The blue beetle build - a Buffalo with Beams!

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by themountain

No offense but that is a real world vehicle with a complete different weight bias than a rc car. Do you want to wheelie 90% of the time?? Ok...then that will work..

What he is doing makes complete sense and it will not wheelie 90% of the time. Enough arguing in this thread. The OP asked you to stop so step away. This is your only warning.

[TooOldForThis]

The final stages of the beetle build amount to test n' tuning different shock setups and a new set of cheapo tires on the slow boat from Aliexpress, but winter seems to have finally arrived here in the Northeast so all of that will be on hold for a bit. Meanwhile, building season is in full swing! I'm like a native American in the sense that none of the Buffalo goes to waste so let's look at what happened to the body.

The Losi LMT is known for being difficult to fit bodies without removing the cage and/or shortening the front of the frame, which is why I was surprised to find the Gmade Buffalo body fits like it was made for it! It comfortably clears the front of the frame and the cage/driver even ends up in the right spot.



The main drawback I can see is the plastic grill seems very vulnerable to being broken and you can't leave it off because the lexan has a deep indentation that would make it obvious something is missing. I chose to omit Gmade's included fender flares and other molded plastic doo-dads because they didn't look like they belonged on a truck like this.

[durok]

That's a STUNNER with that body on it...

[TooOldForThis]

Originally Posted by durok

That's a STUNNER with that body on it...

Thanks!


So I was just browsing Amain and came across the Element RC Enduro Knightwalker Body Set. Seems like it could be a good-looking body for a Beams build. The tricky part is the rear of the bed angles downward in a way that would probably interfere with the rear-mounted battery, so you'd have to figure something out there.

[JatoTheRipper]

IMO RC monster trucks do not get enough attention. They used to be the largest and most popular segment of RCing. You won't find a better basher as long as you can get a durable one.

[TooOldForThis]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

IMO RC monster trucks do not get enough attention. They used to be the largest and most popular segment of RCing. You won't find a better basher as long as you can get a durable one.

I couldn't agree more. Doug over at BigSquid (one of the last guys still writing columns over there) has some monster truck predictions for 2024 that I'm pretty excited about. Namely a new competitor for the LMT and a 1980's-style old-school truck. Heck, if Tamiya would just re-release the Juggernaut I'd be over the moon.

https://www.bigsquidrc.com/monster-t...ions-for-2024/

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by TooOldForThis

I couldn't agree more. Doug over at BigSquid (one of the last guys still writing columns over there) has some monster truck predictions for 2024 that I'm pretty excited about. Namely a new competitor for the LMT and a 1980's-style old-school truck. Heck, if Tamiya would just re-release the Juggernaut I'd be over the moon.

https://www.bigsquidrc.com/monster-t...ions-for-2024/

An old school monster truck, especially one with leaf springs, would be awesome!

[Gula]

For some 1.9 " sand paddles:
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mO0AqC2

[Gula]

I'd love to see the Rc4wd or proline tacoma bodues in one of these conversions m.

[TooOldForThis]

Originally Posted by Gula

For some 1.9 " sand paddles:
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mO0AqC2

Good call, they look perfect. And $15 for two isn't bad.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Gula

For some 1.9 " sand paddles:
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mO0AqC2

Nice find. I wonder if they are rock hard or decently pliable.

[TooOldForThis]

Update time. Since winter disappeared I was able to get this baby out doing some laps around the yard. Top-heaviness will always be an issue so you have to take turns easy, but it sure is fun to watch the I-beams work! I'm running the shocks without oil so the suspension moves easily and the body just floats along. Its all quite scale and satisfying.

Shakedown complete, I turned attention back to the rear suspension and my earlier post:

Originally Posted by TooOldForThis

Suspension fiddling

See how much less suspension droop the back has compared to the front?

This is way easier to understand with pictures. The first one below is how the rear was originally set up. 90mm shock mounted to the stock shock tower and the hole closest to the axle on the trailing arm.



And here's the new setup. It's a longer 100mm shock mounted above the shock tower using small brackets and further from the axle on the trailing arm. Up-travel is the same both ways but this new setup has more down-travel (compare the angle of the swaybar arm in both pics).

[TooOldForThis]

Came across a running video of a beautiful Beams build. Might be the nicest one I've seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRzktGaEalI