Outback R/C Raceway

mike how do u get more rear bite? went to trackside on wed and spun my tires al day! was on a 19 lap run in one of my heats till my truck went away! need more rear bite!

What truck was this with?  First thing is tires.  That's about 90% of it at least. Then shocks.  Stiffer front and softer rear in comparison to what you currently have will usually help. Less toe out in front, more toe-in for the rear are also helpful.
Oh.  And very importantly, easy on the throttle.

I had some trouble on rear sidebite at Leisure Hours once.  I had gold Bar Codes on my xxx-cr.  I am just learning about camber gain and such.  I changed my rear camber link so that the tire would be flatter to the ground when the car was leaning in a turn.  Then I went up 2 spring stiffnesses.  After this, I felt like the car was more planted in the rear.  How does that sound, Mike?

When I was at Trackside I lowered the rear end a bit more on my Slash and put stiffer oil in the front shocks, that seemed to help.

The reduction in camber with a flatter tire sounds right, but the stiffer spring sounds opposite. 

The rear was so soft, it wouldn't straighten out when you wanted it to be ready to take off out of the turn.  Maybe.  It helped a lot.

Hey Bob, my B4 is almost ready, watch out!

OK.  I'll pass cleanly.

 
Do you have that XXX dialed yet? I am just going with the set up Al got from Mike.
Mike, more neg. camber worked well at Outback but I noticed it doesn't work so good at LH. Would LH be considered a smooth track? I noticed neg. 1' works good at LH while neg. 2-3 works good at Outback. I ask because I was taught that you run more neg. camber on rough tracks and less on smooth tracks, is this correct?

I don't see camber as an adjustment to make on a rough or smooth track.  Rather, more camber is usually needed when the suspension is soft and the car is driven hard into corners.  The added camber will then create a larger footprint for the tire to contact the ground.  A big consideration though, is also the shape of the tire.  If it's stuffed with foam and has a round appearance then camber won't be as big of an issue because at all angles the same amount of tire is contacting the ground.  If the tire is flatter across the surface then camber can be very critical because too much or too little and the contact patch is greatly reduced at different times.  Usually in rc 2 degrees is about the max that is used on front or rear and usually the rear would have a little more. 

Leisure hours is probably about a medium to bumpy track most of the time.  It gets pitted and rutted out pretty badly sometimes because of the 8th scales.  Trackside has some bumps too but I would call it smooth and maybe sometimes medium.  If your buggy is bouncing around check that the rear shock oil is sufficient.  Usually by replacing it with fresh oil you can greatly reduce the bounciness from the springs.  Even if the shocks are just a little low on oil you can feel a pretty big difference in handling and landing on jumps.  After tire selection, fresh shocks are my next thing on the checklist if the car doesn't feel quite right.  Usually it will go from being pretty driveable to very driveable and predictable with fresh oil in the shocks.

I just rebuilt my shocks last night.
More neg. camber made a difference at Outback on my Slash, it must have because it's a Slash and doesn't have the same handling characteristics as a buggy. : I ran -4' on the Slash. It made a little difference on the B44, I ran -2.5' on the rear but the tire profile was fairly flat.

Great!  Glad you rebuilt the shocks.  They should feel real smooth and progressively more resistant as you push the car down on the table.  Be sure to at least change the oil every couple of race/practice days if not rebuild them with new o-rings.

Here's another traction tip.  Be sure that all the wheel and hub bearings are free moving and that they are still tight.  If the bearing has excessive play it is exponentially increased in the tires and therefore on the track.  It would also be a good idea to check the bearings in the transmission case and diff once in a while as well.  There are plenty of $1 bearings available to replace any questionable ones.  So cost shouldn't be an issue.

I'm good at replacing bearings. Seems like I am the only one who races at Outback who actually has to replace the most bearings.