crazydave's Mini-T Log

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 2:58 am

I'm gonna start a log on this truck, because I got lots of plans for it, but due to budget, they will have to happen over time.

So here's my new Mini-T.

Yeah, its Pink. I asked for Silver, but it came with a Pink one inside the box. I feel a little silly when I say this would not have been my last choice in colors. Its a nice metallic, looks more Purple at certain angles. At any rate, gives me an excuse to get a baja bug body right away.

So here's what I like about it. It is just like a mini XXXT, and very similar to my old XXT
Here's my usual list of nitpicks.
The ESC/Rx combo was not even attached, and flopped around, scratching the inside of the body all up. I restuck it to the servo tape, and it seems good now.

The steering knuckles and axles have a bit too much slop. I need to shim them, or replace them.

The camber angles were all tweaked from the factory. Like negative 5 degree on side, and 0 degrees on the other. So I popped the adjustable linkages off, and made them all the same length. They seem flimsy, will need to replace them right away.

What's up with the antenna? Damn its long.

It was nice of them to include the number sheet, but the paper stickers wrinkled way to much. Some vinyl decals would have been a nicer touch.

What's up with the 4 wire servo? Can I use use 3 wire servos with the ESC/Rx unit, or do I have to upgrade all the electronics to upgrade the servo?

It was a nice touch with the mini directional rib tire, but I'm almost positive, they mounted them backwards.

And last but not least. I know where it was made, but did they have to mold it into the bottom of the chassis?

First Upgrades

- Team Losi Bearing Set $12.95
Always a must, and I'm glad I got them right away. The front wheel was binding bad. These are Made in China, and I'm sure I could have got better for the price, but its good start

-Team Losi Racing Shock Set $19.99
These are nice, just like the big ones, but smaller and made in Taiwan. Teflon coated bodies, and Titanium Nitride coated shafts (or so it looks). They are pretty smooth, but I think the o-rings could have greased more. They seem to leak a bit too.

One shock was missing the collar. I noticed right away, and emailed Losi right away. Its been a week with no word.

First Run
I had replaced the ESC's battery plug with a Dean's pug, so I could use the battery that came with my Mini LST, and already installed my shocks and bearings. I set up a few ramps inside my apartment, and was immediately impressed with its speed. Not quite as punchy as the MLST, but nearly as fast. It had an tendency to lift the front wheels. It handled jumps just the way I'm used to, with a slightly nose high attitude. I just had to let off the throttle a little to bring the nose down. The MLST liked to nose dive, and I had to stay hard on the throttle to keep it level. It did have a tendency to push while steering, and it was slapping the chassis off the bigger jump. So I adjusted out some camber in the front, and added a couple preload spacers to the rear shocks. Its really responsive to adjustments, just the larger version. It now had plenty of off power steering. Gotta expect some push on powewr when the front wheels are lifting.

The chassis wasn't bottoming out as bad, but I think I'm gonna switch to something heavier than 30wt., or switch to a 2 hole piston in the rear.

So it was going good for about 10 minutes, when it started making a light clicky sound. My first thought was that the motor slipped, and messed up the pinion/spur mesh, but mesh was set perfect. So I tore the tranny down, which was kinda fun, I was having flashbacks of tearing down my XXT in the pits with minutes before my qualifier. Everything seemed good in there, except the diff had almost no grease in it, so I greased that up and put it all back together. While I had it apart, I became annoyed with how the motor wires were tied around the shock tower. I cut them off right by the ESC, the replaced them with 14 guage wire. What a difference that made. It now blast wheelies across my living room, which made it interesting when hitting the ramp. It would say its on par with my MLST now. The diff action was better, but there was still the clicky sound. I took the gear cover off and listened. I isolated it to either the motor or pinion. Since the plastic pinion was already looking worn, I put just a tiny dab of grease on it, and that solved everything.

