Itching for upright shock and steering mod

[gillbily23]

I have narrowed it down to two choices and unfortunately one of them is not available at this time. I am stuck between the BMRC kit with the Traxxas bellcrank which is available at this time or the Irie kit which may not be available for a few more weeks or months. The GCM kit looks nice but the BMRC and Irie kits are both around the same price as just the GCM plate and hoops. I know that there is the SCX10 do it yourself shock mod but I want the rigidity and strength of the metal shock tower and most importantly the improved steering upgrade. So, my questions is should I wait for the Irie kit and keep trucking with the stock setup or is the BMRC kit good enough that I should go ahead and get it and enjoy it? Thoughts on comparison of the two.......

[ndi_guy]

Personally I would wait for the GCM/sr. Irie combo. That's what I run now and I've had both combos you mentioned. Really no comparison in quality and shipping from bmrc takes forever.

[Sr.Irie]

I am slow

[gillbily23]

Originally Posted by Sr.Irie

I am slow

Can't rush perfection right. Everything that I have read about your kit has been nothing but positive. I did read that there is some tweaking to the Traxxas bellcrank and BMRC kit but most have been satisfied with it as well. I just got the TH in a trade and it is a new kit built so I figured that while I had it apart installing the electronics and setting it up, I would go ahead and do the upright shock and steering mods. I am anxious to get it out to run it but still have to paint up the interior and install it. Other than that it is ready to go. I guess that I need to run it stock for a bit to get the feel for it and that would allow more time for you to get your kit back on the market.

[sherman918]

Maybe if u ask Sr Irie nicly he"ll send out the bell crank i just returned to him, unless someone else was already waiting.
I got the gcm/Sr Irie combo an works awesome

[Sr.Irie]

Originally Posted by sherman918

Maybe if u ask Sr Irie nicly he"ll send out the bell crank i just returned to him, unless someone else was already waiting.
I got the gcm/Sr Irie combo an works awesome

It is already sold and shipped out.

Originally Posted by gillbily23

Can't rush perfection right.

No perfection here I just have had a few things slowing me down. First was the product I am using for my new towers I have never used before and it has a pretty short shelf life (my fault did not ask). So in the time I was testing the product it was going bad and I did not know this. So I had to scrap all the towers I had done, order more, wait and start over. Because I did not know the good ones from the bad ones, they looked the same. Also my old drill press the motor burnt up so I need to purchase a new one. Without a drill press I cannot ream the holes in the arms the bearings press into. I live in a little crappy town that has no selection (of anything) and what they do have in stock is a lot more money than anywhere else. So I am going to wait tell I go to Medford next week and buy one there.
Don’t forget I am slow also.

[rockslyder]

St. Irie parts are worth the wait. I have had my tower and steering setup for about 6 months . We race here in Washington once a month new series just started.I got a 2ed place with my Hammer.

[gillbily23]

I decided to work with what I have in the mean time and found a shock tower in the parts bin that I think I pulled from my Nexx 10SC. I mounted it to the stock camber link mounts and had to trim it a bit to fit over the diff housing but it works. I had the stock shocks from my RB6 RTR in the parts bin so I decided to fill them and the rears with 20 wt oil seeing I am going to be using this for trails and rocks. No high speed stuff really even though I have a 8.5T sensored HW system in it. I did replace the stock spur with a Kyosho RB5 82T and pads and am using a 22T pinion. I have it locked into high gear because I don't plan on doing any shifting with it and would rather have extra space under the interior. Here is what I ended up with after I got everything setup the way I wanted, trimmed front and back cage, and got the body trimmed and painted.

[meatmonkey]

I've been abusing my Twin Hammers with the St. Erie bellcranks for about three monthes now. I've manged to break 2 Hitec 7950's and a 7954 in that time, but the bellcranks are still perfectly tight and smooth. I highly recommend the St. Erie bellcrank kit. I can assure you that it will be worth the wait. Just send St. Erie a PM and he'll send you a PM back when available.

The difference in high speed stability and amount of overall control has to be experienced to be believed. It turned my truck from a floppy, hard to control, POS into a straight as a arrow, easily controllable, machine.

