Just got done lightening my chassis

[Lunar Wolf]

Stock weight for the part is 725g, now its:

Not as extreem as some i've seen, but I feel it suits my style...

 

[Bankrupter]

way cool! whats the final weight? looks sweet....

 

[Shaun]

nice job!! I'm curious how much weight u shaved off with that myself!!!

 

[BIGDAN89]

well by the looks of the reading on the scale he turned it down to 565 g thats a whooping 160 grams less

 

[Bankrupter]

well by the looks of the reading on the scale he turned it down to 565 g thats a whooping 160 grams less

I was so dazzled by the cuts I didn't even see it was on a scale!!

 

[soulja]

i didn't notice that either until you said it!

 

[Lunar Wolf]

haha and there was me trying to be a smart arse using the pic to show the weight.

For reference the dry weight with stock wheels/tryes/body is 22.6lbs over the 26lbs a stock RTR weighs in at. If I can get it down to 20lbs I'll be a happy chappy.

 

[AZN dubs]

o noes. now its going to be a lot more fragile. how many jumps have you taken it off so far? hope it holds.

 

[Lunar Wolf]

It should be fine, I was careful to avoid removing material near the crease line on the front kick up, if you look closely there are no holes directly behind the 2nd set of countersunk bolt holes at the front, that's the real weak spot on the main chassis.

In fact taking some material away on what I consider to be a very overweight stock setup can effectively strengthen the vehicle. As it stands this Baja is 13% lighter then stock which means things like suspension, driveline and chassis are under 13% less stress. Less force is applied to any given part in an impact then its stock counterpart traveling at the same speed.

 

[AZN dubs]

but all you need is a nice nose dive into grass even, and the front is toast.
and i remember you from GN. my accnt name on there was my-life-is-hpi. was a while ago, but i see you still have the same avatar lol.

 

[Lunar Wolf]

Hows the front going to be toast? where do you expect it to bend exactly?

The way I see it is the inherent glass jaw in the Baja's chassis has not been weakened any more by the holes I have cut. If your talking about the front kick up (the front area forward of the 2 countersunk bolts with 14 holes cut in it) that section is under very little stress and is braced by the front bulk head.

I nose dive all the time, so I guess we'll find out soon enough and I promise to post some pics if I do.

And yes I remember you, hope your well and still having fun! lol

 

[Fx]

Hey if you are looking to lighten you baja check out Platinum RC Products, he makes all sorts of baja parts.

http://www.platinumrcproducts.com/products.html

 

[Lunar Wolf]

Thanks for the heads up. I've already got all the parts I'd want that they do in CF. I'm really keen on Proline's new CF chassis, that should be good for another 140g reduction for me.

What I'd really like someone to do is bring out some quality race orientated shock tower/mounts with plenty of adjustment, the best I've seen so far is the FLM one, something like that but in quality CF would be a must buy for me.

 

[Lunar Wolf]

Well I know I said that I was finished, but a spotted an area I felt I could remove some more material from without compromising anything, the upper mounting rails for the rollcage, fuel tank and radio box. Got the weight down another 20g to 545g but more importantly the weight came off a higher point which should help more with cornering.

 

[Shaun]

you did a great job, it looks like it meant to be like that "stock"

 

[Lunar Wolf]

thanks mate. Yeah i decided i had to keep the hole drilling tasteful since a local wants to buy the chassis when i switch over to the Proline hopefully later this year.