My Losi 1/10 "Comp" Crawler

[robmob]

I received my Losi yesterday.

I must say that on looks alone out of the box, this rig is by far the best looking.

I have no missing parts or screws that I can see.

A complete tear down will be done and I will report my findings.

I plan on shoe horning a HH 7T cobalt puller with a Sidewinder esc into this rig.

There was a lot of high expectations for this rig. Clearly more than Losi could deliver for the price. What folks need to realize is that it's a ARTR and we all know that ARTR's and RTR's blow and need work despite what the box state. Way too many guys bought into the hype put out by Losi. Hook, line and sinker.

I came across this post over at RCC that pretty much sums it up.


"I will admit I was dissappointed to see all the issues with new owners, but I think it's important to remember that even though we all put the Losi up on a pedstal it is still just a crappy RC ARTR, and 95% of all ARTRs and RTRs suck.

Compare the Team Losi to it's nearest rival in the market, not the Berg, the Axial.

Axial ARTR - 250.00

Hammers, Ok but not all that great better than Rock Lizards
Chassis - it sucks
Battery Placement Horrible
Plastic Pivot Balls
Self tapping crap hardware
No CVD's
No Dig
DriveShafts pop and twist like crazy

I can go on but you get the point.

We love our Axials, well we love the tranny when we replace all the gears and we love the axles when we bullet proof them.

Now Compare this with what comes in the Losi box for 285.00, That's really a good price for all the parts, now we just have to figure out how to make them all work and what needs to go, just like the Axial.

Anyone that bought the Team Losi expecting to get it out of the box and run out and compete and win will be upset, sorry you fell for marketing, but by now don't we all know that ads and campaigns are full of crap."

 

[slowngreen]

Way too many guys bought into the hype put out by Losi. Hook, line and sinker.

what, that it mite work out of the box? jk.

i look forward to seeing you do something with it Rob, u plan on running the stock chassis?

 

[robmob]

I did a Rolex and crawled it by hand over some pebbles and nothing broke. I even made some motor sounds while I was doing it to keep it real.

I am not going to change anything. I simply want to see how it all goes together and make sure everything is properly lubed and tightened. I then plan on running it to see what it takes to pop the CVD.

The first test will be my couch cushions since that where some guys are reporting problems. LMAO

If I break a CVD and the problem has not been worked out by Losi. I will have to wait for the after market. In the meantime, I will attach the axles from an Axial to the Losi chassis and see how it does.

I would like to point out then when I got my second Axial ARTR and ran it stock, I popped one of the drive shafts within 5 minutes. I also saw it happen 4 times at the last comp I attended. You either need to get the Axial reinforcing rings, or C-Splines to make sure it doesn't happen.

Sadly, Losi put themselves in a position where anything less than perfect is a failure.

 

[auhutchi]

"DURABLE CV FRONT AXLE SHAFTS ALLOW FOR INCREASED STEERING RANGE" says losi and people are breaking them right- something must be wrong either way i think i'm going to go with losi here soon but i need to make sure i have money to upgrade it first before i buy it.

i hate broken vehicles--- i always think i have to fix it right away- so when money is hiding from you it is hard to pay the bill or pay off the loan you took to fix it

 

[MGT8.0owner]

i went in my LHS today and the owner had one out on the counter and was braging about it....so i says if it's so good let me take it for a test drive....i pull a bunch of bugies nad truggies off the shelfs and go for it....didn't even make it over the first 8ight and i had already lost the right front lol....luckily he didn't make me pay for it...

 

[robmob]

It has already been established there is an issue with the CV joint.

 

[flm_savage]

I hope it works out ok for you. They are talking about breaking in the worm gear before really putting alot of stress on it. Maybe just let it freewheel for a battery or something.
Keep us updated!

 

[robmob]

Whether the CV's break or not on me won't really matter in the end.

I will upgrade to MIP's as soon as they come out. Same goes for the center shafts.

For the price, I am happy with this rig even if I snap a CV.

I am also happy with my 2 Axials after I added the Warthog chassis to one and the SWX chassis to the other.

 

[abadk9420]

Hey Rob you should bring it out to Genentech this Sunday for the Nor-Cal finals, it would be a great place to put it through it's paces after you do your complete rebuild. And it would be great to finally meet another member of the forum. I hope all your prep work pays off and you don't break any parts.

 

[robmob]

I would if I had the time to work on it and wasn't already racing this weekend.

