Kraton Tower to Tower Braces

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Brakemanbobsmith

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Arrma RC's
  1. Raider
  2. Talion
Ok I'm wanting opinions on a Tower to Tower Brace!
Good idea ??? Bad Idea ???
Just made a pair out of 1/4 inch round aluminum rods, drilled and tapped the ends to 6-32 machine screws and plan on drilling out the unused shock mounting holes on each front tower and drilling holes in both rear towers for screws so that rod is tucked up under the outside edge of the rear body mounts, there will be one rod running down each side along the roll cage from tower to tower and secured to the tower with a 6-32 machine screw.
Have the braces made but there is this nagging voice in back of my head that keeps saying "Is this a good idea" ???
I just wonder by stiffening things up where will the energy of a crash or bad landing be transferred?
To places it shouldn't and cause breakage? Or preventing damage by making it more ridged?
I'm not an engineer I just play one in the work shop LOL
Opinions Please? What do you think?
 
I think they're good. It allows both towers to share the load rather than focus it all on one tower and bend it. Also helps keep the chassis from bending and those plastic chassis braces from breaking.
 
As an mechanical engineer I can definitively say... I've got no clue either. the problem is we don't truly know the failure mode, I've seen flexible cheap traxxas plastic survive things it shouldn't have and i've seen aluminum bend like a wet noodle. However what i can say is i like a stiff chassis, not so much for bashing survival but for handling. I let the suspension do what it was meant to do, but YMMV.
 
I prefer one brace right down the middle. My reason is, I first did exactly what you want to do. My first nasty crash with two supports I wiped out both shock towers and cracked the rear dif housing. This happened because all the force of crash was transferred from front to rear tower. No tower flex is allowed with two rigid supports. I went with a single on my Kraton, Talion and Outcast without one single failure. And I don't pussyfoot my trucks.
 
I'm going to try a carbon fiber rear shock tower. The rear bends easily during a flip gone wrong. I'm hoping a carbon fiber will flex under load , but eliminate the need to add more weight without using a tower to tower brace.
 
I have a single tower to tower brace in the middle. I had to cut a strip of the body out right where the brace is. OOPS. I probably should have thought that through better. It actually looks pretty good, and I really likt the way it handles and have done at least 250 yards of cartwheels and a couple handfuls of big crashes and 10 times as many big jumps and I am doing fine.
 
Same thing here, one aluminum square pipe with carbon wrap...

IMG_20170419_002535.jpg
 
After bending the crap out of my chassis ,snapping braces and ripping of rear diff case I fitted one down the middle. It's been great no probs the only thing is with a couple fail landings on tail and nose hard the shock towers tent to bend. All good bash em hard and wrench em hard :D I'd fit one down the middle for sure !!!!
 
I'm going to try a carbon fiber rear shock tower. The rear bends easily during a flip gone wrong. I'm hoping a carbon fiber will flex under load , but eliminate the need to add more weight without using a tower to tower brace.
I have the CF tower in the rear, was bending stock every time it landed on the lid, but CF is holdup nicely.

Here's mine, a .75" OD thick walled carbon fiber tube
View attachment 10040 View attachment 10039
This one looks good. How is it attached? I was thinking a threaded rod down the center, and two small plates outside the shock tower and pinch it all together with nuts on the ends.
 
Hi there, I have two carbon braces installed just the way you described in the beginning and it works perfectly! My experience is that they have to be capable of handling both forces push and pull. In the beginning I had the carbon rods glued in with silicone but if you land on the chassis on a hill top it would rip the braces out on pull. Fixed it with epoxy and additional screws. Never had an issues since then and I bash HARD.
 

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I have the CF tower in the rear, was bending stock every time it landed on the lid, but CF is holdup nicely.


This one looks good. How is it attached? I was thinking a threaded rod down the center, and two small plates outside the shock tower and pinch it all together with nuts on the ends.

The tube is notched on both ends and only uses the tension between the towers to keep it in place, I also use a zip tie on each end to keep it from walking up the shock tower during bashing.

What fan are you using on your motor? It looks massive and I'm assuming it works great.

It's a Hobby Wing 44mm heatsink / fan combo and yes it works very well. Just came back from a beach bash running 16T, 6S and its hot out - motor was warm but I could keep my fingers on it.
 
I love them mudslinggers and they look great! Any chance we could get some feedback on performance, reliability, or effects on the drive train? Can they handle 6s? Nice looking rig...
Yes i run it on 6s 35c ...ballonning is à problem ..so i gorilla tape it with glue and i order o-ring to put on the outside ...also change diff oil to 100k/500k/200k ...it seem it hold pretty good for now...the diff is properly shimed and i do drill bit mods...the Time tell me if not...for now it s awesome on 15T pinion
 
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