Setup Station Plates
 

Hi,

Is anyone else interesting in these in either 23mm, 17mm, 14mm or 12mm format as either nice stands for working on/displaying your car or as a basic setup station.

I have a camber measurement but useless when using tires. I was going to see if Mike or Jamie could made them - Any interest? I can't imagine they would cost much....

This would enable easy measurement of toe and camber.

Cheers

id be interested in a set, but would ned 23mm ;)

Not too bad, but if you are having something made, why not go for the whole shabangabang?

The camber w/ those would be easy to measure w/ a RPM gauge, but I'm not sure how you are measuring the toe. Maybe I'm missing something. I can never eyeball toe right.

The ways I've seen it done is to have a plate mount on top w/ degree marks that line up to the lower vertical plate. It would actually be nice if there was a low cost option, reg setups stations are fairly expensive for just some alu plates. They are very nice to have tho.

The idea is to just measure the distance across the car from the front to front and the rear top rear of the plates - In addition you need the distance of the front of one plate to the center line of the car. The rest is just trig to calc the toe on the left and right - I can provide the math and I'm sure BrianG could convert into a script easy enough.

The idea was to keep it cheap and combine with the RPM camber gauge for a budget solution...

Would you pay $20 for a set?

Yeah, I could add the script, but having trouble grasping what the PDF was? From the replies, it's some kind of tire alignment gauge or something?

Take the wheels off of the car and mount the plates instead using the hex to hold in place.

This provides a flat plane to measure the camber angle of the hex i.e. wheel. Also provides an easy reference point for measuring the distances across the car in order to calc toe.

Ah, I see now. Must be a little dense this evening. :oops:

Looks like a nice inexpensive way to calculate alignment. A simple protractor with marked angles on it would aid easily in detecting toe in adjustment. I couple swipes with a pointed end mill to have some lines of demarcation could aid with camber as well.

Toes a bit hard as you need a reference point for the protrator to measure against the plate - Measuring the distances means you only need the distance to the centre of the car...

But would you buy them.... Need to persuade mike to build them and Brian and I to work out a script for the site :)

Actually, I can think of a way to negate the need for any math.

Have an extendable bar that attaches to both plates (to compensate for vehicles of different widths), then have a protractor built into each side. The cross bar would provide the reference point.

And I'm sure adaptors could be created to use on all hub styles/sizes.

Well if you made them as a equalateral triangle you could get three... I'd suggest 17mm, Revo and Stampede Axel sizes - No many people use 23mm - If you or have a non standard axle. i.e. savage just drill out one of the sizes that you don't use.

The bar provides a partial reference but if you have different toe left and right it won't help unless you measure from the middle of the axle - This just gets a bit hard...

A tape measure is pretty easy... I'm trying to make this cheap and doable rather than over engineer LOL - I guess I'm a math guy...

lol, yeah, I was just trying to come up with a way that doesn't require someone to be online to use it. :)

I guess I figure that for a particular car it will be easy to come up with a set of distance measurements that you can print off as a reference card...

The only variables on a car is the track from plate to plate and the length of the base of the plate - Everything else is math...

OK, you design it, and I'll do the interface. :smile: Just let me know what you think would be the most intuitive design, and the math to go along with it, and it shall be done! :smile:

Will have a go at it tomorrow at the calc and redesign the plates too for multi-shaft size...

Still need plates to be made...:whistle:

Yeah, that's kinda what I was saying. The vertical plates have an engraved tick mark along the top of them, and the top plate has degree marks on top. If you use a clear material like poly carb or plexi, you can just read the degree marks there.

Like a hudy setup.
Now not saying you entirly rip off the design, but integy's setup is the same basic thing, as well as others I've seen. Surely a few things can be tweaked to an original design. I would think in the end it could be made for a lot cheaper than $170. Perhaps this is not all you are going for, but to answer the original question, I would rather pay a bit more for a setup that is accurate and easy to use, rather than a cheap one that is frustrating. (don't forget the RPM gauge cost on top of your $20 already..)

