Broken Losi parts

[Steve.T]

My meeting was cut short today with another losi part breaking.
So far this season I have broken 8 rear and 6 front shock towers and 4 front wishbones.
Being an F5 driver i expect to break more than drivers rated higher but this is getting ridiculous.
I have managed to put an alloy brace at the front to stop the wishbones breaking but the shock towers are still an issue.
I am using the carbon bracers but the towers still break.
At the rear they appear to break morewhere the ball stud goes in and also accross the "X" part of the tower.
At the front they crack where the body clip would go.
I do not want to change cars but at £14 and £8 a time ( rear and front) this is getting expensive.
Any advice welcomed

[Southwell]

Just the strengtheners stopped mine breaking, imho i would change cars, this chinese crap we now get is much more brittle than the Hot bodies stuff, for example.

[super__dan]

A couple of things, are you using graphite parts? Cos they are the worst ones, I run plastic towers AND wishbones, both MUCH better! With these I very very rarely break anything (I run tower strengtheners too which helped me reduce breaks from some to almost none, it was only front towers I used to ever do though).

Do you run the X Factory wishbone screws? They're not a gimmic, they genuinley work and save wishbones loads!!!

Lastly if you are breaking across the rear tower camber link screws you can brace the sides with a rear toe in brace like so.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...an/pics003.jpg

Also have a look at this thread fo other info

http://www.one-ten-rcforums.com/4wdr...ic.php?id=1540

[Southwell]

If you can find old style graphite parts with the big lettering then ull be much better off. Some small shops may still hold stock....

[ryan]

I think the main problem is that losi now uses chocolate in their mouldings. Everything seems to be very brittle and breaks very easily.

[ashleyb4]

I dont see what everyones problem is you must be some sort of animal sorry no offence but ive been running the xx4 for 18 months and have broken 2 rear towers no front and only broke the one front tower as i hammered it off the jump at the indoor finals.

A

[super__dan]

I went through a stage last year of towers, over 2 meetings which directly related to when the new graphite with the small letters came out. Ian's right the old graphite with the big letters is OK, but IMHO there's nothing wrong with just plastic, it's half the price too!

This year I broke 1 front tower (and brace) at South Shields when I ploughed into a crashed car at full tilt. And a wishbone at York where I landed on the corner of a jump into the wishbone. Both were fair cops!

[Steve.T]

Originally Posted by ashleyb4

I dont see what everyones problem is you must be some sort of animal sorry no offence but ive been running the xx4 for 18 months and have broken 2 rear towers no front and only broke the one front tower as i hammered it off the jump at the indoor finals.

A

Difficult not to be offened when called an animal.
However, I appriciate the view if not the way it was offered.
I have been running RC cars of some sort for over twenty years and I cannot remember having this breakages.This is frustrating as I am driving as well as I can remember.
Thanks for all the comments I will try some of those solutions

[minichamps11]

Originally Posted by ashleyb4

I dont see what everyones problem is you must be some sort of animal sorry no offence but ive been running the xx4 for 18 months and have broken 2 rear towers no front and only broke the one front tower as i hammered it off the jump at the indoor finals.

A

From another thread on Oople from a few months back

Ashley in the past few weeks, you have managed to snap the chassis down the side, break endless shock towers and now rip the entire side off the car.
I would hate to have your weekly repair bill.

Pot, kettle, black!!

Do you ever think about what you write before you post?

[dancoog]

I did two towers last weekend at Eden Park, both my fault as I was driving like a blind man.

After the fact when talking about it with a few of the guys Kevin Lee offered up an alternative.

Not too sure how but a bunch of the drivers have been drilling out the front tower from below and inserting a screw all the way up that holds everything together and cuts down on the breakages.

Kev if you are out there can you guide us through what it is you have done on your old rides?

[Southwell]

You drill up throught the upright from underneath and just insert a screw, like a shock mounting one. You need to be careful and have a steady hand or ull just go straight out the side

[Big E]

I have done that in the past but it still breaks, you just bend the screw as well

[Lee]

How brutal is eden park on the cars?

i have heard its a breaker but how bad is it?

[Southwell]

Id only expect a big snap off the table top and even then only if you go big, most people will be going for the safe option though i would expect.

[dancoog]

So the best advise is to use the plastic ones and not crash

note to self.... work on the keeping a buggy on its wheels!

[KevLee]

Originally Posted by dancoog

I did two towers last weekend at Eden Park, both my fault as I was driving like a blind man.

After the fact when talking about it with a few of the guys Kevin Lee offered up an alternative.

Not too sure how but a bunch of the drivers have been drilling out the front tower from below and inserting a screw all the way up that holds everything together and cuts down on the breakages.

Kev if you are out there can you guide us through what it is you have done on your old rides?

I had this idea at the first national last year when towers were hard to get hold of and i was breaking them as quick as i was fitting them. Basically you drill up either "leg" of the tower and screw a 4-40 screw. Not sure of the length but its at least 1" (i'll check). Counterbore it so the head is buried in there and its done. It really reduced my breakages and even if it does crack it'll hold itself together until the end of the run. As Ian said, it is important to get the hole central though.

I know the one i did for Paul Timberlake lasted a year before it cracked (and he's still using it i think!)........ in the mean time i think he has replaced every other part of the XX4

Anyway, thats enough tips for the wrong brand... i'm feeling faint now

[bigred5765]

i did this on our last front shock tower, i used two old diff screws drilled up through the uprights with a 2mm drill threaded the screws in and super glued them to, and added a carbon stiffener, still snapped it but matty got to finish his race,

[dancoog]

I know for a fact it wasn't Eden Park that was breaking my towers as much as my driving.

I'm definately going to be trying to drive a safer steadier race the next time I race...

[YoungChazz]

Help is on the way for both shock towers.

Writing from the hotel at the Hot Rod Hobby Shoot-Out where we have just taken delivery of the first run of a new part number, ES003. This is a neat CF brace that fits between the two ball stud “ears” on the rear shock tower, helping them not to break off. It’s similar to the ally part in Dan’s post/pic above, but it look bling!

In production as I write are three more E-Speed parts. Two of them are CF braces for the shock towers, with Ellis’ painstaking design work. The third is a cool new CF drag link with brass bushings which makes the steering a bit smoother without affecting the basic characteristics. Ellis can explain better.

All four of these parts look ace and the hand-made prototypes seem to work very well, so they should be great! Brian, Paul, and Alex will fir the ball stud brace today and test it this week. IF all goes well, they will be packaged and ready to sell by July 7.

The other three parts should be delivered shortly. We’ll check fit & etc, then package them, and should have them ready to go about July 15. All four parts will be available separately, and we will have a “package” deal for all together.

The parts fit the X – 5 of course, but all do fit and work on the xx-4.

All our fine U.K. dealers should have stocks.