Chassis
What
is the Chassis?
There
are really only 4 types of chassis compounds: Molded Composite (or
Plastic), Fiberglass, Carbon Fiber Composite and Woven Carbon Fiber
(also known as Graphite).
Molded
Composite:
Molded Composite chassis' are normally a tub design chassis.
They have ribs and ridges in them for re-inforcement. This makes
them the heaviest of the bunch, but it provides alot of flex which is
good for traction, in some instances.
Fiberglass:
Not a real popular choice anymore, Fiberglass chassis were used mostly
on pan cars. It's cheap, easy to produce, and has good flex and
strength properties. With the cost of the other materials
continually dropping, Fiberglass has really lost its niche in the
R/C world.
Carbon
Fiber Composite:
Carbon Fiber Composite, on the other hand, has seen lots of benefits
lately. It's lighter, stronger and more rigid than the other
materials. It also has ribs and ridges molded into it for re-inforcement.
This does, though, cause the vehicle to be more responsive, and may not
be the best choice for slippery surfaces.
Woven
Carbon Fiber:
The best looking type of material, the Graphite chassis has been around
a long time! Typically, a Graphite chassis comes in 2 pieces: the
Chassis and the Upper Deck. It is usually attached to the
bulkheads and possibly some standoffs to make the whole assembly rigid.
While Graphite is pretty simple to produce, it does have it's drawbacks.
There is quite a bit of preparation required to produce a good chassis.
Since the edges are laser or water cut (in most instances), the edges
can be sharp. This can cut fingers or, worse yet, the shrink wrap
on your batteries, causing them to short. And, since the Graphite
chassis is formed using layers, it has a tendency to peel in a bad
crash, loosing it's rigidness and in most cases becoming useless.
To properly prepare a Graphite chassis, you need to sand all the sharp
edges off (especially around the battery slots), apply some superglue to
the edges (to keep them from splitting during a bad crash), and, as a
final measure of protection, put some tape or some sort of covering near
the edges of the battery slots. Alot or work, but the final
product can be a masterpiece...just don't crash it!!!
How
do you change the Chassis?
Well,
that's A LOT of work, but it's pretty self explanatory. Remove
everything from one chassis and install it on the other! |