The R/C Diaries: Crawler: Aluminium (or for the americans, Aluminum, rofl)

Well, with a lot of flex noted on the crawler and some testing (particularly the mountain crawl get together with Charl in Gordons Bay), I noticed some drawbacks. First and worst, was the flex on the steering linkages and the "direct down" servo horn. Alot of the 15 KG's of power the savox had, was wasted. In a pinch when the steering was oh-so-needed, the linkages would just flex and absorb the energy. Secondly, while the composuite plastic links absorbed impact on rolls and tumbles (avoiding breakage and damage further up the chassis), they also caused a lot of frustration and pitfalls.

So I decided to throw away the advantages (the energy absorbing, and rock sliding nature of composite plastic) and just go with machined aluminium. These links can be made easily from al.rods with centre drilled and tapped holes (and of course 20mm set screws), but since I ordered these AGES ago already, I just hung out, waited and finally stuff arrived.

Anyway, we have a crawler meet this weekend, and a comp(etition) on the 16th, which will be my best chances to test everything out. Preliminary testing showed a GREAT improvement in steering response and suspension lag, and well, there is nothing more to be said. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so have a look :)