Remote Control Care Gear Ratios

Get more bite from your car's teeth

This 90T spur gear and 20T pinion equal a 4.5:1 gear ratio. The pinion must turn 4.5 revolutions to turn the spur gear 1 revolution. Gears: every car and truck has 'em (yes, even the belt-driven ones), but not everyone understands themor knows how to get the most out of them. Let's take a look at gear ratios, gear pitch and gearing your car or truck to win. WHAT IS A GEAR RATIO?

Here are two sets of Robinson Racing steel clutch bell/spur-gear combos for the Traxxas T-Maxx 3.3 (top) and Revo 3.3 (bottom). The T-Maxx pair is an 18T/44T combo; the Revo set is a 16T/40T combo. Despite the different tooth counts, the ratios are very close: 2.44:1 and 2.5:1, respectively. Any two gears will have a ratio. If your car has a 20-tooth (20T) pinion and a 100-tooth (100T) spur gear, that's a 20:100 ratio; however, we need to go one step further and divide the number of teeth on the spur gear (100) by the number of teeth on the pinion (20). It's easy: 100 20 = 5 The gear ratio is 5:1 (say five to one), and that means that the pinion must make five revolutions to turn the spur gear one revolution. It's that simple. Once you know the gear ratio

you want, you can use any combination of tooth counts to get it. For example, a 5:1 gear ratio could be achieved with a 100T:20T, 105T:21T, 110T:22T, or 115T:23T combinations. CALCULATING TRANSMISSION & FINAL DRIVE RATIOS TRANSMISSION RATIO

Here's an Associated B4/T4 transmission. The top gear has 20 teeth and the bottom gear has 52 teeth for a ratio of 2.6:1. Any car with a gearbox has some kind of internal gear reduction; most 1/10-scale cars and trucks use a 3-gear transmission that features a top (input) gear, an idler gear and a bottom (output) gear that spins the drive axles and incorporates the differential. To determine the transmission ratio, just divide the number of teeth on the bottom gear (diff) by the number of teeth on the top gear. For example, the gearbox shown here has a 20T top gear and 52T diff gear: 52 20 = 2.6 FINAL DRIVE RATIO

To keep the math simple, let's say this is a 20T pinion and 100T spur gear. The pinion and spur have a 5:1 ratio, and as illustrated previously, the B4's gearbox has a 2.6:1 ratio. Multiply the two ratios, and you get a final drive ratio of 13:1. So, to drive the rear wheels one complete revolution, the pinion must turn 13 revolutions.

This is the inside of an Associated TC4's gear-box; the diff gear has 40 teeth, and the

input gear has 16 teeth for a 2.5:1 ratio. In addition to the transmission's internal gear ratio, we have the external gear ratio of the pinion and spur gear to contend with. By combining the internal and external ratios, we arrive at the final drive ratio. This ratio shows how many times the pinion must turn to make the transmission's output gear (and with it, the car's tires) complete one revolution. The math is simple; just multiply the internal and transmission ratios. If we use a 100T spur gear and 20T pinion gear for a 5:1 ratio and a 2.6:1 transmission ratio, we get 13:1 for a final drive ratio: 5 x 2.6 = 13 ROLLOUT: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

10.7 INCHES Mark, roll and measure. B4's Hole Shot tire travels 10.7 inches with each rotation. Although they have tires instead of teeth, the drive wheels of your car or truck can be thought of as gears in the transmission. Think about it: if you take two identical cars and put small-diameter tires on one and large-diameter tires on another, the vehicle with larger tires will travel farther with each rotation of the wheels and is effectively geared taller than the small-tire car. This distance is called the car's rollout, and it shows the true effect of gearing changes. Here's how to measure rollout: STEP 1: MEASURE THE TIRE'S CIRCUMFERENCE The distance traveled by the tire in one rotation is its circumference. To measure it, mark the sidewall of the tire, roll it until the mark makes a complete rotation and then measure the distance. Or, you can calculate circumference by multiplying the tire's diameter by pi (3.1416). STEP 2: DIVIDE THE CIRCUMFERENCE BY THE FINAL DRIVE RATIO Let's say our example car has a final drive ratio of 13:1 and a wheel circumference of 12 inches. 12 13 = 0.92. This car travels 0.92 inch with each revolution of the pinion. OK, so we went all this way for a fun fact? No! Now we can see how gearing changes really affect a car. Let's say we install a 22T pinion in place of the 20T. The external ratio becomes 4.54:1 (100 22 = 4.54). Multiply that by a transmission ratio of 2.6:1, and we get 11.8:1 for the final drive ratio. Divide 12 inches by 11.8, and we arrive at a roll-out of 1.01 inchesthat's an increase of 1/10 inch. That doesn't sound like much, but think about it: if the motor spins at an average of 20,000rpm for the entire 5-minute race, and the car goes an extra 1/10 inch for every one of those 100,000 total revolutions, that means your car will travel an extra 833 feet (100,000 x 0.1 = 10,000 inches; 10,000 inches 12 = 833 feet). In a 20-lap race, that's an

