What's the advantage of 30degree caster frnt block carriers?

[LemonC]

Ive got short arms on my old rc10. Is there any technical advantage of running the 'front block carrier 30 degree caster', part # 6210?

they are black, leading me to believe maybe they are for the long arm setup on the more recent rc10 editions... but that is just my uneducated guess...

would i gain any improvements in my steering using them on my short arm set up?

[SteveK]

From the Team Car Setup article by Cliff Lett in the November 1994 issue of RC Car Action (it is probably in the scans section):

The factory drivers almost always use 25- or 30-degree caster blocks. Thirty degrees of caster will add some turn-in steering, but it will cause a little under-steering when exiting corners and on high-speed sweepers. The 30-degree blocks will also stabilize the car on fast, bumpy conditions. Using 20- or 25-degree caster blocks will give the Team Car more low-speed steering and more "corner-exit" steering. When you use 25- or 30-degree blocks, use two .031-inch aluminum washers (Associated part no. 6936) under the outer steering-link ball joint. This will keep bump-steer to a minimum.

The stock caster blocks in all kits for years were 15-degrees, while 5-, 10-, 20-, and 25-degree blocks were available as tuning options. I'm not sure why they didn't go up to 30-degrees until the early 90's. The 30-degree blocks didn't come until until the longer front arms were in use, so I'm not sure if the angle was too extreme to work with the shorter arms. The blocks are all the same design, except for the angle of the pin hole through the rounded part at the bottom (for years I wondered why they were molded like that).

They are black just because that is the color of the plastic they use now; early on they were white.