Mousetrap Vehicle C

[4Head]

This has been answered a couple times in the forum, but what you do is you have a peg on the axle, (something like a zip tie superglued on), wind one way, then, when you get to the point where you would like to wind the other way, you slip it around the peg, and start going backwards.

I don't want to double post so Ill ask a question here as well -- for those of you who are getting sub 8 second runs, how much does your car weigh? (I'm getting approx 10 seconds on a 246 g car, but I have yet to replace the axle with titanium, and drill holes in the wheels.)

got ~8 when i attached new mousetraps. after a few competitions and transporting with the lever arm fully flexed, gets around 9. weighed around 300g without holes in wheels, steel drive axle and aluminum axle.

Your car should definitely be going faster for how light it is.

Thanks for the info. I forgot to change my old mousetraps out (probably the biggest factor) and the person who was recording time for me apparently started sooner and ended later than he should have.

That’ll do it lol. Definitely change the mousetraps out. That plus the titanium and drilled out wheels could get your time to 7ish, easy.

[Otkrlj]

my car goes 8 seconds and weighs 146 grams

[PM2017]

my car goes 8 seconds and weighs 146 grams

Which wheels do you use?

[Alex-RCHS]

my car goes 8 seconds and weighs 146 grams

Which wheels do you use?

I’m interested in the same question, and also, do you use ball bearings?

Edit: by the way, what do you think is the lowest mass a (dual trap) car can have? I have to suppose that 146g is getting pretty close to the minimum. 2 mousetraps should be ~50g total, and 4 wheels has to be at least 40-60g I’m guessing. Via carbon fiber the chassis, lever arm, and drive axle can get pretty light, but the wingnut axle probably has to be metal which would add a bit more weight (but for you guys with titanium, I guess not much). My prediction is the lightest car this year with 2 mousetraps will be about 125g, but that would be pretty extreme.

[Otkrlj]

my car goes 8 seconds and weighs 146 grams

Which wheels do you use?

I’m interested in the same question, and also, do you use ball bearings?

Edit: by the way, what do you think is the lowest mass a (dual trap) car can have? I have to suppose that 146g is getting pretty close to the minimum. 2 mousetraps should be ~50g total, and 4 wheels has to be at least 40-60g I’m guessing. Via carbon fiber the chassis, lever arm, and drive axle can get pretty light, but the wingnut axle probably has to be metal which would add a bit more weight (but for you guys with titanium, I guess not much). My prediction is the lightest car this year with 2 mousetraps will be about 125g, but that would be pretty extreme.

Well to start out, i am using cd whels with baloons for grips. Also in my opinion, the lightest you could get is around 90. The balsa wood can be shruncen down by using 1/4 by 1/2 in balsa as the frame which is around 3 to 11g in total depending on how much you use and you could tecnicly use mini cd's which weigh around 5g each giving you a total of around and I am using the doc fizzles wingnut stoping system which weigh about 12g so that is in my opinion the lightest you could go. For the dowel our dowel is 5g and thats the lighest i see it going. Again this is extreme prediction and the veicle probilly would work really well or terrably so it is a risk.

[PM2017]

Which wheels do you use?

I’m interested in the same question, and also, do you use ball bearings?

Edit: by the way, what do you think is the lowest mass a (dual trap) car can have? I have to suppose that 146g is getting pretty close to the minimum. 2 mousetraps should be ~50g total, and 4 wheels has to be at least 40-60g I’m guessing. Via carbon fiber the chassis, lever arm, and drive axle can get pretty light, but the wingnut axle probably has to be metal which would add a bit more weight (but for you guys with titanium, I guess not much). My prediction is the lightest car this year with 2 mousetraps will be about 125g, but that would be pretty extreme.

Well to start out, i am using cd whels with baloons for grips. Also in my opinion, the lightest you could get is around 90. The balsa wood can be shruncen down by using 1/4 by 1/2 in balsa as the frame which is around 3 to 11g in total depending on how much you use and you could tecnicly use mini cd's which weigh around 5g each giving you a total of around and I am using the doc fizzles wingnut stoping system which weigh about 12g so that is in my opinion the lightest you could go. For the dowel our dowel is 5g and thats the lighest i see it going. Again this is extreme prediction and the veicle probilly would work really well or terrably so it is a risk.

I'm just using a straw as my dowel. I'm not sure how much that weighs, but I'm fairly certain it's less than 5g.

[Otkrlj]

I’m interested in the same question, and also, do you use ball bearings?

Edit: by the way, what do you think is the lowest mass a (dual trap) car can have? I have to suppose that 146g is getting pretty close to the minimum. 2 mousetraps should be ~50g total, and 4 wheels has to be at least 40-60g I’m guessing. Via carbon fiber the chassis, lever arm, and drive axle can get pretty light, but the wingnut axle probably has to be metal which would add a bit more weight (but for you guys with titanium, I guess not much). My prediction is the lightest car this year with 2 mousetraps will be about 125g, but that would be pretty extreme.

Well to start out, i am using cd whels with baloons for grips. Also in my opinion, the lightest you could get is around 90. The balsa wood can be shruncen down by using 1/4 by 1/2 in balsa as the frame which is around 3 to 11g in total depending on how much you use and you could tecnicly use mini cd's which weigh around 5g each giving you a total of around and I am using the doc fizzles wingnut stoping system which weigh about 12g so that is in my opinion the lightest you could go. For the dowel our dowel is 5g and thats the lighest i see it going. Again this is extreme prediction and the veicle probilly would work really well or terrably so it is a risk.

I'm just using a straw as my dowel. I'm not sure how much that weighs, but I'm fairly certain it's less than 5g.

a straw? How do you use a straw without it bending under the pressure? Straws are not exactly titanium. and also what kind of straw are you using?

[DarthBuilder]

It really isn’t in much pressure. It’s shuts to touch the cup not for the sole purpose of pushing it. He is also using like a bubble tea straw which is a quarter inch probably.

[4Head]

It really isn’t in much pressure. It’s shuts to touch the cup not for the sole purpose of pushing it. He is also using like a bubble tea straw which is a quarter inch probably.

Lmao he probably thought he used a straw for the axle

[PM2017]

It really isn’t in much pressure. It’s shuts to touch the cup not for the sole purpose of pushing it. He is also using like a bubble tea straw which is a quarter inch probably.

Lmao he probably thought he used a straw for the axle

That's pretty funny. And yes, DarthBuilder is correct in both statements.