Fazon Front/rear shock oil weight

Ours came with 3 shocks about half filled in the Granite Voltage. It is such a light weight truck, I just put in 25wt at all four corners. I am not sure what weight they are supposed to come with.

Hmm. This is the opposite of the way my Granite Voltage came out of the box. My rear suspension feels more dampened and firm than the front. It's generally a tad on the bouncy side as a whole, but I haven't messed with it because it lands jumps so well.

According to the specs listed on Tower Hobbies, it comes with 350cst shock oil which they say is equivalent to 30wt.

Weird that Tower Hobbies have specs that the manufacturer doesn't. OK, i'll buy 30wt and try to refill them.

Thanks!

Adding some info for future reference.

After getting some shock oil (TA 30w 350cst), i've replaced the oil on the rear shocks, and the result is exactly the same. so the problem was not that the rear shocks had the wrong (or not enough) oil.

So i've simply swapped the shocks front to rear, and now it's perfect! the front doesn't always bounce on every little bump, and the rear does not slap the ground on every little jump... they simply mounted them wrong on assembly.

So know we know the FRONT should be 30w, but the rear.. i have no idea, definitely much thicker.

Thanks for the help guys!

So I wonder if there's an assembler at Arrma that doesn't realize that all four of the shocks are not the same because my fazon voltage came with one front & one rear shock on the front of the car, and one front & one rear shock on the back of the car. Also the first real jump I hit (which I only got about 3 feet of air and a nice clean landing on all 4 wheels in sand) one of the rear shock ends popped off and I almost lost the spring.

I have since replaced all four shocks with G-Made XD 85mm Diaphragm Shocks. I assembled the rears with the 2 hole dampeners and filled them with 80wt oil and the fronts with the 3 hole dampeners and 60wt oil.

I made some passes across a very bouncy grass field at about 35MPH and the shocks performed perfectly.

After months more of these cars on the market, have we learned more?

I have two Voltage models. It seems all four corners seem to be the same so far as part numbers, spring lengths, and extended length.

However, one of my voltage models had both right shocks with low oil/ no damping and both left shocks were stiff as hell.

looking to soften the damping up a bunch, wondering what Weight oils you folks have used and liked.

I had issues with the rear being too stiff. There was not much oil in them. I filled with 40wt and it has helped. It's not as jumpy in the rear.

After some testing, 350cst (30Wt) at the front is perfect.
Rear is depending on the battery used, 500cst (40Wt) is good for smaller batteries, for 3s i would go 45Wt.

I just changed the shock oil out on my brushless Voltage to 45w oil from Team Losi.

Gonna run them this afternoon and will report back my findings. The stock fluid looked like gear oil from a bad differential. It was gray and shimmery and way, way thicker than what I've read was the original weight oil. Hoping the rear stays much more planted under throttle.

In theory:

Silly as it sounds, I believe overly dampened shocks have contributed to me blowing the diff cups when driving fast across bumpy surfaces that we see when trail bashing locally. The car needs to settle somewhere in the middle-range of its suspension travel when driven in anger (enthusiastically). This allows (1) hits to push the wheels upwards (compression) and (2) wheels to drop to the surface over dip (rebound). Ideally, we want to consistently be in contact with the ground if we're not flying. The stock suspension does not articulate ⬆or⬇ well with the stock setup. Both of our cars had very little compression at the stock weight.

When at full throttle, the constant cycle from freewheeling to sudden grip simply hammers the drivetrain. Those cups, being the weakest link, seem to take the brunt of it all. This has been magnified after installing Duratrax Lockup tires.

I am hoping the 45w works well in our NorCal climate. Of course, temps and terrain have everything to do with it, but we shall see....

Did you use 45 in the front as well? I think 45 is too much even in the rear. I changed my mind about the weights I wrote. 30/40 is good for flat surfaces and jumps, to actually absorb bump on rougher terrains I would lower 5 both front and rear.

Yonic said:

Did you use 45 in the front as well? I think 45 is too much even in the rear. I changed my mind about the weights I wrote. 30/40 is good for flat surfaces and jumps, to actually absorb bump on rougher terrains I would lower 5 both front and rear.

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I changed all 4 corners to 45w on my brushless car. The damping effect is significantly lighter than it was before. Hopefully it doesn't blow through the travel too easily. If it does, then I’ll probably go to an even heavier weight of oil but drill an extra hole in the disk and try that out. Science is cool, stay in school!

Currently I'm tempted to try 35wt at all corners of my 550 car then compare the two head to head since I have my boy with me this weekend.

If I have the same impression as you, I'll try the f/r combo you suggested.

What part of the country are you in Yonic? I'm here (37.9779776, -122.0310733)

So we ran them yesterday, went through a battery pack in each car on some sand stone trails and then another battery pack at the skate park. One car is on stock tires, wheels, and shock oil. The other had 45 weight oil in on all four corners, is on Duratrax Lockups.

The Lockups have their own damping effects and 45wt oil also made a large improvement in stability. The rear still had some of that bounding effect although I hadn't realized I didn't install the medium sized spring preload spacer, so it was dragging ass some and contacting the ground rather than using travel. That said, it was much better than stock.

Last night I setup both cars with fr/rr 45/35wt, similar to the suggestion by Yonic. I will report my findings if the rain stops. Weather was in the 56-60 range with good sunshine, fwiw.

Cool but wait, I said 30 front and 40 rear

GRspeed said:

. . . . Last night I setup both cars with fr/rr 45/35wt, similar to the suggestion by Yonic. . .

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??

Oooh wait, I'm an idiot... Did you say the firmer stuffs in the back!! Hahahahaha

??‍♂??‍??‍??‍

Well, I'll report on the opposite!!

Any updates on shock tuning adventures with the Granite Voltage? I noticed mine likes to throw the rear end up In the air over larger bumps now that it is running at the speed of brushless, and I’m interest in what you folks have been doing that might help smooth things out.

30Wt front, 40Wt rear - if you run mostly flat surface and or have jumps
25Wt front, 35Wt rear - for more bumpy conditions

I agree with Yonic's assessment of oil weights. I'm in CA and using TLR oils. Off-road I ran 45/35 f/r. The back of the car was much more compliant but still bounded more than I liked over lumpy terrain. Also unfavorable, it blew through the travel on landings harsh. Once reversing f&r shocks to 35/45, the rear was even more non-compliant off road, but the front really liked the lighter oil for better turn in.

On hard surfaces like street and skateparks, the 35/45 made a huge difference and the car was much more well planted. However, on sticky tires, it can flip it self over if you get agressive.

I'm debating whether to modify the shock discs with additional or larger holes and heavier oil.

OK 45/30... which brand?