ASK Cubby- Your Astute Questions, More Of My Malarkey

Bash

Hi Cubby, I am looking forward to meeting you at the bash in St Charles next weekend. I have never attended one of your bashes before, what should I expect? Is there anything special I need to bring?

Barney N.”

Cubby- Well hello there Barney, you don’t see that name used a lot now days.

That is cool that you will be making our bash on Saturday June 17th at the HobbyTown USA in St Charles Illinois. I personally won’t be there as I will be in Mt. Morris Pennsylvania for the AMA national, but we’ll have a bunch of our BSRC Bash Crew there.

As far as what to expect at the bash, here ya go.

1. You can count on it being a laid back atmosphere. Most everyone that shows up knows that raising a voice or throwing a fit simply isn’t cool. So… expect to have a good time without worry of some A-hole going off the deep end.

2. World record long jump holder Paul Bludgen will be there, along with our Bash Crew guys, and I expect the legendary Xerxes to make an appearance. Who is Xerxes? Well, he is a gnar-core basher who is extremely good at the types of events we hold and should be considered the guy to beat. You will recognize him by his giant ICP necklace (I am not kidding). When you see him, tell him I said hello.

3. Lots of prizes. Ooopss, let me correct that. A L O T of prizes!!! You will have a great shot at taking home some free stuff. But wait, it gets even better! We will be giving away a brand new Traxxas TRX-4 Scale & Trail Crawler, as well as our review ARRMA Outcast stunt truck. So be prepared to take home more stuff than you came with.

4. What to bring with you? Bring a chair and an EZ up for shade as everyone will be pitting in a parking lot. There will be tables set up with AC power to run your chargers off of, although you don’t do a whole lot of charging at a bash. Oh and, bring a lot of cars and plenty of tools. It is easier and faster to grab another car for the next event than to attempt to fully rebuild a car you just destroyed.

5. Bring $10 as that is the entry fee. No, we aren’t sticking that into our pockets as all proceeds are going to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

There ya go brah. Show up, bash hard, go home with free stuff and a big smile on your face. 🙂

“Big Bounce

I have a suspension question for you Cubby, I drive an Associated T4.3 and my truck bounces like a basketball when landing from big jumps. Are my springs too hard? What should I be using for shock oil? Anything else you can recommend suspension wise for backyard bashing?

Thanks,

Ewan C.”

Cubby- Yo Ewan, thanks for email. Shoot me your snail mail so we can get ya a sticker pack.

From your letter it sounds like you are under damped. Meaning, you need heavier compression, and especially, rebound damping. What I am going to recommend to you is this- do a shock rebuild and install new oil front and rear. Go down to your LHS and pick up new seals, Associated green slime, and some 50 weight Associated shock oil. Rebuild your shocks with new seals and make sure you use green slime while doing so. The green slime will keep your shocks from leaking and help ensure they are moving smoothly. There are a ton of videos on line on how to properly build a set of AE shocks, so if you aren’t sure what you are doing, one of those videos will get ya the hook up.

After that, go drive. Hit some jumps. Hit some rough/choppy/rutted areas at speed. See how your truck reacts. You typically won’t want to go any heavier than 60, and you certainly won’t want to go any lower than 30 for bashing. If most of the bounce after a heavy hit is cured, you are good to go, if it still isn’t behaving as you like, it is time to do a bit more tuning. Some people in our hobby love to tune, while others absolutely hate it, but dialing in shocks really isn’t that time consuming, especially for bashing.

So there ya go folks, this week’s edition of ASK Cubby is a wrap. You can send me your questions at thecubreportrc at gmail dot com. If I pick your letter to hit our main page you’ll get a free sticker pack. Better still, if it is selected as “Letter of the Month” we’ll hook ya up with one of our t-shirts.

YOUR Cub Reporter