Fix unwanted TRX4 steering system flex - Installing metal link mounts & a homemade brace
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- čas přidán 25. 08. 2024
- In this TJsRC episode, we will look at how to prevent flex in the steering system in the TRX4. High power after market steering servo's are great but are you sure all that added power is getting where you want it to be. When using a high power servo there are parts in the TRX4 steering system that can flex under load from the increased torque put on them by these servo's. In this episode we will be installing metal suspension links because the track bar mounts to the axle on one of these link mounts. Switching this part to a metal one will prevent it from flexing under heavy load. I will also show you the DIY mod I made to brace the chassis side track bar mount to help prevent it from flexing also. They do make metal versions of the shock towers with the track bar mount but I didn't want to go that route yet so I made up my own solution for that spot.
The metal link kit I installed can be found almost every where they sell RC parts. I found mine on Amazon by searching: "metal TRX4 link mounts"
Please NOTE.
I don't ever want you guys adding stuff or installing extra parts just because you saw it in some CZcams video. Lot's of TRX4's are out there right now driving around experiencing this issue but it's not that big of a deal unless it really bugs the driver, which it did in my case.
If you're new to tiny truck mechanics or simply don't see the problem here. You need to understand that when your servo swings through it's range of motion, nothing else is supposed to move except the steering hub. The issue we are trying to address shows up in the TRX4 track bar mounts, which are both flexible plastic. The original servo likely isn't strong enough to cause the flexing (therefore IT IS NOT a design flaw IMO, in fact one could argue the flex is designed in ON PURPOSE so there is give, like a servo saver). However, a lot of TRX4 owners change to a much stronger servo, usually right away. These stronger servos are easily 2-4 times stronger than stock and this is where we have exceeded the design specs for the plastic track bar mounts. It may not look like they are flexing very far but it only takes a few millimeters of flex in them to loose a considerable number of degrees of throw in your servo. Especially if you are running your servo horn as short as you can, to get even more torque out of it.
For example: I measured the total throw distance of my servo horn, it's 24mm. At that distance, every 1.2mm (that's tiny) of total flex between both plastic track bar mounts, looses you 5% of your steering throw. You can see that it doesn't take much flex to be noticeable from the drivers seat, if you know to look for it. Does this really matter if you are just out to have some fun trailing or light rock crawling with friends? No, not at all. However, once I noticed this was happening I couldn't not notice it all the time. So I felt compelled to address it (I love tinkering on these tiny trucks. Every time I see something "wrong" I'm all " woo hoo yeah, more things to do to it". Maybe that's not normal but it's me) My first attempt to address this was the home made brace that I showed you in the video. That helped to stop, that end of the track bar from moving. Unfortunately then the track bar mount on the axle began flexing even further under load since it was no longer sharing the flex between the two mounts. This then obviously led to needing to install the metal links as shown in the video. BOOM problem solved. I didn't cover these details in the video as I was thinking it would make it to long and overly boring, like this paragraph, lol. I probably should have had my chief editor (wife) look it over before I posted.
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/ @tjsrc
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Video shot with a GoPro Hero 7 Black
Video edited in Shotcut shotcut.org/
Music courtesy of CZcams www.youtube.co...
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You got lots of brass in the front of that baby!!!!
yeah it has a good amount in there. It's definitely my heaviest rig.
Hey, I can only say how I appreciate you finding the time to create and share great videos with very useful information. Another great tip I was not expecting could be important when upgrading to a higher torque servo.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the kind comment friend.👍👍
You got a subscriber because of your genuine appreciation at the end of this video.
Thanks my friend. 👍
Great video as always any time I look into doing anything to my rigs I always look you up and see if you have done it yet so Thankyou and keep your videos coming
Thank you for the kind words my friend 👍
Your welcome,Your welcome!! Thank you for the great videos and I hope you have a great day to,cheers
Thank you for the kind remarks. I’m glad you found the video useful. 👍🏻👍🏻
No no no no no, bro. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Glad you found it useful. 👍
I've never heard it called a track bar. On real trucks its called a pan-hard bar. Track bar makes more sense. Great video.
I assumed that the names were interchangeable and for some reason I always referred to them in the full size world as track bars. Not sure where I got that from. But that just the way we called it. Thanks for watching.
Happy 🦃 Day,I have a tx4, but I love the content and the videos,thank you for taking the time to make these videos😃👍👍
Thanks James. 👊 Happy Thanksgiving to you as well.
Great video bro👊👍💯
Thanks my friend. 👍
That is a good , easy way to do it. Great job and thanks for sharing!!
Glad you found it useful 👍👍
thanks for the info i noticed the stock c hubs have quite the flex too
Chuck Hall I didn't keep the stock C hubs very long before switching to all brass up front so I don't remember if I ever noticed that.
@@TJsRC me either until installing the brass portals then it became noticeable
Great tip! I'm about to change servos in mine.
Cool man, what servo are you upgrading to? Are you coming from the stock servo or replacing something else?
@@TJsRC Yes stock servo. I use the Savox 0231 in most of my builds. 39 bucks and water proof. I think the torque is around 206.
Good job man, and you bet, everyday I'm happy and thankful for life! I run the platform of stock, but I like your homemade brace, good job of explaining. Have a great day!!!
