Upper Chassis Braces-Something For Truggy & Buggy Owners

[Krawlin]

Thought this little write up might help some of you who own nitro or electric truggies and buggies, did this to my truggy just this morning, works great!

Was very simple, here is the parts list
(Note, this works for the Mutilator truggy, so these MGT turnbuckles may not be the right length for your buggy or truggy)

- Just a couple spare longer screws I had laying around
- 1 Monster GT front steering link w/ ball ends
- 1 Monster GT rear toe link w/ ball ends


Tools Needed-

- Hex Drivers
- Hack Saw
- Dremel
- Needle Nosed Pliers


I had to dremel out a bit of the front diff case under the front top plate so the nut underneath wouldn't push the top plate up, and also had to dremel off part of the wing mount to allow the ball end to fit between the wing mount and the mount on the diff case that ties the wingmount to the diff case. I removed the ball out of 1 end of the rear toe link so it wouldn't push the side of the wingmount way out. Then I just screwed everything back together. Have a look at the pictures to see the end result!

The purpose of these upper braces are to keep the chassis from bowing up and down in the middle. If I pushed on the front shock tower and wing mount, there was a very noticeable about of bowing in the chassis, which would throw the gear mesh off at that moment. And I am pretty sure that the bowing of the chassis is what was frying my clutch bearings so fast. So with these turnbuckles running from the front top plate to the center diff plate and from the rear wing mount to the center diff plate, it completely eliminates any of the up and down flexing/bowing of the chassis. So fewer fried clutch bearings from chassis flex, and a more rigid platform overall. And whats even cooler is that I can adjust the "tension" that the turnbuckles have on the chassis to keep my clutch bell and spur gear perfectly parallel. And since they are just single links with ball ends, they still allow for some torsional flex in the chassis, which aides alot in traction.

Got this idea from the CEN Matrix TR truggy, it uses large plastic braces that go from the front diff to center diff and rear diff to center diff, which does the same thing as my turnbuckle braces, except that mine are adjustable!

Here are the pics-

[Krawlin]

And one more pic -

[halfcab]

I already had that planned for the home built buggy I just got from the rcc board a while back, with a rcm motor mount it is not needed for gear mesh issues, only need the upper brace when the motor is chassis mounted