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Here's some tips from RC Xotic.com Degrease Your Bearings When buying a new set of bearings, most come with grease all over. The grease is there to prevent rust and for long wear. But too much grease will create extra drag. So simply take a degreaser liquid and spray it on to remove the extra grease. Common decreaser include mineral spirites. Graphite Suspension Liquid Want your suspension to work a little bit smoother? Who doesn't? The next time you build or rebuild your vehicle's suspension, pick up some powdered graphite dry lube from your local hobby shop. It's used for many things including pine wood derby cars. Put a small amount of dry lube between your hinge pins and the parts they are going through. You can also put a small amount inside your ball cups before you snap them in place. Unlike oil or grease, the dry graphite doesn't attract dirt or dust and will keep your suspension working smoothly. Graphite lube is available through Pinecar and is called Hob-E-Lube (P358). If your local hobby shop doesn't carry it, ask them to order it for you. If you can't find powdered graphite in your area, you can also try using baby powder. Polish Those Bushings No matter if it's a stock motor or bronze axle bushings, they need to be polished to get the best performance. Just stop by your favorite automotive store and pick up some "Mother's" aluminum polish paste. Just force some into the bushing and run the motor or axle slowly for about 5 minutes. The polish will turn black while it's doing it's job and may need to be replenished once or twice. Make sure you really clean out and oil the bushings before you race. Work Those Shocks Before a race, it's important to pump your vehicle's shocks. This will help to release any air that may be in the shocks. If you listen closely when you do this, you can hear the shock oil smooth out as you pump the shocks. You will notice that your vehicle's suspension is more consistent through the first few laps of the race.
Early winter in my yard We get plenty of snow around here. This pic was taken in early October.			Winter's coming, are you ready??? If you are going to run in snow, be sure to winterize. The best way I've found is to put your electrics (servo's, reciever, ESC, ect) in balloons. I ran my truck almost every day in snow last year, and with this setup I didn't experience any moisture problems at all. The only thing to worry about with this setup is overheating. This shouldn't be a problem unless you are running a hot setup. Personally, running with some mild motors and the temp averaging around 20 degrees, I had no heat problems. Though I had no heat problems, I still checked regularly. If you are running a gas engine, be sure to protect your motor from moisture. The best thing I found was a Motor Saver air filter with a mudd/snow shield. If you don't have this, you can put extra oil in your air filter to repel the water. After running be sure to run all of the fuel out of your engine as the temp changes are more extreme in the winter, and no one wants to have moisture buildup that leads to rust inside the engine. Oh yea, after run oil is a must. If you run hard in the snow, be prepared to buy/make replacement parts. When parts get cold from running in the snow, they become brittle or stiff, and breakage is almost guaranteed if you run hard. Things like suspension arms and especially driveshafts have a habbit of breaking. Last winter I replaced 10 drive shafts in my truck, keep in mind that I ran hard almost every day for 4 months in the snow.
Shocks Shocks are some of the most active parts of an off road truck. They are also one of the most tunable parts, but that doesn't mean that it's easy. Here's some things I've learned over the years. Please remember that I am not a racer, but even a small tweak on your shocks can enhance the backyard experience. I won't go into extreme detail about using this piston with that spring with this oil, because I'll only confuse myself and you. Here's my tips I only use spacers on my shocks to vary ride hight, if I want a stiffer ride, I put some heavier weight oil or a stiffer spring. I found that trying to make the ride stiffer using spacers, all I did was make it bouncy. Most of my back yard suspension problems can be solved by oil weight. Please keep in mind that I generally use the stock springs on my truck. If my truck bottoms out eitirely too much, I put some heavier weight oil in them. If my truck bounces over everything, I decrease the weight of oil. I have found that what works for me, may not work for you. For example, if you do alot of big jumps, you may want a heavier spring and heavier oil. If it is really cold, you may want to put some light weight oil in your shocks, because most oils "thicken" up when they get cold. Most shock tuning is done by trial and error so try out a few different combos and use what works best for you. Protection. If you want to protect your shocks, try putting the spring in a balloon. Make sure the balloon is the right size and doesn't affect the springs movement. By putting the spring in a balloon, you help protect the seals from dirt and whatever else may get inside. The balloon stops the dirt from getting on the shock shaft, thus keeping the seal protected. I have found that this works particularly well on Duratrax shocks that are known to leak very easily. Here's some tips from Insane Stampede off RCMT.net A New Lubricator... My dad's friend said that I could put Windex on my gears/universals/any other moving parts that create friction. I tried it out and it works great! He should know because he used to work in a ball bearing place for heavy machinery. Padded Armature Tote To safely store your serviced armatures in your pit kit, use a 35mm film container packed on the inside with thin foam rubber. Tidy Wires To make your car easier to service and to prevent some interference, stick pieces of Velcro to the insides of your chassis tub, then trap your wires under them. Easy Screw Removal If the slot has been stripped out of the screw head, use a smear of First Try compound (from the auto parts store) on your screwdriver. If that fails, cut a new screwdriver groove with the grinding disk on your Dremel tool. Be sure to use safety glasses when you do this. 1/10 scale tires on 1/8 scale rims. Soak the tire in dishwashing soap to lubricate it, and then force it over a bottle. Invert the bottle and place the rim on its base; with an extra pair of hands and the aid of some flat spatulas, you can slip the tire up and onto the rim. Enbell Cooler This scrap lexan fan blows air over the endbell and casing. It was made for the Kyosho Lazer, but will work on a Stampede. Dimensions: 7/8 inch and the bent up blades are 3/16 x 9/32 inch. Budget Com Cleaner Use surplus store pulleys and a metal or 1/8 inch (3mm) plywood brackets screwed to a wooden base to attach an old motor to a drive motor. If you cant find pulleys, mount 2 pinion gears back to back. The drive belt is an O ring, but a rubber band would also work. Plug in your battery pack and use a commutator cleaning stick to brighten up that comm on your motor. Shock-Rod Cleaner To thoroughly clean grease and dirt off the piston rod, pass a pipe cleaner through the spring coils, twist it slightly around the piston rod, and work the shock up and down. Dogbone Retainer Pass a Radio Shack cable tie (part # 2781646) around the camber link and dogbone as shown, and secure it in the third from the last hole. Keep the tie just tight enough to hold the link if it pops out while on the track. Solder Holder To keep the solder free from kinks, remove the ball point and end plug from an empty pen, coil the solder around the outside of the body, then thread the tail end through the center. Works great! Better Controller Contact To cure erratic msc control performance, bend the leaf spring arms down slightly. Keep the contact buttons parallel to the resistor part, and add a copper washer from a glow plug. No-Glue Tire Bond To firmly bond your tires to the rims, use a narrow strip of double-sided carpet tape. Emergency Drive Pen If you need a replacement pin, check the diameter of your wing wire, and cut a short piece to use as a spare. Click here if you would like to add some tips			Shocks What setup works best for you?