Black bear prepper discusses the 11 secrets to a winning pinewood derby . these are the tips and tricks we have used to win Minnie pinewood derby races. also please check out our series of pinewood derby building videos 1 through 5
THANK YOU! I watched other pinewood derby videos but settled on yours as what I thought was the best. I helped my grandson on his Cub Scout derby car. Today he won 1st place overall!
Do you have additional advise on proper installation of the axles? Last year I took a lot of time working on smoothing the axles and proper weight placement. However, I messed up when placing the axels. I tried to adjust but the rear premade wheel base broke. Unfortunately it was the night we had to turn in the car I didn’t have enough time to properly correct it and ended up just gluing it 😢. After the race I noticed the back wheels rubbed on the wood making a line on top. Oh well. All that time wasted just to mess up while putting in the axles. 😢
The 3-5 degree toe out you talk about is there a jig that you can use to achieve this for the DFW? There are jigs for the 3 degrees toe in for the rear wheels.
If you had to choose an oil would you go with the Turbo Derby oil you mentioned or Krytox 100 from Maximum Velocity. I race Hot Wheels and I know i am loosing tournaments by 20 thousandths of a second because the winners are using oil.
Just between you and me the the krytox 100 is the only one I've ever used it works very well but I know that turbo Derby is probably using in my opinion probably the same product along with everybody else but oil is definitely faster so switching over that will definitely help
Newbie here! These are some great tips. I have a question! If our rules state "The wheel’s tread area must remain flat (parallel) to the wheels hub and cannot be altered, but light sanding is permitted," how light can I make my wheels?
Well that would be up to your rules it sounds like they do not want you to lighten them at all but if you watch the other videos I have on my channel and use the secrets I have in them I can almost guarantee you'll do very well if not win without lightning Wheels
Hey Blackbear. Thanx for the video. I'm already doing a lot of your suggestions in my cars. I have been making my cars with the max wheelbase to be under 7 inches long. While keeping my rear wheels as far back as I can, is there an advantage to bringing the front wheels back to shorten the wheelbase? If I do so I can imagine that there would be a little more down force on the one front wheel. Thoughts?
yes it is an advantage I recommend in a normal car recommend 5 in from the back axles and if you're building like a letter car or another lightweight car you can go back as far as 4 and 3/4 from the back axles so allow more weight to be put in the back and make the car go faster
Jay Cruz sorry that's not how it works but if you stick with the chips I've given you and watch the other videos that I have I can guarantee you a very fast car
Thanks to your tips my daughter raced her pinewood Derby car last night. But when it came to the end of the track. The car hit the backstop and exploded on impact. Many lives were lost last night. Derby racing will never be the same. It was a sad night of racing.
You should consider racing league. Npwdrl in Utah will be opening up a class in January for graphite cars. In addition, APR in Ohio has a box stock class. Although they allow oil, the wheels and axles have to be right out of the box and can’t be modified.
Seems like a lot of work. Glad my dad made mine for me. Like all the other dads in my troop back in the 1970s. Luckily, my dad was an engineer with a drill press in the basement.
I'm so glad you like them just remember if you go to my RU-vid channel there's a section on Pinewood Derbies were all of these tips are explained in a video each individual one in a separate video to go into more depth on exactly how to do it
I tell as many parents as would like to come to my shop I will help their sons or daughters build cars for their separate races I think this year we built about 25 different cars at our shop unfortunately cannot win but all when but every race we entered a car in had it first place
Mark Rober uses some of the same ideas as I have . the principles he's using are the same principles we use so as usual it will come down to the year some years I would probably win some years he would probably win
Sorry you're not see your message hopefully you still have time but it causes it not to have the front end be too light and flutter down the track you want just enough weight to where it will not flutter the lighter you make the actual car itself the more you can but the lighter you have it the more you will have to steer it's a balancing game hope this helps
I do not use a lot of oil in any of the races I do but a company called turbo Derby sells a product that seems to be very very popular among the pro racers
My daughter n me used most of these tricks n he won first place in her pack. Scout master was pissed. Accused me of cheating even though we built it at her house. She even did interviews with the kids. She was mad my daughter beat her son
First of all congratulations it sounds like it was a good day for you guys it also sounds like your scoutmaster is a useless human being and does not understand the way the world works all these techniques can be found in the scout pinewood book it sounds like you love your children and she does not she was not willing to look a little harder to help her child win I will never understand this policy I have gone through this the whole time that I've been doing pinewood derbies even after I show people the rules and help build their cars I still get the same comments good for you congratulations
@@tateabdon1 thank you very much.That's why this year they're doing a scout build night and everybody's going to be there at once building the cars. And I'm going to help other people build their cars and use some of these techniques to help their cars. That same race there is other kids the night before on weigh-ins didn't have their cars up to snuff and their wheels weren't adjusted right and I helped them out and their cars placed and first and second. I think it's awesome most of these people are using the pinewood Derby graphite and I'm using maximum velocity and Derby Dad for hire
Good video..............But, I was wondering that every thing counts in making a fast car why have a flat rear of the car. It will create a vacuum drag.
