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Shock oil and tire upgrade questions.

melbatoast

Newbie
Joined
Mar 28, 2019
Messages
3
Location
Wichita
New guy here, took my venture out for the first time last weekend. I upgraded to a lipo and I was out a little over two hours non stop and the battery wasn't dead yet, so I would say that was a good upgrade.

I noticed that not only did my diff drag on everything, but I had the shortest tires out of the group. I'd like to change my wheels and tires and just wanted some advice on what bolts up. I really want to get some white gmade steelies but the pictures make the offset look like they tuck in too far.

Does anyone have a set mounted that could point me in the right direction?

Also, the only damage my truck took was three of the shocks have leaked most or all of their oil out. I'm thinking I need to pull them, refill them and make sure the caps are tight this time. Any pointers on shock oil weight?
Thanks guys!
 
The stock oil weight seems to be around 30wt, and I really like the way the stock shocks perform. I'd refill with 30wt.

As far as wheels, any 1.9 wheel that you think looks good will work. As far as offset, get a set of wheels with removable hubs (RC4WD, Vanquish Pro-Line). That way, you can change the offset on your wheels by changing the hub width. With the stock body, I ran the .225 hubs to get the wheels as tucked as possible, because I preferred the way that looked. With my current body, I went with .350 hubs because it looks better in my opinion.

For tires, if you're keeping the stock body, a 1.9 tire that is 4.19 outer diameter (or a Class 1 legal tire) size is the biggest you can run, without having to cut your wheel wells up. Once again, RC4WD, Pro-Line and I think Pitbull offer 1.9 tires in that size. Pick one that suits your trails, and you'll be off to the races. I really like RC4WD's Goodyear Wrangler MT/R in the 4.19 size.

Enjoy your Venture!
 
Tires are kind of a personal preference. How large do you want to go with yours? I went with the Pitbull 1.9 Braven Berserkers on mine. They are listed at 4.35" tall. In reality they are close to the height of the stock tires. They look great with the body. I don't think you can go much bigger with this body without getting lots of body rub.




Here they are next to the stock tires:




RTR shocks tend to leak because the factory doesn't usually tighten them enough.

Stock oil is 30 weight per the manual: http://www.hpiracing.com/assets/documents/instruction_manuals/116564_vol01_venture_rtr_211216.pdf
 
I put 35wt oil in my SBK shocks and though it was a bit soft. Maybe the SBK shocks are a little different? I'm not sure. Could be the heavy hard body on it.

Tires, I got Pit Bull Rock Beast II (#PB9003NK) 1.9" 4.45 OD, so in between the Goodyear MT/R 4.19 and the 4.75 Deep Woods. Really nice tires, but the stock foams seems a little soft. That again may be due to the heavy body.
 
35wt oil in the shocks for me. I just switched over to the Traxxas trx4 shocks to see how they feel on this platform. I also kept the tire size on the small side, went with the Rc4wd Wrangler MTRs

bf2423fdc8390d67560d230375d6ac68.jpg


With the smaller tire you’re going to run into the skid getting caught up. I’d recommend the bowhouse RC hi clearance skid, that made I big improvement on my rig.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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Thanks for the replies guys, was hoping that the caps loose would be the issues with the shocks, because I really like how well they worked and see no need in changing them.

Is there a real downside to running tires glued on my stock wheels as opposed to getting a set of bead locks? I was thinking about painting the centers of mine gold and just running larger tires on stock wheels.
 
Is there a real downside to running tires glued on my stock wheels as opposed to getting a set of bead locks? I was thinking about painting the centers of mine gold and just running larger tires on stock wheels.


No downside other than weight. You can always just add some stick on wheel weights to the stock wheels and glue on new tires of your choice.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
There’s another guy in here that painted the stock wheels. It looked pretty damn good IMO.


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Thanks for the props.

I used Sharpie paint pens to paint those. Silver on the hardware, and whatever color you want for the wheels.

I also forgot to mention that if you buy wheels that can take removable hubs, those wheels might not come with hubs. Or they might come with hubs that aren't the width you'd prefer. So check that prior to buying them, and purchase hubs as well if you need to.
 
