10 secrets to winning the pinewood derby
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- Black bear prepper discusses the 11 secrets to a winning pinewood derby . these are the tips and tricks we have used to win Minnie pinewood derby races. also please check out our series of pinewood derby building videos 1 through 5
THANK YOU! I watched other pinewood derby videos but settled on yours as what I thought was the best. I helped my grandson on his Cub Scout derby car. Today he won 1st place overall!
Glad to hear tell him congratulations for me
Thanks to your tips my daughter raced her pinewood Derby car last night. But when it came to the end of the track. The car hit the backstop and exploded on impact. Many lives were lost last night. Derby racing will never be the same. It was a sad night of racing.
Glad to see another fanatic sharing tips! (Every year I end up hosting a building night at my house to help all the new guys!)
I tell as many parents as would like to come to my shop I will help their sons or daughters build cars for their separate races I think this year we built about 25 different cars at our shop unfortunately cannot win but all when but every race we entered a car in had it first place
I have enjoyed both of your videos and am trying to get my kid to do a little here and there.
For any of you that are interested there is now a series of pinewood derby speed tip videos on the pinewood derby section of the channel
Great information to know! I have been wanting to do a pinewood derby with my Dad, so I think we may have a chance of winning with these great tips.
I'm so glad you like them just remember if you go to my CZcams channel there's a section on Pinewood Derbies were all of these tips are explained in a video each individual one in a separate video to go into more depth on exactly how to do it
My little girl just got into her first pinewood derby!!! I'm looking forward to helping you reach victory!!!
If you look on my channel there's many other videos the temps in these videos will help you do well if not win
I’ve been doing this for years. This is the best vid I’ve seen to date.
So glad you like the video there is several other videos in this playlist that go into detail for every single tip they definitely help again thank you for the comment
Seems like a lot of work. Glad my dad made mine for me. Like all the other dads in my troop back in the 1970s. Luckily, my dad was an engineer with a drill press in the basement.
You should consider racing league. Npwdrl in Utah will be opening up a class in January for graphite cars. In addition, APR in Ohio has a box stock class. Although they allow oil, the wheels and axles have to be right out of the box and can’t be modified.
Thank you so much for taking the time to make this vid. Well thought out and presented. I’m helping my son for his first race and we’ve done some of the tips, not all. I’m excited to see how his first race goes.
Just so you know there is a video for each of these items on my channel so if you look at my channel there's more videos there and if you need help finding I can help you with that but it goes into depth on all the different secrets hope you erase goes well
Great video! I don’t disagree with anything you shared but you are just scratching the surface
Feel free I would love to know what I missed that's what I love about pinewood derby there's always something more
Thanks for making this videos. I a m making my car now
You're very welcome make sure you watch the rest of the videos there's a whole section on my channel on pinewood derby cars
Great tips!! Keep on dong what you're doing, cause you're doing GREAT!!!!!
My secret tip is to tow the car on a treadmill to break in the wheels
Do you have additional advise on proper installation of the axles? Last year I took a lot of time working on smoothing the axles and proper weight placement. However, I messed up when placing the axels. I tried to adjust but the rear premade wheel base broke. Unfortunately it was the night we had to turn in the car I didn’t have enough time to properly correct it and ended up just gluing it 😢. After the race I noticed the back wheels rubbed on the wood making a line on top. Oh well. All that time wasted just to mess up while putting in the axles. 😢
The 3-5 degree toe out you talk about is there a jig that you can use to achieve this for the DFW? There are jigs for the 3 degrees toe in for the rear wheels.
www.ebay.com/itm/Pro-Axle-Bender-for-Pinewood-Derby-Cars-/252295814526?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286
This axle bending jig will help with this for the front wheels
This is great info, thank you!
Quinn Chandler thank you for your comment and as always if you have any questions feel free to ask
Quinn Chandler check out our Speed tip videos on our Channel
Good video..............But, I was wondering that every thing counts in making a fast car why have a flat rear of the car. It will create a vacuum drag.
Weights are in the back. We have a 2 ounce tungsten block in the back of our cars - behind the rear axle. The weight advantage more than cancels out the drag effect. Besides, the back of our car is only 3/8” tall. With 2/8” of that being the weight. The weight also runs almost the entire width of the car.
Can mark rober’s beat yours?
Mark Rober uses some of the same ideas as I have . the principles he's using are the same principles we use so as usual it will come down to the year some years I would probably win some years he would probably win
why is it important to havr the weight in front of the axle instead of on top or behind the axle Thank you
Sorry you're not see your message hopefully you still have time but it causes it not to have the front end be too light and flutter down the track you want just enough weight to where it will not flutter the lighter you make the actual car itself the more you can but the lighter you have it the more you will have to steer it's a balancing game hope this helps
How does wheelbase effect speed, all else equal? If the back axle is 5/8” from the back, weight is balancing at 1” forward if that, how does a 4.5”, 5”, 6” wheelbase change the speed?