The problem I could see is that calc'ing it would: a.) be a PITA b.) and possibly not very accurate due measurement errors c.) not sure it would necc be sysmetrical. Ie, is the l/r toe 2*/2* or is it 1.5*/2.5*? Might be hard to tell w/ just measuring w/ a tape measure.

As far as adaptable hubs... Why not have a center hole the std size for truggy wheel hubs (10mm or whatever it is) as must trugs can just be put on there. I thought 23mm hubs had the same hole as well.

For savage or revo axles: Create a 6mmx10mm bushing that inserts into the hole, and then the axels can slip into. A recess or hole for a crosspin would be useful. Also, if the revo is using Ofna or Maximizer adapters, no need for the bushings. Trx has a simple 5mmx6mm sleeve for the Jato wheels that can be slipped over the smaller 5mm axles to fit into the bushings. Or just have short sections of 6x5mm stainless tubing cut.

Lastly the top plate can have a expandable/collapsible center section w/ hash marks on the L and R to line up for different veh widths, and then just locked down w/ thumbscrews. See, sounds like originality already!

If Mike/whomever interested could make for $75-$100, that would be great. Less even better. A setup station is a great little tool, but the Hudy's are too $$ for most casual people to get, short on stock most times it seems, and just a bit too much for everyday guys.

Those are good ideas, but I wont pay 75-100 for something that is going to nail down my setup exactly, I would however spend 20 bucks on something that gets me closer.

If you just want cheap camber plates, Amain has them for $16. I think you would just need a simple gauge like rpm makes for $10 to be done. Camber is the easy thing to measure, toe is a bit more of a pain, but just as/more important imo.

As always a tough bunch to please but I think I can keep everyone happy (almost).

The revised pdf shows how it can work with using a simple tape measure however with the addition of the 3mm holes on the side of the vertical plate you can achieve a similar function to the Hudy setup.

However instead of expensive lexan and engraving you can use the rpm camper guage in the horizontal axis using the horizontal plate as the reference point against the vertical plate to measure toe!

This should work very easily - I added extra holes in the vertical plate for different cars. The only I need to review is the location of the holes in each plate to ensure:

1) chassis are not dragging on the ground.
2) provides enough vertical clearance over chassis and horizontal chassis clearance of shock towers for the horizontal brace to fit - Prior design didn't need to worry about this.

LMK what you think...

PS the first page shows how the calc works using tape measurements...

But on the other hand Ryan might have just fixed me up....

http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...ducts_id/11662
http://images.amainhobbies.com/image...l/xtr1871g.jpg

+

http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...oducts_id/8355
http://images.amainhobbies.com/image.../hud108210.jpg

I don't think that this would be as nice as combining the plates from my design above with this:

http://images.amainhobbies.com/image...e/xtr2060o.jpg

See, I'm not that tough. :) I did see Amain has a bunch of diff setup tools, tho I wasn't sure what that top plate goes with. I think the camber plates, but not too sure as I dont see posts for it. Surely it can be used w/ home brew plates too.

I was just saying that as originally I tried to work something out w/ making camber plates from MDF and using a RPM camber gauge. I also did a center line trick to measure the toe. It was a PITMFA, and never seemed to get quite right for one reason or another. As soon as I moved anything, all my measurements changed. Where I thought I had 2* set in F, I would go do the rear, check the F again and it would be @ 3*. WTF, I didn't even touch it.

Later on I bought a used Revo Integy setup station for less than $100 shipped from some dude here and it was 100X easier and more accurate. It looks just like the Hudy.

Rather odd but the top plate they sell doesn't work with their camber plates - I think it is designed as a hudy replacement - however I think it could be used with my revised design...

Doesn' seem to be much interest - I have the RPM guage so might just try the mat and the plates for now - I'll drill some additional holes to work for the Pede / crt.5.

I think the mat might help with getting the toe settings correct as you can basically mark it up for each car...

You know, looking at it this is very simple to do the plates and very cheap. Come up with the design then get it laser cut. There small enough they could be cut from scrap. I wish I still had laser access........