Dravtech shocks are $80 Canadian for a set of 2 so I would much rather buy the ones in the video and spend the time and a little money to make them better
Living on the other side of the ocean, Dravtech cost about 100$ for 2 sets....😬 These fakes ship for 30$ for four shocks. TRA2362 are 2.5€ per package. Same for TRA2669. Maybe spare ones from an Element shock will do the trick? With some fiddling I can have fake Dravs for 40$ 🤓 Should I go for the 85s or 95s? And why? I wonder if the element short springs fit on these?🧐
These use a 10mm spring, so Element, Dravtech, Mini-T, they all fit. Element pistons fit-- Enduro pistons fit, but remember, this is variances in +/-0.1mm were talking about-- go over and they don't fit, go under and they rattle around inside the bores.
@@CrawlerCanyon I just went through my bins and found loads of new Tamiya pistons. They are 9.9mm with a 3mm bore. I know we can 'buy' Dravtechs but I much rather go through the self building and making it work process. This video is gonna will be very helpfull, THX!
@@DIllybarification That 10 bucks is right out the window unless you own a pair of Channellock 926 to get the clones apart and back together. With Dlux, you can either pay them or buy the 926, and with the clones, you're buying the 926.
@CrawlerCanyon yes, but what I'm getting at is the fact that dravs are so "good"/premium; yet they don't come assembled. $80 + shipping... AND I have to assemble the set? It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't $10 a pair. Like if it was $2, I wouldn't complain, but $10 for 2 shocks is ridiculous.
I run multiple sets of Dravtecs and big bores. I've found used 2660s on Ebay for $35-40 set of 8. From old T max/Emaxs lol. I've done it 2-3 times lol. Rebuild them, print my own cups and use Losi springs. Its still like getting a set of shocks free.
I set up a set of cheap shocks I am reviewing today and found myself doing the "Beep Boop Beep Boop Beep Beep Boob Beep Boop Beep" thing while I wiggled the shocks LOL
Just received my set of these yesterday, thanks for the vid. Oddly I believe they forgot to install pistons on your set as mine were with pistons that were bigger. It had the ones you show but in addition mine had a pistons installed below that 7mm piston so essentially there are two pistons installed on each one. Bizarre
I'm about to rebuild my set, which is why I went back to this video. Mine were super oily as well, but for fun, they had no pistons in them. They're in the ultrasonic now, getting ready to be rebuilt with Traxxas parts. Fingers crossed it will all work and go together ok. :D
Do you have a link to these? Cause being in Norway and ordering Dravtechs is for people with deeper pockets than me (150-160 bucks total for a set), and those Traxxas replacement parts are the same price here, so it would be way, way, way cheaper to do a set of these.
I added a link to the description, and might as well put one here as well. www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806277465165.html Since my set was ordered, AE is with them, there have to be a dozen "different ones." I have ti imagine that quality is going to vary from batch to batch as well.
@@CrawlerCanyon I ordered a set of the Fimonda ones. With tax (yay) they ended up costing just under 40 bucks. Found Traxxas rebuild kit and pistons here, for a total of 15 bucks or so, with shipping. Still way less than a set of dravs, and quite a bit less than a set of 2660. 😁
Nice video, there is also another option who has a 3d printer then can make a piston plate and bottom washer. I ran mine for a while and zero problems. Silicone seals from ali but i had a few bad sellers but now i find a good one.
The "no more snap rings" puts these at a significantly higher level of labor, though. The shafts are getting worse and worse. Even so, half the price of Dravs, but people need to be well aware of just what they're getting into. They're definitely making 2660s look more attractive than ever.
I got mine yesterday. I tried to assemble mine with the same parts you did, and the o-rings were too tight on the shaft. I ended up using the black spacer that came with the traxxas pistons between the o-rings and it was money!
Geeeeeeeez buddy. For $35 Yankeebucks I’ve got these and the two 2632 rebuild kits on their way to my doorstep. Kinda hard to knock back, I’ve got some pistons available too so I think I can use your vid as an assembly guide and they’ll be running sweet. There’s not much you can get for $55 Aussie that could get you in the ballpark and the shipping from the states is murderous at the moment.
The 10mm bore was almost the standard in older times-- so if you have older pistons from AE, Losi, etc. they will either fit or can be trimmed to fit. The older numbered pistons from AE are 10.1mm OD, so they're almost an interference fit in the ~10.1mm bore.
Dravtechs look really good in their 10 different colors, but spending 100€ to get them is absurd, unluckily there is nothing I can do about it Also (as usual), Amain doesnt ship the TRA 2362 to Spain, in Amazon they arent available, and I can only see the 2362 for 7€ a pair plus a lot in shipping, so I cant even rebuild the fake Dravtechs 🤣. EDIT: after a ton of search, I found the TRA 2362 and TRA 2669 at 4€ a pair each, the cheapest I can find. Total 60€ for the "rebuild kit" and a set of fake Dravtechs, genuine ones for 90€ Man, getting some decent shocks in Spain is a constant fight
All that shines is not gold! there are definitely some things it's not worth pinching the Penny's over especially if they leak and don't perform. as always thanks.
Great review. So I already bought some of these. I've got two 2362 kits in my basket, where do I get the pistons? Obviously traxxas pistons arevideal but could I just drill two more holes in the existing pistons?