I always considered the 1.9 Ripsaws to be a very good trail tire. How are they doing on something with more speed? Have you swapped out the stock soft foams?

[krazykrawler]

The color combo looks great on there.I actually like the parts bin shock tower.Thats how alot of the vendors on here got their start,by making something to fit another type of rc car.You may be onto something,lol.Looks like the TH found a good home.Also love the crawling area

[hotwheels000]

Originally Posted by rockslyder

St. Irie parts are worth the wait. I have had my tower and steering setup for about 6 months . We race here in Washington once a month new series just started.I got a 2ed place with my Hammer.

Who got 1st

I for one love the Irie bell, smooth and reliable. Not to mention the geometry is near perfect.

[gillbily23]

Originally Posted by meatmonkey

I always considered the 1.9 Ripsaws to be a very good trail tire. How are they doing on something with more speed? Have you swapped out the stock soft foams?

I am only running it around 15 mph max for very short periods. I am using it more for trail driving and rock crawling so I stuck with the stock foams and they are doing fine so far. I did drive it for a few minutes like a racer and it was fun but I don't have anyone to race with. I was out trailing with the kiddos and they were driving my JK and Zombie Driver SCX10s. I much prefer the 3-4 hours trailing and crawling with them then a 5-10 minute bash session by myself. I did kind of go with a race style paint job but there won't be much speed out of this thing in the near future.

[rcntncrawler]

I've been running the GCM front shock tower plate w/the Irie bellcrank steering for about 4 months. Both are excellent quality. My rig performs awesome.

I also highly recommend the GCM rear axle truss. It virtually erased my torque twist issues.

[sherman918]

Originally Posted by rcntncrawler

I've been running the GCM front shock tower plate w/the Irie bellcrank steering for about 4 months. Both are excellent quality. My rig performs awesome.

I also highly recommend the GCM rear axle truss. It virtually erased my torque twist issues.

I also teamed up the GCM rear truss with the GCM front tower plate an irie steering, an wow what a difference. I can actually climb steep hill with out it flipping over backward as much, an steering much improved, im very happy with the performace of these mods.

[gillbily23]

My St Irie kit is in the mail and should be here late this week or early next week. I am noticing a little slop in the stock steering already but it handles amazing with the setup as is. I used Traxxas ball ends to lift the rear links instead of dropping $40 on the GCM truss. I had plenty of spare ball ends in the parts bin so that was $40 I was more than happy to put towards other things.
I have made a few other changes to it like dropping in a Kyosho RB5/RB6 82T spur gear and slipper pads and replaced the 4000kv sensored motor with a 2800kv G Force sensored motor. I felt the 4000kv was a bit too much for my needs and I never really used more than 65-75% throttle with it. The new motor is super smooth and only cost me around $40. It was a good trade off considering I saved $40 on the truss and got a new motor instead!

[gillbily23]

Got my St Irie kit in the mail yesterday and got it installed, minus the upright shock mount. I decided to keep my tower setup for a while seeing I like the way the suspension works as is. I had some tweaking to do with the steering links because with the kit installed and everything centered, the wheels were turned to the right a bit. I now have one steering link longer than the other but the kit is centered, the servo is centered, and I am getting equal throw in both directions. I had to turn my dual rate down to 57% to keep the tires from hitting the shocks so the setup definitely improves the amount of steering and cleans up the slop.

[Sr.Irie]

Why is one steering link longer than the other? I would like to see a picture if you could because something is not right.

[gillbily23]

I am using a plastic Solar servo horn for mock up until I get my hands on the TLR servo horn hence the temporary self tapping screw attaching the steering link to the horn.

A pic of everything centered and as is.


Up close of the kit centered.


Left steering link


Right steering link

[Sr.Irie]

Have a feeling if you measure from center to center off both links they are the same or very close and could be exactly the same if adjusted. I believe the turnbuckles not being the same from the left side to the right side is what you are seeing. If you look at the right side the threads go almost up to the adjuster flats. Then on the left they are much further away from the adjuster flats.

[maxbonv]

Fortunately I realized the modification kit that I need, without having to buy and wait for Others









Shock tower in steel Inox 304 laser cut, Steering modification with 4 ball bearings.