Car setup tips for a new Freedom track.

[ProQuest]

Yes, bother to raise either of the front wheels. To raise a wheel will take a minimum of time and effort, and is well worth it.

An extended wheelbase will give your car added stability and is far more forgiving of alignment problems. If your alignment is not perfect (and few are) the car will benefit. However, the time and pitfalls of changing the completed car from a standard wheelbase to an extended wheelbase may not be justified by the potential gains.

The other thing you may wan to change if you are not already doing it, is to adjust you dominant front wheel to steer into the rail slightly. I shoot for about 1" in 4 feet. That is to say that when you roll the car on a flat surface you want it to roll 1" toward the side with the raised wheels over the course of a 4' roll. This is fairly easily accomplished by bending the axle slightly -- about 3 degrees. Install it with the bend at 12 o'clock, then rotate it clockwise to steer the car toward the rail. The amount of rotation is just a few minutes. Adjust it, roll it, readjust it, until you get the amount of steer you want.

Just some ideas.

ProQuest/Steve H.

[ProQuest]

ichiban said:

Whats the reasoning behind making the car steer slowly to the side with the raised wheel?

1) Is it to minimize the chance the car will jump the track if the raised wheel hits the center lane guide?

2) Won't the cars be riding the rail?

3) Should my nephews place the car toward the opposite side of the raised wheel at the starting line?

4) Should the wheel hub to body spacing be changed for any of the above changes? I have been using the pro-axle gage spacing on one car and a laminated business card spacing on the other car.

Thanks, Katana rocks!

1) No. The purpose is not to avoid jumping the rail. The rail is 1/4" high. You should have at most 1/16" ground clearance with the raised wheel. If you stick with that number (more or less) you won't have to worry about jumping the track.

2) Yes. The car will rail ride.

3) The staging placement you described is good in theory with a car that will drift toward the lifted wheel. But if the car in not staged perfectly straight down the track, it could drift a bit toward the dominant wheel first before straightening out and then drifting back the other way. That would not be good. Personally, I'd stage with the car centered directly over the guide rail. Just be sure to pull the rear wheels out toward the axle heads.

4) I use about 20/1000 spacing. That is probably somewhere between the pro-axle gage and the laminated card. But either one is probably fine. And no, the suggestions I made would not require any adjustments to the hub to body spacing.

I'm way not the final word on any of this stuff. But no one else seemed to be chiming in, so I figured I would.

ProQuest/Steve H.

[Parrot Racing]

Ichiban, this type of set up is called a "rail rider". The purpose is to ride the center rail on your dominant front wheel all the down the track. I use the pro axle guide to to space my wheels and should be fine. The theory behind is that the car will run faster if it stays put on the center rail, rather than bouncing from side to side off the rail. I would stage it as you would stage any other car and let it "steer" into the rail gradually so you don't hit it too hard and bounce off. If you watch the videos of some the extremely fast cars these builders race, you will notice the car hit the rail and stay put all the way down the track with no side to side action. Hope this helps.

Enrico-Parrot Racing

[Sappington R]

Great tips & discussion already by Proquest and others. The following is my opinion of why you want to set alignment to RR 1" over a 4' testing board. (And BTW, I have found the best Testing board to be a 4 foot glass mirror raised 3/4" on a perfectly level granite counter top, marked with Sharpies and a T-Square)

If you were able to have perfect straight alignment, which is extremely difficult to do, you would still have a tendency to hit the rail with either left or ride side of the car. Since you are riding a raised wheel, you want to avoid that side because the non contact/spinning/weight bearing wheel will cause more friction than the other side. Therefore, since you know that you will likely hit the rail, bias the car so that the only side that will hit is the weight bearing side or FDW. That is accomplished by aligning to stear 1" over 4' to the center strip.

I was taught this technique by races much greater than I and can assure you that most if not all winners employ this approach, even though it seems to be somewhat controversial amongst novice racers. Trust the experts on this one, but be careful to not over do it. One final tip is to narrow your front wheel base slightly less than you rear base- it will increase stability and improve your alignment.

I can tell you from experience that the builders posting on this board are the real thing. If you blend these techniques with some of your own, you will definitely see time disappear.

Happy Building & good racing.

