TRF418 Chassis Kit

Smokem 418-IIX 2.0mm Carbon Fiber Chassis

Smokem's latest performance chassis is set to unleash the beast within your TRF418. Drawing from its vast chassis development experience, the 418-IIX chassis continues the Smokem heritage of high performance chassis design that started with the 416LP chassis for the TRF416.

Developed and tested with the help of a top TRF team driver, the 418-IIX chassis utilises a proprietary 2.0mm thick "Pro-Weave" 100% carbon fiber construction - which is stiffer than conventional weave but softer than a quasi weave. Together with its flowing contoured design, the 418-IIX chassis provides increased flex and a lowered centre of gravity - a combination that yields amazing corner speed for your TRF418 over a wide range of track conditions.

La Tamiya TRF418 de Walter Pollet-Villard.

En photos ci-dessous, la Tamiya TRF418 Walter Pollet-Villard avec laquelle il avait remporté deux semaines auparavant la première manche du championnat de France à Rumilly en catégorie Stock (moteur brushless 10.5 en mode zero timing), avec, comme à l'accoutumée avec ce pilote, une préparation aux petits oignons (blades de cardan en POM rouge - d'origine Roche? -, cinquième plot de carrosserie avec fixation Velcro sur le support d'amortisseurs avant, visserie light seulement là où il faut, prolongateurs de support de carrosserie arrière Zeppin Racing...)

http://www.overrc.com/

Samix TRF418 Chassis Kit

Around one month ago news of a new conversion kit for the TRF418 were pubished, by the relatively new and unknown company Samix. A prototype of the conversion kit had earlier been used by Nicholas Lee to get a very good result at the TITC in Thailand.

Well, one month has passed and the kit is now available, and since I found it interesting and good looking, I now have it here. So let's take a closer look!

The kit includes what you see in the below picture. What's missing from the picture is the basic steel hardware included. So in short you get a new lower deck, upper deck, alu adjustable battery holders, a steering brace and post and finally the motor mount and centre shaft + bearings. The motor mount is obviously at the heart of this conversion as it completely changes the way it's mounted to the lower deck with a central mounting very similar to the latest edition of the Yokomo BD7, no doubt that's where the inspiration has come from.

Here you have the included lower deck with a shape fairly similar to the original 418 item, but there are many differences when you look closer. The thickness of the material is the same at 2.25mm, but the material itself is different with a dull or matte final layer finish. The lower deck is also very narrow at 82mm, some 5 mm narrower than the original 418 lower deck. As you can see the lower deck still has mounting holes for the original motor mount as well. The Samix lower deck is slightly softer as well.

The upper deck obviously has the same matte finish, with the material 2.0mm thick just as the standard part. I found the upper deck to be slightly too long, so I removed some material from the front and rear edges to make sure it drops in without tweaking the car, just like you would do on the original Tamiya parts.

Next up the motor mount, which as I mentioned must be considered the central part of this conversion. Here I have already fitted the central mount at the front part which connects to the upper deck, as well as the center shaft. All these parts are quite beautifully finished with nice edges and machining work. Not quite TRF level but very close. The anodizing is slightly off but still the right kind of light blue. The difference likely comes from the material used. No issues with fitment on any of these parts and the motor mount only touches the lower deck around the front and rear mounting holes.

As you can see just by looking at it, this is a light part. The center shaft has a larger diameter compared to the stock 418 shaft, and that's the reason you get 2 bearings included as the original ones would not fit. Again good fitment and a solid construction here.

The Samix motor mount has locating tabs as well that goes into coresponding holes in the lower deck to minimise movement in crashes or during racing.

Fitted to the lower deck you can see how it mounts.

This is what it looks all mounted on the TRF418. Even like this with the central screws both front (steering) and rear (motor mount), the chassis feels softer than the original 418. WIth the possibility to remove these screws/front steering brace you can of course alter flex according to the consitions as well. Overall it feels very good once assembled but of course track testing will be the judge.

A closer look at the steering brace and post mounted to the upper deck.

As you can see here the forward leg of the motor mount now doubles as a nice battery locator making sure the battery won't move in towards the belt, so no need for anything else.

So that's it for a first look at the Samix TRF418 kit. As you can see I chose not to fit the adjustable battery holders.

Once the weather warms up a bit more and tracks get ready I will make some back-to-back comparisons on track with the original configuration and return with my results.

