Felony Few suspension adjustment questions

[Performance nut]

So far I'm really liking the Felony. Good runtime with 5000mAh 6s (outlasted a 3s Typhon and a NiMH Rustler) and an all around fun car to drive. Though I have three complaints about it that I'm unsuccessful tuning out:

1. High speed steering is sluggish. Wow. I was really surprised about how bad this car turns. Throttle steering works well but when you start getting speed... forget it.
   • Throttle of course induces a ton of oversteer. This is not what I'm trying to fix. This concerns normal steering without inducing throttle oversteer.
   • At first I thought it was severe understeer so I tuned the suspension with a stiffer rear sway bar and rear springs. It helped but not nearly as much as I hoped.
   • It still looks like it now has a ton of high speed understeer but the behavior has some oversteer at low speeds (it is really touchy at low speed.
   • I cannot lay the front shock down any further but the back I can stand up one more tick. I'm also wondering if standing up the rear shock will double the benefit since it has a stiffer spring as well.
   • I'm also not completely sure if the compound is too hard. Running the stock tires still.
2. Stopping power is abysmal. This car stops like a slug. Even with 100% brakes on the ESC, this car seems like it is way to heavy for the stopping power it has.
   • Honestly I'm not really sure how to fix this since this uses engine braking vs caliper braking. The only thing I could think of is stiffen up the front springs to reduce dive. This won't be a huge improvement but all I could think of.
   • If a stiffer suspension is the answer, this contradicts what I'm doing for understeer.
   • Also goes back to tire compound being too hard.
3. Car will automatically do a 180 when going in reverse. This is a weird one. When you reverse the Felony, the wheels will suddenly turn to the left and cause the car to do a 180. This is without any user input to the steering wheel.
   • I tried this multiple times. It always will steer itself and it will turn the wheels left. With very little effort, the car will do a 180 really quickly.
   • Is this an AVS thing? I have never seen this behavior before.

 

[Liquid SSSnake]

I have a V2 Infraction, but I see the same things. I think the steering is terrible unless you're thrashing it around drifting. Try to drive smooth and it understeers like a pig.

The EXB servo saver spring helps a TON, I think the stock spring gives up at high speed. I hope to get my CLS6322HV servo today from Amazon. Someone put a review vid on a Felony... it's a way faster servo. I'm going to order a bunch of springs and swaybars. I'm going to try the route I took on my other street rc, hard and aggressive front suspension, medium rear to get neutral handling... then use the V2 ebrake to over steer.

Shock and Diff fluids are impossible to get for tuning...

IDK seems to stop fine with the 15T... ESC braking 100%. I'm gonna try to take note when I get stiffer front springs. If the Feloy has a rake because of the bigger rear tires then it could be more prone to brake dive.

The AVC will make it do that in reverse, turn it off or down, same happens with gyros.


Also if the ground is cold it makes the handling seem worse that what it is, I have to remind myself it was slightly better when I got to use it in warm weather.

 

[Performance nut]

I didn't consider the servo... I wasn't watching the wheels to see if they actually are turning or not. I am not sure if I watched the same YouTube video but a guy put on snap rings on his servo saver to give less play. Mine doesn't feel loose but that doesn't mean it is adjusted properly. Definitely food for thought. Thank you.

 

[Mr.Vylan]

"The AVC will make it do that in reverse, turn it off or down, same happens with gyros."

FACT

 

[Performance nut]

Arrma just wrote back. They offered 2 options, one I'm not 100% on but easy to do:

1. The nature of the beast is the downforce on the Felony is going to keep it going straight. What you could do is remove the wing.
   • This one I'm iffy on because it isn't doing 100mph when I'm trying to turn. I would think aero would be a relatively minor issue without the speed gear installed.
   • Though I will say that there is some logic to this as I can see the manufacturer wanting to make sure an 80+ mph ground missile would track straight by default.
2. You can also run a softer compound tire on the front. ARA550071 is a good option if you want to keep with the same style of tire and wheel as stock.
   • This was my earlier thought that would solve both the steering issue and the braking issue.

"The AVC will make it do that in reverse, turn it off or down, same happens with gyros."

FACT

AVC was something I wanted until I got use to the car. But with almost all driver assist technology, it usually applies to those who simply drive and not those who push the limits of the vehicle. I'll have to play with that next time out along with losing the wing. Both free things to try.

 

[Notorious J]

I am just replying to every post to try and beat @m_bash to the punch?

 

[parcou]

This is a good post I will watch I have a Felony as well. Please post your results as you test. I am doing testing as well but what I found as an issue for me that the rear end keeps spinning around even if I am making a slow wide turn it will do a 180. But the a$$ of the Felony easily spins around in most actions no different from what I do with the Infraction but it does not behave like this.

I have adjusted the springs and coils, slanted so lower in front, will try some weights that SrC suggested in the front. I have used white/silver hoons right now back to the white. It is cooler now so having a harder time getting to tires to get sticky...but I live in Memphis so in the hot heat here I still had the same issue with sticky tires with the Felony. With the cold right now, they don't hook up well so throws my testing off.

My Infraction v1....outside of cold tires I do not have this issue at all...well balanced machine on the v1.

