1998 Question of the Week:
"What are the pros and cons of shaft drive versus belt drive on touring cars?"
Pros: Shaft drive should equal less drag
Cons: Torsion on touring car may affect handling
Shaft driven is heavier and on an impact the shaft and it's workings can get damaged but can not stretch under high rpm. The belt can tack and impact but can get old and brittle and fall apart also it can stretch if not reinforced with a type of carbon fiber strand.
ah , another strategic question, eh? I think that shaft drive is more durable and easier to maintain. The trade off is that belt drive is smoother and it can help save pulleys in a crash if your car doesn't have a slipper , because the belts may skip or flex a little
My personal preference would be belt driven. I have a belt driven and a shaft driven car and I can not tell a difference in the way of power. I think they both give out an equal amount of power, but belt driven cars are quieter and seem to run smoother.
(pro) Shaft is more direct (con) If it gets bent your screwed (pro) Belt is less easily damaged (con) stuff gets caught in belt and car doesn't move
Shafts are heavier, but they last a lot longer. Belts are lighter but wear out quicker do to hard acceleration.
Belt drives tend to start weakening and stretching over time and are prone to break after age. Shaft drives tend to cause adverse centrifugal forces to the car if setup in such a way. Shaft drives also have less resistance to moving than belts.
Shaft driven cars may allow for too much play throughout the entire drivetrain. Especially from one gearbox to the other. With belt drives, the aforementioned 'play' is virtually eliminated. Imagine a 4WD ASSOCIATED off-road buggy with 2 transmissions!!!!
i just started so...i think shaft is better than belt because the weight is down lower and less maintenance. however belts may be better for some cars than in others
well for one shaft is direct torque & instant power belt u get slipping on acceleration hence you could lose your place in the racing lanes Faz.
Shaft driven cars are more efficient. Belted cars have more drag! TRPD
Shaft drive can break. Belts can skip. I don't know which one is more efficient.
Well as a auto mechanic I can tell you that belts are way less efficient then shafts.
Shaft driven means no diff rebuilds every weekend after running a parking lot race as long
as there sealed. Also as you have already stated, there is NO slop in the shaft like a
belt. And what's the chance you would break a shaft or throw a shaft like you do with the
belts. I love the looks and the performance ( associated puts out a winner every time) of
the new touring car and hope it is released soon.
11/10/98
2:39:28 PM
THERE ARE ONLY A FEW SHAFT DRIVEN CARS, THE SHAFTS DON'T STRETCH, BUT THERE MAY BE MORE
BINDING WITH THE SHAFT.
Shaft drive is like a drive shaft on a car, giving you perfect response and controllable power on demand. However, with belts (even in cars or on vacuum cleaners) they have a tendency to wear and expand in time quicker, producing less response when needed and possibly losing power or breaking under stress. This is why I am glad to see someone finally listening to the car manufacturer's technology and went shaft drive instead of belt. Could you imagine if belts were used to drive cars today?
I think that shaft drive is good and it gives very fast and snappy go to the car and is more maintenance free than belt drive and they always seam to be able to run freer than belt drive
in my opinion i think associated should make a conversion kit from shaft to belt, or make 2 different kits so people could choose what they want. i know that associated will later convert this car to 4wd buggy (to compete with Losi) so they want the car to be immune to lots and lots of dirt. but for touring cars there is no worry for dirt that much. i have seen the TC3 tour and it shows how the gears work... and i see how the car can be converted into belt drive easily...
Well a shaft drive in the perfect world of formulas and books is more efficient, neglecting items like component distortion under load and such. The belt drive is easier to get working properly in the real world. with a belt drive if the chassis flexes you might get a couple of skips but with a solid shaft drive you bind the gears which could lock up the tires and that could get ugly. That is the item I like about the TC3 is the play in shaft that allows for flex. What I also thought of was with my old Ultima how i put piece of surgical tubing to hold the shaft in place but allowed it to travel.
On a drive belt, you have more maintenance, but it is more forgiving with less vibration, on a shaft drive you have less maintenance but it's much less forgiving. Ben
It doesn't matter. AE' smart people decided to use shaft drive. It will surely be top notch stuff. My TAO3 is patiently awaiting retirement.