Nice mod
Thank you very much!
bikerunner1909 Glad you enjoyed it 👍
Appreciate the tips on the TRX-4 truck there brotha.... I have NEVER owned a traxxas until now and it was the TRX-4 TRAXX Ver. 2 and I love it!!! I waited till now to grab one because I heard through the grapevine some folks complained enough about the tread on them that traxxass R&D went hard at work in the factory making deeper & better tread belts for them, Waited and got it now.... Its a wonderful rig but man it does get a bit of flex even more then regular tires...... Your tips & tricks will sure helpout my rig & I subbed you in gratitude.... ALL of us RC modelers need to stick together show the YT world we are the elite community!!!! Cheers
Angry Yank RC Don't have any experience with the Traxx but they look pretty cool and it sounds like you are having fun with it. Thanks for the kind words my friend. 👍👍
No thank you my rc brother I was just accessing this problem and then it's in my recommendations it's crazy how things just pop up that your thinking about
Funny how that works. 😁👍
Cool vid! Thanks for the insight!🧐👍✌️🇺🇲
Thanks for watching, glad you found it useful. 👍
Thanks for sharing..
thank you for watching👍
I just replaced all my shock towers with aluminum all four corners and of course the front left has the panhard attachment point no flex at all now
I looked at that option but at the time there wasn't an easy way to incorporate the stock wheel wells with the aftermarket shock towers. I've seen a couple pics of guys trying to make the wheel wells work with the aluminum shock towers so Im sure it can be done. But since I've braced the mount it's not a big concern now so it's back in the bucket list of things I'll get to someday. 🤣
@@TJsRC oh yeah definitely not a big deal I had to do a bit of Dremel work to mount it to the frame properly and flush if I wouldn't have happened to have found ones that fit I was just going to support like you said put braces across. ✌️👍
@@nunyadambidness1444 Cool, good to know it wasn't too hard. 👍👍
Great video though, if you do a before and after comparison would be even better.
Wang Jay That would definitely have been a better way. Part of the problem for me is fixing something then later realizing oh that would have made a good video. This was one of those unfortunately. I do try to plan for the how to videos but I’m still working on it. When it comes to the making of the videos it’s definitely one of the parts I struggle with the most. I enjoy this video making part of the hobby though so I’ll will keep trying to make it better. Thank you for your constructive feedback I appreciate it. 👍👍
Why put the shocks upside down?
That was just an experiment I did to see if it made any difference. It doesn't really so they are back right side up now.
What is the name of your servo TJ??
Andrew Stevens it's a cheap 35kg one from Amazon. Its either an Annimos or a Zoskay brand. 👍
@@TJsRC ok I ordered the red 20kg zoskay one from Amazon should be coming this week. Its going in my trx4 bronco snap on edition amd hopefully it's better than the stock traxxas
What pivot ball are tpu useing on the desert lizard shocks I order my a few weeks ago and they don't work on my sport with the included one sided shock pivot ball
I think I used the pivot ball from the stock shock. The one sided one can be made to work you just have to put a small spacer in there to prevent the shock from sliding off the ball.
All you need to do is set your end point so the steering doesn't go to far and go past the end point of the parts design
That would help at full lock but when you are in stickier terrain or rocks there's resistance to the turning forces long before full lock occurs. The stress then on the plastic trackbar mount flexes it if you are running a stronger than stock steering servo. This fix is aimed at those running high power servos because the stock servo isn't strong enough to make this issue a problem. For those still rocking the original servo this isn't necessary.
Hi, a non related question. The Desert Lizzard shocks, are they supposed to be mounted that way or it doesnt matter?
It doesn't really matter, however if you mount them upside down like this everyone will ask about them. 😂😆😉 It's a good conversation starter. In reality it was just an experiment that I was trying that didn't end up accomplishing anything.
How do you find for metal housing I have deleted portal kits
Are you asking how to find link mounts that work with the metal axle housing? I guess I would have assumed that the metal housing would be the same as the stock as far as installing the link mounts.
Cool video, interesting fix (I'm not at the point were I see a need to address this or even notice it (I'm still running stock servo, though I did upgrade to the metal steering horn)). Interesting shocks! Are the internal spring? Where can I find those? Are they much better that factory shocks?
The shocks are Yeah Racing desert Lizard Internal spring shocks. The stock shocks are probably higher quality shocks but I wanted more options and the ability to run in a droop setup and the Yeah racing shocks were what I went with. There are a number a different brands making that style of internal spring shock, these seem to have more variability in them vs some of the other brands but it really depends on what you are wanting to accomplish. If you want to try them just search "internal spring RC shock" at your favorite RC store and some options should turn up.
@@TJsRC thanks much!
Where did you get those mounts
Kevin A. Rodriguez Got them on Amazon but lots of RC web stores carry them. eBay is another place that has them. If you Google "TRX4 metal link mounts" you'll get a number of options. These Amazon ones were about 20 bucks. You can get them in black also but those cost a bit more. 👍
Is that a shock rod that is bent?
It's actually a steering linkage from an old Tamiya buggy. I used it because it was the only odd spare part l had on hand that fit what I was trying to do.