ASK Cubby – Great Questions, Terrible Answers

“Shocks

In one of your reviews you talked about how the shocks on a truck had a lot of stiction. WTF is stiction? Is that even a word?

Albert W.”

Cubby- Well hello there Albert, thanks for writing in. If you hook me up with your snail mail, I will hook you up with one of our BigSquidRC sticker packs.

Is stiction a word? Some website off a Google search defines it as a noun that means, “the friction which tends to prevent stationary surfaces from being set in motion”. So, if I had to lay money on it, I would say yes, it is a “word”.

I have supplied you with the dictionary definition, but why do you even care about it on your rc car?

Recently I got a new sliding glass door installed at my house. It was an uber one that seals really well. Of course that is awesome for saving on energy costs. However, it has a ton of stiction. For example, my wife has weak arms, so she has a hard time getting the door to start moving, but once moving, the door slides with great ease. I’ve seen my wife tug and tug on that door without it moving, then, once a bit more force is applied, it moves and slides super fast.

I am more aware of “stiction” from the off-road motorcycle world. Stiction on front forks has always been an issue. In rc, some brands of shocks have nearly no stiction, while others take way more force than you would think to get the shocks to move.

A good example of this is old school Losi shocks, which were always known for being very low stiction, which therefore allowed their buggies to be more supple over smaller bumps than other brands. If you have shocks that have a lot of stiction, you will notice it most over small bumps where your vehicle will simply “bounce around” more than when using very low stiction shocks.

“Best Servo For UDR

Cubby, nice mustache man, wish I could grow one that wicked. For a UDR, what servo would you use? My stocker finally went out, looking to upgrade on performance.

Shawn T.”

Cubby- Hey ya Shawn, thanks for the email.

On my personal Traxxas Unlimited Desert Racer I’ve been running a waterproof Hitec D956WP. It has loads of torque, good speed, and is nice and smooth across its sweep. I do a lot of driving in bad conditions (water/rain, snow, mud, sand) and the D956WP has shrugged-off all the nasty weather. The thing I care most about now days is durability (I HATE to wrench now days) and the D956WP has held up like a high-end servo should. I’ve done plenty of slamming around with my UDR and the Hitec’s gear-set has yet to die. Big fan and I think you will be too.

Have a question? Need an answer? Have a rant that you just have to get off your chest? Email me- thecubreportrc at gmail dot com.