Losi Brushless buggy tips
 

Been working on and racing my Losi for a while and I have been running brushless for several years and I thought I would share some tips I have applied to my Losi. Many of these tips are common knowledge but I figured may be some of these would be helpful to someone. Please feel free to add your own tips.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP2be0ztm2k
Buggy in action

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC05406.jpg

Tip #1

According to some, the reason the fan blades break is because small pebbles/rocks get into the ESC thru the top grill. To eliminate/reduce this from happening I took some plastic window screen, cut out a quarter size circle and glued it on top of the ESC grill. Keeps the smaller rocks out and still allows plenty of air flow.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/03220001.jpg

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/03220002.jpg

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/03220003.jpg
A little dab of silicone sealer or CA glue will hold the mesh in place.

Tip #2

Use small pieces of fuel tube to make small washers, these are placed on the ends of screws to help prevent them from falling off, keeps the threads clean and prevents anything from getting snagged on them.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/03220007.jpg

Tip #3

See picture above, the Losi uses smaller outer hub bearings (for lighter overall weight, but some find the bearings don't last as long and some prefer the extra duability of the standard size bearings. King Headz makes an alloy rear carrier that uses the larger 16x8 standard bearing, Integy also makes alloy carriers that use the larger bearing and is about half the price of the King Headz. Some say Integy quality is suspect but I have been using them on my buggy with no issues, you do have to open the hinge pin hole if you use it on a 2.0 Losi. I run the King Headz on my truggy and they are top notch.

Tips Continued
 

Tip #4

This is an old one but because of the way the shocks rotate they sometimes have a tendancy to unscrew the mounting bolts. The 2.0 buggy uses small set screws to hold the bolt in place, but you can also add a second screw to one of the unused holes to hold the bolt in place. This is the setup on my Losi 2.0 truggy.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/03220008.jpg


Tip #5

Low profile wiring. The stock ESC wires come straight out of the bullets and can interfere with the body on some buggies. But to have them come out at a 90 degree angle just drill out the little hole in the side of the bullet and solder the wired into this hole instead.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/03220009.jpg


Tip #6

Radio antennas can take a beating, the little rubber caps usually don't last very long. A 2.4gig antenna can be much shorter than AM/FM antenna, but they can stil llose there caps. Take some shrink tube and place it over your antenna wire and antenna tube, heat it up and your good to go.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/03220011.jpg

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Tip #7

Mud guards, these help keep dirt and mud from getting into your shocks, rear hubs, cvd's, a-arms, driveshaft, etc. These can be easily made from some polycarbonate sheet. I bought some online, but you can even use scrap left over from the trimmings off one of your bodies. This one is shaped to clear the wheels on one side and the body on the other.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/03220013.jpg

Tip #8

Traxxas brushless E-revo ESC mount, this is a well made and secure way to hold down your MMM ESC. It mounts to the Losi battery tray very nicely and even has a place for the switch. The mount only cost a few bucks.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/03220014.jpg

Tip #9

The battery wire and ESC power leads can get tangled or rub against the center driveshaft. I made a small lexan piece that is bolted to the center diff top plate and helps keep the wires from getting sucked into the driveshaft.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC05988.jpg

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Tip #10

If you use the Losi battery tray this is a must. Add a strip of 3M Dual Lock velcro to the bottom of the tray and to your battery. This and the battery straps will keep the battery from sliding forward under heavy impacts and breaking the front of the tray. Dual Lock is much better for this application because it has better shear strength than regular hook & loop velcro. Dual Lock will not move verticaly (shearing motion) where as hook & loop will give slightly which could cause tray damage.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC05989.jpg

I certaintly appreciate the the side solder action on the bullets, That'll make much tidier wire arrangement. Good thinkin' and Thank You !

hey nice tips there going to help me alot!i just have one question what conversion kit should i get for my losi 1.0.Thanks :mdr:

Losi Battery tray, and Rc-monster motor mount.

Great deals on the tekno v3 8ight 1.0 kits.. way better option iMO and the best motor mount on the market.

Best 8ight building tips ever! I am building my 2.0E and your tips are of great help. Thanks.

I am glad this info is useful for some of you. I learned a lot from these forums, the rest from asking questions at the track and a lot of trial and error. I am not saying these are the best solutions, just some ideas that work for me and may work for others.

