Chassis Dyno Use and Testing Process

We can test and evaluate almost every 1/10th scale car and truck if they meet these specs:

1. Must be either a 10th scale buggy based car or 1/10 scale truck used for offroad, on-road, or oval tracks. No drag cars.
2. Must be two wheel drive.
3. Must use LiPo packs and 540 sized brushless motor.
4. If you want to use your ESC, the ESC must have a cable which can be detached from the receiver (this allows the dyno to control all aspects of the test).

For buggy based cars, we can use your existing 2.2" tires in most cases (unless they are very soft). Or we have dedicated 2.2" 'Dyno Tires' (hex mount wheels) which are very grippy and firm (no extra charge). For truck based vehicles, bring your tires and wheels. Make sure the truck tires are firm as very soft tires grow to a very large diameter, at which point they can come off the wheel during testing!

This inertia chassis dyno operates on the same principle as big car dynos, but with a lot less noise! Here is the process:

1. The car is strapped down tight to a base plate and the rear tires engage a heavy roller attached to the dyno system and computer. The dyno is an 'inertia' system which uses known rotation weights to do the measuring and calculation of various parameters.
2. We will attach a solid state device to the cable removed from the receiver. This device allows us to control the ESC through the dyno software.
3. Once car is set up, the 'Go' button energizes the ESC to power the motor for acceleration of the rear tires against the roller which continues at full throttle for a predetermined time then shuts off; we can now examine the data and graphs to see how the car performs. Rinse and repeat as required!
4. This process is much like big car inertia dynos except smaller scale.

Sounds easy! Actual hookup and test sequence is pretty much automated. But think about this:

1. LiPo packs and brushless motors produce an amazing amount of power. Some 7.0 turn systems produce 400 watts (that's over one half horsepower) at the rear wheels.
2. The tires rotate 30-45 MPH during a test, and as high as 6,500 RPM.
3. Over 200 amps of power is consumed from the LiPo pack, through the ESC and wiring and then to the motor (depending on the system). Serious power!