I prefer shaft drive because it is very responsive, smooth and dependable. Belt drives have served us well (their lightness is what made them so good) but now that the technology is here for a lightweight shaft car it's great to see you have responded to your customers wishes.
With a belt drive car there is a significant amount of drag induced, called belt drag. Shaft driven do not have this drag present and are therefore more efficient. It is also much easier to strip or break a belt than a shaft.
shaft drives you have to lubricate and belt drives can break
Well I like shaft drive better because you don't have to worry about a belts coming of or aftermarket tensioners which aren't included in some others kits! But what i thought would look cool would be a chain drive like in the old days. Chrome plated chain or gold plated would look just dandy!! And when im i gonna see the nitro TC3? Santa's not coming to my house this x-mas because he cant get a Nitro TC3 in time. Can you give him the blue chassis and nose plate for the RC10GT when he arrives for my stuff!
I think shaft drives rule.
shaft drive is the way to go it make's the car more realistic .
Being a veteran of the early 4wd days (Tamiya Avante!) My answer may be a little off(in context to 4wd tourers)...Shaft drive provides instant power and acceleration besides being more efficient than belt drives. Belt drives however, allow you to adjust front wheel braking by means of a one way clicker. Shaft drives always give full time 4wheel braking. A good thing if the design has a low enough cg (because with a super low cg; alah RC-10tc3, cornering speeds will be blisteringly fast) less brake will be used so oversteer should not be a problem. The reason belt driven cars need the braking moved to the rear is because with a higher cg and high cornering speeds the natural tendency is to spin out. . . . . Well I might be off a bit as far as on-road is concerned, but off road this holds true.
Belt drive on a touring car is simple, compared to the complexity of a shaft drive.
I think both have advantages. Belt drives are always ready to drive power to the wheels because there is little if any play in the contact area of the belt and gear. The drawback is the ever present drag. Shaft drives are certainly less maintenance but there may be a problem with how the shaft is inserted into each drive hub. Older Tamiya cars were notoriously bad about excessive slop in this area. I think the best feature of shaft drive is the lack of resistance in the link of the two transmissions.
i'm glad that you guy's went to shaft drive instead of belt. i don't think there's much difference between the two , but i think that shaft make's it more like the real thing. way to go associated you guy's did your homework can't wait to get one of your tc3.
Con Any play in the shaft as it hangs between its joints will cause gear lash adjustment problems, especially with 64 pitch gears. Pro No problems with small stones in the drive line.
the shaft driven cars have more friction in the drivetrain, more moving parts and they are slower and require more maintenance
You really should update as often as you say you will. I did make changes; I just didn't add my changes to the Updates page that day!
one wears out faster (belt) shaft wear slower
Belt pro: They are lighter than shaft drive. Belt con: They are less efficient than shaft drive. Shaft pro: Smoother acceleration and braking. Shaft con: Looks to me that they are harder to replace....If you ever have to that is.... Question??: Will the TC3 have a gas conversion??? Not a gas conversion, but a fully-optimized gas version.
It is really hard to say which one is better because most don't have much experience with shaft driven cars. I think we'll all know which one is better when the TC3 comes out. I think that anyone that tends to say stuff negative about shaft cars a basing that judgment on other superior vehicles that have utilized that design up to now. The big thing that is different with the AE shaft is the material. The material from what I have seen seems to be something different to what has be used yet. I think every car company will be biting all over Associated's style in due time.
Not too many cons but many pros. As the former owner of a car with a very similar drive train to the new Associated TC I have a little experience. The main reason to use a properly configured shaft drive is friction. All you have to do is look at the number of places there are friction points and very quickly you will see less with the shaft drive. The result is less places for valuable power and battery life to be consumed which leads to more power converted to speed and more run time. Also with the nicely covered and sealed drive trains you don't get crud stuck in the belt teeth resulting in lower maintenance. Besides it isn't like everybody else's and it is nice to be different, especially when it works.
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