My spec slash class SCT

[andymac0035]

EDIT, the first few postings are a recap of sorts, I meant to post this sooner.


I picked this up a few months ago from JKRacing37 (clodtalk), I think his username is a little different here.

I have been doing decently with this truck and finishing mid-pack or higher since starting. I finished 2nd and 3rd a few times. I even had my first 1st place finish in qualifying heat and was top qualifier.





We have a "stock-slash" class at the R/C Barn here in Canaan, NH.
All trucks entered must use:

XL-5 esc
Titan 12T motor
stock chassis
stock suspension (excluding shock tuning)
stock shocks (not including springs/oil)
any traxxas slash wheels
any traxxas slash tires (including S-1 compounds)

You may use/change:

different bodies (must be SCT and full fenders though)
any shock oil you like
any springs you like
and tire foams can be changed messed with (more on that later)

You can't use any aftermarket upgrades except what's listed above. ^^^
Batts can be either 7-cell nimh, or 2S lipo.


The owner is also a racer, and his view is that tuning is not modding.

[andymac0035]

So,

The first thing I did with the truck was gear it up, as it was just too slow down the back stretch (18/83).
I bumped that up to 23/83 and that was better, but the motor just didn't "have it" and I bought a new one and broke it in and it's noticeably faster, I think I'm going to drop the gearing back down, as it's now still accelerating 3/4 of the way down the back stretch.

The v-treads were pretty decent (as far as stock tires go), and got a little better with the rears reversed, but I needed more traction, even with the battery moved to the rear.

So.... I was going to get some S-1's (softer compound), but I wanted to experiment. I had several sets of slash wheels and a lot of the BFG tires as well. These are notorious for being rock-hard, and best suited for street-duty or carpet. Well I noticed two of these tires were worn on the outer shoulder, seemed softer (S-1?) and were feathered too. Well, even though they were softer BFG's.... they were still lots harder than the v-treads..... so what to do?

Well, I took the little foam rings pro-line gives you for using their foams with traxxas wheels (to fill the step-down area of the wheel), and used just that for foam, leaving the main foam out, making basically a semi-numatic tires out of it, and gluing the pair up. I used normal BFG's up front and treated the feathering of the tread like a back-cut and tried them out. They ran well and were actually better the the traxxas v-treads, which was a pleasant surprise.

So this week I tried making another set of BFG's up with the harder compound to see if having them just a little stiffer would be better. It wasn't, but they were not horrible either.

Then I decided to work on the v-treads (rear only). I figured if softening the BFG's was good, softening the v-treads should be really good.....and it was! I borrowed a trick from the rock-crawling world..... and star-patterned the foams from the v-treads. and the end result was a set of tires that were much softer. I was so happy with how they performed on the track on practice night, that I didn't even bother bringing any other tires with be for that truck.
(I may even try this with the BFG's)

Here the pics, you can see the small foam rings used with the BFG's, and the star-cut foams on the v-tread's.

[andymac0035]

Another thing I did..... was to take a spare front axle stub, and file off the flange on the back of it, so that I could put a wheel/tire on it and mount it in my drill chuck. Then I spun the tire in the opposite direction it would go on the truck, and took a medium file to it and shaved it some..... rounding the shoulder on it, and also making a slight back-cut to the tread. I did this to all 4 v-tread tires. Really happy with it, how it bites between that and the softer foams.

Next up will be swapping the progressive springs in favor of linear springs.

Finished 4th (out of 10) in stock slash after that. Lots of competition out there. I dropped the gearing down to 18/83, and it was good, but I need to raise it some. Last time out I managed a 22.86 second lap (23/83) and today the best I could do was mid 23's and the track was really good too.

I had some linear springs (off a toy-grade r/c of all things) and decided to try them. They did pretty good, I may stick with them....not sure, I've got the traxxas white linears on hand too.

[andymac0035]

Got 4th place this week (12/1/13). I was in the hunt for 3rd... but couldn't quite get it.
I switched the springs for white traxxas linears.

We also did something special after the mains, we had a 2WD enduro....
Open to all 2WD truck, open or spec class.
So I pulled the calibers off my slash 4x4 and put them on my 2WD, boy those worked really good on it.

It was a 30-lap race and there were a LOT of us....like 12-16... or more... they had a heck of a time putting it all in the RT-4 (lap-counter) system manually. There were special rules too. You could only be marshaled if you stayed on the track. If you went off the track..... you were out of the race. So, you wanted to be quick, but not reckless.

I finished 7th.
I was pretty happy about that as I was a brushed stock truck running against both stock slashes and open class brushless trucks. I actually ran down and passed a pair of brushless durango's. I guess it's easier to be conservative when your truck's not that fast in the first place.... LOL....

[andymac0035]

(this post is current, thread all caught up now)

Great run with the slash this past Sunday. We had a LOT of entries, both the A and the B mains were full! I won the first qualifier and made the A-main no problem. Had a really good run in the A-main up against some really good drivers with well set-up trucks. Finished a solid 3rd and set my best lap time ever, a 22.5 second lap. I normally run 23-24, occasionally dipping into the high 22's.

Motor is getting tired. Needs a good clean-up and then probably replacement before to long. I have to hit the bushings with oil before every race now.

[DennisM]

Wow, a very rare vintage Traxxas Slash

[andymac0035]

LOL....... yeah... I know....didn't really see a better spot to post in.

[BMKTW2]

Sounds like a ton of fun!!!
Do you have any pictures of the race track and event?

[andymac0035]

Yes, but they keep changing the track lay-out, so this pic is not it looks like now.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Barn/300840908803

[klavy69]

that looked like a fun track and for a fun class. Looks funky...whats the track made of?

Todd

[andymac0035]

It's a clay track.
Looking at the pic, I would say that one was taken right after track-prep, which includes hosing it down. That's what it looks like after it dries, but before anyone has run on it. After a few races a dusty layer builds up, and they sweep it to the sides between rounds.

When they put that rhythm section in (the longer one on the left) it gave many of us fits, myself included. After I got the hang of it though.... I liked it a lot, and now miss it. I hope they bring it back.

[Typicray@rainmans]

I love the spec slash class. It puts everyone on the same level and reminds racers that it is sometimes better to tune the existing car instead of replacing parts and spending a ton of money to fix a problem that could have been solved through tuning.