I will be racing 5th scale off-road all day on Saturday at Thunder Valley in Lakeport. Then I get to try and turn around and race 5th scale autocross in San Jose on Sunday.

I will probably not race Sunday and stay home to wrench. Getting up at 5 to go racing 2 days in a row does not sound appealing. Plus the wife probably won't issue me a hall pass for 2 consecutive days of racing.

 

[Lessen]

I like your first post Rob. That really puts things into perspective. I'm waiting for more.

 

[abadk9420]

Plus the wife probably won't issue me a hall pass for 2 consecutive days of racing.

If you came to the Nor-Cal finals you wouldn't be racing you would just be watching the top Crawler drivers from Nor-Cal, LOL!!!!!!

 

[beason]

your telling me people are snapping shafts crawling around on there couch cushions and complaining? that puts the most stress on the rig!! the tires wont spin, slide, or anything on there. thats how i stripped my steering horn, crawling carpet steps.

Rob I'm sure you will give us a detailed experience on the rig. and your right, losi hyped it up sooo far. everyone will be disappointed if you get there hopes up to far.

 

[robmob]

I finally started taking this rig apart yesterday.

Over at RCC, guys are actually starting to solve problems instead of complaining about them. Good news for me since I can make any mods guys have come up with if need be.

The set screws on the center shafts were thread locked as they should be. There have been reports of loosing the pins at the joint, so I went ahead and put a piece of heat shrink so the pins won’t fall out if they get loose. Same thing I do with MIP CVD’s whenever I have installed them.

Both my front and rear diffs had plenty of snot grease in them. I cleaned them out and degreased the gears. I have added some FastEddy dog bone and tranny grease (this stuff will stick a booger to an ice cube) and ran them in for 10 minutes on my drill. Opened them back up and gears still had plenty of grease on them so I did not add any more. There has been some reported heat issues in the diffs. At the start of my running them in the drill, the diff temp on the housing was 77 degrees. After 10 minutes of running the temp in the same location was 79 degrees. Seems pretty good to me so far.

I wish I had run them in the drill and checked temps with the stock goop in there. It would have been a good comparison.

Next up is the tranny. Losi states no grease is required in the tranny. It spins pretty freely by hand, but I am going to open it up and add some grease anyway since it has to spin pretty fast in order for the worm gears to move the rig. By hand the front and rear dig movement is flawless. It won’t take much for a servo to actuate.

My plan is to still use the HH 7T puller motor on a 3S lipo. It will provide plenty of speed to spin the worm gears and I will have gobs of torque.

I am not going to be using the stock tires and wheels. Instead I have a set of Vanquish comp wheels with Chisels I want to try out. I will probably sell the stock tires and wheels since I already have a few sets of claws.

 

[slowngreen]

nice! Wich VP wheels? doesn't matter, they are all super pimp! glad to see you changing out from the claws though, those are another thing the losi kinda disappointed me on. atleast the dig moves good enuff that a mini will work so you dont have to put a full size servo on there and add that much more weight up top...we need pics of your in action work to Rob, stop slacking. lol.

 

[robmob]

Black on Black Revolver with comp rings and vent hole.

I agree on the tires. Losi should have included their new comp claws with this rig.

I am real bad about not taking pics while I work on rigs. Even worse about posting them if I do manage to take any. I just like to sit there with my head down and work. I will attempt to be more diligent and snap some pics of the in process work.

 

[auhutchi]

i'm looking forward to the outcome-right now that is the only thing keeping me from buying the losi

 

[Racer 1966]

Where's the pics???

 

[RC Addict]

Looking forward to seeing your progress, Rob!

 

[robmob]

This is why you never trust a RTR or ARTR!

What you are looking at are the CV joint pins. One is the proper length and was flush with the outside face of the CV joint on both sides. The other sat flush on one side, but the other was recessed down inside the hole in the joint.

The short pin is 9.6mm long. The outside of the CV joint is 10.97mm and the wall thickness is 1.43mm. Being flush on one side meant that only it was not even engaged in the CV joint on one end.

Guess what would have happened if I started running this rig. Clearly the pin being secured only on one end would have eventually failed and probably would have wedged inside the joint which could have easily caused the joint to lock and break the shaft.

I know how the factory made the mistake as well. The pin is the same diameter as the hex hub pins. The only difference is the hex hub pins are shorter. They installed a hex hub pin by mistake in one of the CV joints.

I am sending an email to Rich @ Losi and will ask him to send me replacement pins. In the meantime I am going to install the short pin splitting the difference so there it is secured on both ends. I want to get this rig on the rocks.