Cut shock bladders

[ianjoyner]

I noticed on rctech they are saying the US team drivers have been running with the shock bladders cut, to make the shock like a traditional emulsion shock. Have any of the UK team tried this?

Frank Root said it helped the car land better. I've found the stock setup a bit harsh on landings. I wonder if it's the same feeling that's led the US team to cutting the bladders that has led the UK team to 6 hole pistons?

[stegger]

Used to do this on the cat SX, haven't run mine yet but will give it a go after running the stock setup.

[Kit Jones]

I have tried this and would recommend leaving the dampers as standard (with bladder) and playing with oils and pistons first, then if you are still not happy try cutting the bladders. I noticed a very small difference with cut bladders but the shocks are much nicer to build as standard and are easier to build consistently, it is just important to build them with a minimal amount of rebound.

When you say it is too harsh do you mean it is too heavily damped? What pistons and oil are you running?

[Gnarly Old Dog]

Originally Posted by ianjoyner

I noticed on rctech they are saying the US team drivers have been running with the shock bladders cut, to make the shock like a traditional emulsion shock. Have any of the UK team tried this?

Frank Root said it helped the car land better. I've found the stock setup a bit harsh on landings. I wonder if it's the same feeling that's led the US team to cutting the bladders that has led the UK team to 6 hole pistons?

Firstly, when we received the prototype cars, the pistons were totally blank and no decision had been taken as to what the final hole configuration was to be. At that time, we were advised that the US guys were using 6 hole so that is what we drilled ours out to. Subsequently, they found 4 hole suited their requirements but by that time, we had already drilled ours and so we kept going with what we knew.

Secondly, yes, we know the US team have been cutting out the bladders but as they've also pointed out, they plan to continue testing both with and without as they continue to learn about the characteristics of these new shocks as we are.

I'd agree with Kit that for me (at the moment at least), the benefit of building consistent shocks outweighs the need to alter their performance by cutting out the bladders. I feel the 6 hole pistons we tested with are a good starting point (especially for the rear in mid config) and having used Nick's tapered pistons, these offer an additional tuning aid so I won't be cutting the bladders out just yet myself.

But that's not to say it's wrong Try it - if you don't like it, you can always get another set of bladders...

[ianjoyner]

Thanks for the replies. I've only run the kit 27.5wt 4x55 so far, the car was bouncing back off the ground after a jump and just generally took a while to settle down, I'm not sure if it was bottoming or just packing up. After Gnarly's feedback on Nick's pistons I've got some 5x1.3mm to try next.

When Frank mentioned bad landings in his post it just rang a bell with mine so I was wondering whether the UK team had tried cutting the bladders. I'll try Nick's pistons first and go from there. Cheers.