MOUSETRAP POWERED CARS

The Basic II Kit is designed to be an extreme long-distance-traveler that is a guaranteed winner for any mousetrap vehicle long-distance contest. The Basic II Kit comes with two performance upgrades that will give this traveler the advantage over the rest of the competition including adjustable steering and reduced friction bushings. With adjustable steering you can dial in the steering of your vehicle to make sure your racer is traveling straight even down the narrowest of hallways. The Basic II Kit also uses a metal-on-metal bushing system that reduces the rolling friction between 30-50% compared to normal bushing systems. The Basic II Kit is built on the same chassis platform as our top selling Basic Kit that has proven itself time and time again. The Basic II Kit comes ready-to-assemble with pre-cut and pre-drilled parts so you can be ready for action and racing on the same day. As with all our kits, The Basic II Kit comes with our complete step-by-step instruction guide that is written the for the visual learner filled with tons of top secret performance tips and tricks that have been developed exclusively by Doc Fizzix, with over 30 years of experience, so you will have all the information you need to make The Basic II Kit a winner.

Travel Distance:

40-65 meters (131 - 213 feet)*

Top Highlights:

• The Basic II Kit is designed to be an extreme long distance traveler. Comes with a 12" inch lever arm for a maximum of 24 inches of string that can be wound around the drive axle.
• The Basic II Kit includes two performance upgrades, adjustable steering and reduced friction bushings.
• The perfect mousetrap vehicle kit for beginners and seasoned veterans alike. Designed and engineered for your success. Comes ready-to-assemble with pre-cut and pre-drilled lightweight balsa wood frame.
• Includes Doc Fizzix’s Ultra thin, low-inertia wheels that are half the thickness of a normal CD/DVD and have only half the rotational inertia. Less rotational inertia means your mousetrap car will travel further and faster when compared to a similar vehicle using normal thickness CD wheel.
• Comes with lightweight, 3/16" inch diameter brass tubing axles that spin freely with less friction for an increase in both speed and distance. Brass tubing axles do not warp like wooden dowels and provide for a much smoother ride without wobble.
• Comes with Doc Fizzix's flexible rubber CD/DVD wheel spacers that are designed to act as tiny shock absorbers to damper small bumps and imperfections on the floor's surface providing for a smoother ride with an increase in both the speed and distance.
• Features Doc Fizzix's "easy-wind", "snag-free" propulsion system designed specifically for mousetrap powered racers.
• Comes with our complete step-by-step instruction guide that is written the for the visual learner filled with tons of top secret performance tips and tricks.
• Finished vehicle measures approximately 5" x 4.5" x 21.5" inches (H x W x L)
• All our products are 100% made in the U.S.A by Doc Fizzix in Spicewood, TX.

Assembly Time:

The Basic II Kit can be assembled in less than 45 minutes for most first time builders and when finished it will travel from 40-65 meters (131 - 213 feet).

Skill Level:

Required Skills

• Able to measure with a ruler in both inches and/or centimeters.
• Experience working with wood glue and/or Cyanoacrylate glues (Super Glues).
• Able to glue two pieces of balsa wood together.
• Able to tie a loop knot in string.
• Able to use needle nose pliers to cut wire.

Recommended Skills

• Some knowledge of how a mousetrap car works.
• Able to sand parts to make them smooth.
• Can problem solve during construction and make adjustments.
• Can determine how to make adjustments to improve performance.

Tools Required:

• Needle-nose-pliers
• Wood or Super glue

*Kits require assembly, actual results will vary and depends on the constructions skills of the builder, glue and tools not included.

