Tommy R's Eagle Racing RWD Drifter, V2

[Tommy R]

I loved my TT02-FRD, but when I saw the new TT02-RWD come out with the direct steering setup and easily adjustable gearing, it intrigued me enough to pick one up. I removed all the electronics from my FRD, sold it to a friend, and installed everything into the RWD when it showed up a couple days ago.

So before I went to install the electronics, I inspected the chassis to see how the fit/finish compared to my FRD. My FRD had several issues in the suspension.....namely loads of bind in the suspension arms and pretty terrible (negative) Ackerman. So first things first, I removed the shocks from the RWD and lifted the suspension arms. If there's no bind, the arms will easily fall down and to full droop. Nope. They stayed up. So I started looking into what was binding. Like my FRD, the issues are numerous. Some of the ball cups/ball studs are binding and the hinge pins don't move freely so it'll take quite a bit of time and effort to get them up to standard. But you don't expect a "fully optioned" carbon/aluminum drifter for $250 that won't have fit/finish issues.

The steering rack seems to move freely, but the problem there is the Ackerman again. In this case, the stock Ackerman will allow the inside tire to "over rotate" into a bind. Sure, you can adjust your endpoints on the servo, but that's not sufficient because sometimes this "over rotation" can be caused be a slight bump from a wall or other car. It really needs some sort of hard stop to prevent this. It's also got a bit too much Ackerman so maybe if I can adjust that a bit, the "over rotation" issue will resolve itself.

So here it is with the electronics installed. Keep in mind I've made no effort yet to clean up the wiring until I determine my final electronics layout.
- Speed Passion Reventon R ESC
- Speed Passion 10.5 motor
- Savox 1252 Ultra Speed servo
- GForce GC301 gyro (so I can control it via my transmitter)
- 5000 mah 2s hardcase LiPo
- And a V3 light kit

I also didn't even try the stock shocks. Instead I installed my TRFs that I ran on the FRD. Shock oil is about 27.5 front and 15 rear. Rear weight bias as shown is 54%. That's more than I'll likely want, but I want to try it like this before I start making changes. I also ended up running the Eagle springs because they were the only ones soft enough to get a reasonable ride height! All others would top out the suspension.

Over the weekend I had a chance to try it out on polished concrete. Overall, it performed pretty well, but there are some issues... The steering "over rotation" was definitely an issue despite conservative settings for the endpoints. The steering would bind and I needed to manually pop it free. The car's rear weight bias made it a bit challenging on occasion because of the pendulum effect of all that weight in the rear. In a drift if I would let off the throttle, the car was likely to either over-rotate and spin or it would square up and straighten. In contrast my FRD had more of a tendency to continue sliding pretty predictably. I'm hoping more front weight bias will help. I'm also hoping that reworking all of the suspension joints will free it up and help it work better. I improved it before running it, but it still has a long way to go!

That's it for now. Hopefully we'll have another test and tune session soon and I can try out a few new ideas....

 

[Shinjari]

Looking good. What shell you putting on this? I wish I had the time to invest into a drifter, theres actually a drift track here in San Diego.

 

[EeePee]

With all those asterisks I kept thinking, that is a dang lotta footnotes.

 

[Tommy R]

Looking good. What shell you putting on this? I wish I had the time to invest into a drifter, theres actually a drift track here in San Diego.

I hear ya, but thankfully drifters don't need to be expensive at all. This one was $300 shipped from Japan and needs no extra cash to be set up well. And I just run pretty cheap electronics in it.

With all those asterisks I kept thinking, that is a dang lotta footnotes.

Ugh!! I posted this on Drift Mission's forum and then copied/pasted here. Unfortunately, when I do that it adds a bunch of asterisks for some unknown reason. Weird... They're gone now. :mrgreen:

Oh, and I'm going to run the same S13 shell on it. It's still in very good shape. "thumbsup"

 

[Shinjari]

Must've mis-read that. The $$$ isn't the concern, its the time haha. I barely give my crawlers any attention or get any time to go out as of late. Another "type" of RC would get just as neglected due to lack of free time lol.

Will be keeping an eye on this.

How do you like the Eagle cars compared to your Cyclone? That was my last drifter.

 

[Tommy R]

Must've mis-read that. The $$$ isn't the concern, its the time haha. I barely give my crawlers any attention or get any time to go out as of late. Another "type" of RC would get just as neglected due to lack of free time lol.

