The list of specialty tools that this hobby offers can be a bit intimidating for new hobbyists. Our goal with the RPM Tool Guide is to help you identify the tools you may need to help make your experience in the hobby more entertaining and fun. Let’s get started!
#70100 Part Tray*
Our Parts Tray is designed to help you organize your small screws, nuts and miscellaneous hardware during maintenance and tear down of your vehicle. Its diminutive size (3.25” x 2.25” x 3/8” [82.5mm x 57.1mm x 9.5mm] interior dimensions) disguises how important it can be. Save yourself some frustration by organizing your hardware in our Parts Trays by section (axle carrier, chassis, differential, etc.). The small, built-in magnet also makes handling tiny screws and e-clips a breeze! A couple Parts Trays can really save time and frustration while keeping your workbench clean and organized.
#70420 Mega Bearing Blaster
#81170 Bearing Blaster*
Our Bearing Blasters are a great way to preserve and maintain your bearings. While bearings have become a throwaway item in recent years, maintaining bearings is still a viable and effective way to prolong the life of what is still a costly aspect of R/C vehicles. Cleaned properly with an RPM Bearing Blaster, your bearings can easily last 3 – 4 times longer than with a “wear-out-and-replace” theory. That means our Bearing Blasters will easily pay for themselves upon the very first use! To determine which Bearing Blaster you need, find the largest bearing size of your largest vehicle. If the bearing is at most 13/16” (21mm) on the outside diameter, the standard #81170 Bearing Blaster is perfect for you. If you need a larger version, our #70420 Mega Bearing Blaster can handle bearing sizes up to 1-1/4” (32mm).
#70492 Toe-In Gauge*
Alignment tools are extremely critical to proper handling of your vehicle. In the case of toe angles, an improper toe angle can wreak havoc with your straight-line stability and your ability to turn. For reference, the toe angle refers to the angle of your tires in relation to the centerline of the chassis when looking down on the vehicle from above. More simply put, think of your feet when looking down on them. As you progress, you’ll find that fine-tuning your front-end toe angles may actually help improve minor deficiencies in performance. Is your car wandering in the straights or encountering over-steer in the turns? Dial in more toe in (negative toe). Want more under-steer in the corners? A little more toe out (positive toe) may just do the trick. Here’s the catch… Toe angle changes can have dramatic effects with minor changes. That’s where our #70492 Toe-In Gauge comes into play. Our Gauge is accurate to within ½° per side or better! Meaning you can fine-tune your toe angles to work best with your driving style or accurately set the angle depending upon your track or track conditions.
#70950 Monster Camber Gauge
#70992 Precision Camber Gauge*
Another invaluable alignment tool we offer is our Camber Gauge. Camber angles are the angle of the tires where they meet the ground to the top of the tire along the vertical axis. How does camber affect you? Well, negative camber improves grip when cornering. This is because it places the tire at a better angle to the ground as the suspension compresses and the front tires turn. Body roll also affects rear traction and camber so it’s critical at all four corners. This is only true for the outside tire during the turn; the inside tire would benefit most from positive camber but this type of set-up would only work in an oval track set-up since they only turn in one direction. General off-road vehicle would require both sides to be set symmetrically for equal turning ability in both directions. On the other hand, for maximum straight-line acceleration, the greatest traction will be attained when the camber angle is zero and the tread is flat on the road. This is where our Camber Gauges shine. Our gauges allow quick and accurate readings of your camber, allowing you to make fast adjustments that can be easily repeated. Not sure which gauge you need? Measure the distance from the ground to the upper belly of the tire on your largest vehicle (above the centerline of the wheel). If that distance is less than 4-3/8” (111mm), our #70992 Precision Camber Gauge is the right gauge for you. If that distance is more than 4-3/8” (111mm) but less than 6-1/2” (165mm), you’ll need our #70950 Monster Camber Gauge.
#70972 Shock Duplicator
Let’s face it, most ready-to-run vehicles are mass assembled in a factory by people that most likely are just trying to get through the day. Do they care how accurately your shocks are assembled at each corner? Probably not. Now, if you have one of our #70972 Shock Duplicators, you can exactly copy the length and several key settings of your shocks from one side to the next, and if need be, at all four corners. Why do you care? Imagine a shock that is longer by 1 or 2 mm. on one side. That would most definitely cause adverse driving characteristics. Maybe it’s not easily seen with the naked eye but our gauge would catch the problem and give you the tools to perfect your shocks.
#73002 Pit-Pro Extreme Car Stand
Here’s a situation you’ll most likely find yourself in a time or two while you’re tinkering with your R/C vehicles. You need to remove your shocks for maintenance or replace a damaged A-arm (with an RPM version, of course!) but everything just flops around once the disassembly begins, making it difficult to handle on that flat bench top. Now imagine placing that same vehicle on a custom car stand that can rotate 360° and pivot up to 45°, giving you easy access to virtually your entire car. The RPM Pit-Pro Extreme can do all that and more.
#81150 Metric Ride Height Gauge*
#81300 SAE Ride Height Gauge*
Ride Height is the distance from the ground to the bottom of your chassis. Why would this be important? Imagine a shock mount pivot ball that’s installed on the wrong shock tower or a-arm hole position, or perhaps a hinge pin hole that has more slop in it from wear on one side. That would mean your chassis wouldn’t sit flat at ride height, creating an ill-handling vehicle A quick check with an RPM Ride Height Gauge would catch a problem like that before you ever hit the track. Another great feature of our Ride Height Gauge is the ability to set and detect variations in spring preload of the shocks. If the shocks aren’t set accurately, the ride height will be adversely affected.
*Products marked with an asterisk have a proven history with RPM and we’ve been manufacturing these items for in excess of 20+ years! All RPM tools are Made in the USA!