4s shock tower question- are they as sturdy as 3s?

[Velodromed]

I broke the front shock tower on my 4s build yesterday. It’s actually the first shock tower I have broken in two years of bashing 3s cars. Before I buy another set of 4s shock towers, I’m wondering if anybody else is having issues with them? I did wreck my car pretty good but not enough to justify the damage, at least in my mind. Of course the chassis broke also… but it’s an older chassis so I wasn’t that surprised.

Next question is would standard big rock or granite shock towers work with the 4S arms? Wondering if anybody has tried it. Thanks y’all!

 

[SrC]

Curious, was the weather cold outside when it happened??

 

[Velodromed]

Curious, was the weather cold outside when it happened??

It was 58f. I was thinking about that also but it doesn’t seem cold enough?

 

[SrC]

Yeah that's far from being cold.
I had a 39F day and snapped a rear arm with a love tap on my Kraton last weekend. Yet all summer long, I beat the crap out of it and never broke anything.
I think once you get below 40F, plastic parts get more and more brittle.
I tend to drive more cautiously in the cold. And even still, stuff cracks and snaps . Is what it is.
Sometimes prior heavy carnage doesn't reveal a hairline crack, then later on, even weeks later it breaks like out of nowhere. Wondering why.
I found some hairline cracks and keep driving until it completely snaps. Sometimes later than sooner and vice versa.

 

[Velodromed]

Yeah that's far from being cold.
I had a 39F day and snapped a rear arm with a love tap on my Kraton last weekend. Yet all summer long, I beat the crap out of it and never broke anything.
I think once you get below 40F, plastic parts get more and more brittle.
I tend to drive more cautiously in the cold. And even still, stuff cracks and snaps . Is what it is.
Sometimes prior heavy carnage doesn't reveal a hairline crack, then later on, even weeks later it breaks like out of nowhere. Wondering why.
I found some hairline cracks and keep driving until it completely snaps. Sometimes later than sooner and vice versa.

I’m just concerned because this is only the sixth or seventh pack I’ve put through this build. I’ll gonna regular shock towers just to see what they are like. If no good I’ll order another set of 4s towers.

 

[dure16]

I bash all winter and I don't break too much more than summer

 

[RickRussell_CA]

I've beat the crap out of my Outcast 4S and haven't damaged the shock towers, or anything really. Everything looks like crap because it's all scored and scratched up, but nothing has structurally failed.

 

[Gedrick]

Yeah that's far from being cold.
I had a 39F day and snapped a rear arm with a love tap on my Kraton last weekend. Yet all summer long, I beat the crap out of it and never broke anything.
I think once you get below 40F, plastic parts get more and more brittle.

No doubt about that! Earlier this year, I basically only ran my Rustler in March and beyond, and I broke something nearly every time, hitting some decent jumps but landing on soft grass. It was immensely frustrating - shock shafts in particular, rod ends, arms of course - then the entire summer I sent that thing like 20 feet in the air and the worst I did was blow off a rod end. Now I've got a pile of spare parts just from those 2 months of cold back in the late winter!

I'll be babying my bashers this year when I take them out, if at all. Maybe some paddles to party in the snow but definitely won't be running max voltage through my cars either. Anything plastic and it'll snap like a twig.

 

[Velodromed]

I've beat the crap out of my Outcast 4S and haven't damaged the shock towers, or anything really. Everything looks like crap because it's all scored and scratched up, but nothing has structurally failed.

That’s good to hear. Mine could’ve just been a perfect angle hard hit and so forth.

 

[Hector_Fisher]

It was wisely pointed out to me by someone with an engineering degree in material failure that breaks don't usually happen all in one fail swoop. Those catastrophic accidents are usually like "oh yeah, that breakage was definitely going to happen under those circumstances." Like when i hit my buddies KEXB with my KEXB when i was going 30 mph. I didn't think "man, these arms just didn't hold up".

Rather, most breakages are from fatigue of an initial crack. Like some initial dent or tear in the material that over successive jumps and crashes continues to propagate into a crack, which then grows and grows until one days it fails. Often times that's during "routine operations".

For this case, it's very likely that you had a wonky hit a while back that creates the crack that eventually propagated until the breakage just now.
I just try to remember those words whenever I have a situation like "man, i didn't think that was a super hard hit???"

 

[Velodromed]

It was wisely pointed out to me by someone with an engineering degree in material failure that breaks don't usually happen all in one fail swoop. Those catastrophic accidents are usually like "oh yeah, that breakage was definitely going to happen under those circumstances." Like when i hit my buddies KEXB with my KEXB when i was going 30 mph. I didn't think "man, these arms just didn't hold up".

Rather, most breakages are from fatigue of an initial crack. Like some initial dent or tear in the material that over successive jumps and crashes continues to propagate into a crack, which then grows and grows until one days it fails. Often times that's during "routine operations".

For this case, it's very likely that you had a wonky hit a while back that creates the crack that eventually propagated until the breakage just now.
I just try to remember those words whenever I have a situation like "man, i didn't think that was a super hard hit???"

I fully agree and preach the same concept. But, as I’d mentioned, this was only my 6th or 7th pack and first wreck. I’ll just consider it a fluke and replace it. All good

 

[Tex Koder]

The standard 3S shock tower will fit/mount to the 4S chassis ,BUT it's of shorter height.. which will cause your suspension arms to droop too far (using those new 4S shocks, due to its longer length.) and bind up your driveshafts..
Just a heads up.

 

[Velodromed]

The standard 3S shock tower will fit/mount to the 4S chassis ,BUT it's of shorter height.. which will cause your suspension arms to droop too far (using those new 4S shocks, due to its longer length.) and bind up your driveshafts..
Just a heads up.

Good point. I have 6s shocks on my 4s build but yeah, could be an issue. Think I’ll try regular shock towers just to see. I can always limit the shocks a bit as well.