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However, according to MIP, the ByPass1 piston system solves the packing issue. Instead of using a standard piston the MIP ByPass1 uses plastic valves to control the damper fluid flow. This will only affect bound or rebound, depending on how you put the ByPass1 kit together. The piston is also an octagon shape, rather than being round and this is where the fluid will bypass when the valve is closed. You can also stack the pistons to tune when the valve opens so you can rebuild and tune these dampers like you would on full scale options from companies like KW, Bilstein, and others.
Currently we have the front and rear set up differently, as our truck tend to land rear first and we want the rears to control rebound more. So, the valves are on top of the pistons in the rear and on the bottom of the pistons in the front. Testing on pavement, though, this allows the inside rear of the truck to pick up on hard turns. A valving change may be in order, if not a set of swaybars. I’ll need to consult with “The Boss,” Mike Kojima on that one.
Not to be out done, RPM has sent me their Two-Stage piston kit for testing. They feel like this is actually the ultimate setup. Instead of having a valve setup, RPM has devised a system that allows the piston to come in two pieces. When in the bound phase of damper travel, the pistons are together, closing off some of the piston openings. However, once in the rebound phase of travel, the piston halves move apart, allowing more piston holes to open up and more fluid to flow by. We will be purchasing a second set of dampers from Traxxas and will work on doing a damper control shootout to see which one is really the best between the two. We're not picking favorites until we get lap times, so we’ll see who’s really on top in this game!
The next upgrade to the dampers was a change from the fluid that came from Traxxas to something better. We went with Team Associated's Factory Team Silicone Shock Fluid. This fluid the best on the market and was actually developed by Lucas Oil. Yes, the very same Lucas Oil that full scale cars rely on day in and day out. Honestly, I didn’t know that Lucas had their hands in the RC car business. We are currently using 40wt fluid in the front and 30wt fluid in the rear. Again, further testing may require us to step down the weight in the front and we may either mix the 30 and 40 weights or switch to 32.5wt fluid. This will be fully determined after the shock piston shootout.
Previously when we were racing at West Coast RC Raceway, project Slasher would never clear the largest jumps. It just never had the torque needed or at least enough “punch” to goose it over. We finally got tired of this poor performance and turned to Viper RC for assistance. Viper came through with their VTX-10R ESC and 8.5 turn and 13.5 turn sensored brushless motors. What’s really great is that now in addtion to our greater power and torque, we have motor tuning options that the OEM Titan brushed motor and VXL-5 ESC from Traxxas never had.
More power on the horizon!
