Kraton RPM - Arrma 6s V5 / EXB A-arms!!

[Dan B.]

I might try shimming my upper arms, not sure how much benefit I'll see. I can't detect any forward or rearward movement of the arms on the hinge pins, but out at the pivot balls, OMG sloppy!! What I think is happening is the holes in the arms get hogged out. Rather quickly too.

Gotcha. You can tighten up the pivot balls as the plastic uprights wear, but only to a point. All of my rigs, on-road and off-road run alloy c-hubs, replaced as the plastic uprights become…crappy. The road cars mostly have alloy c-hubs from the jump.

 

[KnowAir]

Gotcha. You can tighten up the pivot balls as the plastic uprights wear, but only to a point. All of my rigs, on-road and off-road run alloy c-hubs, replaced as the plastic uprights become…crappy. The road cars mostly have alloy c-hubs from the jump.

I'm nitpicking for sure, as a basher, a lil freeplay ain't hurting nothing. I just get hung up when I discover things like that, LOL.

 

[Garcbomber]

I'd run the upper front arms to eliminate spacers, but unfortunately their injection mold set requires both upper and lower fronts to be ordered. Not losing sleep over it... EXB arms are tough and a great middle ground between flexible and rigid in freezing temps to hot summer in the tropics.

 

[RC Steve]

RPM V1-5 rear a-arms suck.
I'm actively doing an experiment on my Kraton V5. I'm using a V4 rear shock tower on the truck to see if mounting the shock farther out makes a difference. Preliminary results are good. I just ordered a M2C V4 rear shock tower so I can start doing big sends with it.

 

[332_RC]

RPM V1-5 rear a-arms suck.
I'm actively doing an experiment on my Kraton V5. I'm using a V4 rear shock tower on the truck to see if mounting the shock farther out makes a difference. Preliminary results are good. I just ordered a M2C V4 rear shock tower so I can start doing big sends with it.

Is the V3 & V4 Kraton rear towers the same wide type? I bought a used K6 V3 slider. It came with full set RPM arms. Yet to run it, still putting parts together, electronics, etc. I have a V5 Notorious & am more familiar with the V5 parts. Trying to learn.

 

[RC Steve]

I believe V3 and V4 rear shock towers are the same. M2C lists the shock tower I just purchased as V1,2,3,4 not compatible with V5.

 

[332_RC]

I believe V3 and V4 rear shock towers are the same. M2C lists the shock tower I just purchased as V1,2,3,4 not compatible with V5.

Thanks. If I have poor results from the RPM arms, they are the early version for a V3, I have a spare rear V5 tower & can get V5 arms. But good to know you are trying out the V4 tower w V5 arms.

 

[RC Steve]

RPM rear a-arms with a V5 shock are very consistent. They break 1 inch out from the inner hinge pin on the back side. I've been through a couple hundred dollars worth of their junk arms, I'm very familiar with them.

 

[Shadows]

Thanks for sharing that, it’s great to hear. I learned to hate the older RPM arms over time due to the excessive flex, the sagging, and the droop screw issue. The older arms should have had some sort of insert for the droop screws. They stripped far too easily and actually punched through on one occasion in my Mojave.
I went back to stock arms for every one of my off-road Arrmas.
I may actually give the new RPM arms another shake!

Forgive me if I didn't understand. I'm not sure about how your droop screws stripped, but if it was the arms, you probably know about stacking washers in the underside of the arms to give the screws a solid seat so that the threads don't strip through the arms. I use the translucent white nylon washers now. To adjust droop when they're already on, you can snip the washer (and with needle nose pliers) force it in place around the droop screw's threads. I learned to only use M2C's costly droop screws. The Hot Racing ones are overly hardened and shatter like glass when adjusting them from the top. Otherwise, the stock droop screws are...stock and do the job. Just not convenient at all to adjust. Plus they chew into the chassis' 'ears.' Another thing I discovered with RPM arms for V5, are that the screws for the shock pin holders stick out too much to accommodate M2C's thicker driveshafts, so to fix that, I used set screws to sit flush with the arms. Problem solved.

I've been considering the RPM arms for my Arrma's. I wish we didn't have to buy upper and lower as a set.. I want to try the front uppers. I'm tired of the Arrma slop. Their arms are plenty strong for my use, but the plastic wears too quickly at the pivot pins. Wondering if the RPM material is more wear resistant?

Maybe it's not actually wear of the Arrma material? Could be stretched? Either way, I'm not a fan of the Arrma slop. Corally either. My Xmaxx does not exhibit this slop, nor do my brothers ERevo or Sludge. One thing TRX has definitely done better with than Arrma or TC IMO.

To install RPM's V5 arms....you gotta sand those suckers. They will NOT need shimming lol. They need sanding trimming to fit in and pivot freely. That's where they have the stockers beat. They are THICK around those pins. I used a woman's emory board-type nail file from their beauty aisle in the grocery store to sand em' down to fit properly. If you do get them...just don't sand too much of course. Test fit as you go.

 

[slick2500]

I hear time and time again that the best a arm combo for these cars is Rpm V5 upper front and all the rest stock.