New updated Tamiya TRF 511!

[DaveG28]

Reversed the rear shock setup last night to put them at the back, and the back now sits much lower despite the settings theoretically being the same. Does anyone know if this is a usual effect on cars, I'm thinking it's had the effect of "softening" the rear, the springs are much more compressed at rest??

Haven't been able to actually try running it, will sort a wing today to try at Worksop Friday!

[Chris]

Originally Posted by DaveG28

Chris, I can scan in the manual etc but will take a while, may not get chance till Wednesday (when I'm off work!)

Is it possible to only have a glimp of the parts list?
I think my 511 is still stuck at customs.

[TRF_AK]

Has anyone got their 511x assembled and/or running yet? I would be very curious to get some initial impressions on the build and any track time you might have had. From what we could see, it looked like a lot of the changes were for ease of bulkhead access for diffs and the motor. I was wondering if any of the 501x bulkheads would line up on the new chassis.

[GRIFF55]

Dave had his running at the players. It looked very impressive

[DaveG28]

I did indeed have it running, never really got to grips with the track though and think it's possible I've tweaked something somewhere. Ran the 501 at times in practice and in one heat too and would say the 511 definitely has more grip and bite! I struggled for balance on it though and on jumps, but last week felt the balance/jumps were better, hence confused!!

Don't think bulkheads crossfit as the 511 bulkheads have more chassis locators!

[Gayo]

Originally Posted by DaveG28

Reversed the rear shock setup last night to put them at the back, and the back now sits much lower despite the settings theoretically being the same. Does anyone know if this is a usual effect on cars, I'm thinking it's had the effect of "softening" the rear, the springs are much more compressed at rest??

If the car has some antisquat, the shocks need to be longer when in rear position. Otherwise you loose much droop...

[DaveG28]

Originally Posted by Gayo

If the car has some antisquat, the shocks need to be longer when in rear position. Otherwise you loose much droop...

Yeah but the effect I mentioned last week felt much more than that. The car wasn't just lower at the back, it felt softer too, the springs were more compressed at rest. I figured it could handle less droop anyway while running indoor, a few times with the old car I had put the shorter shock shafts back on indoors as it sometimes felt better, mixed and matched front and rear too at times (long rear, short front and vice versa).

Then again, I didn't measure anything exactly, and am only ever working to find an overall balance so it could well be a mix of effects, especially given as far as I can tell the 511 does have more antisquat on the standard settings to the 501 (different rear mounting position).

It wasn't lack of droop affecting the jumping at the players either, it still felt fine till I smacked the back end up at the end of practice being an idiot!

[bender]

Originally Posted by DaveG28

Reversed the rear shock setup last night to put them at the back, and the back now sits much lower despite the settings theoretically being the same. Does anyone know if this is a usual effect on cars, I'm thinking it's had the effect of "softening" the rear, the springs are much more compressed at rest??

At a guess I'd say that it's because the arms are swept forward, which means the distance from the lower shock mounting hole to the centre of the car is less when measured at the front of the arm compared to when measured at the back of the arm - therefore effecting the droop.

Hope that made some sense

[veecee]

Originally Posted by DaveG28

I did indeed have it running, never really got to grips with the track though and think it's possible I've tweaked something somewhere. Ran the 501 at times in practice and in one heat too and would say the 511 definitely has more grip and bite! I struggled for balance on it though and on jumps, but last week felt the balance/jumps were better, hence confused!!

Don't think bulkheads crossfit as the 511 bulkheads have more chassis locators!

Hi Dave,

Do the 511 arms appear to have less carbon compared to the 501 arms?

Cheers,

Vincent

[DaveG28]

Hi,

Yeah it's a shinier more plastic look/feel as well as less material!

Setup wise at the moment I'm at the following:

Low grip/bumpy:

Front:
40wt oil
Med spring
Hard roll bar
Shock middle hole bottom, top 3rd in
12 degree castor

Rear:
Shocks behind wishbone
40wt oil
Soft spring
Hard roll bar
Standard hubs


Smoother/higher grip:

Front:
As above but 10 degree castor

Rear:
Shocks in front of wishbone
Otherwise as above

The bit confusing me is needing the extra castor to keep it in line, really wouldn't expect that with the shocks to the rear, maybe droop is the issue meaning it's losing traction in bumps?

Hard roll bar helps when using the soft springs for me. For outdoor I guess maybe 30wt oil instead?

[Fredrik Emilsson]

Why do you use roll bars on a low grip track? What positive effects do you get?

[DaveG28]

Originally Posted by Fredrik Emilsson

Why do you use roll bars on a low grip track? What positive effects do you get?

Well I could be being stupid, but a side effect of running soft springs at the back is that if I go into a corner under power I'm getting very little turn in due to the body roll to the outside and also weight transfer and dive at the back. I use the anti roll bar to try to reduce the body roll and bring a bit more sharpness back to the turn in. I believe it generally also allows more grip to be had from the inside front wheel as part of this too so overall corner grip also helped. Without the roll bar and with soft springs it becomes very sluggish to manouver! Ideally I'd use stiffer rear springs but with Lipo it just kills the traction for me to do so!

I use hard roll bar as I struggle to get any effect out of soft/medium tamiya roll bars at all!

[DaveG28]

Can anyone help by the way, am I going to get away with 40wt oil on outdoor bumpy tracks, or should I drop to 30??

Have heard contradictory advice on what to do at the rear especially when running lighter with Lipo!!

[AaronR]

There are many other oil weights to play with between 30 and 40 (Losi 30, 32.5, 35, 37.5). This past weekend I used Losi 37.5 front and Losi 32.5 rear for fairly high traction indoor clay at Tamiya Championship Series.

Dave, can you take some photos of your 511 for all of us to drool over?

[DaveG28]

Originally Posted by AaronR

There are many other oil weights to play with between 30 and 40 (Losi 30, 32.5, 35, 37.5). This past weekend I used Losi 37.5 front and Losi 32.5 rear for fairly high traction indoor clay at Tamiya Championship Series.

Dave, can you take some photos of your 511 for all of us to drool over?

Will try to get some sorted!

Yeah sorry didn't really explain my oils post, in the past I've used 30wt as a base for outdoor setups, was wondering if 40 is obviously too high? I've got some Losi oils, at the mo just 35wt and then others below 30.

[B44&501xRacerEX]

I'll probably update mine sometime this year.
Let see I'll need 2 belts, 4 front A-arms and 4 rear A-arms.
I'll probably have to order directly from tamiya.

I wonder how much different it will drive with the new parts on.
It already handles really good as it is now.

[discostu]

does anybody know were you can buy a 511 in the uk

[DaveG28]

Couple of pics at last!

[DaveG28]

Parts list at last:

[AaronR]

Do the three motor wires need to go between the upper and lower path of the rear belt like you have it or is there room to go below the lower path of the belt? Not a big deal, just curious.