6s driveline and chassis: What to upgrade

[sumguy75]

Just got an M2C chassis for my Fireteam. Looking at additional upgrades I might want to do when I change it out.


ALREADY DONE
Hot Racing front gearbox
Basherqueen towers and top plate
carbon fiber T2T brace
aluminum T2T brace front and rear mount
M2C front and rear chassis brace
Aluminum diff mount

Things I'm looking at:
- aluminum center diff cover
- Treal suspension pin mounts front and rear
- Aluminum rear shock tower brace

Considered a rear gearbox upgrade but I have at least 3 spare stockers I can use first. Is the Basherqueen gearbox worth the extra $ vs. the Treal? Any other things I should be looking to do when I replace the stock chassis with the M2C?

 

[SrC]

Many like the Vitavon gearbox/bulkheads. Are alloy bulkheads really necessary considering their price? I'm on the fence in regards. Little return considering their prices. Any Brand. Adding alot of weight to already the heaviest 6s Arrma FT platform might work against you. IDK. I am good with the stocker Bulkheads with ALL of my 8 Arrma 6s rigs. Very cheap to replace. Rarely ever breaking them myself.
My next upgrade list def. includes the CF BQ Towers and Ackerman plate. CF Steering top plate offers little/no benefit IMHO. Just CF bling... The FT's stocker EXB one is just fine. If you break or bend one, that is clearly very bad carnage due to driver error. Never bent any of mine. Rarely does anyone break these.
The Alloy center diff top cover and support is a worthy upgrade. Your center diff will thank you. With Any 6s Platform.
I already did the alloy FR/Rr chassis braces right out the box and my stocker chassis is still straight as an arrow still. Not running alloy Fr/Rr braces out the box will absolutley bend/tweak the Stocker chassis much sooner than later. Getting an M2C chassis when or only if I bend the stocker chassis.
I used CF tubing sleeved over the Stocker T2T brace. Perfectly fine and strong, a cheap mod that works. It won't bend now. Chassis stays straight, no tweaks. Did this to every single 6s rig I own. Except the Typhon, which does not have a T2T. As long as the FT caged body stays keyed into its Towers, body posts and the 4 chassis guide pins , no reason the chassis should bend. The body is structural support to the chassis.
Unless you are hitting a brick wall or doing very poor Big air sends, Poor driving, adding all of the many upgrades to make it bulletproof can work against you. All while dumping $500. + in bling. We all have different wallets. Just that some upgrades are not needed or worth it. Many do it just because it looks nice. But we all have different slants with our RC's. I like my rigs as light as can be, within reason I will carefuly choose the upgrade parts.
A few are absolutey necessary out the box for sure.
Good luck.

 

[Surchaufeur]

Exb diffs and a rear gearbox
The t2t brace going to bend your chassis a lot easier

 

[Moirae]

m2c drivecups

 

[sumguy75]

I think my issue is deciding if its worth it to keep bashing the rougher places I go. I wouldn't say I'm a great driver with my rigs, but if I'm in a landscaped grass area or dirt lot with no rough areas, I rarely crash/roll/etc. The dirt parking lot I was using has been getting WAY busier, pretty much I have to go before noon on weekdays or before 6am on weekends or cars are piling in for soccer practice/games/etc.
The only reliable place I have that I can bash almost any time and have plenty of room is full of wreck inducing rocks. A lot of the fist sized rocks are barely in the ground and break loose under the front tire just running over them and frequently sends the rig cartwheeling or flipping.
Have wondered if the bulkhead upgrades are worth it. I break the stock ones, but not that often. I don't mind adding necessary weight, but I do prefer keeping it lighter where I can. When ground clearance is not an issue I run the Backflip LPs and that knocks about 10 ounces off the total weight.

If I only bashed in the grass fields and dirt lots I use, I wouldn't need about half the upgrades I've done. But since I can't stay off the rough stuff....