We went super conservative with a long wheelbase and 1.5” balance point since the track is ancient. We did well but need to do better next year.
If you're trying to be a little bit more aggressive I would definitely go with a balance weight of three quarters of an inch to 1 inch I've done cars is a little as half an inch when they're super super light ladder cars but I think three quarters of an inch is manageable then using 5 inch wheelbase or a four and three quarter inch wheelbase if you're trying to be a little bit more competitive any amount you can move the tires backwards at all is going to help you a ton even if you could get rid of a wheel and just run with literally three wheels on the car that's an actual Plus you will have to add a little brace so it doesn't slide off the track but that's definitely the best way to go but moving the wheels back definitely helps with your center of gravity on the back wheels when you're trying to win with people that are trying to win this little amount will help
Awesome loved the video.
What is the BEST oil to buy to reduce friction?
I do not use a lot of oil in any of the races I do but a company called turbo Derby sells a product that seems to be very very popular among the pro racers
If you had to choose an oil would you go with the Turbo Derby oil you mentioned or Krytox 100 from Maximum Velocity. I race Hot Wheels and I know i am loosing tournaments by 20 thousandths of a second because the winners are using oil.
Just between you and me the the krytox 100 is the only one I've ever used it works very well but I know that turbo Derby is probably using in my opinion probably the same product along with everybody else but oil is definitely faster so switching over that will definitely help
@@tateabdon1 thanks for the quick response! You're definitely right about "the harder you work"!!!
Just a few questions. If you’re not using fenders, shouldn’t you tune your NDFW just as much as your DFW? Next, shouldn’t you spend about 4-6 minutes per wheel if you’re using plastic polish and a tamiya swab? Third, shouldn’t you polish your inner and outer hubs? Finally, when looking through wheels, I understand that the lighter the better, but shouldn’t you look for the least amount of runout, and the least amount of scratches?
I always do all four wheels just as good as I possibly then I pick the three best use those and whichever one doesn't roll as good out of the four I use is my non-dominant wheel
Okay, that makes sense, that the worst is the one you don’t put on the car, but wouldn’t I gain speed by bending the NDFW just as I wood the DFW, and tune it to be more aerodynamic?
@@t-boneracing2664 you can try that I've not found them to be much of an increase whatsoever but if you find it to be good feel free to post it here I'd like to know but I have not found that to be true I would leave it just the standard way
Okay, thank you for all the info in the video!
I have tested bending the non dominant axle, and I wanted to tell you that it did work for me. If I run a fender, it is not necessary, but if there’s no fender, bringing that wheel closer to the body is extremely important. Let me know if you thought about bending the non dominant axle, I’m always looking for other people’s opinions in Pinewood derby.
why do you put tungsten weights in the very back when you say to put the weight 3/4" to 1" in front of the rear axle?
Sorry if I was a little confusing on that the balance point of the car should be 3/4 to 1 in in front of the back axle to do that because the wheels in the back or so far back you must put the weight as far back as you can get that to happen hope this helps
Newbie here! These are some great tips. I have a question! If our rules state "The wheel’s tread area must remain flat (parallel) to the wheels hub and cannot be altered, but light sanding is permitted," how light can I make my wheels?
Well that would be up to your rules it sounds like they do not want you to lighten them at all but if you watch the other videos I have on my channel and use the secrets I have in them I can almost guarantee you'll do very well if not win without lightning Wheels
real life Randy Marsh
3 hours to polish 4 tiny nails. Uhm I’m not sure what you are doing but I can get just as smooth of a polish in about 30 minutes
Thank you!
Cool
Hey Blackbear. Thanx for the video. I'm already doing a lot of your suggestions in my cars. I have been making my cars with the max wheelbase to be under 7 inches long. While keeping my rear wheels as far back as I can, is there an advantage to bringing the front wheels back to shorten the wheelbase? If I do so I can imagine that there would be a little more down force on the one front wheel. Thoughts?
yes it is an advantage I recommend in a normal car recommend 5 in from the back axles and if you're building like a letter car or another lightweight car you can go back as far as 4 and 3/4 from the back axles so allow more weight to be put in the back and make the car go faster
Question about the rail riding. Wouldn’t that make it really based on having lane choice?
