Pope
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This review is going to come in two parts this first part will be on the parts and instalation. The second part will be on its proformance on and off the track.
I just got my RSC yesterday and put it on last night. Here are my impressions so far.
Street price $150
What it does. Improves handling and steering of your truck.
What I like
1. Kit is complete with everything you need including most tools are included.
2. Parts are high quality alum with high quality anodizing.
What I didn't like
1.The front axle carriers need major modifing before they will function properly.
2.Not an easy add on for the less experienced RC driver.
Installing
The first thing anyone will notice about this when looking at the package is just how much stuff you get in the package. The big important parts are front hubs and axle carriers, rear one piece hub/axle carriers, Adjustible upper A-arms, Two alum cross members. It also has all screws and spacers need to install.
Custom triming of parts is a big part of this add on and is something that may give the first time RC owner without much mechanical inclanation a bit of trouble. A dremal will come in handy for this part. I will only cover the instalation on a savage x or xl but the savage 21/25 is very much the same.
The first thing you will need to do is notch out the front half of the bulkhead to enable the cross member to be installed this is very simple and straight forward and can be done very easly with a set of wire cutters. Next comes cutting out about half of the lower eyelet of the shock towers to make room for the new upper a-arms. The final bit of cutting/grinding you will have to do according to the directions is cutting out a good part of the back shock mounts on the front lower a-arms. This is to allow the steering to function fully. Two things to be noted here is that you will have to cut away about twice as much as is shown in the pictures included with the RSC and if not carefull you could severly weeken the arm and second you will no longer be able to have two shocks on each of the two front corners. I found that if you cut down the bolt included with the kit to attach the tie rods to exactly the length you need you will only have to cut slightly more than pictured.
The next part is not listed in the directions but is needed to enable the kit to function properly. This is also my biggest problem with the kit but being that it can be fixed it is not a huge deal.
The nubs on the arms of the axle carriers prohibit the full steering throw possible with the kit. This is how you fix it. The nub that hits into the hubs as you steer need to be ground down to match the curve of the hub. This takes about 1 min of grinding. You could just grind them off entirely but I wanted a very clean look so I just ground it down to match the curve. Do this either way and it will work. One thing to note however is that you may need to adjust the end points on your radio to keep from having the axles pop out when the wheels are turned full one way or the other. I did notice that with the XL/Flux dogbones this was not needed.
Instalation from this point is a simple matter of bolting everything together and is fairly straight forward.
What it does and how
The kit will elimanate the rear tie rods by using a one piece hub and axle carrier making for a much cleaner and simpler rear. The rear axle carriers also have built in toe and two camber adjustments that make tuning the rear of the car far simpler.
The kit will enable much tighter turning by rotating the mounts for the front axle carriers by about 1 1/2 hours which enables the inside wheel in a turn to rotate far more and pull the front end of the car around a turn far faster and sharper.
The cross members lower the roll center of the car further improving the handling in turns which will lead to faster lap times on the track do to being able to power through those turns.
In conclusion
This is a great upgrade that just about anyone could do with a few hours to devote.
I am looking forward to testing it out this week at the track and putting it to the test in the gravel pits bashing. Once I put it through it paces I will update this with a proformance review.
Update: For the proformance review for both racing and bashing see posts 13 and 15.
Update: Here is a How to for installing this in a FLM bulk head done by Bankrupter. https://www.hpisavageforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12786
I just got my RSC yesterday and put it on last night. Here are my impressions so far.
Street price $150
What it does. Improves handling and steering of your truck.
What I like
1. Kit is complete with everything you need including most tools are included.
2. Parts are high quality alum with high quality anodizing.
What I didn't like
1.The front axle carriers need major modifing before they will function properly.
2.Not an easy add on for the less experienced RC driver.
Installing
The first thing anyone will notice about this when looking at the package is just how much stuff you get in the package. The big important parts are front hubs and axle carriers, rear one piece hub/axle carriers, Adjustible upper A-arms, Two alum cross members. It also has all screws and spacers need to install.
Custom triming of parts is a big part of this add on and is something that may give the first time RC owner without much mechanical inclanation a bit of trouble. A dremal will come in handy for this part. I will only cover the instalation on a savage x or xl but the savage 21/25 is very much the same.
The first thing you will need to do is notch out the front half of the bulkhead to enable the cross member to be installed this is very simple and straight forward and can be done very easly with a set of wire cutters. Next comes cutting out about half of the lower eyelet of the shock towers to make room for the new upper a-arms. The final bit of cutting/grinding you will have to do according to the directions is cutting out a good part of the back shock mounts on the front lower a-arms. This is to allow the steering to function fully. Two things to be noted here is that you will have to cut away about twice as much as is shown in the pictures included with the RSC and if not carefull you could severly weeken the arm and second you will no longer be able to have two shocks on each of the two front corners. I found that if you cut down the bolt included with the kit to attach the tie rods to exactly the length you need you will only have to cut slightly more than pictured.
The next part is not listed in the directions but is needed to enable the kit to function properly. This is also my biggest problem with the kit but being that it can be fixed it is not a huge deal.
The nubs on the arms of the axle carriers prohibit the full steering throw possible with the kit. This is how you fix it. The nub that hits into the hubs as you steer need to be ground down to match the curve of the hub. This takes about 1 min of grinding. You could just grind them off entirely but I wanted a very clean look so I just ground it down to match the curve. Do this either way and it will work. One thing to note however is that you may need to adjust the end points on your radio to keep from having the axles pop out when the wheels are turned full one way or the other. I did notice that with the XL/Flux dogbones this was not needed.
Instalation from this point is a simple matter of bolting everything together and is fairly straight forward.
What it does and how
The kit will elimanate the rear tie rods by using a one piece hub and axle carrier making for a much cleaner and simpler rear. The rear axle carriers also have built in toe and two camber adjustments that make tuning the rear of the car far simpler.
The kit will enable much tighter turning by rotating the mounts for the front axle carriers by about 1 1/2 hours which enables the inside wheel in a turn to rotate far more and pull the front end of the car around a turn far faster and sharper.
The cross members lower the roll center of the car further improving the handling in turns which will lead to faster lap times on the track do to being able to power through those turns.
In conclusion
This is a great upgrade that just about anyone could do with a few hours to devote.
I am looking forward to testing it out this week at the track and putting it to the test in the gravel pits bashing. Once I put it through it paces I will update this with a proformance review.
Update: For the proformance review for both racing and bashing see posts 13 and 15.
Update: Here is a How to for installing this in a FLM bulk head done by Bankrupter. https://www.hpisavageforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12786
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