Turtle Racing clutch system advisory

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46u

46u

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,185
Location
Macon, Georgia
Been running my TR clutch system on my 5b SS for 3 years and like it very much an in my opinion is the number two up grade only after a remote kill switch. Up to this point I have been running stock gearing. Being I installed a engine I built a race ported 30.5 I felt the need to gear it higher as the low end is all most uncontrollable and more top end will not hurt. So I got a Hostile 56 spur with a TR 18 pinion. When I installed it there was WAY too much binding and the gear mesh was way off. After playing with it for a couple hours I emailed Rob at Hostile and this was his reply. I meant Rob at a race a couple of years ago and he is a GREAT guy.

Hi Jeff,

The Turtle 18 and 19 tooth pinions are not industry standard and that has been causing issues for us and our customers. All of our spurs, 54, 55, 56 and 57 are industry standard and mesh perfectly with all corresponding pinions that were made industry standard as well. The Turtle 17 and 20 are the only properly size pinions, that is why the 57 meshed fine with the 17. The DDM “Black Magic” pinions and the Vertigo pinions all use industry standard so they mesh perfectly in all of the standard combinations.

Some people that don wan to switch from the Turtle system are using our 55 with the Turtle 18 and 19 loosen the mesh up. The mesh is not perfect and has more play than we like, but our gears are pretty tough and hold up to the incomplete mesh.
My apologies for the inconvenience.

-Rob
 
Ive had my TR system for years! don't no how many years but lets say when the
5t first came out i won the TR system so yeah a long time :D

The only gears i really use for my TR system is 57/17 and 55/19

Its a great set up me thinks
 
From other emails to and from Hostile Rob some times the gears will work and many times they will not. I know that a 56 with a 18 TR pinion will not work in mine. If you read the email Rob sent me the TR 17 and 20 pinions are factory standard but the 18 and 19 are not. He is going to send me a couple of his 55 spurs to give it a try like he said many have done in the email I posted above from him.

I am not saying the TR clutch system is bad as I have been running mine before the T came out on my 5b SS and until I tried to change the gearing I had no problem. I mainly posted this so if others have the problem I and like many others have had they do not think it is some thing they did wrong.
Thanks for your input.
 
I want to say I meant Turtle Dave at a race and he is all so a stand up guy. He has helped me with things in the past. I gave him a call late yesterday but have not heard back. No big deal as I know what the problem is.
 
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that is wierd. im running six bajas, and all of them have turtle systems. i have not had any gear mesh problems while sticking to the 74 total teeth rule. (i.e. 17/57, 18/56, 19/55, 20/54) all hostile and turtle gearing used. is it possible something got twisted or something in your chassis? even then, the way the car is built i still don't think it would make that happen. i don't think anyway. just odd, ive not even once had a mesh problem, for years, using the tr/hostile gearing.
 
Like I said even Rob that owns and makes the Hostile spurs admits there are problems. Some are lucky and do not have the problem but many do. I have read MANY post about this problem on HBF. I posted the email Rob sent me.

I can run the Hostile 57 spur and the TR 17 no problem so if something was bend or out of line you would think this would not work. Robs email I posted says the 17 and 20 TR gears being the ONLY TR pinions to be factory standard.

Yes I really like my TR clutch system and hostile gears but according to Rob there are problems. Not trying to start a war just hard to dispute what Rob verified is a problem.

Believe me if someone make a million of the same parts and only one was defective my luck is I would get the only one out of a million that was defective. LOL
 
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all the problems i ever read about were of people trying to run 18/55 or 19/56 or 17/56, etc, 73 or 75 teeth total. alot of these combos will run but are tight or loose and cause premature failure. i never read of problem running 74 teeth using hostile and turtle system.

bad luck for you man. sounds like maybe the gear was marked with incorrect amount of teeth. did you count them to make sure that was not the case. that is all i can think of. good luck with it man.
 
motorman said:
all the problems i ever read about were of people trying to run 18/55 or 19/56 or 17/56, etc, 73 or 75 teeth total. alot of these combos will run but are tight or loose and cause premature failure. i never read of problem running 74 teeth using hostile and turtle system.

bad luck for you man. sounds like maybe the gear was marked with incorrect amount of teeth. did you count them to make sure that was not the case. that is all i can think of. good luck with it man.
Click to expand...

