When is your race?

General discussions for car and semi-truck racers.

When is your race?

October
2
6%
November
1
3%
December
0
No votes
January
13
42%
February
6
19%
March
8
26%
April
1
3%
May
0
No votes
Other
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 31

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ranman106
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Re: When is your race?

Post by ranman106 »

Our pack PWD is on Feb. 15, 2004. Our district PWD is March 20, 2004.
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TurtlePowered
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Re: When is your race?

Post by TurtlePowered »

Our race was January 10th. The district date had not been announced yet. The pack will pay the district $5 registration fee for the top 3 of each rank.
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Darin McGrew
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Re: Pack 252 Results

Post by Darin McGrew »

Gavin Chafin wrote:As for Tungsten weight, definitely out from now on. Drilling that stuff out to make weight was an absolute nightmare.
If you use tungsten (or any other hard-to-adjust weight), then you really need to aim to be a little light, and then use some other easy-to-adjust weight for the last fraction of an ounce.
Gavin Chafin wrote:We had two kids show up with non-BSA kit cars. The axles were 1 piece (instead of nails) and the wheels were way different.
We ended up using those kits one year (when our order for standard CSB kits got screwed up). They have little plastic hub caps that snap onto the ends of the axles to keep the wheels on.

The biggest problem we had with them was that many of the blocks were too wide for the axles, and the hub caps couldn't snap on completely. Of course, we didn't find this out until the end of the process, when kids were trying to put wheels on their finished cars.
Gavin Chafin
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Re: When is your race?

Post by Gavin Chafin »

Whistler wrote:Gavin,

In any event this year we have used the Pro Body tool on two cars. Due to the car's design and geometry we definitely clamped down the tool, and, since the blocks are typically not square, set up two parallel lines to ensure that the tool was set well. We sanded the sides down a bit so that the tool could be shifted to suit. To raise one front wheel we hand drilled the raised wheel hole, after marking where the tool would have drilled with a mechanical pencil lead. Actually one of our cars was only 1/4" thick in the front, so to raise the wheel we just flipped the tool to the "top" of the block and that worked nicely to set the wheel higher but still parallel.

Initial testing of this alignment has indicated that the cars track better than any others we've made, even without shimming. We do final shimming after painting, so I guess we will see, but I'm very hopeful and inclined to trust the tool. Certainly much better than any drill press we've used in the past (though my drill press is an old damaged one that I picked up very cheap, and it may not be strictly aligned...)
What’s most frustrating to me is the thought that the car likely would have tracked much better with the Pro-Body tool if I had not touched the alignment at all. Gotta figure out where I’m messing up here. I’ve decided to try the Pro-body tool again and take it slow. I think there’s also other areas of my alignment process where I need to slow down. Within the next week, I’m going to start another car and see how it goes.
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TurtlePowered
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Re: Pack 252 Results

Post by TurtlePowered »

Gavin Chafin wrote:As for Tungsten weight, definitely out from now on. Drilling that stuff out to make weight was an absolute nightmare. Lead or solder will get the car low just fine.
We use the cylinders, but we finish off the car using the beads. Probably the tungsten disks would be even better for precise weighing.
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TDean
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Re: When is your race?

Post by TDean »

Darin wrote:
We ended up using those kits one year (when our order for standard CSB kits got screwed up). They have little plastic hub caps that snap onto the ends of the axles to keep the wheels on.
I had thought using the axle rods with those kits would make alignment a piece of cake -- much less chance of wheels being canted or toed in, etc. But I found it was the hub caps that caused me all the headaches. Getting them on was easy enough -- but polishing the little buggers was a real pain. When the car was complete I would hold the car to one side, so wheels were up against the car -- and they spun freely -- when I turned it so they were up against the hub caps -- they would stop after 2 seconds -- ouch...
TDean
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