So I gotta replace the plastic pinion and possibly the spur gear right away, but other than a tweaked antenna tube, it took a lot of hard hits and tumbles with no major issues. I'm gonna have a lot of fun turning this into a brushless oval monster.

betty.k · Post by **betty.k** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:57 am

What's up with the 4 wire servo? Can I use use 3 wire servos with the ESC/Rx unit, or do I have to upgrade all the electronics to upgrade the servo?

yeah, you'll need a new rx if you wanna go with a 3 wire servo. you'll find that inside the servo is just a motor and pot just like a mini z servo. all the electrics are in that rx/esc combo unit.

those front tyres look backwards to me too

looks like you'll have a lotta fun with this in the future!

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:32 am

betty.k wrote:
What's up with the 4 wire servo? Can I use use 3 wire servos with the ESC/Rx unit, or do I have to upgrade all the electronics to upgrade the servo?
yeah, you'll need a new rx if you wanna go with a 3 wire servo. you'll find that inside the servo is just a motor and pot just like a mini z servo. all the electrics are in that rx/esc combo unit.

Well that would suck, if it wasn't so useful for other stuff.

Oh yeah, and the Tx is a little lame. I can't wait until I can afford to replace the electronics.

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 12:55 pm

To sum it up...

Gut it and replace everything.

A Spy ESC and a Associated Micro RX would be a good match. (from RC18) You can usually find someone dumpin' of their Associated RX and TX somewhere for cheap.

Then hook up with a good Hitec Micro Servo.

Then some Lipos.

Or....

Go all out and go brushless, lipo, aand Spektrum.

Bird · Post by **Bird** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 3:20 pm

Put some teflon tape on the threads when you rebuild the shocks... it'll stop or at least slow the leaking...

I think the stock slipper has a bit of adjustability... loosen it up a wee bit to keep the front end down...

Oh.... you didn't order you a bug body yet did you? Hold off, hit me with a PM, I gots a bizness proposition for ya

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 4:56 pm

Bird wrote:Put some teflon tape on the threads when you rebuild the shocks... it'll stop or at least slow the leaking...

Thanks for the tip.

I think the stock slipper has a bit of adjustability... loosen it up a wee bit to keep the front end down...

Yeah they had that thing locked down from the factory, I loosened it about a quarter turn. I realized I probalby could have loosened it more, and maybe saved my pinion, but honestly I was having too much fun with the instant wheelies.

I could also flip that little battery tray thing and run my battery in the forward position.

Oh.... you didn't order you a bug body yet did you? Hold off, hit me with a PM, I gots a bizness proposition for ya

A proposition, huh? I'll have to look into that.

Oh yeah, and I had seen those MaCallister bodies before, but they were calling them East Coast Modifieds in RC Driver. I was wonder the difference between East Coast and West Coast. I think I got it. East coast runs on flat tracks, so they're all about downforce, hence the wedge shape, and covered wheels design. West coast Mods are designed for banked ovals and sliding sideways, hence the big airdams.

Here's Parma's dirt oval body for theMini-T that I believe is more "West Coast" style.
http://www.shopatron.com/product/produc ... 6912.0.0.0

MotorGong · Post by **MotorGong** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:32 pm

sg219 wrote:Gut it and replace everything.

I keep hearing that about the Mini-T from the guys at the LHS. lol

Cool thread Dave, I'll be watching and learning. What you're doing here is terrific for beginners as well as members already engrossed into the 1/18 scale hobby.

What about your Mini-LST? Maybe I missed a thread or post somewhere, but last I read you kinda shelved the upgrading on it for the meantime due to financial restraints.

Edited to remove/fix an accidental 'Shaun-like' sentence.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 8:57 am

MotorGong wrote:What about your Mini-LST? Maybe I missed a thread or post somewhere, but last I read you kinda shelved the upgrading on it for the meantime due to financial restraints.

Yeah, its basically shelved for now. Don't want to go running that, and have to replace parts on it, when I'm trying to hop up my Mini-T.

The Mini LST is awesome, and I love it, but the problem is that if I want to hop it up, there are 2 motors, 2 servos, 3 diffs, and 6 driveshafts to be upgraded. The Mini-T on the other hand, one diff, one motor, and a pair of driveshafts. Much easier on my budget.

Besides I have an issue with wanting every car I see. I still intend to get a RC18B.

