Rubber Bands for Tuning Suspension? 

Great video and idea thank you for sharing! Subbed! if you use plain rubber bands for anything, this may blow your mind. take a bicycle tube and cut it into as many rubber bands at any thickness you want. cut straight with no sharp turns or serrated lines. These are the greatest rubber bands i've ever used and heres why. 1 - seemingly immune to UV damage from the sun. (regular rubber bands are trash if used outdoors for a few hours/ days. 2- super strong maximum holding strength. when you stretch them to the max they will hold without tearing. much stronger than traditional bands. 3 - CHEAP/ free if you use an old popped tube. 4 - customizeable - can buy any bike tire width/ tube diameter = rubber band relaxed diameter. Can also choose how thick / thin you cut them for different spring constants. 5 - generally a higher spring constant than traditional rubber bands. This could also be a con depending on your application.

That was unbelievable. Great tips as usual EXOCAGED! I couldn't believe the difference it made, but makes perfect sense.

It's like a small winch used to suck down the suspension in a real rock crawler..keeps the suspension from unloading.

That step up was unbelievable! Wow.

what a great tips, this bujet tips can help improve my back roll during sand crawling..

The BEST RC TIPS&TRICKS vids on youtube! Hands down

That first one was amazing! Nice job

Awesome as always!

Nice video. Haven't heard of this idea before. You should really look into trying some Yeah Racing Desert Lizard shocks. You can set them up to function in a very similar way, but in my opinion, better. From my use of them you gain the benefit of the lower CG but have better no load droop out, helping to get over those break over angles you were talking about. I set mine up with the small medium spring on top of the plunger with the medium or long light spring under it. The springs don't fight each other like in the pen spring mod. Works great.

Whaaaaat?? I will for sure be playing with rubber bands in the very near future. I've used suspension limiting straps before, but that's not same-same. Limiting straps don't stretch and rebound. Very cool!!

Awsome man you always got the best tricks

Cool... A counter spring. Amazing grabs!

Just like a sway bar..... I use super soft springs and 2,000 weight oil on my rigs. I adjust ride height with the shock angle. Works great to keep the rig planted and from unloading during side hills and vertical climbs.

Another interesting tip to try ! Thanks !

The newish chassis kits from Negative G RC use rubber band tuning. They have special plates made so you can adjust tension with the rubber bands. Super cool!

Reminds me of the early days when we would attach a servo winch to the front axle to winch down the front of the truck to change the center of gravity. I think the elastic bands shows a lot of potential. 👍🏼

Well thanks, damnit. After going through all my shock tuning variables over the last 6 months, you come along and remind us all about compression spring rate. Lol Just curious, if a guy was running a slight droop to start would he want to go back to a full lift before installing the bands? Love your vids, man. You are one of the guys I trust to show why you tune the way you do. Thanks.

Awesome man!!

That's a creative, cheap, and easy way to experiment with suspension setup. Once you decide what you like, I think an internal spring in the shock is the permanent solution.

Very interesting 👍🏼

Man what a simple mod that can help

Wow that was awesome,

I was think about exacty same solution😁 and I love my STH chassis 👍🏻💪🏻👌🛻

Incredibel!Now you can get Proline rubber (crawler competition suspension setup bands) " only "for 10 bucks a pair! Ha ha ha! Super nice trick!Now i sell my droop springs and go back to my 120mm shockspring set up with rubber band droop ha ha! Next year rubber bands "banned" at all competitions! Ha ha ha!

That's a nice truck

This demonstrates why sway bars in the rear are helpful to crawlers

I did this a while back oh good year and a half or so I kept getting a lot of torque twist with my rock crawler and I run one from the right rear axle up to a body post and we just got a little torque to it quite a bit actually and it wouldn't level back out and I just hated seen it go sideways down the street I play with it to get it level out but I put a rubber band on it and it handled it torque twist quite amazingly actually helped it a lot take care be safe

Awesome vid and Mod my rc brother

Pretty cool idea 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Dude that RC play ground you have is the Bomb!! is that your backyard?

looks like a great simple mod for a better vertical performance

I have 2 rigs 4X4 and a 6x6 and I run all of them in droop setup !!