I put 35wt oil in my SBK shocks and though it was a bit soft. Maybe the SBK shocks are a little different? I'm not sure. Could be the heavy hard body on it.

Tires, I got Pit Bull Rock Beast II (#PB9003NK) 1.9" 4.45 OD, so in between the Goodyear MT/R 4.19 and the 4.75 Deep Woods. Really nice tires, but the stock foams seems a little soft. That again may be due to the heavy body.

The SBK manual says it also comes with 30 weight oil.

Do you have photos of the FJ with the Rock Beasts?
 
The SBK manual says it also comes with 30 weight oil.

Do you have photos of the FJ with the Rock Beasts?

No. It's the Austar body that I have as in my build. Didn't check the manual for the shock oil spec as I was going to use oil (HPI) actually, that I have a lot of. I chose 35 as that's what I have in my Ascenders and at least would give me a comparison.

Also when I drop the truck from about 6 inches, it bounces a bit, instead of sittng still like my Ascenders.

It's no problem, just one of those individual preferences on set up.
 
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No. It's the Austar body that I have as in my build. Didn't check the manual for the shock oil spec as I was going to use oil (HPI) actually, that I have a lot of. I chose 35 as that's what I have in my Ascenders and at least would give me a comparison.

Also when I drop the truck from about 6 inches, it bounces a bit, instead of sittng still like my Ascenders.

It's no problem, just one of those individual preferences on set up.

Thanks anyway.

I don't drop my crawlers for suspension setup. That's for bashers only. But, like you said, suspension is a personal preference.
 
The SBK manual says it also comes with 30 weight oil.



Do you have photos of the FJ with the Rock Beasts?



I put rock beasts on mine temporarily. It rubbed quite a bit even with the minimal trimming that I did so I went to the smaller MTRs

b1a73d8c43646b9a95261422cce84bcb.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
It does look good. Would it be worth raising the body a bit for clearance? I like the MTR's on one of my Ascenders, but it's shorter wheelbase (300mm ish) so copes ok. The Venture is about 1/2" longer and the Rock Beast's suit the austar body well.
 
No. It's the Austar body that I have as in my build. Didn't check the manual for the shock oil spec as I was going to use oil (HPI) actually, that I have a lot of. I chose 35 as that's what I have in my Ascenders and at least would give me a comparison.

Also when I drop the truck from about 6 inches, it bounces a bit, instead of sittng still like my Ascenders.

It's no problem, just one of those individual preferences on set up.


Glad I am not the only one doing the drop test to set u the suspension also
Thanks anyway.

I don't drop my crawlers for suspension setup. That's for bashers only. But, like you said, suspension is a personal preference.


I would disagree. For bashers most are happy when it jumps and lands without a roll over they are happy. Most bashers also don't care what combo oil spring as long as it goes up and down its good enough for them. Again most not all bashers feel this way.

As for me race vehicles they get the same drop test but their suspensions get more treatment. Finding the right piston oil spring combination is always a good time. Playing around with the VRP pistons has really helped find that sweet spot.

Wish there was more pistons for crawlers I can see the by pass valves being a big plus.
 
I would disagree. For bashers most are happy when it jumps and lands without a roll over they are happy. Most bashers also don't care what combo oil spring as long as it goes up and down its good enough for them. Again most not all bashers feel this way.



As for me race vehicles they get the same drop test but their suspensions get more treatment. Finding the right piston oil spring combination is always a good time. Playing around with the VRP pistons has really helped find that sweet spot.



Wish there was more pistons for crawlers I can see the by pass valves being a big plus.


Well I setup my bashers like I used to setup my racers - with the drop test. I'm not sending my bashers off of roofs though. LOL




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Well, the other way I sometimes test is just to push down on the truck centrally so it compresses equally, then let it go quickly. My Ascenders and the Venture spring back up ok, but the Venture does a 'wobble' for want of a better description. When I got it out on a drive, it did sink at the front going downhill or roll a bit sideways. This is probably because of the hard body, but also can be too light an oil in the shocks.

I am impressed with this truck however, and tuning it a bit more will help. It seems very balanced and good to drive.

I "LIKE" it..... a lot.
 
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