Weights are in the back. We have a 2 ounce tungsten block in the back of our cars - behind the rear axle. The weight advantage more than cancels out the drag effect. Besides, the back of our car is only 3/8” tall. With 2/8” of that being the weight. The weight also runs almost the entire width of the car.
How does wheelbase effect speed, all else equal? If the back axle is 5/8” from the back, weight is balancing at 1” forward if that, how does a 4.5”, 5”, 6” wheelbase change the speed? We went super conservative with a long wheelbase and 1.5” balance point since the track is ancient. We did well but need to do better next year.
If you're trying to be a little bit more aggressive I would definitely go with a balance weight of three quarters of an inch to 1 inch I've done cars is a little as half an inch when they're super super light ladder cars but I think three quarters of an inch is manageable then using 5 inch wheelbase or a four and three quarter inch wheelbase if you're trying to be a little bit more competitive any amount you can move the tires backwards at all is going to help you a ton even if you could get rid of a wheel and just run with literally three wheels on the car that's an actual Plus you will have to add a little brace so it doesn't slide off the track but that's definitely the best way to go but moving the wheels back definitely helps with your center of gravity on the back wheels when you're trying to win with people that are trying to win this little amount will help
Sorry if I was a little confusing on that the balance point of the car should be 3/4 to 1 in in front of the back axle to do that because the wheels in the back or so far back you must put the weight as far back as you can get that to happen hope this helps
Thank you so much for taking the time to make this vid. Well thought out and presented. I’m helping my son for his first race and we’ve done some of the tips, not all. I’m excited to see how his first race goes.
Just so you know there is a video for each of these items on my channel so if you look at my channel there's more videos there and if you need help finding I can help you with that but it goes into depth on all the different secrets hope you erase goes well
This is why I definitely recommend using my rules if you watch our pinewood derby rules video and stops a lot of the people for the cheating and washable define the ones that have bought pre-built cars
I would definitely watch our video on how to can't your axles and run three-wheeled cars I do not know what your rules are in your area unfortunately they change a lot but usually you can drill a hole
If you have a local hobby lobby, they have them. I went to pick up an extra set of wheels for some scrap walnut I have and theirs came with a set of nails and two single axles.
So glad you like the video there is several other videos in this playlist that go into detail for every single tip they definitely help again thank you for the comment
@@tateabdon1 thank you. I am going to do a yearly derby for our 4th of July family celebration for the kids...a outlaw class for us adults too. Lol thanks again
My fifth and last year building cars with my grandson. Under our rules. We have to use the existing axle slots, they can not be drilled. Wheels are not allowed to be modified other than smoothing the molding marks on the tread area. No after market Wheels or grooved axles. Now this year they even added that we can't bend the axles. We have always bent the axles. I don't know how the heck we are supposed to tune the car to go straight without bending the axles a little, Its ridiculous. I will have to cant the wheels by wedging them one way or the other. We also can not use oil as lubrication. Has to be graphite or last year they allowed Teflon. I found Teflon to be sticky and did not work. I tried to buy those wheels in the tube this year and our local Hobby town said they went out of business.
geerhed it's not the end of the world usually this just means you can win a lot easier look at my video on waiting cars I've won several races with only the axle slots oh and usually there is always one nail that is slightly more bent than the others but that in the front and slowly twist it you'd be surprised what you can get as far steer I have also just took in the head of it and slightly bent it wall in the car which allowed me to steer
Yes there is one nail that is slightly bent we found it yesterday when Grandson started removing the burrs and I told him it came that way and we are going to use it to our advantage. This year he said he wasn't in it for speed and wanted it to look like a regular car. He Chose the Dodge Demon Hellcat.. I am going to miss working on these with him and teaching how to use the tools. Guess I will have to get him over here and help with the resto on my 68 Camaro. I am a woodworker by trade and have taught him a lot about that trade.
We ended up 2nd for speed 1st for show and went to regionals and won Best commercial car. We build a Dodge Demon with LED lights. Great Last year for him and so much fun for both of us.
