Thread: Rear Strut Tower Brace from Octotat (edit: with pics)

sup i was on the old forum and the first upgrade i ever boght was that bar from active tunning dam that sucks if would of seen it sooner i would o've bought this one better but darn its ok. Deing its been hella long since my car went out of commission and finally its running yes. Ok why i was here does the "V" bars come with the top bar too?

I don't think Miko was aware that it's a 3 point tower brace.. I think he thought this was a 2 point design..

being a 3 point design makes it obvious that it's going to make the car stiffer....

it's an "ikea" brace.. google it, it's a really cheap mod that stiffens up the rear quite a bit for hardly any money...

wait, these trunk braces had me thinking the Octotat brace was a 3 point brace.. my bad guys.. like Miko, the only benefit I see is the rear seat passengers being more comfortable.. and since I already have an Active Tuning RSTB.. yada yada....

but if I were buying new and didn't have one already I'd prefer this one simply because it truly is a more innovative design...

The tops of the rear trunk braces bolt right into the ends of the main brace - 3 points. The very substantial bolts pass through the sheet metal from the trunk brace ends.

A lot of talk, you really need to try driving with and without instead of speculating on what benefit it may or may not bring. It works great. I already had an IKEA brace and this definitely tightened up the rear end. I'd say it's one of the best mods on the car, period. Enough so that I bought another set for my second B13 this year.

Lol, or you could just read the post 2 above it, instead of searching for the exact quote from Coleman who did mine

http://www.sr20-forum.com/sentra-se-r/4690-rear-strut-tower-brace-octotat-edit-pics-2.html#post136323

yeah the guy who's making them wasn't all that clear in his original thread about his product.. at least I didn't catch it.

easier said than done to drive and see the difference, as first I thought it was a 2 point brace, so why bother and 2nd it's not like there are a ton of modded B13's in Tulsa OK where I can drive someone elses car who has the modification... I'm not affluent enough to shell out $230 for (what I thought when I wrote that) was a 2 point brace to "see" if it is better than my already installed 2 point brace...

Octocat is pretty clear if you click the link to his updated thread it takes you here:b13 rstb triangulator - SR20 Forum This def shows you that it is a triangulated bar in the first post.



I commented in your spreadsheet thread about the stages of your build. You can ask Shawn B, Superblackz, or myself why this part "makes" the car feel so much better. Shawn replaced his Active Tuning bar with this one, I drove Superblackz's car with it and compared to my daily (that has a AT RSTB) it was night and day thats why I bought one for the build I am working on. So its not a matter of if it is better or worth the money that has been covered. The question is are you affluent enough to buy a more expensive, better bar

Ps: I'm not trying to sound like a dick

I didn't even search on the other forum.. in my spreadsheet thread, my good man Cesear D had me thinking it was from this forum... Isfahan is the only post I saw here.. I confused that as Octotat's main thread... Isfahan's pics don't show very well that it's a 3 point brace..





Like I've said at least 2 times since being 100% sure it's a 3 point brace, I believe that it makes it better.. i don't even need to drive it.. our cars chassis is so flexible and the 2 point brace made such a huge difference that I am a believer, just by knowing it's a 3 point brace..

Sorry, wasn't suggesting that you should or would buy a set just to "see if it's better". Not too many modded B13's around the sprawling Metropolis of Canton, CT, either - I know of 4, maybe 5 or 6, and 4 of those are either Jimithin7000's or my own

What I was trying to say was to anyone looking to tie up the rear end of the car that they have a few options, and it's really hard to quantify the difference w/o driving the car of going from 1) no bar, then 2) IKEA brace, then 3) bar + IKEA, then 4) triangulated braces +bar. I was very impressed with that last stage and it speaks volumes to drive the car before and after. Everyone has their own goals and budget, this last stage is money very well spent on some well-made, well-thought out equipment.

Yes, there is a leap of faith involved here, but good enough I came back for a second set when I got my second B13 as a high priority item, ahead of a lot of other stuff.

Remember I'm the guy with the $10 ghetto fab FSTB, so it's not always about spend more -> more return. I think my initial FSTB was made from scrap box-section steel DC had laying around, kinda looks like it might have supported drapes or something, lol! But triangulating that to the firewall made an enormous difference - one side loosened up on me and never having driven the car without it, I thought something was messed up in my front end!

I agree it was initially hard for me, too, finding a lot of really detailed info which is why I've posted a lot of my install pics, tried to describe my impressions, hope it helps



Here you can see the hole up top where those trunk braces bolt into (first a bolt attaches through the hole, then the end of the brace bolts to that on the other side in the trunk) -