Shelf queens and oils

[newob]

Who leaves shock oil in their shelfers? Leaving shocks dry seems the cleanest option to me but curious what others are doing.

[Charlie don't surf]

Dry for me-

[RedScampi]

It varies for me. If the shocks are known to be prone to leakage - none. Otherwise I have oil in mine.

[jwscab]

I put a few drips of oil in to assemble and make them smooth, but that's all. Definitely not 'dry', but empty.

[Lowgear]

Either empty or a few drops of oil.

[newob]

I put a few drips of oil in to assemble and make them smooth, but that's all. Definitely not 'dry', but empty.

good point. green slime work well also.

[Coelacanth]

I'll vote for oil-filled...yeah they might leak over time, but that oil is the only thing keeping the O-rings and rubber diaphrams (in the case of Kyosho Golds, anyway) soft & supple.

I've disassembled decades-old Kyosho Golds and found the rubber parts inside almost as new as the day they were installed. Storing shocks dry will likely result in dried-out, cracking, or deformed rubber parts. Not that it matters for a shelf-queen, mind you...

[GoMachV]

When you pull a car down off the shelf to show someone the first thing they do is play with the suspension. So for me, its oil

[Coelacanth]

When you pull a car down off the shelf to show someone the first thing they do is play with the suspension. So for me, its oil

LOL I was thinking that, too..."Look at this rare, amazing high-end RC car model...but it handles bumps like a Tamiya Hornet! Boingy-boing..."

[Mad Racer]

I never thought of that.

Very good topic. Well all of mine have oil in them. As Marc said they will dry rot otherwise.

Yes first thing anyway does is play with the suspension. I also put in a steering servo. Dead or alive just to stop the wheels flapping around when picked up.

[Incredible_Serious]

As some here would attest, most of my runners have variable amounts of oil in the shocks..... mostly none

Perhaps I'm not the best to ask?

Alex

[Lowgear]

How about no oil but coating the rubber parts in green slime like newob mentioned?

[sheriff]

I'm no expert on the subject, but I imagine if a shock would perhaps leak, it would do so only under stress (getting used a lot)

If it's just sitting on a shelf, I'd have thought there wouldn't be a problem with leaking, due to lack of pressure on the seals.

[RC104ever]

Well, I don't have a shelfer per se but when my old RC10 came out of a box it still had lots of oil in the shocks and they hadn't leaked in 20 years. So I vote for oil filled

[Charlie don't surf]

If you ever build a set of HG clearbodies, build them dry or pay later-