Mini-LST First impressions

[UNITED_RC]

Lets hear it....what are your first impressions on the new Mini-LST truck?

Personally, I think this could be the best performing, "out of the box", RTR 18th/16th scale vehicles released!

Out of the box (OTB) speed is decent

OTB suspension is great

OTB overall build quality looks good.

OTB expandability looks great.

I see a large amount of mfgr's getting on the train with this one, and the customers should have tons of options in the near future to pick from.

What are you thoughts?

URC

[Big-Kid]

I absolutly love mine. I don't have as much time pulling trigger on this truck as I would like, but more than enough to shake all of the nuts and bolts:D .

There are a few quality control issues with mine and what other guys have reported. But nothing really major and certainly not anything I would report to their customer service about. Those warped hex hubs and bent axel pins are pesky though.

The biggest surprise for me is the suspension. It's very plush and the rebound is ok. It also jumps quite well. I let off the throtle just before I hit the jump, and it flies almost flat. Nice attribute. It's going to be too soft for the racers, but it works well for the bashers. Losi got it just right to please just about everyone. Besides, which racer isn't going to make changes anyway. As is, it rolls thru the high speed turns on the street, but again it's not a drag racer like the Mamba guys are prone to look for:rolleyes: . Again, with a few tweeks it'll be fine for those high speed runs. Maybe even better with the bigger stance for better stability.

I would like more room in the battery compartment, but thats personal choice so there would be more Lipo pack options. I am going brushless for the very first time:D . This is partially to expeirence the BL feel, and it just happens to be going into my MLST.

Dynamite has parts on the way, already up on the Horizon site. I'm looking at the CF chassis. Either from Dynamite or another company. Aluminum hex hubs seem to be a must. Anyone else you see that has parts on the "horizon":p ?

Hopefully, when next seasons off-road racing starts up, i'll be able to find the time to make it out. It started out with Mini-T's in the micro class, then the RC18's took over. Recently, some H8's have been tearing it up. If they lump all of them together like we think they will, then mine (and our) hope is that it will contended for first on sundays:cool:

[Big-Kid]

Forgot to mention I like the overall design of the Mini LST. It's laid out almost identical to it's big brother the LST, but on a smaller scale and different power type.

Losi wanted to make an almost duplicate "Mini" LST, and they accomplished this pretty closely. But in doing so, they may have inadvertently stumbled onto one of the best chassis designs yet. This is from a racing veiw point. But again, racing will have to wait untill next season. This is where I think given the right tools like Lithium batt's and brushless power plants (to keep up with what the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers generally run), MLST's should place well of fill the top 3 spots:D . The track here is very bumpy and not maintained regularly. Even the 10th scaleers cann have it toough. From what i've seen, the truggies are the only class that really look like they're doing ok due to track conditions. So with the bigger stance, bigger shocks, good suspension and solid duel deck chassis of the Mini LST, it will (hopefully) fair well.

From the backyard basher standpoint, it will hold up well due to it's design. Of course you will have parts that will break from 20 mph head on crashes with a brick wall or 50 foot drops:p , but sometimes you want certain parts to break.

What do you amke of this duel motor set-up? Have you given thought to dropping in 2 Krystals? I'm not entirely conifident the stock speedo is up to the task of your modified motors:eek: . Do you think with the right ESC you could get 2 Krystals to perform well in the MLST?

Then i've got 1 Hacker 4900 i'm going to try out. This thing is almost a direct drop into place motor replacement. I was surprised but very happy with this design aspect:D . How do you think the guys that will inevitably try 2 brushless motors come out? Undrivabiliy from too much speed aside aside, will this even work? Would they also need to use 2 Mamba ESC's?

Has the thought of 2 different Kv BL motors crossed your mind? I don't know that much about them yet, but i've booted it around my noggin'. If the lower Kv motors offer more torque and the higher Kv's allow more top end.... do you see where i'm going? How would a 4900 Kv AND an 8000 Kv motor work out in tandem????? Nuts i'm sure, but will it ultimately offer the best of both worlds? This is where I grab some "mental rationalization" from my racing real cars:p days. Since a turbo charger offers so much top end speed, when they go drag racing the obvious solution is to add nitrous on the bottom. Same thing goes with a supercharger or cubic inches. Using another power adder will push the limits but offer more possibilites to go faster. Will 2 different Kv rated motors work in theroy? I guess time will tell:cool:

[HPIsuperfan]

I don't beleive the dual BL with different KV ratings will be very good. I beleive the best setup will be a low KV motor with a slightly high gearing will be the best bet. And yes, I think you will have to have 2 ESCs, with a Y harness, and a seperate reverser if you need so.

