Radio Control Car Setup Guide
Setting up your radio controlled car is most of the fun in my opinion, getting it perfect is more of art than science, because there isn't a right or wrong way to do it, you need to match your own driving style, not try to match your style to the perfect setup.
Setting up an radio controlled car is much the same as setting up a full scale car, and as with real cars the tricky part is balancing the setup, a change to one thing will change another thing, this setup knock-on effect is what frustrates many new enthusiasts. I've faced a problem before where I needed to soften my shocks, but by doing so the chassis would scrape on the road, I had to compromise a little but eventually I got it the way I wanted.
The first place to start when setting up your RC car is the shocks, these have the biggest effect on handling, there are two basic terms used to describe how a car handles.- Under Steer
- Over Steer
Under Steer
Under steer is when the front of your car turns less than it should, causing the nose to scrub towards the outside of the corner.
Over Steer
Over steer is the the first step to drifting, this is when the nose of the car turns more than it should.
A big part of tuning the shock is weight distribution under braking and acceleration, softer shocks allow more weight to travel and harder shocks restrict the movement, they also affect other aspecs of the car and the handling, but for the most part just don't let your car bottom out or bounce around and leave the road. anything between these two extremes is acceptable.
Tuning for Over steer or Under steer
Adjusting the shocks is pretty easy, while not all shocks are adjustable most of the ones you get today are. The best shocks are oil filled shocks, that have a threaded adjustment tool built it. The cheaper plastic oil filled shocks often use spacers to configure your stiffness these work well, but you can't get the fine tuned settings you can from the threaded shocks. Changing the spring stiffness also works well.
Next... Setting up your shocks
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