Now Truck - Losi Mini Monster Baja

[Civpilot]

Treated myself to another R/C just before Christmas and finally decided to take some photos. It's a Team Losi MLST2 Mini Monster Baja...


2-cell 1000mAh LiPo battery and wall charger
Losi Radio System with 2.4 GHz DSM Technology (On its own this costs about half as much as the total package, so a great deal)
Metal Ring and Pinion Gears
Aluminum Oil-filled Shock Bodies with Threaded Adjusters
Mini-Torquer Chrome Dish Wheels with mounted Mini-Duplex Tires
Dual Frenzy- 370 Motors
Twin Steering Servos
Dual Deck Aluminum Chassis
4WD drivetrain with Slipper Clutch
Gear Cover that allows use of the Mini-T Dual-Disk Slipper
Complete Ball Bearings
Losi Dual-Motor ESC

Pretty much the same spec as the normal MLST/2 but it comes with larger wheels and tyres to give it a real 'Monster truck' look. However the thing that really sets this truck apart from the normal MLST/2 is the 7.4v 1000maH LiPo battery as standard (With built in circuit protection and balancing).

It flies!!!!

One of the latest R/C magazines (In the shops right now) tested one against the clock and timed 2.3sec for the standing 20m (thats a terminal velocity of about 19mph if my maths are right?). Not bad for a non brushless RTR 1/18th scale truck only 10inches in length.

It's adjusted to keep the front wheels on the ground at the moment but with a small firming of the rear shocks and a quick tighten of the slipper it will easily pull wheelies (at the moment on perfectly dry tarmac it will happily pop the fronts in the air for a second on a standing start).
The only (small) problem is the tyres produce so much grip on dry tarmac that it is extremely easy to flip it if you try and turn under full power, hence the scratches all over the body below.

However on a slightly slick surface it handles like a dream with powered drifts easy to control whilst it gently lifts the inside front wheel into the air in gentle mock protest .

Anyway, some more pictures. I've not used the Baja body and decided to buy the 'Raminator' shell from new as I my eyes it looked somewhat better...




To give you an idea of the small size, here it is pictured with my 1/10th scale Yokomo Drift AE86...



Plans for hop ups so far include:-

Carbon chassis plates (Already arrived but waiting on the...)
CNC Alloy side rails (On the way now)
CNC Alloy suspension arms (To lower the COG)
Alloy body posts (already broken all 4 plastic ones DOH!! )
Brushless motor and ESC (Probably go for the dedicated Losi setup when they finally arrive in the UK)

I know the Alloy suspension will add a little bit of weight to the thing, but once I dump both heavy 370 motors and go brushless I think the issue will even itself out, however the C.O.G. will be alot lower helping to keep things on the ground (hopefully).
That and the truck will look cool

I ran this truck last night alongside a mates very hopped up Mini Zilla and I ran rings around him (largly due to the very sure footed handling). His Zilla was very fast (Brushless) but as he was running a standard NMH battery he just couldn't pull away and no way could he corner as fast, he rolled about three times trying.
The LiPo also ran for a good 7 or 8 minutes longer.

Highly recommend one of these trucks, I just don't see me running the drifter any time soon and may even end up selling it to fund hop ups .

[sgrimshaw]

Cool little truck.

If you don't mind me asking .....

How much?

Where from?

Simon

[Civpilot]

sgrimshaw said:

Cool little truck.

If you don't mind me asking .....

How much?

Where from?

Simon

seeing as they are just down the road from me I got it from here...

http://www.apexmodels.com/product-search.php?call=...

And (at the time) they price matched here...

http://www.modelsport.co.uk/?CallFunction=ShowSpec...

The Raminator body cost an additional £11

Well worth the money

[sgrimshaw]

Thanks for that, gonna have to have one of those.

I wanted a Tamiya TLT, but they stopped making them.

Where did you find the alloy bits etc?

Simon

[Civpilot]

Well the alloy side rails were found on ebay as US prices are very low compared to UK. The same company sell's the complete alloy suspension stuff.
The Carbon plate was again an ebay find, complete upper and lower plates with screw's cost me less than £30 including shipping (Just the top plates cost around that in the UK).

Once the rails arrive (Parcelfarce!!!) I will get them and the carbon kit fitted and post some more pictures.

I would seriously recommend getting the Mini Monster Baja as a starting point and avoid the others in the range. The Mini Monster Baja is the only one in the MLST-2 range with the DSM radio kit and LiPo as standard (The battery alone is £36, the DSM radio kit MUCH more), it also has slightly bigger wheels and tyres than the Normal MLST-2. The bodies fully painted are only about £11 from Apex and the wheel options can also be bought seperately.
The full Raminator & Ramunition Monster trucks look good but they are only single engined and NiMh battery. They are also missing some of the metal diff parts.

Speaking of bodies, I have one of these that needs to be painted....

It's now just down to figuring out what colours to paint it, currently leaning to Candy Red & Blue in two tone (classic hot rod look).

[sgrimshaw]

Extremely cool stuff.

How much room is there for the battery pack.

Could you fit in say one of these,

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/7-4v-4000Mah-Li-Polymer-Batt...

or these

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

they should give you 4x and 1.8x running time respectively.

[Civpilot]

The battery slot is reasonably small and the batteries are custom fit. Another thing to think about is that the under charge protection circuit is actually built into the battery and not the ESC. So to fit a non losi LiPo you will need to either buy a battery equiped the same or another ESC.