First thing I did when I came across this problem was count the teeth on both gears. Did you read the copy of the email Rob of Hostile sent me in my first post as it explains he is aware of this problem and a suggestion to try. If you do a search on HBF you will see others have had the same problem.
Thanks
 
I cant see it being a tr clutch system at fault, many guys run all diff gear ratio's from many diff companies obr, ddm, rr, ect using the tr system with no problems, maybe hostile received a bad batch of gears! who knows
 
I am sorry for ever posting this but after reading others that have had the same problem I want to help others in case they ever run across this and wondered why. PLEASE DELETE THIS WHOLE THREAD!
 
not sure why you want the thread deleted! its actually a good thing that others replying here do not have this problem. we just stating what our experience is with the products, and they are good.

robs email reads the way it does cause he is good with his customers. he doesn't want to argue as to why you are having troubles. he'll just agree and send you new stuff.

btw, if you run 18/55 it will wear your pinion and spur much faster and if you bash really hard you will likely eat your spur quickly.

just trying to help, good luck bud.
 
I called and left David of Turtle Racing a message Friday and emailed him over the weekend but have not heard back. I hope him and his family are not having problems. Normally when I email or call David he is back to me in a day or two at the most. Maybe something came up?

So I called and talked to Brad at DDM and he said pretty much the same thing as Rob from Hostile. Brad all so recommend trying a 55th gear like Rob suggested.
 
yes, i know the 55 will work, but the mesh is way loose. i did it myself just cause i was messing with ratio's and it wore the pinion funny.

in your case the only thing to do is to run the 55 totth aparently. i just am baffled as to why you are having issue. i wish i could understand. i am that kind of guy. when something isnt working for someone but there are countless others doing the very thing that isnt working for one guy it makes me wanna find out why. thier explanation isnt good enough for me as the mesh works for 98% or more people running them. it has to be something in the structure or the pinion and spur that you are running. try another 18/56 gearset. do you know anyone near you that may have a set that they are running and for a fact know that the mesh is correct on there car. that would tell you if it is in your car or if it is your set of gears.

good luck
 
46u said:
I called and left David of Turtle Racing a message Friday and emailed him over the weekend but have not heard back. I hope him and his family are not having problems. Normally when I email or call David he is back to me in a day or two at the most. Maybe something came up?

So I called and talked to Brad at DDM and he said pretty much the same thing as Rob from Hostile. Brad all so recommend trying a 55th gear like Rob suggested.
Click to expand...

Brads a great guy i deal with Brad all the time, yes for sure if the 56 is tight no reason why the 55 wont work + you'll get a tad more top end:D
hope it works out, im sure the 55 will mesh nicely
 
I have been dealing with Brad at DDM for over 3 years and he is a good guy. Just do not talk to deal as he does not have a clue much of the time.

Problem I am having I am now racing dirt oval my motor has WAY to much torque. I set the clutch stall rate as low as I can but need taller gears to help. Rob is going to send me two 55 so I have nothing to loose to try it.
 
Just got 2, 55 spurs from Rob at Hostile and installed one of them. What took so long to get them he was waiting on more to be made. The gear lash is a little more then I would like but worth a try. I am going to try and run it a little tomorrow with the 55/18 set up as I have a race on Saturday. Any problems I will drop the stock ratio back in. Will keep all posted how it works out.

Some what disappointed David at TR never did return my phone call or email. Any other time I called or emailed him he got back to me in 24 hours.
 
46u said:
Just got 2, 55 spurs from Rob at Hostile and installed one of them. What took so long to get them he was waiting on more to be made. The gear lash is a little more then I would like but worth a try. I am going to try and run it a little tomorrow with the 55/18 set up as I have a race on Saturday. Any problems I will drop the stock ratio back in. Will keep all posted how it works out.

Some what disappointed David at TR never did return my phone call or email. Any other time I called or emailed him he got back to me in 24 hours.
Click to expand...

Good to hear you got the 55 gears sent, Hope it works out for you and if it don't well you know where to send the 55's to me! :lol:
 
If it does not work it will be because of stripping all the teeth off the spur. But being I have two free spurs it is worth a try. If I strip one I will not try the other one. I will find out today when I do a couple test run and for sure Saturday at the track during practice or a race.
 
The race was canceled for today but I did run it in the yard yesterday for about 10 minutes giving it hell and so far holding up fine.
 
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