Fyrstormer's RC Blog

back to Fyrstormer's Garage I finally own a short-course truck. Given all the mini build threads I've posted, I'm sure it comes as a shock to no one, it's a mini. I now own three vehicles based on the Losi Mini-T drivetrain, which I guess is about as glowing a recommendation as I could offer for the platform. In all of my bashing of my three Mini-T-derived vehicles, I've broken two stock parts: a plastic front hub, and a brass ball-stud. Admittedly, that's because I've upgraded everything else that could break in a crash, but still. (also, I broke one titanium turnbuckle and burned-out several motors as well, but those were all upgrade parts.) Since I have fairly extensive experience with the Mini-T platform at this point, I knew going in what most of my mods were going to be: GPM aluminum hubs, Boca Yellow Seal ceramic bearings, Dynamite metal gears, a MIP ball-diff to control wheelspin in corners, a proper Teflon-lined slipper clutch from Losi...

back to Fyrstormer's Garage I finished my Wraith build. I did a whole bunch of stuff to this vehicle in a short amount of time: - Replaced the motor - Rebuilt the transmission with hardened-steel gears - Replaced the 48-pitch pinion and spur gears with 32-pitch gears - Replaced the stock driveshafts with MIP hardened-steel driveshafts - Replaced the diff gears with Hot Racing hardened-steel gears (including an overdrive gear for the front axle, to improve "grab" when climbing and reduce "push" in corners) - Replaced the front dogbones with RC4WD CVDs - Replaced the stock plastic hubs with TopCAD aluminum hubs - Replaced the stock plastic front bumper supports with RC4WD aluminum supports - Replaced the stock wheels and tires with R35 Ripsaws mounted on Axial Walker Evans beadlocks (including Vanquish aluminum SLW spacers) - Added 2oz. Axial clamp-on weights in the front wheels, to lower the center of gravity a bit - Rebuilt the shocks with aluminum...

back to Fyrstormer's Garage This one's been a long time coming. When I first got into RC and I was researching my first vehicle purchase, the Mini E-Revo was one of the vehicles that appealed most to me. In retrospect, years before when I was just reading RC magazines but wasn't rich enough to buy anything, the full-size E-Revo looked cool to me back then too. There's something about the "monster-truggy" layout that looks perfectly optimized for hard corners at high speeds, while still having enough suspension clearance to avoid smashing to bits when it runs over a crack in the pavement. However, after reading horror story after horror story about the MERV, I decided to get something else -- a Losi Mini Desert Truck -- instead. A year and a half later, and after lots of evenings spent reading, I finally felt ready to take on the challenge of building a MERV that wouldn't suck. This is what I came up with. Most of the horror stories I read cente...

back to Fyrstormer's Garage My Bullet is finished. I have a little 1/16-scale Turnigy Nitro Buggy, which is great fun, but eventually I found myself wanting a nitro-powered vehicle that could actually handle running off-road. I didn't want to go 1/8 scale because I have no space for a vehicle that large, but I knew a large wheel diameter was a requirement for running in grass. The Bullet presented a good compromise -- a 1/10-scale vehicle with 1/8-scale wheels, and 4WD too. I opted for the ST version, which really only differs from the MT version in that the ST body actually fits down onto the chassis properly, instead of being hoisted-up by extra-tall body posts. The Bullet comes from the factory with a .18 engine, and I used that engine for several months, but eventually I realized I couldn't tune it to produce enough power to run on grass without risking severe overheating on every run. I'm sure it would've been fine if I had a dirt track to run on, bu...