[sgrimshaw]

Civpilot said:

Another thing to think about is that the under charge protection circuit is actually built into the battery and not the ESC. So to fit a non losi LiPo you will need to either buy a battery equiped the same or another ESC.

Sorry not with you, I am new to LiPo technology so can you explain.

Don't see why the ESC wouldn't cope with the higher capacity battery, surely it will only pull the amps from the battery that the motor pulls - same as for NiMh/NiCad.

[Civpilot]

Basically a LiPo battery should never be rub totally flat. Do this and the battery is dead. With this in mind when you run a LiPo you must always run circuit protection.

Most aftermarket ESC (Electronic Speed Controller) can be purchased with this ability. The mini LST-2 however is different in that the ESC does not have this, instead this protection is on the battery itself (I guess its easier that way for other MLST-2 owners to easily upgrade).

[sgrimshaw]

So does this do that?

http://www.brentfordrc.co.uk/scripts/prodView.asp?...

Sorry if I'm being a PITA, just trying to understand.


Presumebly then, you could run NiMh or NiCad if you wanted to, and the ESC would be ok?

Edited by sgrimshaw on Saturday 12th January 16:21

[bumrar]

very nice Ive got a mini lst with a mamba brushless in it, I had to buy metal geared diffs as the stadard ones lasted about 5 mins each, im still havring problems destroying these metal ones tho! I want lipo, but need to find a way to stop it desroying diffs first! awesomely fast and fun when it is running tho! great toys!

[Civpilot]

I know the original LST used to eat plastic diffs with twin motors let alone brushless. The LST-2 is built with metal diffs for that very reason. Interesting that your destroying metal diffs with Brushless as the guys at Apex models said they know the LST-2 can go brushless without any modifications. Providing that is you buy either the Mini Monster Baja or MLST-2, as both come with the hardened metal diff's. The Raminator (and Ramunition) come with normal MLST plastic diffs.

In fact Losi themselves are in the proces of launching dedicated brushless set ups in various flavours

Spent some time today with a screw driver...



Amazingly there is a drop in wieght (we are only talking an ounce or so) because the Alloy side rails are actually slightly lighter than the plastic they replace. Next mod I think will be alloy swing arm suspension components from the same company.

The carbon is a bit of a pain as being aftermarket the holes in some places are just slightly off and need tweaking. Only a slight annoyance though as everything screws together nice and tight with patience.

Edited by Civpilot on Saturday 19th January 15:13

[bumrar]

the diffs I got are losi ones, but im not sure if there the same as the lst2 ones, might try some of them! Ive got longer than normal wishbones for mine, adds about 10 or 20mm to the width (cant remember exact) but made it a lot more stable and looks awesome!

[Civpilot]

Some pictures would be nice?

And also where you got the arms from?

I've been using ebay to source my parts as currently its working out about 50 to 60% cheaper than buying in the uk. The carbon chassis for example cost less than half the I'm retail.

[bumrar]

ill try and get some pics at some point, not sure where my camera is tho! Ive been using www.losipartshouse.com alot for parts, thats where the wishbones came from, there cheap, have pleny of parts in, and postage is very reasonable too!

[Civpilot]

On Losipartshouse it costs about $64.11 for a standard set of alloy arms including Hinge/King Pins set (Only available in blue or Red, which is somewhat restrictive) not including shipping. You have to buy all of these seperatly as there is no "complete set" which is annoying.

On ebay a complete set as above (in choice of colour including Silver) is only $45.94 including shipping. I bought my Alloy side rails from the same seller for $19 so can confirm they are genuine and very good quality.

The wide kits on ebay are slightly more at $75.99, but I cannot find those listed on LosiPartshouse. Besides, although a wide kit would improve the handling somewhat I don't think the look suits the car at all. The seller has a picture of a MLST with the suspension fitted and it looks somwhat silly, mind you he seems to have lowered the car too as the suspension is sitting at 90degrees to the ground so I guess that doesn't help much?

Silver Alloy arms now ordered

(I think the partshouse is great for replacement standard parts, but for aftermarket Hop ups they are pretty expensive compared to everywhere else)

[bumrar]

now that I think about it, the arms may not have been from losipartshouse, but alot of the other stuff definately was. I use them for spares for my losi xxx too now! With the mini LST, I found that filling the centre diff with superglue worked as a cheap way of locking it, and stops the thing spinning its front wheels like mad when you try and set off!

[bumrar]

pics of mine: (if it works!)

[Civpilot]

bumrar said:

pics of mine: (if it works!)

Nice, but personal preference would be to fit the Monster Baja wheels and tyres. For me the standard MLST/MLST2 wheels look too small compared to the rest of the truck.

I fitted the alloy suspension arms to mine the other night and I must say it looks superb. I went for the GPM set so they matched the side rails (also GPM). The only minus point is that one of the packages had a single Kingpin the wrong size (2mm too short). Contacted the company that sold me the arms and they have already packaged a new set of Kingpins to me, until then I'm off the road

So kinda glad the weather is shit really

Ps. Liking that truck in the back ground

[bumrar]

I agree, im not too keen on the wheels either, but im more concerned about making it go fast rather than looks at the mo, the one behind is the 'shelf queen', tamiya juggernaut with ESP chassis kit, widened axles, 7" machined alloy wheels, gravedigger body...