Wheel weight or diff weight?

[PipeDreams]

Ok so I had this idea the other day after looking at my crawler. I love allot of weight on my crawler and my current set up has it all in the rims. My 8 shooters are packed full so much that the memory foam has to STRETCH over them. Now this thing hooks VERY well with a set of bad lands on it. Other crawlers I go out with are amazed at some of the lines I pull but I think it could always be better! So I got to thinking.... DO you think it is better to weight the rim it's self so the weight is as low as it can be (technically the center of all that weight is in the middle of the axle) OR weight the diff so that there is less drag and rotational force to over come on bursts of acceleration making it A) easier on drive train parts B) Much quicker on bursts of acceleration! What do you guys think and why?

These are the options I'm looking at for my new crawler:
Vanquish rims loaded in front and 4 in the back
or DNA carbon fiber rims when they come out with weight on the diff!

Both making it VERY easy to load up or take off weight as deemed necessary and leave the foam with as much room to work as possible!

Thanks for your input and I'm very curious what every one has to say!

P.s. I'll be running a Cobalt 7T in this new crawler!

[Stormin2u]

I like a pretty heavy rig my self but I try to keep it as low as possible. I like my fronts about 12 oz. rears 9oz thats wheel and tire no matter what wheel I'm using. I run the copper ring and pinion set (TLT) from RCP they are really heavy and batteries on the front axle. Then I try to minimize the weight in the rig as much as possible no free rides there.

I think you need both wheels and axles to carry weight for a good CG I'm 60% front 40% rear and thats probably more important than motor choice IMO.

[PipeDreams]

Come on guys there has to be more of you out there that have put some thought into this! I don't need to know what weight you run if any just where you would put it!

[Locked Up]

I run 15oz fronts and 11oz rears including the Cougars and they work well. I'm also running 8pack elite 2/3a saddles and no other weight added anywhere.

I'm in the process of converting to lipo and my new setup should free up about 2oz off the front axle. I was thinking about how to add it back on because I actually like the weight it is at, so I'm interested in this very topic. Overall the less the chassis weighs the better but I'm not positive what the best weight is for different tires to work and what the front rear bias should be.


I can say the lighter your wheel/tire combo the easier it is on the entire drivetrain. You'll accellerate and brake faster. So because of that I'd say stuff it in the diff.

On the other hand, some people believe it's better to have weight out on the wheels to help hold them down. If you cram all your weight on the middle of the diff when you lift a tire you lose leverage because that weight is further in, but the weight from the other wheel is also further in (closer to the lifted side) so that may be a wash.


I think the best case scenario is to run something like the Mayhem Double Phatty rims with 3-4 bearings, a lipo on the front axle and figure out a way to jam about 2 oz into the front axle, below the centerline.

[nathanschmoekel]

I think the wheels are the best place for weight. I try to place as much as I can close to the axel to reduce rotational mass. My latest method is to hot glue fine lead shot into the wheel recesses by the drive hex. That is in addition to "traditional" lead bars inside the wheel.
I only add weight elsewhere to setup the bias front to rear. I set mine up by physicaly balancing the vehicle on a point about one inch forward of the center (axel to axel) on my axial ax-10 this location is the forward edge of the skid plate. I like to be really anal about it...I use an awl pointing up in my vice and start with the wheels off ,but everything else in place including the battery and balance the thing perfectly till it spins like a top!!!