Will be keeping an eye on this.

How do you like the Eagle cars compared to your Cyclone? That was my last drifter.

I hear ya... To be honest, drifting is the most fun I've had in RC in years. Truly. My crawlers are even gathering dust because of it! They're really a blast and, like crawling, are a very low key way to have fun.

The Eagle cars are WAY better than the Cyclone. But at the moment, I'm thinking I may like my older FRD more than my current chassis.

 

[Tommy R]

I've been struggling a bit with this chassis. So far, it's not working as well as my FRD. I don't know if it's the rear weight bias or maybe a lack of steering, but something just feels.....off. It's not as predictable as my old chassis. Recently I did some more work to it. In addition to trying to free up the suspension some more, I put 15WT oil in all 4 dampers and moved the battery to the forward location. Rear weight bias decreased from 54% to 52%. I also installed some steering stops to prevent the inside knuckle from turning too far and flipping in on itself, i.e. over rotating. However, I think that may have reduced my steering throw some more. I now have a different steering rack on order from Broad Tech so maybe that'll help.

So the other day I went to my buddy's house to run on his polished concrete floor. The car seemed better, but is still too unpredictable. In comparison, I drove my old FRD (my buddy now owns it) and it was fantastic! I miss that car, but I digress... I also noticed that my steering was acting weird....the front wheels were twitching as if the gyro was set to high, but it was only at maybe 50%. After being frustrated with it, I decided to install the stock Eagle gyro that came with the car. It was much better! So evidently there's an issue with running a Savox servo with the G Force GC301 gyro. And I'd even tried adding a capacitor, but it didn't help.

I'm heading to Dallas this weekend to test it out on a dedicated drift track. Hopefully it'll do okay, but I'm a bit skeptical...

 

[Shinjari]

Hope you figure it out. I've been reading about the newer GRT-RWD chassis...may have to pick one up one eventually.

 

[justinart24]

Thanks for posting info Tommy! Where should I buy one? I have been wanting a RWD drifter for a while now."thumbsup"

 

[MattyJ603]

Many of us are in the same boat. The TT02 FB page is a great resource. I am still working on rear toe and ride heights. If you have any tips, let me know. Patrick Bluster has a useful YouTube channel about Eagle Racing Chassis.

 

[Tommy R]

Sorry, y'all, I hadn't seen any comments on this thread 'til today....

I think this car is good and should be able to be tuned to work well, but if it were me, I'd lean toward the older FRD. That car just worked, plain and simple. And yes, the Eagle group on FB was helpful, but I've left it since I no longer own one.

Justin, the only place to buy an Eagle chassis is through Broad Tech's website. But in all honesty? Get a Sakura D4 RWD. It's truly amazing how well those chassis work with simple installing some MST plastic knuckles, bearings, and axles. This addresses the weird king pin inclination of the stock D4. You can upgrade it to the moon, but it just doesn't need it.

I love my current Yokomo DRB, but if I could go back in time I'd have given more consideration to fully hopping up a D4 instead. Yokomo is coming out with a RWD chassis soon, but not exactly sure when. That's another chassis I'd consider....

 

[danmac]

Sorry, y'all, I hadn't seen any comments on this thread 'til today....

I think this car is good and should be able to be tuned to work well, but if it were me, I'd lean toward the older FRD. That car just worked, plain and simple. And yes, the Eagle group on FB was helpful, but I've left it since I no longer own one.

Justin, the only place to buy an Eagle chassis is through Broad Tech's website. But in all honesty? Get a Sakura D4 RWD. It's truly amazing how well those chassis work with simple installing some MST plastic knuckles, bearings, and axles. This addresses the weird king pin inclination of the stock D4. You can upgrade it to the moon, but it just doesn't need it.

I love my current Yokomo DRB, but if I could go back in time I'd have given more consideration to fully hopping up a D4 instead. Yokomo is coming out with a RWD chassis soon, but not exactly sure when. That's another chassis I'd consider....

The yd-2 is out now I belive as the yd4 is.yea the d4 is simply amazing for what it costs and it actually turned me away for other higher end options. I can drift it around my house with no gyro. It win snap spin but I belive that due to the stock rack have a slide on the way.

 

[danmac]

Also I never even though to check for binds like that