Whether you’re a seasoned crawler or just getting your first rig out of the box, having a solid grasp of both technical knowledge and field-tested experience is what keeps you moving forward on the rocks. This section is dedicated to sharing the collective wisdom of our club to help you tune your rig, sharpen your driving skills, and keep your build trail-ready.
Wheel Hexs!
Most may know already but having the proper amount of clearance between your beadlock and knuckle arms is something to keep in mind. Steering links bolts on top of your knuckles too close to your tires can rip holes in your tires. Also, knuckles rubbing on beadlocks isn’t good either, it adds wear and tear on your drivetrain components.
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Most aftermarket beadlocks now a days have the ability to adjust offsets with different size hubs you can switch out. Mostly commonly now is the Vanquish Products SLW hub bolt pattern. Not all beadlocks have adjustable hubs though(Say a RC4WD 1.9 Tango Down), if you need to adjust your track width even farther, pay attention to which wheel hexs you are using as well. To keep a narrow track width, maybe for Class One, these Axial AXI232018 narrow wheel hexs are a good option (or some other brand similar), comes with a locking hex pin as well. Or if you need to increase your beadlock to knuckle clearance, you can get wider be hexs as shown.
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Back in the day, lots of buidlers used the front hexs off Traxxas Slash 2WDs(fronts). Wheel hex extenders a not recommended, it really makes your steering servos work over time and you get less performance. Keeping your track width narrow reduces "scrub steer” where tires must slide across the ground to turn. Scrub radius is the distance between the centerline of the tires contact patch and the point where the steering axis line hits the ground. Also having too large of a beadlock offset can really reduce the effectiveness of your steering servo and decreases the life span of your servo, increasing the temperature of servo because it's working harder.
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*Post by JUSTINART24