 

[SrC]

Adding much alloy to certain areas becomes a bandaid approach sometimes. Carnage impact forces will just transfer to the next weakest link. Heavier rigs break way more easily, the heavier they get. By easily adding a pound+ and more in weight in many cases. Just the nature of physics.
Nothing wrong with replacing with many inexpensive stocker plastic parts, easily available. Driving skills getting better and better places to bash will absoluetly keep it in one piece and for longer. In the beginning many drive like crap, and feel it is an excuse to start dumping all that $Bling$ into their rigs. Myself included was gulity of this years past. We all been there. I have 8 Arrma 6s rigs here among the other 9 in all.
I could never afford putting $800.00 in alloy Bulkheads alone in all of my 6s Arrma's. Nor do I need to, as it turns out. I break much less now, Driving skills are key in regards. I would not say I am any Big Air guy myself. But have done so. Where I Run my RC's does matter to me most. I have different places for the different platforms I have. I learned to be more conservative with how I drive. I break way much less now. I don't watch the BiG YT'er influencers and go out doing the same. They break way more than many think despite their rigs being all tricked out with all that Bling. Much is just edited out. They just make it look easier than it is in reality.
Keep searching for better places to bash. It really matters. Match the rig to the best terrain for it.. You wouldn't drive an F1 on a dirt track or off road. Same with scale RC'ing.

 

[hobo]

if you can find a good place to bash you can get the most out of your rc thats the most important for me. I have upgraded kraton's and talion's but been running a stock kraton v5 for a few months now and bashing it as hard as my upgraded cars only thing that's broke is the servo. I am a good driver now so most of the time I land on my wheels and I also run in the same spot all the time so you get to no how to drive there

 

[SrC]

+1
Running the same landscape and terrain over and over , and you will be more accustomed driving there. It is harder to adapt driving skills and the rig in hand when you keep changing to many different places. I have great places that become poor during certain times of the year. I avoid them. I avoid rocks, and gravel altogether. Just needless wear and tear. You're just beating/"Trashing" (not Bashing) up your expensive RC. Many not even realizing they are in the moment. I absolutely avoid freshly Cut and Mulched grass fields in the spring and summer. It just trashes the fans and chassis' overall. Becomes a mess. Overheating etc.
But in the winter, these are great areas for me.
And I never run Skate parks anymore. I don't like the ones around me at least. I have no BMX dirt tracks nearby. It is not even a thing here in NYC. in CT I did like the BMX tracks they have there.
Yet many insist Skate Parks are the best thing since sliced bread. And there are just too many Skaters there. Like 24/7 here in NYC.
I leave that for KT to do, and prefer to watch all "his" fails.

 

[sumguy75]

I rarely send my Arrma rigs big, they like to break if it doesn't land perfect. I stick to my 1/8 scale 2wd Stampede for the occasional big jumps, it can handle it way better. If i avoid rocks and gravel i might as well sell my Fireteam. Anywhere there is dirt for me, rocks and gravel are there too, no way to avoid except bash grass only which is boring pretty fast or on road, not my cup of tea.

Thats why I bash my 2wd rigs 90% of the time. Way more durable, lighter than 4wd, lower maintenance, less drivetrain parts to break and plenty fast on 4s.
I think if i continue to bash in the rougher spot ill gear down when i do, may end up bashing on grass more often.

Maybe I keep an Arrma because this forum is awesome? Otherwise I might sell it and get a crawler!!

 

[SirCrashALot]

" The Alloy center diff top cover and support is a worthy upgrade. Your center diff will thank you. With Any 6s Platform."

That's for exactly the same reason i replaced the plastic bulkheads for alloy. There's too much flex in the stock ones, resulting in stripped diffs.

 

[sumguy75]

I never thought of rocks as being a problem other than don't run into the ones big enough to hurt your rig or send it flying. I had my 2wd Stampede for 8 months before getting my first 4wd rig and never had a problem. 1 protected diff (inside transmission case) and only 2 rear driveshafts don't have many places for rocks to cause problems. Its the center diff/center shafts on my 4wd rigs that end up getting destroyed. I melted 4 center shafts in 3 months on my Typhon 3s. A stuck rock ruined an aluminum center diff on my Typhon 6s (internal washers were embedded in diff cup) and motor temp was 248 degrees (fried, lol).

I assumed it was the small amount of space in the SWB design that was the culprit and thought a Kraton or FT would be the solution. I do have less issues than with the Typhon but still more issues than I care for. I was noticing Duperbash is almost always somewhere full of rocks like what I have in my spot but don't remember seeing him have similar issues.

If I try a few more "rock blocking" solutions and still have more trouble than I am willing to deal with, I could always do a Talion XL or Kraton XL conversion and just find some new places to bash, not easy to find good spots. I did find a couple of dirt rc tracks at parks in the local area recently. Not as convenient, but not more than a 30 minute drive.

Just want to get this thing feeling reliable enough to take it out as often as my 2wd rigs. Its an absolute blast when its running right.