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 10:42 am

crazydave wrote:
MotorGong wrote:What about your Mini-LST? Maybe I missed a thread or post somewhere, but last I read you kinda shelved the upgrading on it for the meantime due to financial restraints.
Yeah, its basically shelved for now. Don't want to go running that, and have to replace parts on it, when I'm trying to hop up my Mini-T.

The Mini LST is awesome, and I love it, but the problem is that if I want to hop it up, there are 2 motors, 2 servos, 3 diffs, and 6 driveshafts to be upgraded. The Mini-T on the other hand, one diff, one motor, and a pair of driveshafts. Much easier on my budget.

Besides I have an issue with wanting every car I see. I still intend to get a RC18B.

There are mods to convert it to a one servo truck. Whether its a new chassis or something else.

Go brushless, one motor.

The front and rear diffs can't really be upgraded, just maintained. The center diff, just replace with a locking spool.

The center drive shafts, just leave'em stock and replace the axle shafts with CVD's.

Its not as much as you think.

About $30 for the front and rear CVD's, $15 for the spool. Then whatever brushless you can find cheap, I recommend a used Mamba set-up, about $70-90.

Bonus...

Plus, the brushless can be used in your Mini-T!!!

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 7:55 pm

sg219 wrote:Go brushless, one motor.

The thing is with that, is I need a place to open it up. I'm really more used to driving and tuning 2wd vehicles at the track.

The front and rear diffs can't really be upgraded, just maintained. The center diff, just replace with a locking spool.

Actually GPM has alloy gear sets, and Driven Productions is going to/has released a set of Delrin gears with proper geometry and the pinion too. I don't know whats up with that, I got sick of watching the drama. I'd really like to avoid the center spool, as it seems its the guys with locking spools and brushless motors doing all the whining about broken gears.

The center drive shafts, just leave'em stock and replace the axle shafts with CVD's.

Actually, I need to replace my center shafts already. They're about to go, and I'm not running it until I replace them and the drive cups, to prevent any further costly damage. I'll probably end up going stock, because I'm frugal, but I'd really rather go with MIP stuff to avoid the same problem.

Its not as much as you think.

My budget is probably tighter than you think. Especially since I'm saving for a vacation right now.

Then whatever brushless you can find cheap, I recommend a used Mamba set-up, about $70-90.

Actually I'm at looking at saving for a Quark controller, undecided on the motor. I like how people are claiming the Quark to have a smooth power band, that's good for racing. I also dig that it comes in a plastic case instead of shrink wrap. I am still considering the Mamba because they seem to have good support.

I appreciate what I think you're trying to do here, but trust me, I do dig the hell out of the Mini LST. I just see it as more of a basher. So I'm waiting for the bashers to work past all their drama, and by the time they figure out what works, I should have been able to save my money for a brushless, etc., etc, and be ready to buy whatever I need to bash with confidence, and not have to keep buying the latest band aid fix. That's my plan anyways.

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 8:17 pm

Just throwin' out some thoughts.

Sounds like you got the plan.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 9:38 am

sg219 wrote:Just throwin' out some thoughts.

Sounds like you got the plan.

Cool man. I appreciate that you've spent more time with your mLST, and don't want to come across like I'm not open to suggestions... but yeah, I pretty much have a plan all worked out in my head.

ph2t · Post by **ph2t** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 10:08 am

My budget is probably tighter than you think. Especially since I'm saving for a vacation right now

fuck the RC, spend the $$ on the vacation..... RC is your everyday shit mate, a vacation aint.........

but don't let that statement detract from RC, lol....

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 8:01 pm

ph2t wrote:
My budget is probably tighter than you think. Especially since I'm saving for a vacation right now
fuck the RC, spend the $$ on the vacation..... RC is your everyday shit mate, a vacation aint.........

but don't let that statement detract from RC, lol....

Yeah see, that's what I'm talking about.

This was my last splurge for my birthday before I start saving. I'm hoping I don't have to put any (or much) money into it to keep it running. (fingers crossed)

ph2t · Post by **ph2t** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 8:07 pm

Well, it doesn't have the word Kyosho written anywhere on it so you should be ok, lol....