Speed T offroad makeover

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crazydave
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Speed T offroad makeover

Post by crazydave »

The Speed T is by far one of the coolest cars I've been sent to review. I've heard people complaining that they released it as a street car, but I run on some rough parking lots, and have found it perfect for just bashing around. I did however decide that I wanted to take advantage of its off road heritage.

All you really need to do is drop the pinion a few teeth. I went from the stock 20 to an 18 tooth, but you'll probably also want to unlock that diff. When i wrote the review, the diff broke loose, so I took the opportunity to drop some diff balls in there, and was having trouble getting it adjusted properly so it was smooth, but not slipping. Turns out I shattered the thrust bearing, and because I just kept tightening it up, I ended up having to do a complete rebuilt. It is baby butt smooth now, and does not slip at all. The stock tires will work on hard packed dirt, but if it gets loose you're going to want something more off road oriented. I debated long and hard over ribs and pins, or these Losi wheels and tires that are offered as a direct bolt on for the Speed T. I went with the Losi tires, and they are good all around tires for street and dirt. Finally, there is no need to change the body, but the Speed t body is low and sleek, and just don't look the part, so I picked up this proline Desert rat body that is offered as a direct fir for the Speed T. Ditched the wheely bar, and now it a damn fine off road car.

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sidewinder
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Re: Speed T offroad makeover

Post by sidewinder »

That does look cool, and I love the body.

I wonder why they locked the diff in the first place? It seems like the little bit better bte you'd get off the line wouldn't be worth the handling loss of the locker, especially on pavement. I'm doing a little work on my Wheely King --adding the crawler conversion for the better weight distribution--and even on it I seriously debating whether I should lock the diffs? I'd kind of like to be able to turn.

Anyway, since I'm not sure what all they've changed on the speed t, how does it do compared to a purpose built off road buggy?
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crazydave
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Re: Speed T offroad makeover

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They locked the diff because it spends most of it's time on two wheels, and that keeps it tracking straight. The Speed T is essentially an XXXT with a 4800kv sensorless Excelorin brushless system in it. To keep the speed more controllable, they used low profile street tires, low profile shock towers that lay the shocks down more, low profile body that comes low enough in the front to act as an air dam, added about an inch to the wheelbase to make it more stable, and put a wheelie bar in back.

Off road it handles like the world championship caliber truck that the XXXT is, the extra inch only make it more stable. They had it sitting lower from the factory, but a couple turns of the preload collars got the ride height right for off road. It soaks the surface right up, and turns on a dime, with a tap of the brakes.

Unless you're using your WK strictly for rock crawling, you probably wont like the diffs locked. The steering radius becomes really wide. I'm wanting to get CVDs for mine to see how much that helps. A good compromise is to just lock the rear.
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sidewinder
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Re: Speed T offroad makeover

Post by sidewinder »

The locked rear and open front did occur to me, I've been trying to find a thread I saw somewhere before I had the WK, the guy had added some heavy axle grease and sone some minor mod and it had a limited slip effect on the diffs. I wish I could find that to see if he had any follow up on things like durability, etc.

The Speed T sounds like fun, I have an XXXT rolling chassis that I got as part of a parts lot about a year ago, it needs the electronics, but everything else is there. Maybe I should look at putting it together some time.
The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. - Ayn Rand
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