Another Losi Trail Trekker build

[Toyotarc]

Well I just crawled upon a decent deal on a fairly stock trail trekker and thought what the hell, what's one more crawler added to the collection :mrgreen:

Only thing aftermarket on it is a pair of Hot Racing shocks which look pretty frigging sweet, also more scale looking than the stock pair so there's another bonus.

Anddd I got two spare sets of trail trekkers complete without wheels to I will be robbing some Hot Racing parts and whatever will be an upgrade :mrgreen:

Now I'll start tearing down the rigs for whatever parts I want to swap over!

 

[spoo76]

Nice score. The hot racing shocks do look great, but perform like crap. Its going to take some work to make them operate smoothly for sure.

Sent from my LGMP450 using Tapatalk

 

[Toyotarc]

My shocks seem to be pretty smooth, what do most people change about them?

Sooo robbed some Hot Racing parts from one of the spare vehicles. Pretty nice Metal knuckles and steering drag link compared to plastic.

Here's a quick pic installed, look pretty slick on the front end.

Some more junk I put on, RC4WD beadlocks and some Boggers which are pretty sweet!

Installed pic below. These tires are much softer and weigh more to which should make a nice improvement on traction and keep the wheels on the ground a little easier.

These will be all the mods for today as I got stuff to do. Got a new motor to put in tomorrow to! It's a DDT 100turn predator motor I picked up awhile ago I have been sitting on for a build.

Some more junk that's coming in snail mail are Mil Stone-4 1/8" wheel spacers and some bigger tires. The wheel spacers are made of brass and weigh 9 grams each corner which of course will help out the center of gravity. I'll keep the tires a secret for now to keep some suspense up haha

 

[Toyotarc]

Soooo those Hot Racing shocks suck big time haha. They stick like crazy so I'm removing those for the stock set. Now pictured below is the stock shocks and I'm removing those spacers to get more travel out of them.

Quick install pic. Works much better and no sticking so certainly beats those freaking Hot Racing ones.

Got a brand new Hitec HS-65HB servo I thought I should try out. Some decent torque on these little guys listed in the picture.

Now here's a picture of the stock servo arm on the right and the new one on the left. Going to drill out the first hole with a 5/64 drill bit so I can use the stock swivel bolt in here and the screw will cut some threads into the plastic.

Here's a final installed picture. Servo arm still clears everything and the Hitec servo is a direct bolt in to the stock servo tray.

This bad boy turns like a charm now! Stock servo felt a little weak so with bigger tires coming might as well upgrade that junk.

I don't think I'm going to put in the DDT motor today as I want to order a metal pinion and spur gear, maybe even a metal casing before I put in the motor so I don't have to do it twice.

 

[spoo76]

Told ya those HR shocks suck lol. Looks like a good start.
FYI the tire sidewalls at this low weight are stiff enough to remove the foams completely to help them conform to the rocks. Make sure to also vent the tires or wheels for the same reason. Trapped air isn't good. I prefer venting the tires on aluminum wheels

Sent from my LGMP450 using Tapatalk

 

[Toyotarc]

Told ya those HR shocks suck lol. Looks like a good start.
FYI the tire sidewalls at this low weight are stiff enough to remove the foams completely to help them conform to the rocks. Make sure to also vent the tires or wheels for the same reason. Trapped air isn't good. I prefer venting the tires on aluminum wheels

Sent from my LGMP450 using Tapatalk

Yeah screw those shocks haha.

I will have no foams when I get the new tires to.

Would be sweet to find a source for losi spur gear and motor pinion in Canada because I don't want to order from Ebay US again and have like 3 week shipping.

 

[Toyotarc]

Sooo I just put in the DDT motor right now :mrgreen: Screw waiting for brass pinion and all this fancy metal cases and stuff, I'll buy it if I destroy the plastic I guess. Was looking at the prices of that on ebay and it's pricey shipped to Canada. Here's the stock motor next to the DDT motor. The stock motor had a 9 tooth pinion and I had a 11 tooth laying around so might as well try it right?

Here's a quick shot of it meshed up. Yeah I took a crappy picture so you can't see the gear mesh at all

All put back together and it drives! Motor goes in reverse now instead of forward so I just switched it on my radio because I'm lazy.

So far it seems like it has more torque and some more top end which I assume is from the larger pinion. Overall seems like a quite obvious upgrade :mrgreen:

These trekkers are sweet! No wonder why everyone want's these little guys. Flex like crazy and have the best motors right out of the box. I do want to make a leaf spring trekker from one of my spare parts chassis.

Anyway here's a shot of some flex action. 2.5" of flex, pretty good!

 

[Toyotarc]

Just had one of those what the hell happened moments.. Crawling around when all of the sudden you can tell the drivetrain is binding up, specifically the rear axle. So tear everything down and the axles and gears look good, put it back together and it works again! Not sure what bound up, I checked my battery to make sure it wasn't just a low battery :mrgreen:

Oh well all is well again!

 

[Toyotarc]

The sweet tires finally came in the mail...

They are Miniqlo miclaw tires. As the picture shows below they are HUGE! Now the con of these tires.... MOUNTING THEM!!!!! Just trying to mount them on RC4WD Rage Beadlocks made me question my sanity.

Well finally got these mounted up, hopefully never have to take them off the rims. They look pretty slick, the trekker is like a mini monster truck now :mrgreen:

Now flexing these bad boys defiantly fills the wheel wells up. Almost got full travel still, got about 1/8" of travel left when the tire contacts the body. I won't start cutting the body just yet. Once I get the wheel spacers I'll decide what to do.

 

[chbronco]

how much did you pay$$ mind me asking?

