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 (originally posted on UltimateRC.com on 2014-01-03) I wanted a vehicle I could toss in the trunk of my car, leave there for days or weeks at a time, and pull out when I have 15 minutes to play with it on my lunch breaks. The ECX Smash looked like a good option, because it uses most of the same parts as my Losi Mini Desert Truck so I wouldn't have to stock up on a new set of spare parts, it has better ground clearance and is less finicky than my MDT, and it's small and lightweight. Also, because it shares a platform with my MDT, I won't feel like I'm missing anything if it sits in my car for weeks and I don't get to play with it, because I can just play with my MDT instead. And it cost a heck of a lot less, too -- I scored an in-store-demo model on eBay for $40. Since I already have a lot of experience with this platform from tinkering with my MDT, I cut straight to the chase and upgraded only the parts that I knew would bri...