Shock Fluid / Diff Fluid? They Differ?

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SpinRush_C1

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Arrma RC's
  1. Typhon 6s
Hello. I'm still in the learning process here. Now, I'm in this room. I have a Typhon 6S and another rig is on the way. I want to learn about Shock Fluids and Diff Fluids. For my 1/8 rig, what is recommended?

I'm especially interested in Diff Fluids. I know where the Shock Fluid goes. I have no idea where the Diff fluid goes. I'm very clumsy right now. I would fill a Tesla up with a full tank of gas if left to my own devices.

Where do I start shopping for these things?

I saw one guy post this: I did fill the diffs up with oil right out the box!

I have no idea what he did, but he thought it was important enough to do it right away. I'm here to learn a thing or two.
 
Welcome. Go look around the forum, or even better, youtube. Don't expect that someone will type up an article on things that have been covered a million times just for you...

Diff fluids are in the differentials. There are 3 of them, one you can see (center diff, has a spur gear attached to it which meshes with the pinion gear on the motor) and two more in the front/rear diff cases. All of them have little gears in them, dunked in silicone oil. The viscosity (weight, thickness) of that oil determines how the diffs behave.

Edit: it's not that important, diffs can run completely empty. I wouldn't open them until I learned more about the truck and maintenance and stuff and junk.
 
Yes, the dampers and diffs both use the same type of fluid but the damper fluid will always be considerably thinner in comparison. A few have opened their 6s diffs to find very little or no fluid in them so that is what will be meant by that.

The stock diff fluid viscosities for most of the Arrma vehicles are on the low side for bashing. It makes for a very mild performing rig as you will tend to loose drive to any wheel or set of wheels not in contact with the ground. This also causes tyre balooning and potential tyre failure if not managed well by your throttle finger.

I've put 300k in my Typhons centre diff which immediately made a huge difference to putting the power down but considering going higher to maybe 500k for even more go..

300k is a reasonable starting point unless your running grounds are particularly rough and high centre diff visc makes it a lot more 'grabby' and unpredictable and more of a handful when putting power down. In which case I'd go a bit lower... maybe 200k ish.

My front now has 20k which was a further improvement for me (and my rear 10k (not tested yet) but I'm going to have a play about with different fluid weights until I get it to how I like it to handle..

For how the handling is affected by going lighter/heavier in diff fluids See https://www.arrmaforum.com/threads/differential-oil-weight-tips.1727/
 
Yes, the dampers and diffs both use the same type of fluid but the damper fluid will always be considerably thinner in comparison. A few have opened their 6s diffs to find very little or no fluid in them so that is what will be meant by that.

The stock diff fluid viscosities for most of the Arrma vehicles are on the low side for bashing. It makes for a very mild performing rig as you will tend to loose drive to any wheel or set of wheels not in contact with the ground. This also causes tyre balooning and potential tyre failure if not managed well by your throttle finger.

I've put 300k in my Typhons centre diff which immediately made a huge difference to putting the power down but considering going higher to maybe 500k for even more go..

300k is a reasonable starting point unless your running grounds are particularly rough and high centre diff visc makes it a lot more 'grabby' and unpredictable and more of a handful when putting power down. In which case I'd go a bit lower... maybe 200k ish.

My front now has 20k which was a further improvement for me (and my rear 10k (not tested yet) but I'm going to have a play about with different fluid weights until I get it to how I like it to handle..

For how the handling is affected by going lighter/heavier in diff fluids See https://www.arrmaforum.com/threads/differential-oil-weight-tips.1727/
I found this on the web. Was trying to make some sense of it. This information came from Team Associated’s website while I was shopping around for these fluids.

I’ll have a look at some more YT videos quite soon. Sorry to bother. I’ve been ordering things left and right. Just got my Gorilla tape and glove this morning. My Bat-Safe boxes just arrived like 10 minutes ago. I have another rig on the way. Trying to find alternative tires for that. I’m thinking I should order diff fluids and shock fluids for both cars at the same time. 2 birds with one stone. I’m trying to get up this learning curve as fast as I can.

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Have a look at what setups on YT which experienced bashers (like Rich Duperbash etc) are using on their typhons.

The lighter 4S or 1/10 scale buggies will typically use lighter diff and damper fluids so it may not be a case of your chosen viscosities working for both.

However... there is an oil viscosity calculator floating around on here somewhere which will allow you to mix x percentages thick and thin oils to reach your desired viscosities which should help you avoid doubling up on fluids for both rigs.

Another thing to remember is that brand A 100k visc will differ slightly from brand B so best to confine that to one brand if you want to be accurate and scientific about it.


Edit- See. https://www.arrmaforum.com/threads/stock-center-diff-fluid-weight.14477/#post-180261
 
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Go have fun with your new trucks - that’s what they’re for! Then come back when you break something! ?
 
Your on the right track and your asking the right questions. Drive, tinker, tear apart, rebuild. Repeat. Welcome to the show.
 
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