Featuring Pro-Line Trifecta Lexan Wing and Pro-Line Transistor and Electron Tires

Stock racing, in all classes, is a race before any of the rides ever touch the dirt, carpet, or whatever surface it is you run on. We all know what minimum weight is in our respective classes. For mine, it is 1500 grams for a Buggy and 1700 grams for a stadium truck. I am going to show how I scale my Buggies and get the weight how, and where, I want it. Before I start though I will give this disclaimer; this is not an exact science, and I went to college for forestry.

Previously I spent a lot of time reducing the overall weight of a buggy I had with no regard to where it was lost. That left me with something that was at minimum weight but had very little rear bite as that’s where the grams were shaved. After discussions with Paul Sinclair and Billy Maus, along with my own thoughts I have come up with what I like or at least what I like to think I like. That buggy I had at minimum? It ended back up at around 1535.
First up; Stock Buggy with my Yokomo YZ-2. I’ve driven at 1500 grams or just over and I didn’t like it, most I know don’t. Currently I have mine at 1556 and while I haven’t driven it yet the weight, like shocks or Pro-Line Electron tires there is testing involved. The YZ-2 was designed for high bite conditions with a lay down transmission; that we all know.
It is front “heavy” and out of the box mine was underweight with a low profile servo, Hobbywing Justock and V10 17.5 combo, and a Speedy’s Racing Parts slipper eliminator originally made for the B4.
Remember when you “cleaned” our room as a kid? Everything was jammed under your bed, at least that’s how I did it. Placing weight is an important thing here and just randomly sticking where ever is much like reaching into a hot oven without looking. Maybe you will get burned and maybe not. First off I took a 16 gram slug and simply put it in the middle of the chassis directly in front of the front/rear hanger. Once I scaled it the right rear was much heavier than the left, much. I then moved it over against the motor plate, and added another 16 grams under the pinion. While its not even it became much closer.
The front however was the opposite. The left front was heavier than the right. After buying an oversize capacitor for the speedo I placed it between the servo and receiver all the way to the right. My transponder was displaced by this but then added on top on the servo also on the right hand side. This did not make the front perfect but the left/right overall split is at 50.1%/49.9%. The front to rear is at 39.7%/60.3% and that is with one of the Yokomo battery plate weights, 26 grams. With one day in the books I feel like for Stock this will be close to where I would like to stay with this buggy as far as overall distribution.
Where was I at before all of this for my first run? The overall weight was 1516 grams with the same exact front/rear distribution. The left gained a scant .1% of weight. LF at 309, RF at 294, LR at 450, and the RR at 466.
Some of the other little tricks I’ve done are low profile front wheel nuts while keeping the stock larger nuts on the rear. The Pro-Line Trifecta wing is heavier as well. Even the Hobbywing V10 was 14 grams heavier than the motor in my Mod Buggy and after looking at everything I am very happy with that. My motor wires are TQ 1000 but the battery brace prevented me from keeping them directly in the middle, possibly putting more weight on the left front. I also have the Justock and receiver about as far back as I can while clearing the brace. Some of the front steel screws were replaced with Protek Ti screws.
The tires used are Pro-Line Transistors and Electrons on 2.4” wheels.
One easy way for a touch more rear weight is to change to 2.2” wheels.
Plans for the future include trying the Yokomo steel hangers and the aluminum rear camber block that supplies 12 grams to test out.
Titanium screws in a few more places in the front will be added as well. I would like to get as close as I can to zero stuck on weight.
I will close how I opened. This is my method. Using small kitchen scales will not be as close as a four pad scale but, it will be near.
Its also a lot cheaper.