extra 41.7 feet per lap! As you can see, small gearing changes can make a big difference. GEAR PITCH A gear's pitch refers to the size of its teeth: the larger the pitch number, the smaller the teeth. That seems backwards, but it makes sense when you consider how pitch is determined. Pitch refers to the number of teeth that can fit around a 1-inch diameter disc; for example, a tooth size that permits 48 teeth to encircle a 1-inch disc is said to be 48-pitch. To squeeze 64 teeth onto a 1-inch disc, the teeth must be smaller; that's why 64-pitch gear teeth are finer than 48-pitch. The pitch of the gears in your car has no effect on their ratio; a 100T-spur/20T-pinion combination is a 5:1 ratio whether you use 32-, 48-, or 64-pitch gears; however, certain gear pitches are better suited to certain applications. For example:

ACTUAL SIZE These are all 20T gearsthe only difference is the pitch. 32-PITCH You don't much find this chunky gear pitch on electric vehicles anymore, but gas cars often use 32-pitch gears to cope with the heavy horsepower their transmissions cope with. Some cars have 1 module gearsa metric size that works out to 25.4 pitch (more on metric gears in Understanding Metric Pitch). 48-PITCH Robinson Racing deserves credit for popularizing 48-pitch gears in off-road; until Rob Robinson developed the in-between pitch, racers had to choose between 32-pitch (durable, but limited in gearing options) and 64-pitch gears (plenty of gearing options, but the tiny teeth were easily stripped). The off-road standard, 48-pitch gears offer a good mix of ratio options and durability. 64-PITCH This is the pitch of choice among on-road racers mainly because of the huge number of available ratios and extra-smooth mesh of the very fine teeth. Since on-road cars don't have to endure jumps and jolts, 64-pitch gears hold up well. UNDERSTANDING METRIC PITCH

The gear on the left is metric 48 pitch, the one on the right is metric 64 pitch. Both have 21 teeth.

You may have heard of metric 64-pitch or metric 48-pitch; both are common in Japanese kits. The correct term for the pitch of these gears is module, 0.6-module gears are metric 48 and are actually 42.3-pitch; metric 64 gears are 0.4 module and are actually 63.5 pitch. Always use metric pinions with metric spurs; although the pitch is close to U.S. 48- and 64-pitch standards, they are not interchangeable. GEARING GOLDEN RULES 1. To gear up and give your car a numerically lower gear ratio that will make it go farther for each revolution of the pinion (or clutch-bell) gear, add teeth to the pinion or subtract teeth from the spur gear. 2. To gear down and give your car a numerically higher gear ratio that will make it go less far for each revolution of the pinion (or clutch-bell) gear, subtract teeth from the pinion or add teeth to the spur gear. 3. Changing the pinion's tooth count has a greater effect than an equal change on the spur gear. When changing gearing, don't jump up or down more than two teeth at a time on the pinion or clutch bell. The examples below illustrate how much a 2-tooth pinion change affects gearing compared with a 2-tooth spur-gear change: 2-TOOTH INCREASE ON SPUR GEAR

100T spur gear/20T pinion = 5:1 102T spur gear/20T pinion = 5.1:1 Ratio change = 0.1

2-TOOTH DECREASE ON PINION GEAR

100T spur gear/20T pinion = 5:1 100T spur gear/18T pinion = 5.5:1 Ratio change = 0.5

4. Note how much wider the angle between two teeth is on the 16T pinion versus the 28T pinion. The wider angle reduces the efficiency of the gear mesh. If you have the option to use a larger pinion or clutch bell to achieve the gear ratio you need, use it. The greater the tooth count, the better the gear mesh will be. Ideally, you should use a pinion with a minimum of 17 teeth for the best mesh. Monitor your car's performance when you change gear ratios. If your car suffers poor fuel economy, slow acceleration and high motor/engine temperatures, it is almost certainly overgeared; install a smaller pinion/clutch bell or a larger spur gear.