The Slash Report #6 – Turning Better!

As to date I’ve helped mostly the bashers get their Slashes a little faster and stronger. This report is about making the Traxxas Slash carve those corners a little faster and tighter. The Slash is based off of the Stampede and Rustler suspension design. Which is very strong and great for the basher, but really just sucks for the racer. Since we all have to run the same truck for now the playing field is level. So lets get started giving you that little extra advantage.

First up is just going through the truck and making sure every thing is working smoothly. Take the shocks off and cycle them to see if there is any binding or dragging. If there is just set them aside and we’ll go over that latter. Cycle the suspension arms up and down and make sure nothing is binding. The arm should drop under its own weight. If not loosen the hinge pin just a 1/16th to 1/8th turn. If its still dragging make sure the pins are not bent or broken and of course replace them.

The one area of the Slash that needs the most help and will give you the biggest gain in performance is the shocks. Remove the shocks from the truck and drain the oil. Cycle the shocks to make sure the shocks are smooth. If they are tight loosen the bottom cap just a tiny bit. To make the seals a little smoother I like to use Team Associated Green Slime. It’s a seal lube and works great on any o-ring. Just rub a heavy coat on them and reinstall. Also check the pistons to make sure there are no burs or flashing. If there is use a sharp hobby knife and carefully smooth out the piston. The Slash is set-up out of the box for maxinum wheel travel for scale looks. It looks cool in the back yard, but sucks on the track. A good place to start is just leveling the stock pistons and running thicker oil. 45wt in the front and 50wt in the rear is a very good starting point. Even with this thick of oil the front end of the truck still dumps in high speed corners. Just going up to 50 or 60wt will help, but you would loose your low speed steering. What I been trying is change the front pistons to the one hole ones that come in that little bag of extra stuff that a lot of us tend to loose or throw in the trash! (oops.. your local hobby shop might have them or they can order them for you) with the one hole pistons run 35wt oil. What this does it feels like the two holes and 45wt at low speed, but at high speed it “PACKS” up and feels like thicker oil. The one hole pistons set up with the 35wt oil has the same low speed steering (like tight 180’s) as the two hole pistons with 45wt oil, but at higher speeds (like sweeper’s) the single hole won’t let as much oil though at once as the two hole. So it more or less packs up on top of piston and makes it feel like thicker oil. One other thing I do to keep the front end flatter though the turns I swapped the progressive rate spring with the standard rate spring from the VXL Rustler. The spring rate is the same, but it doesn’t have that soft spot. Which if you look at your Slash ready to race the soft coils are completely compressed so there is little change in traction with the Rustler springs.

Last area that needs a once over is the tranny. With the gears being all metal there must be some grease on the gears. Traxxas over lubes them from the factory to make them last longer. What I do is clean the gears with motor cleaner and an old tooth brush. When reinstalling the gears use a very light coat of a good grease like Team Associated black grease. While you have the diff out open it and remove all of the gears. Clean them just as you did with the rest of the gears. To make the diff action work more like a ball diff I fill the diff about half full with Kyosho 300,000 weight oil. YES 300,000!!! This tightens the action and really lets you launch out of the corners. By keeping the inside tire from spinning or “DIFFING”. So there is less lost power from the spinning wheel.

With a little TLC the Slash can be a RACER!! With the truck being mass produced there are going to be screw ups. So the best thing to do is go though your Slash and give a real good once over. A well built truck is going to be a good driving truck.

Setup: Front
Shock position: Out, Spring; Rustler white, Piston; one hole, Oil; AE 35wt, Arms level, Camber; -1*

Rear:
Shock position; Third from the out side, Spring; stock, Piston; two hole, Oil; AE 50wt, Driveshaft level
Camber; -2*
Diff oil; Kyosho 300K

Battery all the way back. Two ounces of lead under ESC. Rear body post in high position. Front fenders cut for tire clearance.