PKS SLIPPER CLUTCH

[Cosmic Bilby]

[Modlerbob]

Some genius here in the USA ought to be able to design a similar device. A while back I tinkered with the Kyosho mini Z cars and as I recall they had a clutch system. I may dig one of them out of it's drawer and see what it actually had and if it is adaptable to a 1/32 slot car.

[dr fabio]

Good luck with your purchase Cosmic. Would you like to wager some money on the outcome? Why would you go for a mechanical solution that has an associated weight penalty when most modern controllers can dial in an electronic solution? By all means post the resuts on the forum as I may be completely wrong and it might actually work.

cheers
Dr Fabio

[Cosmic Bilby]

Well,

We are a little thick up here in Gods Country unlike you southerners fabio....

...I like mechanical solutions to what are basically mechanical problems, tell me, can an electronic controller alter the amount of distance a wheel travels to stop push in a corner (when both wheels travel the same distance due to a "locked" differential)???

No I thought not.... Back to the classroom for you friend :)

(Just Kidding)

[Cosmic Bilby]

Oh,

And the Torque limiting function you speak of was actually pioneered by the American company "Tekin" in the 1980's (Tekin 411P), a guy by the name of Noel Lavisa from Brisbane actually pioneered the infinitely variable torque limiting speed controller (via keypad as opposed to pod/screwdriver/Multi-meter arrangement of the Tekin series controllers).

I'm quite surprised nearly 25 years on the Slot Car manufacturers haven't progressed beyond what is currently on the market.

[dr fabio]

I cant really comment about mag racing set ups as I have no experience in setting up cars for mag tracks. However for non mag racing, if the car is set up correctly the inside wheel should provide virtually no "grip" as the weight transfer to the outside should be 90-100%. By all means buy the "diff" and report back to the forum if you see an improvement in lap times. Happy to be proven wrong.

cheers
dr fabio

[Cosmic Bilby]

Look I don't want to labour a point but... (I will :) )

Mag or no mag it doesn't make a scrap of difference.

We are talking about two rear wheels of the same diameter (well they should be, the only exception could be oval where the inner tracking wheel is a smaller diameter sometimes).

These two wheels go around a circuit in tandem, sometimes on the inside "track" of a corner, sometimes on the outside. A rear "differential" that slips will let one wheel turn more the other less.

It assists handling (and can also be used as a torque limiting device as we have seen earlier in the thread), bottom line it assists handling the same as those beautiful Independent front ends that Slot.it sell as an aftermarket part.

Until we can embrace proven concepts such as this slot cars and the competitive side of the hobby in particular won't move forward, its as simple as that.

At the end of the day I think opinions are like Arseholes, everyone has one, I'll be sticking with mine, it has served me well through the years :)

[Cosmic Bilby]

...I think you got half of it RM,

Just go back over the thread until you find the other half, K?

[dr fabio]

Ok Ive had another look at the slipper clutch and as best as I can make out it provides no "diff" action at all. As best as I can make out it is nothing more than an "o" ring that presses against the spur and you tension in the amount of slip you want. Which takes me back to my electronic solution, with a good controller, to tone down brute motors.

cheers
dr fabio

[Jesla]

I think this is more for preventing skidding under braking on slick Rally tracks. Something no electronic controller will help with.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

So what this really is, is a tiny torque converter? How would it lock up at high speed or does it?

[raceeng18]

Seems to me it would work the same way the one does in your car. When forward motion and torque become equal, the converter goes into lock-up. I'm not sure this device works like that however, no where to store fluid. I don't see a disk or balls as in an RC car slipper clutch either. It has my attention however and will look forward to a report on how it works.

Joe f.

[Cosmic Bilby]

Thanks for the input guys!

I would love to see a diagrammatical of the "diff" (which I do think it is) so I can suss out how it actually does work (way better than a photo).

It's excellent to see stuff like this coming to the market regardless of price, weight penalty etc, it actually means designers are thinking of stuff like this instead of accepting the status quo.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

So the little Nylok nut adjusts the slip to imitate a differential, while the incredibly tiny stator on the backside of that spur gear acts as a torque converter driving the long part of the axle? This thing is one step from being a constant velocity transaxle! Like others, I will probably stay with the controller method of doing similar stuff, but this is one interesting little doodad.

[VenturaAlfa]

Wow, Do you guys not read or just not understand pictures and english. It is still a solid rear axle. All it does is slip the gear on the axle like an automatic transmission. There is no split on the axle or separate axles. It is a solid axle and an oring that is tensioned against the gear. The more tension applied the less it slips. Less tension the more it slips. It has nothing to do with turning radius or allowing one wheel to turn more than the other.

By the way the transmission or limited slip part was tried on slot cars as early as the 1980's. Vanquish even had it on some of their cars. We tried it on 4 wheel drive can am cars. Did not result in faster lap times. The weight required actually slowed the cars. My thinking was that there is not enough of a difference between the track of the tires on most slot car tracks. Most tracks do not have a turn on them that is so sharp that there is a great difference between the track of the inner and outer tire.

Fly, Slot.it and the other manufacturers use stub axles normally because there is a guide flag or something else in between the front tires such that a solid axle will not work not because of differences in travel radius of the tires and/or pushing of the fronts. Most guys set their cars up so that the fronts barely touch (meaning they would slide if there was a track difference) or do not touch at all anyway.

Ventura Alfa