ASK Cub Reporter- 08.25.2011- Who Blew Up My Email?

Cubby– To start things off today I must say congratulations to Chris D. for winning my Electrix Boost buggy last night. BigSquid held the contest over on Facebook where whoever was the 100th poster won my Boost and the 100th reply was from Chris. So congrats Chris, I hope you enjoy my Boost! If you didn’t win last night no need to fret, we’ve got a LOT more contests coming your way!

Now on to the questions…

Dear Mr Cubby I am from Dallas and want to get into the rc hobby. For years I have been wanting to build a car from the ground up as a kit but after looking at current models most seem to be already built. Is there a kit on the market that you can recommend to me?

Jeremy

Cubby– Hummm…. you didn’t mention many parameters on what you are looking for, you seem to be leaving your entire buying decision to what I recommend. So… what would I recommend to a swing’n guy like you from Dallas?

Everything in Texas is big right? Of course it is, so I’m going to recommend to you the HPI 5B SS Kit. While not cheap, the 5B SS is a worthy performer, anvil tough (just watch our YouTube video of us bouncing one off a street sign), and is a lot of fun to build. Because it’s a 5th scaler all the parts (and fasteners) are nice and big and easy to see, and of course the HPI instructions are right on the mark. Once finished you’ll have a Texas size rc car to play with.

Btw, make sure you have Plenty of bench space cleared off before you start the build. Before you are done your entire work space will be filled with plenty of HPI off-road goodness! 🙂

There is no way you are going to answer this question but what the heck I’ll give this a shot. I bought a Speed Passion SP2 truck because of your review and I was wondern how do I know when I have the slipper adjusted right? I drive on the street but some in the yard. I read your stuff every week thanks cubby!!!!

Dixon W.

Cubby– Well hello there Dixon.

I wish you would have mentioned how you have been getting along with your new SP2, I mean it never hurts to have consumers back up our testing. During our testing period ours was tough and quite fast, I hope you are having a great time with yours.

So just how do you know when you have a slipper adjusted correctly?

Lets do the worst case scenarios first.

What happens if the slipper is too loose? If the slipper is too loose it will get too hot and not transfer maximum power to the wheels.

What happens if the slipper is too tight? When it’s way too tight every bit of shock/force is transmitted through the entire drivetrain. This can result in broken driveline parts like the spur, idler, cvd’s, etc. This condition can also make your car/buggy/truck harder to drive, especially coming out of corners, jump landings, and from a dead stop.

So how do you know when you have it properly adjusted? At the very least the slipper needs to slip when landing from jumps. From a dead stop you typically don’t want it to slip for more than a foot. If it slips for more than a foot you won’t be able to pop wheelies (the SP2 comes with a wheelie bar) and the slipper will get too hot. Start with the slipper too tight and back it off slowly till you have it adjusted to slip when you want it to (and it doesn’t get too hot). This takes practice, but it’s best to error on too tight if you must.

Don’t forget you’ll need to re-adjust the slipper for different levels of traction. For instance, if you set your trucks slipper on a pavement then go to a slick dirt track more than likely your slipper will be too tight. If you set your slipper on loose dirt more than likely it will slip far too much on pavement. Yes it takes some time, and yes it takes come practice, but I can assure you it isn’t rocket science, you will be a pro at it in a few short runs.

That’s a wrap for this week. Send me your questions, comments, jokes, and ornery ramblings to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com!

YOUR Cub Reporter