What Are Traxxas Body Washers For?

If you own a Traxxas RC car or have been looking into them you have likely come across these Traxxas body washers. The issue is many people don’t know what exactly these body washers are used for. 

Traxxas body washers help prevent the clip from breaking through the RC body when you crash or hit something with your RC vehicle. They do work well at preventing the clip from pulling through if mounted on top of the body.

To make your life a little bit easier you can use a small dab of glue to attach them to the outside of the body permanently. If you do this then you don’t have to mess with them or take a chance on losing them each time you remove and replace the body on the chassis. 

The white RC body washers can be used above or below the body shell at the body posts depending on the model and how it connects. Most often the washers and clips are on the outside for easy access and so you can easily see if they have come off. Depending on the particular model the washers sometimes need trimming to fit inside the body, this is the case with the Traxxas Stampede. Only body washers placed on top of the front posts would not need trimming or at least bending to fit. 

Washers will have an outer and inner diameter and the outer one is about twice the inner diameter, but this can vary quite a bit. If you end up having to replace one of the washers the easiest way to do so is take a different washer with you to the hardware store to make sure you get the right size. 

To install the body washer onto your Traxxas RC car,  put the body on the chassis then place the body washer over the posts, then simply insert the body clip to hold the body on the Rc vehicle. The clip may be hard to put on at first so to allow the clip to go through you may also have to drill out the hole in the body post a little bit. 

This is rare but it can happen. 

To see some of the best types and styles washers for RC cars just click here. 

How to use RC body washers? 

So now that we have talked a little bit about what RC body washers are used for we should also take a quick look at how you can use them in a little more detail. 

RC body washers can be used on either the inside or outside of the RC car’s body and slide onto the post before the clip. Typically the body washers will be on the outside of the car body where you can see them and the clips as well. 

The reason that the body washers and clips are on the outside is because the posts will normally come up from the chassis and the body slides down over them. The washers and clips are then attached to hold the body in position. 

The washers and clips are designed to hold the body more tightly to the chassis to prevent it from getting caught and ripped off as well as to make sure that the body is what gets damaged or takes the brunt of the force in the event of a crash rather than the important electronics and motor getting damaged. 

Not all RC cars have body washers and clips but for those that do it is important that you use them as intended to protect your RC vehicle as much as possible. 

RC car body clips alternatives 

Many people have issues removing the body clips from their RC cars as they have a tendency to be pretty tight and quite small as well. This can make it difficult to get them off at the best of times but once they have been on for a while it can be even tougher to remove them. 

Some alternatives that you can consider using instead of these small body clips are: 

• Zip ties
• Paper clips
• Safety pins
• Proline Body mounts
• Velcro
• Clips from a larger RC car

One of these options should work for you to hold on your RC car body without having to deal with the hassle of the clips. 

The zip ties are by far the easiest and cheapest solution. All you have to do is put the zip tie (cable tie) on, zip it tight and then cut off the excess plastic. When you need to remove the body just grab a pair of scissors and cut them off. Since they are so cheap if one breaks or if you end up removing your body really often it isn’t a huge loss. 

Besides zip ties the other option that many RC enthusiasts rave about is the Proline body mounts (found here). These certainly aren’t cheap like the zip tie method but once you install the body mounts all you have to do is screw the cap on and off everytime that you remove the body from the chassis. 

One thing you need to be careful of when going this route is that if you don’t screw the caps on tight enough they can pop off while racing and you will lose them. Make sure to screw them on tightly and if you are still worried about losing them then you can paint them a bright color that will stand out such as orange or red. 

Using larger clips from either a bigger RC car or simply from your local hardware store will allow you to more easily grab them and remove them. However, pushing them back in can still be difficult even if they are larger so this certainly isn’t a solution for everyone. 

If you don’t have any issue pushing them in but pulling them out is what gives you the most issues then larger clips will probably solve your problem. 

Velcro also works good as long as you get the commercial type that is designed to hold extremely well (such as this one). All you have to do is put the velcro inside the body on both the body and chassis and then push it together. 

One word of caution with this method is that sometimes the Velcro can be difficult to get apart which in turn could damage your RC car’s body. 

Each of the other alternatives mentioned above will also work but for most people the zip ties or proline body mounts will work the best and are also the cheapest (in the case of the zip ties). 

Conclusion 

I hope this article has been helpful in answering your questions about RC body washers, mounts, and clips. These little pieces of your RC car might seem to be unimportant but they are actually there for a reason and you shouldn’t use your RC car without making sure that the body is properly connected to the chassis.

Although there are many different ways to connect the body to the chassis the most common method is the body washers and clips that come standard with most RC vehicles. Thankfully there are other options on the market that you can choose from if you simply don’t like the way that the clips look or if you have difficulty putting them on or pulling them off.