[jocktheglide]

still waiting on mine, but wheres da hop ups for it? :D

[dementedchef]

picked mine up a couple hours ago. Broke the center hub right out of the wheel when i hit a football. Called losi they are sending me a new one

[UNITED_RC]

Originally posted by Big-Kid
What do you amke of this duel motor set-up? Have you given thought to dropping in 2 Krystals? I'm not entirely conifident the stock speedo is up to the task of your modified motors:eek: . Do you think with the right ESC you could get 2 Krystals to perform well in the MLST?


UPDATE:

I just talked with Team Losi and here is the conversation:

URC: Is there any motor limitation on what the stock ESC can handle?

TL: No, in our testing, we did not find any brushed motor that could NOT be run on the stock ESC.

URC: Great, so you can run a dual 17 micro modified motor on the stock ESC? (getting 100% verification, and making sure he understood my question)

TL: Yes...you should be fine!

There you go boys!!!

Now....proof is in the pudding and when we receive our new rear differential, we will put this to the test. I asked if there were any tech specs on the ESC that i could download...but there is not.

URC

[quietfly]

I love this truck!!!!! I have not seen a better from the box RTR RC ever. It WAY over performs. With my rally conversion and some preload on the shocks it rides on rails and still takes 6 ft + jumps. I'm going to be doing some major surgery on her dropping in a AON 4900.

[quietfly]

i don't think duel BL is possible. something about the motors getting out of synch and toasting each other.

one BL is enough you can always adjust by using more voltage to get your bang....

[Big-Kid]

Good to hear about that stock speedo, thanks Jon:D . I am kinda surprised something "stock" from a $200 kit will be able to handle the lower turn motors. Nice touch Losi.

Were you able to get any runs in with your Krystal/Lipo set-up Jon? I notice the stock pack and motors get a bit warm. When I drop in a 2 cell, it gets just as warm. Wonder what 2 modified, lower turn motors will do for temp's?

There were confliting reports about duel BL motors, Quietfly. Someone said they got a message from Castle saying that it wasn't possible. The big BUT, is that one of the Castle guys dropped in 2 of their smaller motors (sorry forget which size exactly:rolleyes: ) and it worked much to his surprise. I believe there was parts breakage in the diff's. This "issue" is holding up alot of testing :eek: :cool:

[quietfly]

well i believe the issue is still one of how brushless motors work, but that being said, i don't think there is a tremendous return on investment in dual brushless setups. reason being you can get your greater torque by gearing and battery. in any case i'm pretty sure one bl (especially the right one) will be more than enough for the truck in almost ANY configuration. I'm doing my testing with the AON 4900 and i'll post my setup/results as soon as the weather lets up here.
We just had snow and are expecting another major storm on friday...

OH JOY ;)

-Quietfly

[UNITED_RC]

Originally posted by quietfly
well i believe the issue is still one of how brushless motors work, but that being said, i don't think there is a tremendous return on investment in dual brushless setups.

-Quietfly

I could not of said it any better QF!

URC

[Xtant3150c]

I've had my MLST for about 2 weeks. Although have only been able to run it twice:(

First run was onroad with big-kid and trd. The truck is surprisingly quick and handles really good onroad for it's size. I used a Thunder Power 2cell 1320mah pack for my runs as the stock pack did'nt charge completely. But the lipo was a noticeable difference over the stock pack.

Second run was off road with a fully charged stock pack. I ran it on a fairly bumpy gravel road, jumped some dirt mounds and up a grassy hill!

On the road the MLST felt as quick as my stock 18t did, but handled the bumps 10 times better than the 18t ever did! On the jumping the area is tight so not a lot of run up to get much air but the MLST got up it easily and jumped good!

