Yo! Check out THESE shock tower braces

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dale_gribble

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Made them yesterday. These really strengthen the flex observed from the long shock towers while adding very little weight or obstruction to other parts. I was surprised at how much it stiffened the front of the chassis up. Since these won't have torsional strain, I only focused on strengthening in one axis (i.e. backward/forward motion). I used the engines crankcase and spread the load of the brace across the crankcase a bit. Now I don't have to worry about breaking diff cases from the leverage of the shock towers.


When I make another iteration, I will make them prettier and make a few more changes based on my observations.


I used 3/8" aluminum rod, 1/4 20 grub screws, HPI Baja upper ball mounts and aluminum stock for the mounts.


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permission to add just from experience, get the shroud brace they make for the baja and attach the rods to it, if not you will break where those are mounted. hope that helps
 
Please link me to what shroud brace you speak of. I will break where they are mounted because you have done this before or because you are guessing they will break?
 
Looks good Dale very nice work. One thing check out tho is the side to side flex, strap down your Ramp to something stout or have someone hold it down for you. It is a lot easier to see the flex, then lift up and down on the wheels one at a time. It would be just like landing off a jump on one wheel or kinda like cartwheeling.


Hope this helps
 
forist said:
Looks good Dale very nice work. One thing check out tho is the side to side flex, strap down your Ramp to something stout or have someone hold it down for you. It is a lot easier to see the flex, then lift up and down on the wheels one at a time. It would be just like landing off a jump on one wheel or kinda like cartwheeling.
Hope this helps
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Forist is right, 4- little supports and you can literally stand on the shock towers and not have to worry about chassis flex. The silver bars from shock towers to chassis strangthen both laterally and longitudely.


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The mount tabs on the fan shroud are very cheesy...I broke mine off with the CPI pipe mounted there...a shroud brace like that would have been a huge help..


Obeast, I did some front braces like that (shock tower to chassis) and they helped a lot in a tumble I took...
 
@ Dale


hate to say this.. but i think those braces defeat the whole pupose of having a roll cage.. I like your work though, looks clean.. I'de give it a 10 out 10 for looks..


should try Obeast44's set-up..


and i'de have to agree with Forist, check for flex..
 
I am just going to run it and see what happens, though I will get the shroud brace for sure. I am not using the braces to eliminate chassis flex; I am using them to primarily limit shock tower front/rear movement so the shock towers don't break off the mounting tabs on the diff cases. There is a little give, and the plastic ball ends will absorb some shock also.


I will be the first to admit when I am wrong if I am wrong but I need to run it to get a baseline of what I need to do moving forward.
 
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That setup does look clean. I can concurr that the rear fan shroud brace you hooking into is really weak. I have at least 3 fan shrounds sitting on my shelf with broken mounts due to my old HPI. Your rear ball joint may pop off before you break the tab which is probably a good thing. The front will most likely break the tab since the rod has nowhere to go. I'd try to move the ball joint on the front of the engine to the outside by mounting the plate on the inside of the tab. That way you could just pop the ball joints back on after a bad wreck.


Oh and Obeast needs to stop showing pictures of that cage. Everytime I see it I start missing my car :D
 
Nice idea i would have made the ends solid but thats somthing id never of thought, on my truck i run a set of braces that forist made and a full cage also steel bumpers, I think chassis, flex is overlooked somtimes, the more bracing you do the better off youll be.
 
I finished the setup based on your key input. That is the Team Phat Dad brace now that will really strengthen the fan shroud and tie the braces together.


brace.jpg
 
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