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The Project Stampede
Ultra-Pede
& Thoughts on Upgrading
Complete Upgrade List

I am not a professional track racer, I'm just a guy that loves to terrorize the neighborhood, parks, friends and family get togethers, etc. with my Stampede and on occasion hit the dirt track, but I can lend a few pointers to get you started in making your Stampede handle well.

Is the stock stuff good?  Actually yes.  The stock Stampede tires are very hard durable general purpose tires that do a pretty decent job for overall bashing and will get you through your first year easily.  Keep in mind the softer compounds of higher performance tires tend to wear much quicker than the stock tires.  The shocks on the Stampede are some of the best shocks made and once the Traxxas aluminum shock caps are added and the shocks filled with 50wt oil, they are just as durable as aluminum shocks.

If the Stampede is so good why does my RC handle funny, doesn't turn right, goes off jumps wrong, flips easy, ...etc? Chances are that you have not properly tuned your RC's tires and suspension. 

First off read this, print it, use it as reference, and memorize it.
RC Tuning Guide This is a great reference for improving you RC's handling - Site - Adobe .PDF
ArtsAutomotive "The Alignment Story" is also a good general base resource for understanding Toe In, Camber, and Caster.

From what I have read and my experience having the right tires is 90% of the tuning battle and 5% is having the right springs/pre-loads on the shocks for the right terrain/track. The rest is knowing how to tweak this or that little thing to to give you the perfect set-up.  Let's review some general tuning rules.

Tires

• Hard ground = soft tires with fine tight tread (Example Pro-line Step Pin-T)
• Soft ground = hard tires with course tread (Example Pro-line Dirt Paws)
• Concrete/Asphalt = very soft tires with no tread (Example Pro-Line Speed Hawg or Road Hawg)
• Rounder Tires = more overall off road traction and less flipping on un-even terrain while bashing, less lateral and turning traction (Example Pro-Line Moab)
• Flatter Tires = more lateral traction and grip - will turn faster but will flip easier on un-even terrain (Example Pro-line Dirt Paw, Road Hawg, Dirt Hawg)
• Wider Tires = Better grip and more lateral stability on smooth terrain.
• Thinner Tires = More stable and more traction on un-even terrain.
• Taller Tires = More clearance
• Shorter Tires = More responsive
• Recommendations - General backyard and neighborhood bashing, Pro-line Moab or Masher 2000s. A great grass and soft dirt tire is the Pro-Line Dirt Paws,  for general street and running on harder packed surfaces the Dirt Hawg series is really a great all-purpose option and shows up a a lot of rougher outdoor tracks at amateur races.  These three tires will pretty much do it all for the hardcore Stampede owner, however play around with a couple sets and find one or a couple sets you like.

Shocks

• Stiffer suspension = Better for un-even terrain and jumping, limits bottoming out and allows you to jump higher.
  • More Shock Pre-Load spacers or stiffer springs = better for jumping
• Softer suspension = better for smoother terrain with limited jumps, allows suspension to work to great more traction.
  • Less or No Pre-Load spacers or softer springs = better for limited jumping and groomed tracks or even backyards.

Shock Pre-Load Spacers  - Your stock Traxxas Stampede suspension allows for alot of tuning capability.  In the bag of extra parts you get from Traxxas will be a shock parts tree with Pre-Load spacers attached.  Everyone including myself wonders which to use or should you use any at all.  The best course of action when just starting out is to go on the stiff side and install the two largest pre-load spacer sets 4mm (1 on each of the rear shocks) and 3mm (1 on each front shock).  These should be installed in between the upper spring retainer and the shock.  As you define your driving style you may want more spring tension (add more pre-load spacers) or less (replace with thinner spacers).  Jumping and general bashing, you should probably error on the stiff side. If you notice your truck bottoming out a lot, you may want to add more pre-load spacers or even buy stiffer springs. To increase articulation for rock climbing and traction for racing on flatter ground, you may even want to go with softer springs.  Spring rates are defined by lbs. so the less lb. rating the softer the spring.    The Pre-load spacers are designed to fine tune the response of the springs so if you find that you generally use a lot of preload spacers, you may want to upgrade to stiffer springs or vise versa.