 

[Brake Weight]

how much did you pay$$ mind me asking?

I’d like to know, too. Been keeping tabs on them regularly.
http://www.rcmart.com/rctrax-tire-4pcs-palm-mini-crawler-moartr-series-mqrtr10-p-36058.html

 

[Brake Weight]

The sweet tires finally came in the mail...

They are Miniqlo miclaw tires. As the picture shows below they are HUGE! Now the con of these tires.... MOUNTING THEM!!!!! Just trying to mount them on RC4WD Rage Beadlocks made me question my sanity.

Well finally got these mounted up, hopefully never have to take them off the rims. They look pretty slick, the trekker is like a mini monster truck now :mrgreen:

Now flexing these bad boys defiantly fills the wheel wells up. Almost got full travel still, got about 1/8" of travel left when the tire contacts the body. I won't start cutting the body just yet. Once I get the wheel spacers I'll decide what to do.

A little trimming and debadging....

 

[Toyotarc]

I got it off someone that had a stockpile of these. I got them for 60$, they are impossible to find so I don't mind paying extra. There is some wheel imbalance and I'm not sure if it's the tires or how they are jammed on these wheels. Would be nice to find a wheel that accepts the huge beads properly but it's a crawler so little imbalance won't hurt I guess.

Oh and the person sold all the sets they had very quickly so none left unfortunately.

 

[Toyotarc]

Finally got these wheel weights, feel nice and heavy too

Easy install just remove the plastic hex and put on the brass one.

Here's a installed picture, defiantly noticeably wider and more weight on each corner which is a plus to.

I'd say overall they are worth it, super easy install and adds more width and weight to each corner without sacrifing strength or anything.

 

[botlebruiser]

Soooo those Hot Racing shocks suck big time haha. They stick like crazy so I'm removing those for the stock set. Now pictured below is the stock shocks and I'm removing those spacers to get more travel out of them.

Quick install pic. Works much better and no sticking so certainly beats those freaking Hot Racing ones.

Got a brand new Hitec HS-65HB servo I thought I should try out. Some decent torque on these little guys listed in the picture.

Now here's a picture of the stock servo arm on the right and the new one on the left. Going to drill out the first hole with a 5/64 drill bit so I can use the stock swivel bolt in here and the screw will cut some threads into the plastic.

Here's a final installed picture. Servo arm still clears everything and the Hitec servo is a direct bolt in to the stock servo tray.

This bad boy turns like a charm now! Stock servo felt a little weak so with bigger tires coming might as well upgrade that junk.

I don't think I'm going to put in the DDT motor today as I want to order a metal pinion and spur gear, maybe even a metal casing before I put in the motor so I don't have to do it twice.

The Hot Racing shocks actually work amazingly well if you work on them just a little bit. I used some 1Up non-wear brown grease and a drip of CV-Joint oil and they are smooth as butter. I had one that was sticky but I just worked it with the grease and oil for a minute with my hands and it came out as smooth as the rest. I literally dipped the bottom of the springs in the grease and the difference is night and day.

 

[botlebruiser]

The sweet tires finally came in the mail...

They are Miniqlo miclaw tires. As the picture shows below they are HUGE! Now the con of these tires.... MOUNTING THEM!!!!! Just trying to mount them on RC4WD Rage Beadlocks made me question my sanity.

And where did you find these........

 

[botlebruiser]

Thats a nice build man. Not sure what route you're looking to go but I found what looks to be a nice chassis. Scale frame rails. I'm waiting for them to show up in the mail box. Matsucarsrc is the name of the company. When they show up I'll post up the build as I get it done. You are killing it with those tires. I'm a little jealous. Very nice.

 

[Toyotarc]

Thats a nice build man. Not sure what route you're looking to go but I found what looks to be a nice chassis. Scale frame rails. I'm waiting for them to show up in the mail box. Matsucarsrc is the name of the company. When they show up I'll post up the build as I get it done. You are killing it with those tires. I'm a little jealous. Very nice.

I think the route I have chosen is function over scale haha. I have quite a few micros and this one wasn't very scale looking stock and was already the best crawler stock, so scale looks is out the window in this build.

Those frame rails looks really nice, I did notice they have Micro T and Micro rally frames so it might be worth ordering all of them if I end up buying :mrgreen:

Bought the tires off a guy that was hoarding a few, of course he sold out very quickly with the remaining sets he had. Defiantly the biggest micro tire, these probably would of been the perfect size for a WPL truck for scale looks.

On another note, I did end up ordering a cheap 3d printer so I will end up trying to design some stuff for all my micros which will be a great little project on its own "thumbsup"

 

[botlebruiser]

I think the route I have chosen is function over scale haha. I have quite a few micros and this one wasn't very scale looking stock and was already the best crawler stock, so scale looks is out the window in this build.

Those frame rails looks really nice, I did notice they have Micro T and Micro rally frames so it might be worth ordering all of them if I end up buying :mrgreen:

Bought the tires off a guy that was hoarding a few, of course he sold out very quickly with the remaining sets he had. Defiantly the biggest micro tire, these probably would of been the perfect size for a WPL truck for scale looks.

On another note, I did end up ordering a cheap 3d printer so I will end up trying to design some stuff for all my micros which will be a great little project on its own "thumbsup"

I think we might have some more parts, mayber frame rails and wheels, to choose from here in the not so distant future. Cross your fingers and I'll be sure to let you know when I get confirmation its happening and when. You will recognize the company for sure. I'll be sure to stay in touch and keep you posted. ;-)

 

[raydaddy]

Really think those miniqlo tires are awesome on your trekker.