First of all do not cut down the front of the car on the steering wheel side leave it wide narrow the back of the car slightly so the back wheels can't hit the outside rail then make sure the front wheels are canted out instead of canted in just like the back wheels and because the wheels in the back are slightly in they will not touch now but the front well then set steering wheel up front to steer about an inch and a half over 4 feet out towards the track weight placement and the rest of the car the same as normal hope this helps
Are you saying /|_|\ for the front. narrow the width in the rear and /|_|\? where /|_|\ is the angle of the wheels? Have you ever tried canting with 1.5 degrees all around versus 2.5 or 3? There is no restriction aside from graphite, max width, length, clearance, no aftermarket. Would you sand down the letters on the wheels? Thanks so much.
@@germanicus5066 yes you should narrow the back of the car and let the front of the car stay wide so only the front tires will ever touch the track and all the tires should be facing so that the top of the tire is facing in towards the car and the bottom of the wheel that is touching the track should be pushed out away from the car
@@germanicus5066 I would lighten no wheels as much as humanly possible so yes anything I could do to make your wheels lighter is a plus and I would still have the car run on three wheels remember that part also so I wouldn't even can't the wheel that wasn't touching
Graphite packing I do not believe does anything at all I've had better luck with putting it on spinning putting it on spinning putting it on spinning and doing that for 10 12 minutes and that seems to be much better and I definitely don't believe in putting the graphite in alcohol
Just a few questions. If you’re not using fenders, shouldn’t you tune your NDFW just as much as your DFW? Next, shouldn’t you spend about 4-6 minutes per wheel if you’re using plastic polish and a tamiya swab? Third, shouldn’t you polish your inner and outer hubs? Finally, when looking through wheels, I understand that the lighter the better, but shouldn’t you look for the least amount of runout, and the least amount of scratches?
I always do all four wheels just as good as I possibly then I pick the three best use those and whichever one doesn't roll as good out of the four I use is my non-dominant wheel
Okay, that makes sense, that the worst is the one you don’t put on the car, but wouldn’t I gain speed by bending the NDFW just as I wood the DFW, and tune it to be more aerodynamic?
@@t-boneracing2664 you can try that I've not found them to be much of an increase whatsoever but if you find it to be good feel free to post it here I'd like to know but I have not found that to be true I would leave it just the standard way
I have tested bending the non dominant axle, and I wanted to tell you that it did work for me. If I run a fender, it is not necessary, but if there’s no fender, bringing that wheel closer to the body is extremely important. Let me know if you thought about bending the non dominant axle, I’m always looking for other people’s opinions in Pinewood derby.
Short story yes long story it has less to do with the width of the tire and more do with the weight of the tire the lighter you can make the tire the better if your rules allow it if they do taking weight off the inside of the tire is best second best way is to take weight off the outside of the tire but only if your rules allow it
John Savio doing two things one has my check sheet to make sure I get all the different points in and the other one is doing time to make sure they don't overrun my camera is only record for so much time
@John M I do not have an email but if you leave questions here no matter how detailed I will answer them and that way it can also benefit other people who probably have the same question
rurban I use a drill guide and a axle Bender for the front wheels but the drill guide is in our video on how to cut out your block here is the link there's also several other videos you might like enter pinewood derby sectionru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8vx-0OSaZKU.html
TorrentBoats I usually try to get my cars at the race to a full 5 oz and from talking to professional Racers that's what you want to do but before the race I try to bring my car to 4.96 Oz that way I have a little bit of wiggle room when you get to the race I have heard the different weights with different types of tracks can help I have not found that to be true every car that I've ever won with was exactly 5 ounces though
What I do is take the car up to the weigh-in and add tungsten putty until the car hits 5.0 oz on their scale. Then I take the car back and put the putty in the right place to maintain center of gravity. Then i just have it weighed again and turn it in. Most digital scales used for derby races only have one decimal place. These scales don't round the 2nd decimal it just gets dropped so you could technically have a car that weighs 5.09 oz.
So teaching them to strive to win is not important how to properly use tools the laws of physics these are all things your children can learn from the pinewood derby I'm never for doing all the work for then but I am forgiving your children the best chance to win and showing them that you care by doing all you can to learn about the physics yes it's for the kids I agree that's why I do it my kids have learned to use band saws scroll drill presses routers and basic science and how to test the basic laws of physics for the pinewood derby do you know these things are not important to you and it is just for the kids to goof off and have fun my kids have fun and win