any differently to having travel-limit tubes inside the shock (under the piston)?
I had to do it with the Savage shocks on my old Boyer, never even thought of straps at the time

[microgoat]

Well, they're a whole lot easier to install. Since my shocks are inclined, it's hard to know for sure exactly how long to make the limiters without lots of trial and error and spilled silicone oil (plus I just rebuilt the stupid things and really didn't want to take them apart again). The straps give a harder stop than silicone tube, which can compress, but not as hard as a styrene or aluminum tube in the bottom of the shock, which can cause wear on the piston and/or shaft.

[JeremyH]

Looks nice. Cool chassis too.

[AYKBOBCAT]

Hey I was thinking of using straps like this on my TXT-1 to reduce the torque twist.... do you see improvement on torque twist too?

[roktoy]

You might want to try standing your shocks up more. With the falling rate setup you have, the axle probably wants to easily collapse (bottom) on one side and stretch out on the other side which probably makes for some strange behavior.

BTW.....nice limiting straps.

Jay

[Bsmooth]

Originally Posted by mikhail

They look very professional considering who made them

Hahaha.

glad to see some less complicated thinking going into improvng performance. I'd like to see a vid.