Samix TRF418 Chassis Kit Test

After the build review of the Samix TRF418 kit , which I posted when the kit became available late April, I have been waiting for a chance to test it. Due to the weather, track availability and other more urgent matters this test has been delayed more than I wanted, but I finally got a chance to do a proper test last week. And while I have now back-to-backed it with the original 418 configuration, I will continue this and possibly post more findings later.

Anyway, back to last weeks test and first impressions. The way I tested it was that I bolted it on one piece at a time to see the effect of each one of them. Meaning that I started off with a standard 418, then exchanged the lower deck followed by the top deck and finally the motor mount, allowing a couple of packs running between each step to form a good idea of everything.

The results were all positive with each step improving the car, which obviously is a very good thing and left me very positive by the last run of the day. It was clear already after just changing the lower deck to the narrower and crucially softer, Samix spec chassis, that this improved the grip in the car. The car however really came together late in the day with the motor mount added. The 418 also felt even more responsive to change in this configuration, usually a good sign of a chassis working well. The final configuration I run the car in was as mentioned with the Yokomo style motor mount, with all screws in the upper deck. I did not run the steering brace and post connecting to the upper deck at the front though, but did run the screw in the center post in front of the motor mount (I found this was significantly better in this configuration).

So following the positive first impression and build of the Samix conversion, the same trend definitely continued on track. Look forward to more running with it.

http://kentech.blogs.se/2014/06/24/samix-trf418-chassis-kit-test-18729111/

Salut,

Quelqu'un sait ce que ça donne par apport aux X-ray,Yokomo,ect... ?

Si il faut plutôt il aller tête baisser ou se concentrer sur un autre? (bien sur après avoir bien économiser pour noël... :mort: )

Et avec le kit Samix? (je ne suis pas très fort en anglais...)

http://www.overrc.com/

La Tamiya TRF418 de Florentin Cruz.

La Tamiya TRF418 de Florentin Cruz, qui roulait en catégorie "Stock", bénéficiait d'une préparation similaire à celle de Walter Pollet-Villard présentée plus haut, à quelques exceptions près.

http://www.overrc.com/

La Tamiya TRF418 de Walter Pollet-Villard.

Ce pilote courant habituellement en championnat de France finira second en catégorie "Modified". Sa Tamiya TRF418, préparée aux petits oignons comme à l'accoutumé, était propulsée par un moteur brushless 10.5 d'origine PRT associé à un contrôleur Hobbywing en mode zero timing. Parmi les astuces de préparation, on remarquera entre autres le cinquième plot de carrosserie avec fixation Velcro sur le support d'amortisseurs avant pour récupérer de l'appui à l'avant, des prolongateurs de support de carrosserie arrière Zeppin Racing pour en récupérer à l'arrière, une immobilisation du pack revue et corrigée, de la visserie allégée seulement là où il faut, du poids sous la direction pour lester l'avant (beaucoup de pilotes, notamment sur XRay et Tamiya, rajoutent systématiquement environ 20 grammes à cet endroit), une batterie de condensateurs de fabrication personnelle avec câblage court pour le contrôleur brushless, le ventilateur de ce dernier légèrement surélevé pour assurer suffisamment de volume de dégagement à l'air brassé, un autre ventilateur de dimensions généreuse pour le moteur, des câblages radio et puissance au plus court mais sans exagération, un fraisage du châssis en carbone réalisé à l'opposé de celui pour le moteur pour obtenir plus de symétrie du flex, etc. Certains remarqueront que les fils du contrôleur ne sont pas monochrome, mais laisser les fils d'origine, surtout s'ils sont de qualité, évite de faire chauffer artificiellement et inutilement le contrôleur en soudant de nouveaux fils. De plus, les soudures industrielles d'origine sont souvent de bien meilleure qualité que celles faites avec de l'étain du commerce. L'efficacité et la sécurité avant le look! Pour le reste, on vous laisse chercher sur les photos pour trouver de l'inspiration!

Pour rappel, une TRF419 a été dévoilée sur le net et sa disponibilité commerciale est annoncée pour la fin de l'année. Si les trains roulants sont conservés, sont annoncés un nouveau châssis avec, entre autres, une nouvelle implantation, de nouvelles cellules, un nouveau bâti-moteur et de nouveaux amortisseurs.

http://www.overrc.com/