Chassis bracing- consequences?

[bladefan]

What does chassis bracing do? From what I could tell from google is that the chassis acts as a spring and affects power and traction.
For our hobby, what does it do? As I understand it, it makes our clvehicles more durable. What does bracing protect and what would u expect to break if you didn’t have the brace?

I also understand that it may reduce performance? But I don’t understand how.
Thanks for all your input!
Ken

 

[Nicochau]

Chassis bracing prevents flex in order to protect the driveline. However, you are absolutely correct, it is at the expense of traction and all the extra weight onboarded for little to no added value.

If someone came up with a flexible yet effective driveline, we would probably see a new breed of light bashers replace current trend of heavy braced bashers.

It is interesting to see to very different schools of thoughts on the topic:
Arrma went with a racer architecture (flat aluminum chassis) they re-inforced.
While Traxxas went full plastic with the XMaxx and now Maxx architecture.
Two very different designs with very different characteristics and driving experience.

 

[Billl DeLong]

When I race my SCT410, I never run the center nor rear chassis braces in order to get max possible flex to get max possible traction. On the rare occasions where traction is so high at the track where I start to experience traction rolls, then I might install the center brace to take out a little flex, but I have never had to install the rear brace.

The trade off without the braces is that you will be more likely to bend the center drive shafts if you take a nose dive and fold the chassis like a taco.

If you don't care about the extra traction, then install the braces which will improve durability.

 

[bladefan]

Thanks for the help!