I was really impressed with the stock setup going up the grassy hill! The hill is at about a 45 degree angle, goes up about 8-10 feet and the grass is about 3-4 inches tall! And the MLST had no problem what so ever getting up this hill! The stock tires worked really well and the truck never got stuck or bogged down at all!

After each of 2 10minute runs the motors were barely warm!

I was starting to wonder about the MLST after hearing about all the gear issues and what not, but after these initial runs I have been reassured that I bought a great truck!!!

As for the dual bl setup I think it's more for a wow factor than anything else! And agree that the return on a dual system isn't worth the price. From b-p-p's testing the Hyperion 5k was as fast as a mamba6800 with alot more torque and this was with stock gearing. So changing gearing will definately improve the numbers!

I'm leaning toward the Hyperion 6k as it should have more top end without sacrificing to much bottom end! And the AON should be good to with better gearing.

And running a 3cell lipo will surely get you going!

For the price of say a dual mamba system why not just go for broke and put a Novak 5800ss in there!:eek: ;)

[jw_j]

if I get enough money for christmas I'll buy one, I want one just don't have the money right now, and for your info, my dad used to race a kyosho big brute(I don't know how many here know/remember these things) back in the 80's with the big dogs of the country, he was #2 in the state with a truck that never should have been raced, his excuse for racing it "to prove I could win with anything, and piss everyone else off for doing it" so let that be your motto beating the bigger brothers of the mlst with a mlst

[carmatic]

when i got the mlst out of the box, i notice that the front left suspension seems to be half filled,the front right is alot stiffer, and the rear suspensions make squaky sounds when they move as well... i want to like, dump the 25wt oil and replace it with vegetable oil or something, cuz thats the closest thing i have to shock oil, at least if i do that it will be filled properly

took it apart to boil the gears, and yeah just like someone else said on this other forum i go to, theres no grease on the gears....
the box came with a small bag taped to the side containing updated gears and stuff and some white grease, as well as the wheel hexes... warped my first set of gears from boiling too much so im using the update kit gears now

[crazydave]

I got mine before the care package came in the box. I had the defective wheel hexes, and the 2 rear wheels were tightened so tight that not only were the drive pins bent, but the wheels were tweaked. I called Losi, and was told I'd have wheel hexes, pins, and 2 rear wheels in a week. So I held off test driving until then. A week later, nothing. I spoke to a different person who said, "Hmm, they were never sent." 3 days later I get a package in the mail, that had 2 sets of diffs and fixed hexes. I didn't know there was a problem with the diffs before then, but I still had my wheel problem. I was mad, so I didn't want to bother contacting Losi again. Then several days later out of nowhere UPS arrives with another set of diffs, wheel hexes and 2 wheels. Great, only problem, they were 2 left wheels, since the rubber is directional. So I still got wobbly wheels due to bent pins, and one tweaked wheel.

I had the same problem as carmatic with the front seeming too soft, and diving excessively and unevenly. I tried refilling the shocks with 30wt oil, but same problem. So I added some preload spacers to the front, and it was better, but then after only 8 runs I noticed the front center dogbone and drive cups were getting severly chewed. I blamed this on the car driving mostly with its front wheels due to the center diff action, and the dive in the front end transferring weight. When I took it apart to install the center driveshaft, I discovered the front suspension was severly binding and it was getting stuck, hence the excessive dive. So I polished the hinge pins, and that's all good now.

But then, I discovered that the wobbly wheels had caused my dogbones to my wheels to start to get chewed, I ordered new pins and hexes, and some Integy UV driveshafts, and I think I finally got it. (fingers crossed) I'm waiting for my wife to clear her project off the floor so I can test it.

That's kinda why I had to vent. I've hardly ran this thing over the months, and I think I finally got it right, when I come across this thread, so I had say, my first impression was pretty bad, but I do see a lot of potential in the design, so I'm hoping it can work out. I'm just waiting for my diff problems to start, since I have all these extra diffs, and it seems to be such a popular subject.

[UNITED_RC]

When I boiled my diff gears and parts, then filled with diff grease, I have never had issues with them since! Solved my diff problems, and they feel much more smooth.

Locking up the center diff today with silly putty.....then it should be pretty good to go!

URC