25 July 2007
I've had good experience with the quality of 3Racing parts before so I decided to try their upgrade shock set for the DF-03.
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The shocks were of decent quality but I did feel a slight amount of friction between one piston and the inside wall of one shock. They are definitely not as smooth as Tamiya's teflon-coated units. |
| The black plastic head on the left is the one from Tamiya aluminium shocks (on the TRF shocks and the DF02 and DF03 upgrade shocks) and the one to its right is the 3Racing one. They are not interchangeable, unfortunately. The transluscent rubber bladder makes it easy to spot air bubbles that form when the bladder is installed. |
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The shocks all installed. You have a choice of installing two-hole or one-hole pistons in each shock. I went with 2 hole pistons all around and put the lightest shock oil I had (Tamiya 200 weight oil) because the rebound of the shocks were just too sluggish with anything thicker. Also, I couldn't find any alternatives to the 3Racing springs, which were too hard for racing. Tamiya springs were too narrow and Team Losi springs were a little wide and too long at the front (but would still work okay). I put the pre-load collar all the way up the shock body and still couldn't get any droop on the front. |
Conclusion: These shocks were cheap and seem to be tough and maintenance-free. It's very easy to get a lot of pack with just some light shock oils and the springs are very stiff, which makes these shocks great for backyard bashers looking to survive huge jumps, but on a bumpy race-track, they are not going to make your buggy very fast.