The problem with the included pistons isn't the single hole, it's that they don't fit the bore of the shock, so they practically rattle around. You can use Big Bore pistons, you'll want two packs of those as well bit.ly/49alykw
@CrawlerCanyon so, I ordered 4shocks(weeks ago) for $28/4 shipped, now two rebuild kits and two piston kits for $14 shipped. You think the shafts are ok?
Dravtechs and Big Bores unsurprisingly share a 10.1mm bore, designed for a 10mm piston. These are close to that, but none of the four orange-ish boys were the exact same ID. The bodies weren't bad, but the pistons were bad.
This absolutely does not mean that all things from China are created equal. And that's the point. Anodization is obviously going to vary from batch to batch (it's as much art as it is science) but I've yet to set a set from DLux where the cap, body, and cup are all completely different colors.
Gotta say, I love wonky anodizing as much as the next guy, but I cannot stand mismatched orange within the same shock body. Idk why but it feels… grotty…
I'm in the UK and the last set of dravs theu charged me $50 postage so I grabbed a silver set anodiing is fine I've already swopped out all the seals so I have a set for £26 instead of £100 ill order some pistons £7 and maybe the ti shafts for £20 still a saving of £47 of dravs BTW I have 3 sets of dravs just upset last time I had to pay that much postage
I would be throwing stuff in the harbor if I had to pay $50 shipping for a set of shocks. But at the same time, I wouldn't put it on Dlux-- I just mailed an 8oz package to Romania and the absolute cheapest method was $20. Any shipper the USPS was $35-40.
I have not, becasue there were just too many red flags-- the swaged-in upper pivot balls (that are aluminum) the 3.5mm shafts, the numerous Amazon reviews stating that the included springs are too hard for practical use.
You can actually get away with the springs from the 90s on the long arm shocks, as there's so much threading on the bodies. But you're definitely better off with the type-specific springs. Oh, and never cut your springs-- as the get shorter they get harder. Less coils = stiffer.
@@CrawlerCanyon more than likely going to run Lizards. Trying to figure out the front geometry, it seems to move 1/4" to the driver side on the compression and back on the rebound. Shocks wont fully compress either. Panhard too long?
@@vb9300 if the chassis panhard attachment point is on the driver's side, axle swing to that side can indicate a panhard that's too short-- but more likely, the "triangle is off." The relationship between panhard, drag link, and upper link are all intertwined. If the length of one changes, the others all change with it. Set your rig at rest in RTR configuration, and measure from the chassis rail to the kingpin on both sides-- it should be the same, and odds are that it won't be. It's going to be off to one side a few millimeters. Adjust the panhard until it's equal on both sides-- this is easier to do with the drag link disconnected, because the servo will try to push-pull to it's resting position. Once the panhard is set, you will need to adjust the length of the draglink, and optimally, you want it to be the exact same length as the panhard. Servo type and position, along with horn length and every other variable might make this impractical. Try to get as close as you can. Depending on the axle, you might not completely get rid of swing, panhards are sometimes tricksy like that. If you can minimize bump steer, that's what we call a win. Oh, and have some shims and spacers-- at rest, you want the panhard and drag link to be as close to parallel as possible in both directions.
Another example that chinese rc shops actually have no clue how things suppose to work together....😂 Well those shocks certainly keep the tinkering spirit alive.
These go in my imagined "Redcat bucket of design and manufacture," where the people involved in making specific components have never met the people that design said components. Knockoffs are usually (if not always) made by replicating a known source in the cheapest and fastest way possible, which squashes annoying things like precision right out of the gate. The bodies, caps, and cups might have been made on the same line that makes Dravtechs. But everything else seems to have come out of random buckets, bins, and boxes.
@@CrawlerCanyon right on... What always dazzles me is they copy something to the T but dont put it together that is actually works the way it should ....why ? Cost cant be an issue with that . 🤷♂
Pistons for Big Bores will certainly work bit.ly/49alykw but you'll probably want to order two packs, as each pack comes with a pair of two hole and a pair of three hole. They are cheap, the same $2.50 as the seal kits, but the extra $10 to make a set of shocks simply functional isn't great, IMO. Enduro pistons will also fit (or should) as the non-SE shocks are also 10mm bore. But their pistons only come in a huge parts bag, so they cost significantly more.
Channel member here. Wish I could find that email address. I would like to give the canyon a chance to exchange currency for stickers. Also, my (soon to be) wife said we should visit the canyon for our honeymoon. Is that a thing ?
The email is on the about page for the channel, but I couldn't tell you where RU-vid hides it on different platforms. It is simply crawler canyon at gmail dot com. We've had visitors, but a honeymoon visit would be a first.
You will indeed get to. They're being put into service on Baseline, who has to test everything-- so if the shafts are weak or the threading doesn't hold up on caps, bodies, and ends, we're gonna find out about it.
Dravtech are overrated. Plenty of good shocks on the market now. Dravtechs are based on Traxxas Big Bore shocks and even Traxxas moved onto GTS shocks in their scale crawling TRX-4 trucks.
Counterpoint: Dravtech are "rated,: because they are worth what you pay for them. Big Bore > GTS, all day every day, and I'm a fan of the GTS shock. But an emulsion shock with a 7mm bore and no bleeder mechanism is NOT going to approach the performance of a bladder shock with a 10mm bore that can be converted so shorty springs without modification. "Plenty of good shocks on the market now" is a tough statement to back up, as +90% of the shocks out there aren't worth buying, and several others are only worth keeping because they come with the kits. In terms of aftermarket shocks the number of makes, models and types out there borders on the overwhelming, but the number that are actually worth owning is woefully small.