Alien13 TLR 22SCT build thread

[alien13]

I'm all jacked up and ready to build. I drove 100 miles round trip to get this bad boy today, with hopes to have it whole and race-ready by tomorrow night, but I don't have much time with tonight's schedule full, and racing starting at 7:00 tomorrow night.

This is a KIT, and it will be the first kit I've built in almost 20 years. Rather than being based on the XXX platform like the last Losi short course, this one is built on the new 22 platform (2wd, 2 motor configs "mid" and "rear"), which has been a success story for Losi's new division, TLR. Based on the 22 buggy and the 22T stadium truck, some things were made a little differently to handle the bulkier characteristics of the short course truck.

On to the build!

Electronics:
Tekin Redline 17.5 brushless motor
Castle Creations Mamba Max Pro ESC
Savox 1258tg steering servo
Spektrum 3000 receiver
MyLaps transponder

There will be much more to come, but first I have to clean up an area to complete the build, and I'll be away from home for a few hours to shoot a 1:1 dirt oval race.

 

[alien13]

More pictures!

Panther Switches, JConcepts Barcodes, and AKA CityBlocks

Spaz Stix! Was looking for mirror chrome, but I'll see what I can do with theses instead.

Exotec and RC Racing Designs transmission shims. The team drivers have been shimming the transmissions up, apparently getting more bite out of it that way. I bought the RC Racing Designs first for the truck, then after I bought the buggy I realized I needed another set, so I got the Exoteks. Lower price after shipping, but no real difference between them.

First look inside the box.

Bags O Parts!

The new chassis design. Slim, light, and rigid.

I'm gonna need more space.

Pretty cool here, they actually give a template for the body mounting holes.

Stickers!

More stickers!

And the build starts!!!

Getting tired, more to come tomorrow!

 

[Non Crimen]

looks sweet!

 

[alien13]

Front done

Notes: This thing has a good, solid feel to it. The plastic is sturdy, and not rubbery like some trucks I've had.

And I really need to pay attention to what screws I grab. Had to pull a good portion of the nose apart after I realized I put the wrong screws in the wrong holes.

I don't see me racing tonight like I wanted to.

 

[alien13]

I like plastic that has already been threaded. Two screws with stripped heads, good thing I had some leftover Tony's Screws. Gonna have to order a set for this truck.

 

[alien13]

Break time. I'm sweatin my nutz off. Hot day, no breeze while I'm putting this thing together.

Got a good portion of the rear end put together.

Starting to look like a truck now!

Up next: Building the ball diff. Not really sure how I feel about that, since even on my newer vehicles I've run gear diffs. I haven't built or maintained a ball diff for a long time, but I'm running it in this truck, and there's one in my TLR 22 buggy that I'm going to rebuild as well. Guess it's time to re-learn.

 

[slowngreen]

Gonna be sweet! I wanna see the gold to red finish.

 

[alien13]

Gonna be sweet! I wanna see the gold to red finish.

I have so many ideas as to how the paint will be done, every time I think about it, I come up with something different. I'm making a trip to the hobby shop to get some parts, and a body for the 22 buggy, and I'd like to see if they have any other colors in Spaz Stix. I've seen so many cool paint job done with it that I gotta try it.

If all goes well, I'll get as far as the body mounts tonight so I can cut the body out and get to painting.

 

[alien13]

Added Mirror Chrome to the paint options...

Also picked up the body for the buggy, aluminum servo horns, sensor wire, other crap I needed. Back to the build!

 

[alien13]

Rear end DONE!

Built the diff, built the trans, installed the motor.

Some of the TLR drivers, as well as the buggy and truck drivers have been shimming their transmissions up by 1mm. The say that it's increasing traction. Rather than wait, I opted to add that mod from the start.

Here you'll see that I cut off the two alignment knobs on the mounting tab.