Wide-Pede and Adjustable Turnbuckles
Although I don't want to repeat the above RC Tuning Guide, I would highly suggest a wide-pede upgrade - the handling improvement is significant.  At the same time moving to adjustable turnbuckles for the front and rear camber links will also greatly improve the tune-ability of your RC.  I would recommend the wide-pede conversion before you start buying tires and having to re-glue all the tires and buy new wheels.

Traxxas Front 54mm Turnbuckels and Rod Ends - Not a requirement, but everything I have read indicates that the stock front camber links always area just ever so slightly out of whack, enough it drove me nuts and it will be something you will want to upgrade anyway at one point or another.  The camber links control how far the top edge of the tire is from the body. Think of it as steering but on the other axis.  If the camber is aligned on one tire but not the other, the truck will pull to one side or the other and will not steer consistently. To clarify these are the 54mm rods which are 62mm when assembled with the rod ends.  Although I ran stock plastic camber links until recently, the rears take the 72mm turnbuckles (90mm with ends).  A better and MUCH more durable upgrade which I currently run is the Jato Camber links turnbuckles 58mm #5539 front and rear (rears are a direct fit, fronts are a direct fit only after a wide-pede conversion is complete.)

RPM two stage Shock Pistons

I talked to RPM on this a while back and they recommended the Medium to Heavy sets on the Stampede. They did say you need to understand the basics of shock tuning before you start messing around with the pistons and reiterated that it was for advanced RC'ers. I got the point, don't call me when you can't figure it out. Completely understand there perspective.

In theory and practice from what I have heard these are outstanding and do exactly what they are supposed to do, help your shock recover quicker on compression or if pistons are flipped over, decompression. Seems logical to me, so I threw some on during my last shock rebuild.

I picked up a set of the Med-X Heavy RPM pistons and spent the better part of a morning rebuilding my semi-stock Ultra Shocks. Here's my take on these and some upgrade I am hoping will work well.

First - my shock oil was disgusting, a nice nasty brownish green, was clear at one time. Ick!

Second - A previous review by Jang (UlitmateRC.com) was right, even though he was installing the RPM pistons on Big Bore shocks, fitting and sanding of both the top e-clip and the pistons themselves was required.  The top e-clips need to be sanded so that they fit inside the top piston piece loosely. Although somewhat a pain, it was relatively quick with one of my handy manicure sticks (sandpaper on a stick - the only reason to go into a beauty shop).   The key in sanding the pistons is to mount them first then allow them to roll/turn as you move across the sandpaper, a 45 degree angle works great. Make sure they do not fit inside the shocks tightly or bind at any point - they should freely move.

After a little fidgeting with the different pistons, I opted for the extra heavy pistons with my standard 50wt oil. Once on the Stampede Project Ultra-Pede, it seemed perfect, but some testing will be the proof.  I bash pretty hard so I wanted the extra heavy pistons rate pistons with heavy oil, you may want to go with the Red medium pistons.

Upgrades - Replaced all bladders and o-rings with a new silicon shock rebuild kit. I added an O-ring under the lower e-clip under the piston as a soft up travel limiter replacing my hard plastic one, don't know if it will work but seemed to do the job and should keep the shock shaft from slamming to the extended position. I added three o-rings above the shock end as down travel limiters, had 2 needed 3 then added a small washer so the o-rings have something to deform against when compressed. About 2 months ago I found some stainless steel front shock rods in the clearance bin for $1, so I swapped those out for the stock chrome ones.

All said and done, the adventure was far less painful than I remember.

Do they work, yep they go faster up than down (i.e. they recover much faster than my previous 2 hole pistons).

Update - Man these things are tight.  Definitely on my list of recommended upgrades.  For jumping no question the Extra Heavy are the way to go and are nice and stiff for higher speed endeavors on smooth surfaces, but I would recommend either a lighter weight oil or going with the heavy or even medium pistons for lighter general bashing.  The heavy pistons with heavier oil allow bottom out free jumps of 3-4 feet.

Really like these the more I use them. They way they improve handling is subtle but very noticeable and well worth the install effort.