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Camber Angle
Camber angle is the angle between the vertical axis of the wheel and the vertical axis of the vehicle when viewed from the front or rear. There are three possible camber types, positive, neutral, and negative camber.

If the top of the wheel leans into the center of the car you have negative camber. If the wheel is vertical you have neutral or no camber and if the wheel leans out you have positive camber.

If you were to drive your RC car round a fast right-hand corner, the body rolls to the left. This reaction also happens to the wheel, if there is no camber on the wheels the top of the left wheels will lean out and you will end up running on the outside tire. To counteract this you would need to put negative camber on the wheels. This allows the wheel to tip over in corners but still maintains full surface contact on the track giving maximum grip on corners.

Camber is adjusted by lengthening or shortening the top wishbone. A good starting point is 2 degrees negative on the rear and 1/2 to 1 degree negative on the front.

Toe-in & Toe-out
These angles are the direction the wheels are pointing when looking at the car from above The below pictures show the toe angles on the front wheels only but the same rules apply to the rear wheels.
On a rear wheel drive car the front wheels will have neutral toe, or toe-out. The rear wheels will have neutral toe or toe-in.

With the correct toe angle on the front you will have a stable car that has good front end grip. The correct toe angle on the rear will give good rear end traction through corners.

The front end toe angle is adjusted on the steering links on your RC car. Shorten the links will allow more toe-out, lengthen the links will allow for less toe-out. There are different methods to adjust the rear toe angle depending on which model of RC car you drive, almost all cars adjust the rear lower wishbone to give desired angle.

To measure the toe angle is not easy, one method is to use the camber gauge. If you want 1 degree toe-in set your wheels up with one degree of negative camber. Take a measurement from the top center of the inside rim on the left wheel to the top centre inside rim of the right wheel. Do the same for bottom center inside rim on both wheels. Transfer these measurements so that the distance top center is the same as front center on the inside of the rim, this sounds complicated but when you try it it’s not that bad. Another way of putting it is measure at 12 o’ clock and 6 o’ clock and transfer to 3 o’clock and 9 o’ clock. A good start settings are 2 degrees toe in at the rear and 1 degree toe-out at the front.

Caster Angle
The purpose of caster angle is basically to allow the front wheels to self-center. Imagine the wheels on a good shopping trolley (if you can find one), if you look at the wheels the spindle of the wheel is not directly below the mount but trailed back at an angle, this is the caster angle. When you push the trolley the wheels all point in the direction of motion so are self-center.

All rear wheel drive cars have positive caster on the front wheels. Although the main reason for the caster angle is to self-center the wheels the angle can affect the car handling, too much caster and you can get wheel shimmy. This is when the front wheels flick side to side rapidly .Too little caster can make the car over steer. The caster angle is adjusted by sliding the front wishbones on the hinge pins. To increase caster slide the top wishbone back or the bottom one forward or a bit of both, and do the opposite to reduce the caster. Measuring caster angle is more a case of trial and error to get the correct setting.

The best starting point would be both wishbones in the center of the hinge pins as there is positive caster built into the steering hubs.

Ride Height
Try to run the car as low to the ground as you can without the chassis scraping the ground. Ride height can be adjusted on the collars of the shocks, screw them down increases the ride height. Set the rear end a couple of millimeters higher than the front.

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