Includes the following:

• 1x - Victor mousetrap
• 2x - Pre-cut and pre-drilled balsa wood frame
• 1x - Pre-cut balsa wood deck top
• 4x - Low inertia DVD layer wheels
• 2x - 4.5 inch Brass tubing axles
• 4x - CD/DVD flexible rubber wheel adapters
• 4x - Thrust washers
• 1x - 12 inch lever arm
• 1x - lightweight, plastic steering bolt and nut
• 18 inches Kevlar high-tech string
• Doc Fizzix's easy-wind, snag-free propulsion system
• Step-by-step plans with performance tips and tricks

Adjustable Steering

Often, Mousetrap car contest are held in narrow hallways at school where it is imperative that a mousetrap vehicle travel straight or it will likely curve into and hit a wall long before it reaches its maximum travel distance. It is hard to drill holes in wood and expect axles to line up perfectly unless you are using precision tools. If axles are not perfectly aligned your mousetrap powered vehicle will likely curve towards one direction. Depending on the amount of curve in your vehicle you might have have to learn how to aim your vehicle at the start line to play into this curve or, if the curve is really bad, you might have to realign your vehicles steering. It is hard to realign the steering after a mousetrap vehicle is already built, so our Basic II Mousetrap Car Kit comes with adjustable steering so that you can dial in the steering of your vehicle to make sure your racer is traveling straight. Once your mousetrap car is dialed in and traveling straight, your car will be able to reach its maximum travel distance in the narrowest of hall ways.

Reduced friction bushings

Friction is a mousetrap cars number one enemy. Friction will always win in the end. Friction steals energy from all moving objects and eventually brings them to rest. The number one objective when building a recored setting long-distance traveling mousetrap powered vehicle is to reduce the rolling friction as much as possible in order to increase the overall coasting distance of your vehicle. The worst friction point on any mousetrap car are always where the spinning axle is attached to the frame. You can reduce the friction between the axles and frame by using a lubricant such as a graphite powder, using a bushing system, and/or by using ball bearings. The Basic II Kit uses a metal on metal bushing system that has 30-50% less surface friction as compared to a metal on wood bushing systems, and/or even a wood on wood bushing system so that your vehicle will coast much further increasing the total travel distance by as much as 50%.

Pulling Distance and Travel Distance

When it comes to building a top performance mousetrap powered vehicle gearing is probably the most important concept every builder will need to understand. Gearing is how you control both the speed and pulling distance for any mousetrap car. In order to understand gearing you will need to understand the following three terms:

• Gearing.
• Pulling Distance.
• Total Travel Distance.

The gearing of a mousetrap vehicle is determined by three components, the length of the mousetrap's snapper lever arm, the diameter of the drive axle, and the diameter of the drive wheels. By attaching a lever arm to a mousetrap's snapper arm you can control both the pulling force and the amount of string that can be wound around the drive axle. The amount of torque delivered by the mousetrap's spring does not change but you can change the amount of pulling force delivered to the drive axle by changing the length of the mousetrap's lever arm. A longer lever arm decreases the pulling force but extends that pulling force over a greater distance. Shorter lever arms deliver a larger pulling force to the drive axle but have a shorter pulling distance. If you want to build a good long distance traveling mousetrap car then you will want a longer lever arm that has a smaller pulling force but that force acts over a greater pulling distance. Longer lever arms will give your vehicle more wraps of string that can be wound and unwound from the drive axle. If you want to build a good speed-trap racer then a shorter lever arm will generate more force for a greater acceleration but over a shorter pulling distance. I will not go into it here but wheel and axle diameter also play an important part in the gearing of a mousetrap racer, but the most common way to control the speed and distance for any mousetrap car is by changing the lever arm length.

The pulling distance is a measure of the maximum distance a vehicle can be pulled under the force of the mousetrap's spring. The pulling distance is determined by the length of the lever arm attached to the mousetrap along with the axle and wheel gearing. The axle and wheel gearing determines the linear distance a vehicle will travel for each wrap of string removed from the drive axle. The lever arm length determines how many wraps of string can be wound around the drive axle. The more wraps of string that can be unwound from the drive axle means the greater the pulling distance. The total length of string that can be unwound from the drive axle is, at its maximum, twice the lever arm length.

