Any problems with Mini LST, mine not so good

[Savage_man]

I have a Savage, well a few of them now. I love it. My GF wanted to play, so I got her a smaller electric truck, the mini LST by Team Losi. I think they should be Team Lousy mabey. Is this truck a joke? I am asking because It lasted her about 40 seconds on a smooth lawn the the diff in the rear stripped out. Cheap cheap plastic crap inside. I paid a lot of money for this car too. I wish I had read up more on them. I called the Team Lousy help and after being transfered around, and waiting for 30 mins on phone, and then calling 2 more numbers, I finally got a guy who very reluctantly told me to send the whole thing back to IL and they will look at it. What? It would cost more to send the whole thing to IL from CA than the parts are worth multiplied by 10. Hate to bash on some company, but guys, dont make the same expensive mistake I made. When I had a part break on my Savage, HPI just sent me the replacement. I felt like the guy at Lousy did not trust me or like I was scamming him for a 5 dollar part. I was more upset that the car had only went about 75 feet before it broke, on a smooth mowed lawn too. What has your experiences been with Losi, or HPI, or TMax, ect. Thanks

 

[HeartBreak]

Well, to be fair to the (underpayed and don't give a *censored*) rep on the phone, the truck was being ran on grass, which does put a lot of strain on the driveline.

However, that being said, being bounced around like a ping-pong ball is definitely not the best way to treat a customer calling for technical assistance. Aside from the overall attitude you experienced from the rep (which I have experienced from time to time as well... Try getting tech support from OS on the VZ line of engines), the design of their triple-X line of offroad vehicles pretty much made me an ANYTHING-BUT-LOSI for life customer.

Perhaps, and this is maybe a touch late, but you can sell the truck and maybe get an HPI wheely king, or E-Savage....?

 

[Savage_man]

thanks, I guess I will figure it out

wish I had checked around. I had no idea the losi was such a crappy vehicle or company. I will never buy anything of that brand name again. NOPE!

 

[HeartBreak]

Losi used to be really high end stuff (my first car was a Losi JRXT). Around the time Gil Sr sold the company to Horizon (or at least the exclusive distribution rights), that's when Losi went down hill (in my opinion).

Coincidentally, that's around the time the Triple-X line started to appear. I bought one of the last XXXT's from Tower, and had nothing but troubles with it.

I guess it's no real guess as to why Gil Jr left the company to work for Kyosho. Can't say I blame him one inch. It's hard to watch a company that you helped start with your father go down the ol' tubes.

The only real upside here is, at least it's not a Smartech; you can fix it fairly easily. Shouldn't cost all that much for the parts, either.

 

[Bryson]

I think differntly, I have a xxt that is pretty damn old and it runs like a champ, cept for the speed controller going busirk on me, but that wasent losi's falt. My mom bought a mini-t to play around with me and my mini in the front yard and, trust me she dosent know how to drive the thing and it just keeps on going, after hiting curbs and bouncing off tires. I think that you must have just got a bum gear or something, or your mower is set to high lol. Fix it, see what happens, and if it does it again the sell it and get one of the above vehicles.

Bryson

 

[grgbulldog]

I've always heard that mini lst's have bad stock diffs

 

[savagefan04]

you really shouldnt condemn a company based on your experience with 1 rep. yes it sucks about being tossed around, but that happens in a lot of different companies. try calling them back and ask about getting a free set. the part itself is maybe 5 bucks so you have a decent shot at getting them.

and yes its true the mlst's had poor diff gears from the beginning but losi made good on them and replaced those stripped sets and the stripped wheel hexes with free ones without asking or requiring proof of purchase. to me that says alot about the company.

a simple fix that has been proven time and time again is boiling the plastic gears for about 10 minutes. i'm not sure why this works from a chemical perspective, but being a mlst owner myself i've yet to strip a gear since doing that. hope this helps. dont give up on the mlst quite yet, it is a fun little truck to drive. better yet, look into buying the newer mlst2 diff sets. they are metal and should be a direct drop in.

 

[Savage_man]

I sure wish they had just offered to send out the replacement parts. They are obviously known to be barely functional. I was told, reluctantly, to send the whole truck, box,controller, everything to back to IL from CA, that is about 30 or 40 dollars to ship. I bet I could buy the new gears for less, metal ones. Also, they could have shipped me the parts for a lot less than sending the darn car back to me. I had percieved an attitude from the 4 people I talked to altogether on the phone, that they were not really interested in anything but selling, did not really have time to deal with me and frankly, did not really care if the car was defective or not. Also, I am 45 and can afford any car or gears I want, but the the poor customer service was enough so I will never buy one of those products again. HPI, one call, talked to a cool guy, told him what broke on my truck, he said, yeah, the servo is not too good, sent me out a major upgraded one for free, great company. Now I buy HPI. Period. That is customer service...

 

[helotaxi]

The new diffs available are metal and pretty tough by all accounts. I have the Mini LST2 which came with the new diffs but I haven't really gotten a chance to beat on it to confirm how tough they are.