Featherweight Clod Chassis

[The Enforcer]

I was browsing through an old '94 issue of Radio Control Model Cars and stumbled across this ad:

It looks pretty stout, especially for that time period, and reasonably priced. It might not be a competitive racer, but it seems like it'd be a fun bash chassis.

Does anyone remember, or ever have, one of these Featherweight Clod chassis kits? I'm also curious as to what that painted Equalizer body looks like. I think I might have seen that particular painted body before, but I'm not for certain...

 

[Tad]

Never seen one in person. Just the adds and I believe rc model cars done a review on it once. I will see if I can dig it up.

 

[leeasam]

I bought one used off a person back in the late 90s. I raced it at the 2000 worlds. I remade the whole upper frame and made my own shock mounts plus a sway bar that pivoted on ball bearings. finsih 9th with it in mod class and only had 4 battery packs of run time through it before. If I would have had the sway bar stiffer and a bit softer springs it would have done even better. Plus this was the first time racing a clod since 92.Softer are avail now but at that time were not. I also made the links myself as the original were jus threaded rod slid inside a brass tube!! I bought aluminum round stock and made mine.There are a few other pics at the same location.



http://i526.photobucket.com/albums/cc348/leeasam/8-17-2009208364220PM.jpg

http://i526.photobucket.com/albums/cc348/leeasam/8-17-2009208363920PM.jpg

http://i526.photobucket.com/albums/cc348/leeasam/8-17-2009208363020PM.jpg

 

[The Enforcer]

Never seen one in person. Just the adds and I believe rc model cars done a review on it once. I will see if I can dig it up.

Sounds good...if it's not too much trouble for you, I'm curious to see that article on it.

Thanks for sharing those pics leeasam! I figured I was taking a long shot asking about this chassis since I haven't ever seen or heard of anyone using one. That is somewhat peculiar that the 4-links were made out of brass! I never would have guessed that just by looking at the black & white ad. That's cool to hear it was still able to be a competitive chassis though.

 

[leeasam]

ya they used I believe like 8-32 threaded rod with brass tubes over them. Heavy and bent easy. actually in stock kit form they were not that great. original sway bars stunk. factory shock locations were pretty vertical mounted much like a stock clod.( I mean located along side of chassis like a stock clod. The upper chassis frame I made had the shock mounts to the ends of the chassis not the sides and had the shocks angle towards center more -- kind of like a stadium truck. the sides were messed up bad on the original too so I just used the lower bracket and then used the original kit sides to pattern the new sides that I made. so actually about the only thing left of the original kit was the lower link mount braket and axle shock mount brackets. oh and the batter mounts LOL.

the Bennet chassis I had on my bigfoot 9 handled much better than the original featherweight kit. after my modding it though out doors this thing was killer and very stable. did not bounce around and twist around like alot of other kits and trucks I have seen back then and see now in videos.

 

[The Enforcer]

Man, all those modifications to help better the performance of it reminds me of similar upgrades and changes I did to my JPS chassis in order to make it race ready, lol.