Losi HIGH Roller review

[sweetdiesel]

I picked up a HIGH Roller for my B-day as a backyard basher and here is my review and impressions. I'll be adding more info to the thread as I test it on different terrains and upgrades.

Out of the box: The truck feels well assembled. Checked all the screws and they were all tight. There is a lot of play in the knuckles and hub carriers, probably due to the soft plastic. The plastic of the arms also feels soft, I can twist them easily with my hands. Front and rear bumpers are thin and also have good flex. The main chassis is relatively stiff. There is mostly hex hardware with just a few Philips screws to secure the weak feeling steering servo. The servo saver is a nice unit, built into the steering bell crank similar to 4WD buggies and TCs. Unfortunately, the hinge pins still use e-clips. The aluminum shocks are very nice for a budget truck, and feel smooth when pumped. The stock ESC is rated down to 12 turn brushed motors and is a very compact unit. The stock motor is a 12 turn closed endbell unit.

First order of business was to take out the stock AM RX and swap in a new Spektrum RX. Since this is a budget truck, I opted for Spektrum's budget RX, the SR300. It uses a bind plug and I was able to bind it without issue to my Spektrum equipped 3PK. Next step was to cut off the Tamiya style plug on the ESC and solder on a Dean's plug. Last step was to install the foam battery spacer. The battery tray on the HIGH Roller will only accommodate standard height and width sub C size packs. It will accommodate a longer 7 cell pack. I decided to run the foam spacer in the rear of the chassis to put more weight over the front wheels.

Checked my trims and then set my EPAs. With max steering throw, the left showed 110% and right showed 86%. I dialed both back 3% to help servo longevity. Next I attempted to reset the ESC but it wouldn't go into programming mode. I went ahead and dialed my throttle/brake EPAs to 120%.

Balance charged my Orion 4800mah 2S lipo and she was ready for her maiden run. More later once I get my kids to sleep.

Some pics

 

[sweetdiesel]

For her maiden run I ran her in the driveway and in the street. There is a small speed bump at the top of my driveway and the truck jumped it quite nicely. It was very level in the air and the shocks and tires took the landings quite well. With it's high ground clearance, I expected the truck to traction roll a lot but the wide stance kept it very stable. Top speed looks to be about 20 mph, which is a bit slow for our front yard where there is room to gain higher speed. The stock motor has good low end grunt, but the truck hits top speed quickly and makes you want more top end. The brakes were excellent, actually they were a bit too grabby. The ESC goes into reverse very quickly so locking the rear tires were not a problem. I'll makes some tweaks to my TX settings to smooth out the brakes.

After about 5 minutes of general bashing I noticed the right rear tire was wobbly. I kept running for another 3 minutes and the left tire got wobbly also. I decided to pull it in and found that both axles were bent. Pretty disappointing considering the jumps I took had less than a foot of air. They may have bent due to my full throttle landings but I'll know for sure when I continue with more runs. They hammered out pretty easily on the workbench but it was still a nuisance.

More runs tomorrow in the backyard. I will try to take some video.

 

[Lessen]

Wow, bent shafts on the first run... Not sounding very good so far.

 

[slowngreen]

bent axles off such a small jump? wow, thats no good.

 

[beason]

there was a guy selling one of these locally awhile back, i almost bought it, but couldnt find any info on here from anyone who had one, so i passed. if you feel its slow on 2s lipo i would have been let down since all i have is 6cell nimh's

 

[sweetdiesel]

I ran it for about 3 minutes yesterday again in the front yard. Nothing too heavy, all jumps were with zero throttle landings this time. Right rear wheel got the wobble again. :\

I've decided this rig is not up to par for bashing, and not worth upgrading since there are no alternatives for stronger axles. IMO Losi really dropped the ball. I'm also quite disappointed in all the reviews on youtube which gave the truck such kudos.

I was really hoping the HIGH roller was going to be as durable as the Slash but with higher ground clearance. Guess I'll just have to bite the bullet and get the Savage FLUX as the backyard basher.

 

[Hyster]

Great review. It's pretty bad with a name like Losi making a product that can't handle the standard bashing of hobbyists. I wonder if you should sell it to Rolex. At least it would look good for a long time on a shelf.

 

[solly69]

its been ran so its no good to rolex