No it's going to turn into the center rail no matter what Lane you were in Works works on every track I've tried it on
My fifth and last year building cars with my grandson. Under our rules. We have to use the existing axle slots, they can not be drilled. Wheels are not allowed to be modified other than smoothing the molding marks on the tread area. No after market Wheels or grooved axles. Now this year they even added that we can't bend the axles. We have always bent the axles. I don't know how the heck we are supposed to tune the car to go straight without bending the axles a little, Its ridiculous. I will have to cant the wheels by wedging them one way or the other. We also can not use oil as lubrication. Has to be graphite or last year they allowed Teflon. I found Teflon to be sticky and did not work. I tried to buy those wheels in the tube this year and our local Hobby town said they went out of business.
Some mother must have gotten her panties in a bunch when her spoiled crybaby son lost the race.
geerhed it's not the end of the world usually this just means you can win a lot easier look at my video on waiting cars I've won several races with only the axle slots oh and usually there is always one nail that is slightly more bent than the others but that in the front and slowly twist it you'd be surprised what you can get as far steer I have also just took in the head of it and slightly bent it wall in the car which allowed me to steer
Yes there is one nail that is slightly bent we found it yesterday when Grandson started removing the burrs and I told him it came that way and we are going to use it to our advantage. This year he said he wasn't in it for speed and wanted it to look like a regular car. He Chose the Dodge Demon Hellcat.. I am going to miss working on these with him and teaching how to use the tools. Guess I will have to get him over here and help with the resto on my 68 Camaro. I am a woodworker by trade and have taught him a lot about that trade.
@@geerhed1109 that's awesome! I'm sure your grandson will appreciate that knowledge. I wish someone in my family taught me a trade
We ended up 2nd for speed 1st for show and went to regionals and won Best commercial car. We build a Dodge Demon with LED lights. Great Last year for him and so much fun for both of us.
LIKE IT
My daughter n me used most of these tricks n he won first place in her pack. Scout master was pissed. Accused me of cheating even though we built it at her house. She even did interviews with the kids. She was mad my daughter beat her son
First of all congratulations it sounds like it was a good day for you guys it also sounds like your scoutmaster is a useless human being and does not understand the way the world works all these techniques can be found in the scout pinewood book it sounds like you love your children and she does not she was not willing to look a little harder to help her child win I will never understand this policy I have gone through this the whole time that I've been doing pinewood derbies even after I show people the rules and help build their cars I still get the same comments good for you congratulations
@@tateabdon1 thank you very much.That's why this year they're doing a scout build night and everybody's going to be there at once building the cars. And I'm going to help other people build their cars and use some of these techniques to help their cars.
That same race there is other kids the night before on weigh-ins didn't have their cars up to snuff and their wheels weren't adjusted right and I helped them out and their cars placed and first and second. I think it's awesome most of these people are using the pinewood Derby graphite and I'm using maximum velocity and Derby Dad for hire
Do you have any suggestions for tracks which are not having a center guide?
First of all do not cut down the front of the car on the steering wheel side leave it wide narrow the back of the car slightly so the back wheels can't hit the outside rail then make sure the front wheels are canted out instead of canted in just like the back wheels and because the wheels in the back are slightly in they will not touch now but the front well then set steering wheel up front to steer about an inch and a half over 4 feet out towards the track weight placement and the rest of the car the same as normal hope this helps
Are you saying /|_|\ for the front. narrow the width in the rear and /|_|\? where /|_|\ is the angle of the wheels?
Have you ever tried canting with 1.5 degrees all around versus 2.5 or 3?
There is no restriction aside from graphite, max width, length, clearance, no aftermarket. Would you sand down the letters on the wheels?
Thanks so much.
@@germanicus5066 yes you should narrow the back of the car and let the front of the car stay wide so only the front tires will ever touch the track and all the tires should be facing so that the top of the tire is facing in towards the car and the bottom of the wheel that is touching the track should be pushed out away from the car
@@germanicus5066 I would lighten no wheels as much as humanly possible so yes anything I could do to make your wheels lighter is a plus and I would still have the car run on three wheels remember that part also so I wouldn't even can't the wheel that wasn't touching
@@tateabdon1 Thanks so much!
Do you feel that different paints can make a car lighter?
Yes different pains can definitely weigh more than others that's why I tend not to paint my cars and just use the plastic wrap
Are single axle cars legal for pinewood derby if so where can I find them quickly?
I have axle slot problems.
I would definitely watch our video on how to can't your axles and run three-wheeled cars I do not know what your rules are in your area unfortunately they change a lot but usually you can drill a hole
@@tateabdon1 Great I will be attempting this soon as my race is this Saturday.What position, depth and bit should I use ?
@@amberhartzog9851 czcams.com/play/PL__TZ4Dj1O9WmoVl2kwZlvRM10g8NpLjq.html
If you have a local hobby lobby, they have them. I went to pick up an extra set of wheels for some scrap walnut I have and theirs came with a set of nails and two single axles.
