BUILD/REVIEW EB48 2.0

[CliffP]

@CliffP

Looking forward to meeting you at the track! Always a pleasure to help others out, sometimes it's easier to sign up and race to get more proficient simply because there are dedicated turn marshals where if you're just practicing solo, you might spent more time walking down the driver stand than actually driving, ha!

Slower is faster... if you keep wrecking on the same section of track, then drive that area slower until you get a feel for it, then you'll naturally drive faster once your consistency picks up. Also focus on holding your line, don't make any abrupt changes to your steering, slow and steady movements with both controls, just hold your line nice and smooth and faster drivers will get around you, don't worry about getting in someone's way, then as someone passes you, try to follow their line for a few turns which will help you get better fairly quickly.

Good Luck!

Thanks and great advise. Thanks for the reply

 

[Billl DeLong]

So I've upgraded to V2 mod of the long link camber kit from Team Thornhill and happy to report that the front links get proper clearance after a full day of racing with full lock on the steering (with steering stop screws removed) just barely a scratch on the ball ends with front droop set to 117mm:

I'm not used to driving a car that can turn on a dime like this, while still feeling stable and smooth, I'm really loving this setup, thanks TEKNO and thanks Team Thornhill, feels good to be back in 1/8 again

Out of 25 drivers ( A->C Mains) I finished 6th overall and made the A Main, couldn't be happier for my first race day with the car! I was in the mix and finished #4 in A1 but struggled with traction rolls in A2, I plan to run some harder compound tires next week! There were also a handful of fast guys that raced out at Southern Nats this past weekend too, so this might be the only time I make the A Main for a while, ha!

 

[CliffP]

I am heading to TH today hope they have this upgrade in stock.

 

[Billl DeLong]

@CliffP, are you going to race tonight?

Not sure if they have the Long Link kits in stock, but I know they've been working hard on replenishing those kits every week, they are VERY popular right now.

I plan to get to the track around 5pm, looking forward to meeting you!

 

[CliffP]

@CliffP, are you going to race tonight?

Not sure if they have the Long Link kits in stock, but I know they've been working hard on replenishing those kits every week, they are VERY popular right now.

I plan to get to the track around 5pm, looking forward to meeting you!

Did not race. I am new at this so my goal is to get around the track without issue and then start racing. I am running 43 sec laps on a good lap so I am way off the pace. my plan is when I can run low 40s high 38/39s then I will race.

 

[Billl DeLong]

Did not race. I am new at this so my goal is to get around the track without issue and then start racing. I am running 43 sec laps on a good lap so I am way off the pace. my plan is when I can run low 40s high 38/39s then I will race.

43sec hot lap already?!!! that's blazing fast for a sportsman level driver, way faster than beginner level for sure! If you raced last night, then you would've had very close racing with Michael Vasquez, you probably would've beat him too.... the biggest difference between running open practice and racing is that open practice helps improve your consistency, and racing helps improve your speed. If you want to get faster, then you need to be racing so you can follow the lines of the faster guys as they pass you. It also helps when there are fast guys running during open practice but can't always guarantee that unless you race

Most people go faster during IFMAR quals because everyone's spaced out, then they usually drive like crap during the main when everyone is grouped tight together, the sooner you get experience running in tight groups, the better you will get, simple as that.

I'd be happy to work with you next time at the track too, just look for my paint scheme in my avatar!

 

[CliffP]

43sec hot lap already?!!! that's blazing fast for a sportsman level driver, way faster than beginner level for sure! If you raced last night, then you would've had very close racing with Michael Vasquez, you probably would've beat him too.... the biggest difference between running open practice and racing is that open practice helps improve your consistency, and racing helps improve your speed. If you want to get faster, then you need to be racing so you can follow the lines of the faster guys as they pass you. It also helps when there are fast guys running during open practice but can't always guarantee that unless you race

Most people go faster during IFMAR quals because everyone's spaced out, then they usually drive like crap during the main when everyone is grouped tight together, the sooner you get experience running in tight groups, the better you will get, simple as that.

I'd be happy to work with you next time at the track too, just look for my paint scheme in my avatar!

Thanks for the affirmation, it sure feels slow as most just blow by me in practice. But everything you said is right. I need to just jump in... I have started racing in SA at a couple of tracks but they are much smaller. Thanks again for the info and coaching. Looking forward to racing soon at TH. cliff

 

[LIV3FAST]

What are the advantages of Thornhill's kit? Does the 2.0 really need the links that long?

 

[Billl DeLong]

What are the advantages of Thornhill's kit? Does the 2.0 really need the links that long?

It all depends on what you're looking for. If you're a pro level driver, then chances are you're not going to need the added stability that the long links offer, but you can't use the long links by themselves because they will take away steering, that's where you need the 15° caster blocks to get back the aggressive steering that is dialed out with the long links, so what you end up with is a best of both worlds scenario with gobs of steering while still having a stable and easy to drive car, here's a few laps with the setup driven by Chris Allison who is also the owner of Thornhill, he's tried every imaginable setup configuration on his car and has spent months working on this setup when he had to shut down his track earlier this year due to COVID:

 

[Billl DeLong]

Durability testament of the AGF servo here:
https://www.rctech.net/forum/showpost.php?p=15693425&postcount=316

 

[Billl DeLong]

I've made a few tweaks to Chris Allison's setup, and this is working very well for me right now:

I'm far from the fastest driver in my area, but I managed to get into a 3 way tie with a couple fast drivers yesterday, hopefully I can keep getting faster as I make more adjustments to the setup

My combined average consistency across all 3 quals yesterday came out to 98.99%, this car is dialed!

https://trc.liverc.com/results/?p=view_race_result&id=2644062

All 3 cars are TEKNO, and almost identical setups on each car as well with very minor tweaks to suit each driver's preference.