Here's the assembly without the shims

With the shims

Motor and trans mounted in the truck

The 22SCT allows the owner to run with or without the mudflaps and extensions for them. I can take the extensions off and replace them with a "V" that will make the rectangle bumper more rigid, as well as eliminate any wear and damage to the corners of the body. The flaps are also clamped on, adding to the durability, where most flaps just have a screw in each side that allows the flaps to tear away easily. (I threw away the flaps form my XXX-SCT after three races because of that.) I chose to use the flaps for now, and I can ditch them if I choose.

Next up is the shocks. I want to finish this on Saturday. My parts run to the lhs/track only made me want to race more.

 

[SchrodeMode]

You doing a Ladybug theme on the paint?: Looks good, I'll get a kit one of these days.

 

[alien13]

You doing a Ladybug theme on the paint?: Looks good, I'll get a kit one of these days.

Stupid stickers. I don't remember where we got the desk, but my wife used it as a computer desk for the longest time, and during that time you couldn't see the surface with all the paperwork on it. She got a laptop and didn't need the desk anymore so I took it. I gotta peel them things off!

 

[alien13]

Got the shocks done!!! On to bag "E"! Front body mounts, wheels & tires! Looks like tomorrow I mount tires and paint the body. Install ESC and transponder, and it's ready to race on Sunday!

 

[HPI-Killer]

Wow Alien that looks great! The rigidness of that chassis plate looks unreal lol! It makes me want another Losi SC...

 

[alien13]

Long day of doing stuff I didn't want to do, getting back to the build now.

But first, here's last night's shock build pics!

 

[alien13]

More pics!

Didn't have time yesterday, had five hours of errands to run, dinner, and other crap to do. Finally got to the truck and got it finished to the point I could get it on the track.....

Got to the track this morning, had all of about 30 minutes at the track that I spent either gabbing with people about the truck, or trying to finish the buggy so I could race that as well.

Then the family emergency came.

All that's blown over, and I wasn't about to drive 45 minutes to the track again, so I wrapped up some finishing touches to the truck and got the buggy finished.

So here it is:
Front body mounts and nerf bars mounted

Body on

Spent the next two hours cutting holes and taping off. It looks cool, but I'm pissed about the way it came out. Next time I'll get the pre-cut body. The roll cage is a pain in the rear to tape off, and the tape left a residue that I thought was on the outside pre-mask until I peeled it.

The original plan was to use Spaz Stix "Gold to Red" and "Candy Apple Red", with some "High Gloss Black". Then I found the "Mirror Chrome", and I've always wanted to do something with it, so this is it:

Everything installed:

Body on with tires:

I'll post the finished truck and the buggy in the paint thread as well.

---------- Post added at 7:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 7:19 PM ----------

Note: I did run it outside on the street, just to make sure all worked well. Performed like a champ!

 

[HPI-Killer]

Hope everything is well, rig looks great! Love the new style they went after.

 

[alien13]

First run yesterday, finally! Got to the track and it was a bit greasy from being watered, so I had a tough time getting a good practice session in. Switched off to the buggy for a bit, then waited till race time. First race, felt great! My average with the XXX-SCT was around 12-14 laps in a 5 minute race, my first race with the 22SCT I hit 17 laps! Second qualifier sucked, somebody thought it would be a great idea to water the track between sets, and my race was the second, lost two laps because the tires plugged up with mud right away.

For the main, it took two tries after everybody piled up on the first corner. Well, on the second try, the guy in front of me braked early and we locked bumpers going around the corner. After the marshals finally separated us, it was a race to catch up. Started to catch up as I was avoiding wrecks, but then it got to a point where every time I would try to avoid one, either I'd wreck myself, or somebody would hit me. I pulled off after five laps.

Gotta say I love the truck, I just need to look for a better tire for muddy conditions.

 

[alien13]

Another amazing run last night, beating the hell out of my XXX-SCT runs. Last night I set new personal records. First heat 16/5:07, 16:543 fast time, second heat 17/5:18, 15.968, A-main 17/5:15, 16:852. Constant improvement. Three laps down form the leader, two laps down from the 2nd-3rd positions, but without screwing up I could race alongside. All I changed from last week was the tires, switched to AKA CityBlocks. No adjustments to the truck from the kit build.

Finished 6th out of 7.

 

[slowngreen]

rig looks great man!