The total travel distance is a measure of the total linear distance a mousetrap vehicle traveled from the start line. The total travel distance includes the pulling distance and any coasting distance after the mousetrap is no longer pulling string from the drive axle. The coasting distance is determined by how much friction is acting against a vehicles motion, we call this the rolling friction. The greater the rolling friction acting against a vehicles motion, the shorter the coasting distance. It is the number one objective for every builder to eliminate as much rolling friction as possible in order to increase the coasting distance and/or speed of the mousetrap racer. Our kits are designed to eliminate as much rolling friction as possible but the components we use.

The Basic II Kit uses a 12" inch lever arm for a maximum of 24" inches of string that can be wound around the drive axle. Based on the overall gearing, the pulling distance for the Basic II Kit is 14 meters (47 feet) with an average total travel distance of 40-65 meters (131 - 213 feet) after the pulling force is spent for most first time builders.

Easy-wind, snag-free propulsion system

As with all our top mousetrap racer kits, The Basic II Kit includes our "easy-wind" and "snag-free" string release system that will not tangle and/or snag on release for maximum performance, a technique developed exclusively by Doc Fizzix for mousetrap and rubber band powered racers. Our snag-free propulsion system is designed to release from the drive axle once the pulling force is spent in order to maximize the coasting distance.

Ultra-thin, low-inertia wheels and Axle System

One of the design secrets that make the Basic II Kit a guaranteed winner is it's low inertia wheels and axle system. The Basic II Kit includes our exclusive ultra-thin, low inertia, DVD layer wheels that are the same diameter as a normal CD/DVD but with only half the thickness. Because these wheels are only half the thickness of a normal CD/DVD they have only half the rotational inertia, half the rotational inertia means that your vehicle will have a greater acceleration off the line, less friction, and a much greater travel distance compared to a similar mousetrap car that is using normal thickness CDs/DVDs.

Our low-inertia wheel and axle system includes our lightweight, 3/16" inch diameter brass tubing axles that spin with less friction than wooden dowels for an increase in both the speed and the travel distance of your vehicle. Brass-tubing will not warp like wood dowels used by many of our competitors in their kits so our mousetrap vehicles will travel smoother, with less wobble, and less wasted energy for an increase in both speed and travel distance.

Key components to our low-inertia wheel and axle system

• Ultra-thin, Low-Inertia DVD layer wheels.
• lightweight Brass Tubbing Axles.
• Flexible Shock Absorbing Rubber CD/DVD Inserts.
• Thrust washers for reduced frictions.

Flexible Rubber CD/DVD Wheel Spacers

Lets face it, even the smoothest hallways and surfaces still have some small imperfections and bumps that can steal energy from a moving vehicle causing a decrease in performance. Our CD/DVD inserts are manufactured from a flexible rubber that is engineered and designed to act as tiny shock absorbers to damper small bumps and imperfections along the road surface providing for a smoother ride with less wasted energy increasing both the speed and the travel distance of your vehicle. Our CD/DVD Inserts are designed to fit perfectly inside any standard sized CD/DVD opening in order to converts the hole size down to fit a 3/16" inch diameter axle.

Easy to Follow, Step-by-Step Instructions

As with all our mousetrap vehicle kits, The Basic II Kit comes with our complete step-by-step instruction guide that is written the for the visual learner filled with tons of top secret performance tips and tricks that have been developed, tested, and perfected exclusively by Doc Fizzix, with over 30 years of experience, so you will have all the information you need to make your mousetrap vehicle project a success. Our easy to follow, step-by-step instructions are filled images and diagrams designed to eliminate the guess work. You will feel confident and feel like a professional builder as you follow our detailed step-by-step instructions.

Reversible

A common mousetrap vehicle challenge is to build a car that travels forward and then comes back to the start. The reversibility of a mousetrap racer is just how you wind the string around the drive axle. Because of the unique design of our snag-free propulsion system, this kit can be used for all reversing mousetrap car challenges.

Same Day Shipping!

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