[Sappington R]

I can empathize and understand exactly what you are going through. I had the exact same problem on my first car 3 years ago. What I ended up doing was taking out a lot of material from the bottom so that I could easily see and move the axle any direction I wanted. I did my best to hold it in place by hand while the super glue gel set. It's hard to do but can definitely be done that way. If you need to take them out, there's always super glue remover. Just be careful not to any of the glue on the other side of the axle. I think I ended up using a square block as a jig and had a lot of tape involved too. Don't be afraid to experiment.

Now, fast forward 2 years- I eventually took those wheels out, redistributed the weight, cut large holes and glued in a piece of wood doll across the base at the axle point. I used a lot of epoxy and wood filler, did a lot of sanding with a dremel and wha-la... a solid block for re drilling brand new holes. I named the car ReMIX and raced her last month at PWD in the Novice class. The modifications in this case really paid well, nearly .05 improvement. I believe you can see her pic. on this board.

Feel free to shoot me a PM if you need any more suggestions.


Sappingtonr

[Lucky 13]

Ichiban,
Am I understanding you right ? The dominate wheel is running in 1.5-2 inches on a four foot board ?, this is what you want !! Or is your raised wheel doing this ?, not what you want !! Did you bend the axle and use shims or just shims ? Bending the axle (IMO) is better. I set mine with the bend at 6 o'clock and move it counter clockwise to achieve the desired pull.

You can use regular white (school) glue to hold the axles in place. It will hold good and it's easy to break loose if you need to make adjustments.

Lucky 13

[Lucky 13]

ichiban said:

Information overload, must get sleep, ugh!

I just re-read the posts here and realized the cars were already doing what you guys wanted. The dominant wheel is steering the car into the lane guide so the raised wheel is furthest from the guide. I was trying to get the cars to track the other way.

ProQuest, congrats on your wirl win with ichiban!

Sappington R, I quickly search for remix and had no luck but thanks for the PM offer!

Now you got it !!!

[ProQuest]

proquest said:

An extended wheelbase will give your car added stability and is far more forgiving of alignment problems. If your alignment is not perfect (and few are) the car will benefit. However, the time and pitfalls of changing the completed car from a standard wheelbase to an extended wheelbase may not be justified by the potential gains.

ichiban,

Thanks for the congrats "Ichiban." Not sure how you accomplished it, but like Lucky said, sounds like you got it. The front wheel that is touching the ground is also the one that should be touching the rail. And 1.5" in 4' is not bad. Your alignment is solid.

I wouldn't worry whether the raised wheel angles up or down as long as it does not touch the ground. In fact, I angle mine down on purpose.

Elmer's Carpenter's Wood glue is what I use if I have a day to let it dry fully. It is really inexpensive and available everywhere.

I've never had any luck with shims, that is why I bend the axle that my steer wheel will ride on. Next time try this -- mark the axle .4" up the shaft from the head. Put it in a drill (or better yet a drill press), spin the axle at high rpms, and with a needle file put a small groove on the axle at the .4" mark. Be very careful not to file the journal portion of the axle (i.e. the part the wheel turns on). After creating the groove re-polish the axle. Then lay the axle on a piece of heavy cardboard, put the edge of a small chisel on the groove and give it a few taps with a hammer. You want just enough bend that you can see the axle is no longer straight. Install with wheels and rotate to change the steer.

ProQuest/Steve H.

[Lucky 13]

Ichiban, here is a link to Sappingtons "Remix" car. It was raced at www.pwdracing.com this month. pwdracing.proboards91.com/index.cgi?board=builderscars&action=display&thread=1200664216


Lucky 13

[jomo]

Those are awesome! I really like the 007. I can tell that my son has gotten me into a hobby. (I need another hobby like a hole in the head)

[ProQuest]

Ichiban:

WAY TO GO!!! Congrats on Pack wins. I have no idea what you are up against at districts, but your times sound very fast.

Unfortunately, I've never built a 4-wheel-on-the-ground rail rider, so I really couldn't tell you whether you still should rail ride or not, but my gut instinct says -- Yes, you should still rail ride. I hope some others with more experience on this subject would answer your question.

Sorry, for not being more help, but again, congratulations.

ProQuest/Steve H.