Keep the Front End Down on my Traxxas Stampede Wheelie Machine

Question:
Hey Doc-
I recently bought a Dynamite 15T brushed motor and a Dynamite brushed ESC for my modified Traxxas Stampede. My problem is that I have too much torque now and every time I hit the gas, it wheelies and scrapes the back of the truck. Do you have any tips to keep my front end on the ground? Thanks!

Greg

Answer:
Hi Greg,
The Traxxas Stampede is a pretty fun truck and its actual design makes wheelies a really easy thing to do. The center of gravity (COG) is pretty high with alot of the weight towards the rear of the truck so when you accelerate, that weight shifts back, rolling over the rear tires and causing the Stampede to wheelie. If you’re on a surface with alot of grip (carpet, clay, asphalt, etc), a wheelie can be hard NOT to do.

So, how do we fix this? Well, the first option is not to actually fix it but embrace it! Traxxas knows the Stampede is a wheelie monster, so they offer an optional wheelie bar in either black, blue or green. This bar bolts right on to the existing truck and while it doesn’t keep the front end down, it does keep the rear from scraping. I’ve listed the bars down below if you’re interested in picking one up.

If you don’t want to use a wheelie bar, there are a few things that can help keep the front tires on the ground. You can add some stick-on weights to the front of the Stampede. This will make it harder for the front end to lift up, but may also cause some erratic steering traits depending on how much weight you use. You could install stiffer springs on the rear shocks, but this will also cause the Stampede to spring, or ‘donkey-flip’ the rear of the truck up off of jumps. This usually results in horrible crashes that can cause some major damage. The last thing to try (and the one I suggest most if you don’t want a wheelie bar), is to lower the truck a little bit. Remove the pre-load spacers above the shock springs (or thread the shock collars UP if you have threaded shocks) until you reach the desired ride height. The only downside to this is now you have less ground clearance, so be careful what you drive over.

You could, of course, use a combination of the above fixes, ie, add a little weight and lower the truck down. If it were my, I’d just buy the wheelie bar!

Good luck!
The Doc