 

[Liquid SSSnake]

I didn't consider the servo... I wasn't watching the wheels to see if they actually are turning or not. I am not sure if I watched the same YouTube video but a guy put on snap rings on his servo saver to give less play. Mine doesn't feel loose but that doesn't mean it is adjusted properly. Definitely food for thought. Thank you.

I tried snap rings, it wasn't any stronger it just make the "breakaway" travel shorter, which I guess gives the illusion that it's tighter. I actually unscrewed the servo saver instead of risking fracturing my wrist trying to wrestle a snap ring over a bolt, lol. Since I easily unscrewed it with an impact wrench I just added an EXB spring to an order.

I got the new servo it works great when I determined it's not defective.... It jitters, but that was because the factory kinked my antenna wire and new servo exaggerated the issue I didn't know I had. So I'm ordering spare antenna wires, I can't wait to actually drive it with the new servo.

 

[Performance nut]

I tried snap rings, it wasn't any stronger it just make the "breakaway" travel shorter, which I guess gives the illusion that it's tighter. I actually unscrewed the servo saver instead of risking fracturing my wrist trying to wrestle a snap ring over a bolt, lol. Since I easily unscrewed it with an impact wrench I just added an EXB spring to an order.

I got the new servo it works great when I determined it's not defective.... It jitters, but that was because the factory kinked my antenna wire and new servo exaggerated the issue I didn't know I had. So I'm ordering spare antenna wires, I can't wait to actually drive it with the new servo.

Wow. I never even looked at the antenna. Seems you learn more as you tear it apart. It just got heck cold here (was 70F when I tested before) so weather will definitely exaggerate the problems as the tires won't grip.

I'll do the free stuff to see what happens (if anything). If it doesn't work, I'll wait to hear from you on the servo and EXB spring. BTW, how did you provide counter torque when you used your impact wrench? I saw somewhere they use loctite and don't wish to break stuff.

 

[Liquid SSSnake]

I haven't tried this, but its free. On the upper front control arm move the spacers to the front. It should trade straight line stability for more grip. Not by much I would think....

Also, disconnect the servo and make sure the steering moves freely, the pillow balls can be easy to over tighten on the knuckles.

For the servo saver I just held one end with a towel with a gentle zap on the impact trigger, it didnt hurt me, there wasnt a lot of threadlocker. You can put the proper sized snap rings on that way too.

The antenna thing, I saw the kinks in the wire inside the box, but I never had any interference problems driving. The stock servo was fine, the new digital servo would jitter right away. Later I tried it in another RC and it worked smoothly... back in the Arrma I eventually found if I block the antenna with my hand the servo stayed steady. So I took the receiver apart and unplugged the antenna and VOILA it's fixed... (except for the range issue now, lol)

 

[Performance nut]

An update on my side. Got warm again so I went out to just test. Lowered the AVS gain and noticed a little improvement but it could have been my imagination. I cranked it all the way up and it was worse. So adjusting AVS gain is helpful if you have it all the way up.

Removing the rear wing did diddly squat for high speed turning. I'm not sure but it looks like low speed improved. Wasn't really paying attention to slow speed before though. So idk for sure.

For testing purposes I was at 50% throttle the while time. Was judging turn radius at speed.

My next test will be with the rear shocks fully vertical. I have some hope here as I already have the stiffer springs on it so I'm hoping this will change things up.

 

[Tw3ak3d]

An update on my side. Got warm again so I went out to just test. Lowered the AVS gain and noticed a little improvement but it could have been my imagination. I cranked it all the way up and it was worse. So adjusting AVS gain is helpful if you have it all the way up.

Removing the rear wing did diddly squat for high speed turning. I'm not sure but it looks like low speed improved. Wasn't really paying attention to slow speed before though. So idk for sure.

For testing purposes I was at 50% throttle the while time. Was judging turn radius at speed.

My next test will be with the rear shocks fully vertical. I have some hope here as I already have the stiffer springs on it so I'm hoping this will change things up.

Have you tried raising the rear (droop screws) to get more weight on the front tires?

 

[Mr.Vylan]

Have you tried raising the rear (droop screws) to get more weight on the front tires?

I've followed this thread too long...
Okay, send me your Felony, and let me test it for you.

 

[Performance nut]

Have you tried raising the rear (droop screws) to get more weight on the front tires?

Moving the springs/shock upper mount to the upright position added some height already. So its a two for one special: stiffer suspension since it is more upright and raised rear. Both should give more steering.

Honestly I may lower the back some. Has too much rake now. We will see.

I've followed this thread too long...
Okay, send me your Felony, and let me test it for you.

 

[Performance nut]

Ok it is done. I made two adjustments before I drive today so I can't say which is more helpful. First I adjusted the rear shocks to be more vertical which not only creates more steering but raised the rear which also creates more steering. Second I put gold hoons in front, silver out back. Later I am going to try silver in front, white in back.

Car no longer understeer. In fact I would say it has a touch of high speed oversteer. The front end really digs in on the turns.

List of adjustments:

• Stiffer rear springs
• Stiffer rear sway bar
• Adjust AVS between off and middle (to your desire)
• Removed rear wing (this really did nothing but it looks better)
• Adjust upper shock mounting point to make shock more vertical
• Gold hoons in front, silver in back.

 

[Tw3ak3d]

I suspect most of the change was from the tire compounds