Suspension or Spring Sets: do they make a difference?
 

I purchased the pack with 3 different suspensions (soft, medium, hard).

I'm new to the Bit Char-G family, having just bought my first two cars this past Saturday. Maybe I'm not yet tuned in to the handling, but I couldn't distinguish a difference between the soft and hard suspension.

My two questions are:
[1] has anyone noticed a difference in their performance using one over the other?

[2] theoretically speaking, what type of performance gains should the different suspensions provide (ie. tighter/looser cornering, etc.)

Oh yeah, I'm hooked!

Jon

I haven't tried the set myself yet, but here's what the different settings should do regardless of scale:

Soft Front - Understeering/Increase Front Traction/Slower Front Response
Hard Front - Oversteering/Decreased Front Traction/Faster Front Response

I have the steering sets and yes they do make a difference. I'm useing the medium one because it offers sharp turning and quick response. THe hard one was too fast in response so i gave that to my brother :D :D :D , and the soft one gave my bit a "mushy" feeling. :D

tinyrc & Wedginator: thanks to both of you for replying to my message.

The two cars I bought were both Skyline GT-Rs (one blue, one SE Loctite Zexel). With identical setups (Same motor, gear, and tires) I couldn't figure out why the standard blue handled better than the Loctite. When I say identical, I assumed the cars had identical, stock suspensions.

However, after reading your descriptions of the differences, I hypothesized that the suspension on the Loctite *must* be stiffer (it turns WAY too hard). And wouldn't you know, upon removing both, the Loctite suspension was about twice as thick as the standard! I popped a softer suspension on there, and voila', it handles like a beauty now.

The thing I'm enjoying most about this hobby so far is the fact that you can customize all these different attributes of your vehicle, and they actually make a difference in the performance. Not too shabby for a $35 unit!

We set up a track today at work (rope for the inner and outer boundaries of the track, fastened to the hard carpet floor with gaffers tape) and raced all through our lunch hour (actually the lunch hour wound up being 2 hours!) We had 3 cars going and will be adding the missing fourth frequency on Thursday.

Thanks again for your help!

Jon

Check out the Spring Suspension mod at questformadness.com if you are interested in true independent suspension. its not a beginner mod, but it may interest you.

I got the gold spring set from QFM and here was what I did to screw up the springs:

Thinking that the springs in their original form are too long and may apply too much force to the suspension mechanism to cause it to not steer...

I cut each spring in halves (also hoping this will allow one spring set to cover two Bit Char-G's), and then...

Stretch each half-spring segment to make each longer and softer, cause after cutting each half segment will become too short.

But the problem is these springs are very weak and I broke 3 of the half spring segments while stretching and was now left with an unless one.

So don't do what I did or do it with great care.

thanks for the heads up, now i know what not to try. I guess ill jus tstick wit da tomy springs.

Actually, all the springs used for the Spring Mod are delicate like he describes. They have to be, or they would not be able to compress under something as light as the weight of the BitChar-G.

Optimum spring length should be the same length as the exposed part of the shaft, beneath the steering well cover.

Also, when cutting the springs with a hobby knife, lightly tape down both ends so it doesnt fly, when you you splice in two.

Finally, dont reassemble completely until you've tested the steering first, as you may have to disassemble and adjust spring length. The Tomy springs are a buck a pair, pick up 2 and use one to practice. ;)