Rayspeed RS-32 Ride Height Gauge
Just picked one of these up – an aluminium ride height gauge for RC buggies. This particular model passed me by when it first came out – turns out it’s a cracker!
I’ll take a brief detour into the history of Rayspeed – and why it is now a dead brand. Rayspeed was the “personal” brand of Shinnosuke Adachi when he drove for Yokomo. They released a load of really useful bits under it, in particular the pistons for the touring car shocks which became an essential, and also a few bits for the Associated B4 to “Yokomo-ise” it – the Rayspeed rear hubs are still highly sought after. But then Adachi moved across to Kyosho, and Yokomo killed off the Rayspeed brand. Good luck connecting to the www.rayspeed.jp site! Some of the parts have had equivalents released under the Yokomo brand (like some alternative B4 hubs and some new touring springs), but most haven’t. You’ll need to search hard for old stock!
This means that the RS-32 is being sold off by CML Distribution’s “End of Line RC” website – www.end-of-line-rc.co.uk – for a tenner.
A brief look now at why this is such a handy tool…
RS-32 "Manual"
This is more than just a ride height gauge. As you can see from the slip of paper above, it is also a compact camber gauge. Three sides are machined for 0, 0.5 or 1 degree. Also interesting is that the gauge measures from 20-25mm (for 1/10th) then jumps to 28-32mm (for 1/8th perhaps?) – although you are a bit stuck if you want to run 26 or 27mm ride height!
The aluminium tool itself is surprisingly chunky and very well finished, as you would expect from the Yokomo factory.
Rayspeed RS-32 measuring ride height
Rayspeed RS-32 measuring camber
This is going to make consistent setups a lot easier for me to achieve. I know that eyeballing the arms and driveshafts is a common way of setting off-road cars, but I much prefer the accuracy and repeatability of a gauge.
And it even comes with a little sticker sheet too!
Rayspeed sticker on the B-MAX4