 

[Matthew_Armeni]

I've made a few tweaks to Chris Allison's setup, and this is working very well for me right now:

I'm far from the fastest driver in my area, but I managed to get into a 3 way tie with a couple fast drivers yesterday, hopefully I can keep getting faster as I make more adjustments to the setup

The setup on the rear of your car is very interesting. With such a soft spring and the hub moved all the way to the rear, you've taken a lot of the support out of the rear. It looks like you've added support back in with a lot more antisquat and a much higher roll center at the C and D blocks.
Do you only race at Thornhill? That is a fairly unique track so I'm wondering if your setup will translate to other tracks or not.

 

[Billl DeLong]

The setup on the rear of your car is very interesting. With such a soft spring and the hub moved all the way to the rear, you've taken a lot of the support out of the rear. It looks like you've added support back in with a lot more antisquat and a much higher roll center at the C and D blocks.
Do you only race at Thornhill? That is a fairly unique track so I'm wondering if your setup will translate to other tracks or not.

I raced the RC RIOT last week at Fastlane near KC:
https://fastlanehobbies.liverc.com/results/?p=view_event&id=335857

I ran in the Expert 1/8 eBuggy class as well as 4WD SCT and I ran my mini truggy in with the 1/8 eTruggy guys which was a lot of fun!

The layout was very technical with lots of jumps at odd angles; not a single straight facing jump like they do at Thornhill. I didn't find it necessary to make a single setup change during open practice on Friday, they were watering the track every couple of hours and I seemed to have my favorite tires ready to go. Little did I realize that they would not water the track ever again so conditions changed to my horror. Somehow I miraculously qualified 7th seed in the A Main group without having to fight for a bump spot, but I struggled with the setup where I was constantly 1 step behind as the track got loose as temps dropped, wind picked up and it was no different than driving on ice. I actually broke my car during warmup of Q2 as my tail end whipped around when trying to line up for a large triple and I cartwheeled in the air.... busted the rear C-Block and rear diff case on that wreck. The on-site shop didn't carry any 1/8 parts whatsoever (I even asked if they carried TEKNO parts before making the trip which they confirmed, but they only carry 1/10 parts, doh!). Fortunately Braxten Culley had a spare kit and was able to sell me the parts I needed to get back into the mix.

I decided not to take any more triples nor take any big risks, my only goal was to finish without any more broken parts, ha!

By the A3 main I had made enough changes to where the car was somewhat drive-able, though everyone was struggling for traction, didn't matter what tire anyone was running, we were all skating around the track!

I went with +2mm offset hexes up front and +1mm offset hexes on the rear. Center diff to 7K, and rear diff to 3K, I stood up both the front a rear shocks on the towers to the #2 holes and went with the short wheelbase.

If they had watered the track just once in the morning like they did on quals, I know I would've done a little better, but this was my first time ever racing at this club so now I know what to expect for next time

 

[Billl DeLong]

Special thanks to Frewster on RCTech for this tip which I have updated the OP under recommended upgrades for durability:

SER903343 - Aluminum Swaybar Spacers

 

[Billl DeLong]

My Serpent order arrived over the weekend and I just finished installing the upgrade. Huge difference where the plastic spacers could easily be twisted by hand no matter how hard I tightened the set screws, after using thread lock on the aluminum spacers I can't get them to budge. Here is a BEFORE pic of the problem where the screws would tend to "pop" out of alignment:

AFTER:

*** UPDATE

After 1 full race day I am happy to report that the set screws remained properly aligned

*** UPDATE #2

3 full race days and the set screws still haven't budged!

 

[CliffP]

I want a set or two... thanks

 

[Billl DeLong]

Next upgrade I plan to start testing this week are "bump stop cushions", I've updated the OP with the following link, where these help soften a landing if you over shoot a down ramp, it will absorb some of the shock and reduce "chassis slap":

http://teamthornhillrc-com.3dcartst...8mT1E-Jdc-A5xfw6UwvWJlYlQjug58GDVjCT4ivZGK_8I

 

[TBuggy]

So these are like cushioned shock limiters?

 

[Billl DeLong]

Yes, they "limit" the shock travel so that the body of the shock cartridge is squished into the rubber before the chassis bottoms out. It will put some extra stress on the shock tower and pill inserts, but the trade off is reducing "chassis slap" which can be a HUGE difference in improving performance as well as saving your ESC from damage, too many hard chassis slaps can kill an ESC

*** UPDATE***
@TBuggy , here is a demo of how the shock cushions work:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=382097026317587

 

[Billl DeLong]

Very happy with the shock cushions, I'm running 2 sets of the Team Thornhill cushions on the front and rear, car feels nice and planted to where I can take more aggressive jumps with faster speed than having to slow down on some sections of the track.

I've logged 9 race days so far with this chassis and I just cooked the servo. I knew I had the EPA set a little farther but the servo wasn't making any binding sounds like most other brands of servos so I figured it was okay to have just a little extra bind, I wanted to get the most out of my steering as possible, but it was just a matter of time before the servo burned up, doh! I have another A80 on order and will make sure to set the EPA more carefully this next time!

Also happy to report that the SMC battery is still showing low IR after 40+ cycles

Thornhill is going to be hosting the RC Pro Finals in a couple weeks so only 1 race day left on the current layout... hopefully my A80 arrives in time because my backup Savox 1258 servo really sucks, ha!