700 Aluminium Base For Align T Rex 700e

[Peter Vice]

Good morning I have bought a brand new Align 700E and have been watching various videos on assembly order.
I watched Freddy can Fly and he started a build discarding the lower carbon fiber undercarriage tray replacing it with a firm aluminium base mounting tray. As I cant find a way to ask him why I am wondering why he might choose to fit an after market part as my Align agent in England had no idea why he would recommend that and they dont stock the tray as its not an Align product. Can anyone tell me why, my only observation on initial wind up on my old 700E the heli tends to " wobble" a bit between the undercarriage and the fuselage, might the solid base plate prevent this from happening?

 

[murankar]

Some folks like to make mods to the frame. One it does stiffen the frame. Two, it will add better protection in a crash. Down side is its metal. That means weight. A rigid frame does not crash well.

I have heard of people adding in frame stiffeners throughout the frame. They would drill their own holes and add the metal rods where ever.

I would have to see the video to make sense of it.

 

[Tony]

I would not put a metal piece there if this were my helicopter. Some do it just to be different, some do it for the 'bling', and some do it (on video) just to get others to spend more money on a project that doesn't need it. Just my opinion though.

 

[Admiral]

I have found that beefing up any part of the helicopter only moves the point of failure in the event of a crash, with my luck to something more expensive to repair.

A few years ago I beefed up the skids on a 450 and broke the side frame instead, skids would have been an easier repair.

 

[Peter Vice]

Some folks like to make mods to the frame. One it does stiffen the frame. Two, it will add better protection in a crash. Down side is its metal. That means weight. A rigid frame does not crash well.

I have heard of people adding in frame stiffeners throughout the frame. They would drill their own holes and add the metal rods where ever.

I would have to see the video to make sense of it.

Thanks at this point I see no reason to make changes to a new helicopter.

 

[sneezy007]

I agree stick with the stock parts for now. See how you like it and you can always make changes later.
Dino

 

[murankar]

I Wouldn't unless it doesn't fly well.

 

[Geena]

When I first got into helicopters, I got caught up in the whole metal "upgrades" thing too. I had a T-Rex 500 ESP, that had every plastic part replaced with micro heli metal upgrade parts. What I didn`t realize back then, was: 1. They made the helicopter a LOT heavier. 2. They didn`t add strength they actually took it away, and like Admiral said above, they transfer the energy of a crash to a different point on the helicopter...most of the time that`s going to be the frames.

Now that I have been in the hobby for a while, (8 years) I upgrade only if said upgrade will add better performance to my helicopter. Which is very seldom. Don`t get me wrong...there are some upgrades that are worth doing. But 99% of the time, the stock parts that come in the kit are more than sufficient.