"Against all Odds" Rodd-E-Liminator vids

Davenz13 wrote:Five laps Roddie, I would call that a successful run. It was even doing a few wheelies in the first lap.
Get the tire problem sorted and it'll be all go, although you might want something a bit more substantial for a front wheel for prolonged runs.
Nothing like proving a concept.

Hi Dave, yea.. the front-end was lifting.. even after I added weight. The weight could probably have been placed more forward.. but it kept the car from flipping-over again. When the tire starts to shred, it def. ends the fun.. but at least it causes the engine to stall.. and not over-rev. The 2nd vid shows a faint 24 foot diameter ring of burnt-rubber from the tire breaking-down. I actually thought that was pretty cool!

The front wheel(s) need to be some type of soft foam, if I continue to run on the rough pavement.

Good job man! I bet that once you work out the kinks that thing will go pretty good. Thanks for taking a second run at it! It was worth it.

Ron

Congratulations Roddie! Those videos were great! It was fun watching you get a decent run of of your own design car. Now, I know why the tires on the Shrike I have are worn unevenly. That outboard wheel really took a beating on the asphalt! Thanks for sharing the videos!

dang that was fun for nearly a year.......more!

Last Tuesday evening I tried running the tether-car again. I had mounted the foam tires that CEF member "overlord" (Lieven) sent me from France, onto the PVC drive-wheel and tried to run it.




Those tires blew right-off as soon as I launched the car.. and I lost one of them.  

I then decided to see what else I had in my "wheel box".. that might possibly work.

This axle had two wheels mounted with solid rubber tires.. so I removed one to give it a try.



Here is the result.. (watch for the smoke..   )

More progress!

So, my two cents, you notice your speed was much slower, this is probably because the hub was spinning in the tire. The tire eventually let go. Those old airplane tires shrink and harden when they age, they still work fine on an airplane, but will not stand up to any torque as a driven wheel.  I really think you should go back to the foam. A can of carpet adhesive is really cheap and should do the trick, it sets up really fast so you have to work quickly.

Thanks for the video Roddie.

rsv1cox wrote:Roddie, the instructions that come with the Cox Mercedes say that the tires are plastic and are designed to slip until the car gets up to speed and I found that to be true.  But once up to speed the car simply flies around the circle.  The plastic tires hold up fine, but the spokes take a beating.

Perhaps if you could fine a similar tire/wheel combination that would work.

I want to set up something between my Shrike and a Mercedes.  From what I have seen the Mercedes would lap the Shrike rather quickly.  

Bob

Hi Robert! Have you been able to run/capture video of any of your Mercedes cars? I'd love to see that!

This latest run of my car held promise. The wheel/tire composition I thought for sure would be the key to getting it to hook-up.

Today I took a look at the wheel and tire, to check their condition. It actually turns-out favorable.





The "wheel" is a high-quality billet-aluminum piece with a deep V-groove for the tire to seat. The tire is of a hard-compound/solid-rubber construction and after cleaning-up both.. it looks like they're ready for another run; providing I can get the tire to stick to the rim. I'm going to try launching with a "push".. next time. Even the model hydro-plane "boats" need a push, to get them up on "step". Maybe that will help get this car going??

Cribbs74 wrote:More progress!

So, my two cents, you notice your speed was much slower, this is probably because the hub was spinning in the tire. The tire eventually let go. Those old airplane tires shrink and harden when they age, they still work fine on an airplane, but will not stand up to any torque as a driven wheel.  I really think you should go back to the foam. A can of carpet adhesive is really cheap and should do the trick, it sets up really fast so you have to work quickly.

Thanks for the video Roddie.

Hi Ron! The latest wheel/tire construction is outlined in the previous post. It's not a model-airplane part. I don't know where I got it from. It was in my "wheel-box".. and there's a spare which is still on the axle that I pulled "this one" from.



It's solid/HARD rubber. No markings on it whatsoever though..

I believe that the tire was spinning.. rather than the rim spinning within the tire. The tire "did" separate from the rim.. but not until the 3rd lap or so.. (you can hear it happenning at approx. 2:35:00 on the 7/2 vid)

I really have to say that there's a LOT of other things that "could have" given me trouble with this project.. but haven't thus far.

