Most important?

[BlueMonster]

I am curious...

On a TLT (or any crawler, even 1:1) what makes the perfect crawler? When building, what are the extreme things you go for?

Low CG? Is there such a thing as too low? Wouldn't you sacrifice clearance at some point? Assumming that, is there a perfect clearance?

Front/rear weight bias? Is there a ratio of weight that "should" be over the front axle vs the rear? Obviously most is on the front, but maybe there is a way to find the perfect weight... a 5 lb truck should have x amount of weight up front, etc.

Articulation? How much is too much, how much would you consider is required? I know 90 degrees is rediculous, so I am guessing somewhere in the area of 45 is just about right. Can this be controlled by a little fuel line inside the shock to limit travel?

Length/width? I know there are specs when following comp specs, but is there an optimal height vs weight vs width vs CG???

Link Length? Mine are slightly longer in the rear. The whole 60/40 deal; is that a literal 60/40 orjust a way to say the rear links are longer? What are the benefits to that setup? And why does it work better than equal length links?

I am getting ready to do some slight reconfiguring of my tuber, and figured I's ask some questions that might direct me in some areas I am not sure about. When I am done with this round of changes, it's getting a final "finish coating" so I want to make sure it is set up optimally.

I would appreciate as technical an answer as you can muster. I am not looking for a quick "do it this way", but rather a good understanding of WHY this works better than THAT.

[JasonInAugusta]

CG: lower is better. There are ways to lower the CG without losing ground clearance.

Weight bias: there haven't been any real measurements taken that I know of, but I tend to heavily bias any weight as far forward and as low as possible.


Articulation: Depends ~60 is good. Fuel tubing can be used outside the shock body to limit compression as well as inside (on the shock shaft) to limit droop.

Weight vs Width vs height vs CG: Too many variables to give a concise answer. In all reality, you could build the "ideal rig" according to what someone tells you regarding those varibles and it could still suck if the link geometry is wrong.

60/40: See weight bias. The idea behind 60/40 is to shift the weight of the chassis forward to bias more weight to the front axle.


It's trial and error.

Build, test, learn, rebuild.

[sicj]

I am not looking for a quick "do it this way", but rather a good understanding of WHY this works better than THAT.

How do you think we found out what works better? Trial and error. Try something different and see how it does. You find out real quick what works and doesn't.

Sure we have some "cookie cutter" crawlers on this board and that would be my only answer to what's popular, but those don't always work either. The homebrewed stuff almost always works better. Cause you have "tuned" the rig. Bolting it all together and not having to think about anything will get you stuck in a rut (pun intended)

The is no perfect but you can get close to it.

[BlueMonster]

Thanks guys. I was afraid I would see the "trial and error" suggestion! I should have worded it differently. I guess I am trying to verify what I think I already know, in form of a bunch of specific questions!

[K_B]

I think the perfect setup is determined by where you run. Which of course, bring into the trial and error factor.

I have two different setups (so far) that I use for various locations. Where there's lots of exposed rock, there tends to be steep climbs and very few sharp drops (for lack of a better term) and I run a "belly-dragger" setup with less than 3" of ground clearance.

However, I also run at an area where there's more loose boulders with sharp edges where a higher ground clearance with better breakover angle is necessary.

From the videos I've seen, it looks like you guys run on more loose boulders and don't have alot of steep climbing so maybe running with more ground clearance would be better for you.

There's also a good discussion about weight placement in the General Crawlers section started by DirkDigler. Might take some digging to find, but it's a good read.

Found it:

Balancing Weight