Genius!
rossalind horne we have a whole series pinewood derby videos if you'd like to check them out on our channel under pinewood derby
If you are running oil what's the best?
If you're willing to spend the money derbydad4hire dot-com sells a lot of great products for running oil probably the best system I think out there
@@tateabdon1 thank you. I am going to do a yearly derby for our 4th of July family celebration for the kids...a outlaw class for us adults too. Lol thanks again
@@bobkeller8383 good luck sounds like a lot of fun
How close to the 5oz regulation weight would you say the car does best?
TorrentBoats I usually try to get my cars at the race to a full 5 oz and from talking to professional Racers that's what you want to do but before the race I try to bring my car to 4.96 Oz that way I have a little bit of wiggle room when you get to the race I have heard the different weights with different types of tracks can help I have not found that to be true every car that I've ever won with was exactly 5 ounces though
What I do is take the car up to the weigh-in and add tungsten putty until the car hits 5.0 oz on their scale. Then I take the car back and put the putty in the right place to maintain center of gravity. Then i just have it weighed again and turn it in. Most digital scales used for derby races only have one decimal place. These scales don't round the 2nd decimal it just gets dropped so you could technically have a car that weighs 5.09 oz.
thanka i need this
You are very welcome don't know if you've seen the other videos in the series but I go into more depth in a lot of the other smaller videos
Check out Mark Rober's video guys. Awesome stuff.
7” car beats a 5” car any day. The trivial weight can’t give you 2” of extra speed
What will happen if someone purchases a pinewood derby car on the internet besides building one?
This is why I definitely recommend using my rules if you watch our pinewood derby rules video and stops a lot of the people for the cheating and washable define the ones that have bought pre-built cars
Finland end up dying in a Nuclear strike and Mexico doesn't get 24 water parks.
Great video! So how do you drill axle holes at 3-5° angles??
rurban I use a drill guide and a axle Bender for the front wheels but the drill guide is in our video on how to cut out your block here is the link there's also several other videos you might like enter pinewood derby sectionczcams.com/video/8vx-0OSaZKU/video.html
Do you ever try graphite packing?
Graphite packing I do not believe does anything at all I've had better luck with putting it on spinning putting it on spinning putting it on spinning and doing that for 10 12 minutes and that seems to be much better and I definitely don't believe in putting the graphite in alcohol
So is a wider tire slower then a narrow tire?
Short story yes long story it has less to do with the width of the tire and more do with the weight of the tire the lighter you can make the tire the better if your rules allow it if they do taking weight off the inside of the tire is best second best way is to take weight off the outside of the tire but only if your rules allow it
@@tateabdon1 if you go by the rules in the kit I think we have been thinking and doing it all wro ng there is a much faster way... need to test it
Good info
Race Mark Robert and see who wins!
Lol the co2 car
Good info!
As always thanks for comments
A lot of videos on PWD are loaded with BS but not this guy. Solid advice for any aspiring PWD winner.
Why do you use your phone so much? Is your script on there?
Yes one is for my script and the other one that you may not be able to see is for the time to make sure I do not run on a time on my camera
man .................. it's a damn shame they cut your role out in dinner for schmucks!
1:11 what are ya doin on ya phone???
John Savio doing two things one has my check sheet to make sure I get all the different points in and the other one is doing time to make sure they don't overrun my camera is only record for so much time
@John M I do not have an email but if you leave questions here no matter how detailed I will answer them and that way it can also benefit other people who probably have the same question
Can you just make me a winning car and I can PayPal you the money?
Jay Cruz sorry that's not how it works but if you stick with the chips I've given you and watch the other videos that I have I can guarantee you a very fast car
Jay Cruz yes I will do it to
It's about the kids dummy !
So teaching them to strive to win is not important how to properly use tools the laws of physics these are all things your children can learn from the pinewood derby I'm never for doing all the work for then but I am forgiving your children the best chance to win and showing them that you care by doing all you can to learn about the physics yes it's for the kids I agree that's why I do it my kids have learned to use band saws scroll drill presses routers and basic science and how to test the basic laws of physics for the pinewood derby do you know these things are not important to you and it is just for the kids to goof off and have fun my kids have fun and win
Hey that is not nice it can be for him to
CZcams felt I needed to see this. I guess so I could tell you to get a life. Sorry 'bout that. Is there money to be made in this?
That is very rude! He is doing amazing! Get your own life!!!!!!!
Oh dear me I was rude.
I have a life unlike you idiot I he has a life to
No money it's for the kids and the adults can build on to have fun also
You saying people do this professionally?.
Yes for long time it was big money I don't think it's as big as it used to be but yes there is a professional League I think actually two of them now