The engine starts easily.. and seems to draw fuel reliably from its' external tank. The tether-bridle seems to be holding-up.

I "do" miss the wheelies from when running the double-width "Phatt-tire" (slick)..

oh yea.. the Sig "Champion 25" that I've been using is going-on 30 years old..

rsv1cox wrote:My camera has a movie mode Roddie that runs 30 seconds, but what I got is not viewable.  My shaky hands and the car flying around the circle.

One day I will catch my son with his phone camera and post something.  

I understand completely Robert. I have a hard-enough time getting video of my own escapades.. then there's the "uploading" to a video-hosting (YouTube) site.. I must say though... that "YouTube" seems to be easier to upload your vid. than it used to be..

Mr. Roddie , Here's my two cents worth, W.W. Grainger may have just the wheel you need!! Search their sight for solid hard rubber castor wheel or even a metal wheel as the metal may throw sparks as the car runs!!! Hope this helps and keep up the good work, Mark

I need to "BOND" this hard-rubber tire to its' aluminum rim.. to be able to withstand the heat from the tire spinning.. prior to hooking-up (1:1) on rough asphalt. This has been the common-failure with this model.

I believe that the tire "expanded" due to the heat of friction.. which broke the bond with the rim.

This tire is TOUGH.. and I'm not hesitant to re-mount it and try to run the car again. The rims' hub-hole is approx. 3/16".. and I thought that I'd need to "bush-it" down to 1/8" for the Coxs' 5-40 prop-screw.. but the Tee Dee-style spinner/hub that I'm using to electric-start the engine "centers-itself" on the outer-contour of the wheel/rim. I haven't witnessed any vibration due to an out-of-balance condition thus-far.. with any of the wheel/tire combinations that I've experimented with.



Previously I've been launching the car without a push.. and now realize that a push may help to get the car going faster. I may also lengthen the tether from its' present 12ft. length.

The solid hard rubber castor wheels that grainger sells are one piece, check them out, may help. Mark

Maybe a solid urethane wheel?  The tether car guys whip them around from the centre for a few laps and then jump up on a platform to get out of the way.  They start out with a broom stick.  It may be to get it started? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovWEzPCvL8s

Hey Mark and Alan! Thanks for your advise. I will keep both of your recommendations in mind.

I just re-mounted the tire onto the wheel/rim (had to use a vise to seat-it) but used some cyano-acrylate (super-glue) "gel" in the "V-groove" of the aluminum wheel/rim.. to try to achieve a bond that will hold-up to the heat of friction.





I plan to run the car again tomorrow (7/5).. so check-back to see how it went..

I noticed what looked like a piece of "grit" in the fuel-line of of my tether-car. A dark speck of something.. I was going to ignore it.. but it bugged me to think that I would ignore it..

So.. I dismounted the wedge-tank and removed the fuel-line from its' feed-tube. The small piece of green foam cushioning that I'd placed between the tank and its' mount had disintegrated from raw-fuel exposure. I thought that maybe a piece of that may have gotten into the tank and found its' way into the fuel-line. I removed all of the broken-down foam.. and fed the fuel-line out through the hole in the body.. so that I could straighten it. Removing the line from the engine would have required removing the engine to reinstall the line afterward.. so I used a piece of 1/16" music-wire as a catheter to reach whatever was in that line. I was able to reach and pull the debris back as far as the compression-fitting.. then used a dental floss/pick to snag it out the end. It was indeed "grit" which would have played havoc; had it gotten under the reed.




Note that I moved the weight/clamp rearward because of the heavier front-wheels that I swapped-in. I'm hoping that this (along with a push-assist on launch..) might help to get some "traction" without lugging the engine to the point of stalling.

getback wrote:LOve the Smoke man . I hope you can get her up to speed , good to see ur still having fun tring

Yea.. I'd hoped to get a run in yesterday.. but it was too HOT outdoors to do anything that required exertion. I actually did get out the leaf-blower.. and blew-off the area where I've been running the car. There was some sand/pebbles etc. which would definitely hinder traction.

My Daughter is getting married today.. so maybe I'll try on Sunday, if the weather cooperates. Thanks for checking-in Eric. Hope you're enjoying the weekend!