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.50 Caliber Customs makes some nice aluminum suspension arms. Both front and rear.

We moved the shocks up like that on our Blackfoot back in the day. But the biggest improvement like other's said is buying new shocks. Have you thought of telfon on the pivot point? I don't have one of these or the Blackfoot in front of me but I'm sure I could get it to handle. I actually liked the rear suspension better than the front suspension. With Thorp gears and nice shocks, we didn't see any suspension issues. However I can not stand those bulky plastic camber links on the front. Just my opinion!

BITD I used to race a BF. IT started out a POS, and after countless hours and $$$ it was still a POS. However, we made allot of headway and the whole process tought me an amazing amount about suspension geometry, drive shaft angles, and dampening.

Firstly, the binding of the suspension was the first area addressed. Like previously stated the overly large bearing surface adds allot of drag in new form, and only gets worse with time. Eventually we (my dad and I) ended up with ball bearing supported swing arms, that had no binding to speak of..

Secondly we looked into the Thorpe drive line parts. There were two big reasons. One because of durability (the stock hex drive parts were not raceable), and two it allowed us an important modification. The outer suspension mount (kinda key shaped) had its two mounting holes sloted so that the plate could be slid/moved forward giving the rear end toe in. This helped to hook up the back end of the truck. This mod however was only made possible by the Thorpe parts, as they were of a bogbone type and would allot the rear wheels to move outward slightly as the toe was increased.

Thirdly and MOST importantly. We made brackets that allowed us to move the transmission backward. This was done to straighten the drive line. The stock orientation has the drive shafts angling backward at a severe angle. This is very bad! This will cause the back of the car/truck to squat horribly under accelleration. By straightening the drive line, the throttle influence on the suspension is minimized allowing it to work to its potential.

Of course there were other mods, like AE shocks, better wheels and tires. But these changes are the key to getting your Frog/BF to have a real working suspension. -Jeff

i made some progress last nite.

the alloy rear "collars" that hold the arms in place have a "sweet spot", if you tighten them too much they cause the arms to bind, if you leave them too loose they cause the car to throw dog bones. i went through the entire rear end, re shimmed the drive cups with new orings and tried various amounts of tightening/loosening of the rear arm mounts or collars. it's much better now. i still need to get cvd's to make sure it won't toss them. with the suspension fully extended it likes to toss the dog bones.
i'm ordering 2 pairs of the short black cva's today, as well as the 12mm hex adaptors. i'm going to shim out the rear wheels a bit to try to get it as wide as the front end.
i'm really digging the wide arms i found. (pic in first post) i'll get the cvd's next time when $$ allows.

it's hard to justify spending money on this car, but i'm determined to get it to handle smoothly.

success! actually too much success. lol

the frog is so plush now. i installed a pair of black, short cva shocks front and rear. and now it's crazy plush.
now i need to play with springs, pistons and oil. this is a good thing.

the last parts arrived, cvd's and 12mm hex adaptors.

so the parts list of what i used to make a frog handle:

set of front arms from a super blackfoot, much wider then stock.
crp front shock towers
crp rear shock mounts
crp hd front bumper, incorperated into the front chassis
tamiya short cva's all around (stupid expensive for palstic shocks but they work really well)
yeah racing rear springs, 2 hole pistons
tamiya soft front springs, 3 hole pistons
centered the steering servo
custom tierods made from 4-40 threaded rod
blackfoot servo saver, soon to be switched out for an ofna/racer edge
tamiya cvd's (total copy of mip btw)
tamiya 12mm hex adaptors
tamiya m03 antenna mount
tamiya teu-101bkl esc and sport tuned motor. (poor little gearbox is no good for anything faster then a sport tuned IMHO)
tamiya dt02 wheels and tires, for now.

i'll eventually get a new body as this one got painted with the wrong paint by accident.
i'll most likely run jconcepts groovy's up front (or losi taper pins) and good old double dee's out back.

i'm glad to be done with this one, now i need a new project. next project is either going to be: df01 refresh and mod, tl01 or tl01b mod build or i'll finally get around to starting my rc10 ce new is old build.

kaiser wrote:the last parts arrived, cvd's and 12mm hex adaptors.

so the parts list of what i used to make a frog handle:

That's awesome you were able to get the suspension to work nicely, congratulations! It was no easy task, I'm sure. You were certainly committed to that challenge. I'd love to see some "Finished" pics.

If you don't mind, what was the cost of parts needed to accomplish that goal?

prices:

kaiser wrote: set of front arms from a super blackfoot, much wider then stock. FREE IN A PARTS BIN
crp front shock towers $6
crp front shock tower hard ware $5
crp rear shock mounts $5
crp hd front bumper, incorperated into the front chassis $6.50
tamiya short cva's all around (stupid expensive for plastic shocks but they work really well) $22.00 PER PAIR
yeah racing rear springs, 2 hole pistons PISTONS CAME WITH SHOCKS, SPRINGS I HAD
tamiya soft front springs, 3 hole pistons CAME WITH SHOCKS
centered the steering servo FREE
custom tierods made from 4-40 threaded rod $1
dubro rod ends $4
blackfoot servo saver, soon to be switched out for an ofna/racer edge FREE, new one will be about 10
tamiya cvd's (total copy of mip btw) $35
tamiya 12mm hex adaptors $12
tamiya m03 antenna mount FREE
tamiya teu-101bkl esc and sport tuned motor. (poor little gearbox is no good for anything faster then a sport tuned IMHO) HAD THEM LAYING AROUND
tamiya dt02 wheels and tires, for now. FREE, I HAVE A DT02 THAT I HATE

i guess it's not too much $$ but it seemed to much to me at the time because the car was a thorn in my side.

i'll get some pics up tonite.