Slippers/Slipper Clutches - the start?

[rocketrob]

A little trivia for the day.............


Anyone around anymore old enough to know the advent of the slipper clutch copied and used in literally every electric vehicle today... who invented it, year, vehicle, etc...???????????

[Wraggy]

1st i knew of them was on the RC10 Worlds edition i think , when they started using the Stealth gearbox.. so would be 1990 i think, not sure if the Losi hydradrive was out before then ??
im sure someone will correct me if im wrong

[Northy]

But I think AE might have copied it from the RPM gearbox that was out before the stealth, that looked very similar......

G

[Gayo]

There was the Racing Clutch option for the Optima series in 86-87, and I think the Turbo Optima and the Salute had some kind of slipping device on the tranny, on the layshaft this time.
The Optima Mid (1988) had a slipper on the layshaft too.

I don't know elsewere, but here in France, everybody thought it was a useless device until the Worlds in Australia, back in 1989, where it became evident that you had to use one at least in 2wd, to be able to use crazy winds like 13t .
I may be wrong but I believe they were using the old diff system on the original RC10 tranny (on the spur) to have some kind of slip...

[rocketrob]

Nope......none of the above..........

one of you was getting warm, wrong vehicle though........

[Gayo]

Scorpion ?

[rocketrob]

nope...........

..........getting colder

[rocketrob]

WHAT !!!!!

Nobody?????????

[bender]

If I remember correctly the original Yokomo 834b dogfighter had a slipper on the sprocket that drove the chain to the front gearbox - that was mid 1984.


Edit: On further research, discovered that it was the RPS Wonder Dogfighter that had the above slipper, which technically was called a torque splitter (that's what they called it on the box), but works just like a slipper.

I honestly now can't think of any car earlier than the Optima Mid....

[rocketrob]

SSoooooooo.............nobody?

[rocketrob]

Created late 1980s to initially fit their own rc10 chain drive tranny, that really had no diff adjustment, Team Pit Stop soon after released them to fit the Losi JRX2........

.......while AE had a ball bearing slipper of sorts that was their only diff adjustment, that didn't really work, both Losi and Kyosho attached their spur gears straight to the top shaft and had a proper diff mounted low in the tranny.
While this design, still used today, allowed better adjustments it was hard to fine-tune at trackside.
Team Pit Stop's Slipper Clutch cured that, it had little delrin pegs you inserted in the bearing holes in the spur gear. And while the Losi and AE cars had been pretty equal to that point, the slipper clutch gave the Losi drivers a huge advantage and forced associated to do a complete redesign of their car from front to back.
The design was soon after copied by AE on their stealth tranny - and now most slippers use delrin rings on the spur gear instead of pegs - but now literally every car on the market today has a slipper in some sense or another than can trace it's heritage back to the original TPS model.

[bender]

So what year are you saying??

As mentioned the Mid Optima (1988) had a proper slipper (2 disks slipping against two metal plates mounted on the layshaft).

I remember having the slipper you mentioned on my JRX-Pro back in 91, but even the original JRX2 wasn't released until 89.

[Chris Doughty]

are the slipper pads we use now delrin? I thought they were some kind of fibre material?

delrin would melt now surely?

[Northy]

I thought they were ptfe?

G

[rocketrob]

Originally Posted by bender

So what year are you saying??

As mentioned the Mid Optima (1988) had a proper slipper (2 disks slipping against two metal plates mounted on the layshaft).

I remember having the slipper you mentioned on my JRX-Pro back in 91, but even the original JRX2 wasn't released until 89.

Well.............. I would venture to guess that the Optima layout you mentioned was a bit of a different deal; for one, being as it was 4wd and all.

I said "late '80s" - and thus, '88 or '89 fits perfectly into that whole scenario (btw, I was racing a team proto in 88).

[rocketrob]

delrin, pfte - not sure of the exact material......... but it's one that is plastic-based, has been, will be, et all.................

[93works]

here is a team pitstop jrx2/pro slipper ready to bolt on my rpm jrx2 when she arrives


and the first 834b 1983 had no slipper,the late 85 wonder dogfighter did and so did the rps-se edition