That Truuuuck is just BADASS!! That first climb was practically VERTICAL!!! 😲😎👍👍 Are Rubber Bands SORRCA legal?? I'm sure they're Exocaged Legal. 😉 Good tuning tool. Like you said (because I always watch ALL of everyone's Videos! Unlike the 2:41 average on my Videos), unlike the Pen Spring Mod - it doesn't permanently take away any Droop! That's a Win!! Please stay SAFE! 😷 Carmine ✈🚂🚙

The band is acting like a reverse heave spring. Flat ground it applies it’s force to both suspension links, but when one link is raised closer than the band wants it to it progressively allows the other link to drop further.

This works kinda or the same as desert lizard shocks or pen spring mod. And no I did not lose any articulation. Body control.

I've been using rubber bands as well like this

Joe. This was an insightful video. What is the eyelet to eyelet dimension of your shocks when fully extended on Optimus 3?

Chunk, my ecto could do that line 6 mins in I bet. It seems to like steep angles an stay sucked down. Thinking about rear steer on it down the road.

How do you propose doing this to a TRX4 or other 3 link feont with chassis mounted servo? . . I'd like to see a how to video of that

Joe's awesome 🤟💪🏻😜

What about going down stuff with only the front rubber bands?

Maybe use one of those hair ties for some custom colours? Lol I like it

I think from now on you should be referred to as the "Rubber Band Man" lol. Would it be possible to use that DSM recovery system to be dual purpose? I'm assuming the rubber bands will wear out pretty quickly. If you could use the elasticity from your DSM system to act as a replacement for the rubber bands, perhaps it could serve both purposes? The other thing that came to mind, perhaps you could use an electric winch system to make an adjustable drop system? Engage the winch to lower the suspension, release the winch to raise the suspension.

What oil is in you shocks?

So... the rubber bands are putting the rig into semi-droop?

Great vid similar to the pen spring trick in shocks just much easier & quicker. wouldn't it help you climb better if your front shock/springs were straight up & down instead of canted at the angle there at?

So you gain stability and lower the CG, and downside is that you sacrifice some breakover angle?

Great video.rubber bands work great.do mind what axles are on your rig.

Hey man what's that cable that's going through your top of your car all the way through the frame

new to crawling here - has anyone ever put a servo with string on it to control ride height dynamically while climbing? obviously not scale feature, but seems like it could help. might be a fun experiment.

Good job, was that your invention or did you see it somewhere?

.. need a rope from front to rear to keep the thing from falling apart? xD

i think you should switch to the vfd trans so you can use the hurt dig. and then that thing will be on par. i just got the supershafty bomb proof 10ii trans for a ttc bild im doing.

Yup been doing it for years. But I run full droop.

I think what you are looking for is a half droop setup

How do you get the transmissions to only work front wheel drive and switch it

You just wont have the slop when engaging the dig and what not.

Let's try again, PLEASE! I wish to permanently defeat the DIG in my 'Ready To Run' Axial Capra WITHOUT disassembling it and its transmission on my bedroom floor(my only workspace). If I open the faux fuel cell (where the receiver antenna sticks out of) can I unplug the DIG's micro-servo from there thus DISABLING the DIG and its chronic habit of erroneously activating? I do not care that you LIKE the DIG feature; I 'HATE' it and I wish to permanently defeat it!!! Thank you.

I have watched most of the videos since you've built this truck. It is a sick rig but the tires kinda let it down.... alot of situations now it would have made a climb if it had better tires. I mean your proline krawlers would be great on this rig. It would have way more traction in my opinion. Love the channel man and all the knowledge.

Only useful during sidehilling

14:25 Is that a nude woman I see in the concrete?

wasnt that good u can do that without rubber band

Don't get me wrong but IDK if It is just me or this is a bit lame? yes, of course, it is a useful mod but common.

WTF: 2:54 ..wow...black magic shit going on now.