More Tips:

Losi uses some super strong loctite on the wheel nuts from the factory, and for a good reason. The Losi wheel nuts seem to want to fall off at the worst time (during a race). So I found a couple of things that may help. Here are a couple of sets of Wheels nuts that will fit on the Losi hubs. The red ones are from ThunderTiger and have nylon locking rings in them. The black ones are from HPI and have serrations in them that help hold them on. They are relatively cheap, I use the ThunderTiger Wheel nuts myself and they work great, the nylon will wear out eventually, but like I said they are pretty cheap. Here are the part numbers: TTRPD1865 (ThunderTiger) and HPI87519 (HPI).

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/01050010.jpg

Another Tip, well not really a Losi tip but I am using the new Tekin T8 motor in my buggy. The Tekin motor features solder on tabs for connecting the wires, I like this feature a lot. I had problems with some of my Neu motors with the wires failing from vibration where they exited the can. On the older Neu motors the wire exited out of relatively large holes and the wires could rub on the endbell cover or vibrate and cause internal shorts. The tabs eliminate this potential problem area. Some people attach the wires to the rear of the can, this looks cleaner but what I found is that the wires can pull on the tabs when the buggy lands from a jump or hits bumps. The wires don't look very heavy but they are pretty thick, made of copper (heavy) and the force of a 1/8 buggy landing hard can generate a lot of momentum. If you route the wires over the motor can they will be supported by the can and if they do move they pull on the tabs towards the supporting reinforcement board (not away).

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...01050012-1.jpg
Showing how the wires can be mount toward the rear or over the can.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/01050013.jpg
If mounted toward the rear the momentum of the wires can pull the tabs away from the fiberboard support and they may fail.

Shark do you have an idea to support the rear end of the motor? Losi's support fits only Losi's 39mm dia. Xcelorin motor, when use a CC Neu or Tekin(42mm), the Losi support will conflict with the motor can and thus have to be removed, leaving the motor hanging far on the mount. The worse thing is, the mount has only two screws to hold the motor, and the contact area covers only half of the front endbell, the 2 screws will take HUGE force when landing hard, also the screw holes of the front endbell might be stripped. (I was considering to purchase a RCM mount to replace the Losi)

As a temporary solution I applied some A+B epoxy resin mixed with cotton fiber between the rear endbell and the chassis. but when adjusting gear mesh the motor height changes, that drove me nuts.

Do you have an idea to better support the motor while keep the mesh adjustment easy(one of the few major advantage of Losi kit) ? Thanks.

himalaya, I use a modded Losi rear motor support on both my Tekin T8 and CastleNeu motors. I posted a "how to" on another site, I will try to locate the post and if I can't I will look for the pictures and post here. You are correct, with those big heavy motors hanging just by the front endbell, you are putting a lot of stress on the endbell and motor mount.

Please do ! I would like to read that as well for my applications. Thanks.

+1 on the tabs being pulled away from the support wall...i soldered my 1700T8 in my rc8t with the wires going away from teh can and the last solder tab worked its way loose from the support wall...it also popped the rivet holding the tab onto the support....once I get my combo back form tekin i'm definitely soldering the wires OVER the motor...

I couldn't find my original post so I'll explain it again. First you need a small sanding drum, below is a picture of a kit sold at Lowes, but you can buy the indivdual sanding drums at your local hardware store for a few bucks. You need one that is about 1 1/2" or 2" across (as close to the size of your motor can as possible). Use a slow speed (so you don't melt the plastic) and heavy gloves for safety.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...andingdrum.jpg
Sanding drum kit

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC05340.jpg
Chuck it in a drill press (best way) or you can use a hand drill.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC05347.jpg
Use a silver Sharpie to mark the area that will need to be taken down.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC05346.jpg
Bolt the support onto the chassis and slide the motor in and out a few times. It will drag on the brace and scrape off the silver where it rubs.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC05349.jpg
Using the scrape marks as a guide grind off some of the plastic a little at a time, test the fit and reapply the sharpie if necessary to see the high spots. Be sure to use heavy gloves when working with a sanding drum.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC05351.jpg
Go slow and test fit several times until you get it so the motor will slide in without too much force yet still be snug to provide support to the motor.

I just use double sided foam mounting tape between the motor and the chassis. The chassis will flex naturally, and imo, you don't want the motor to get in the way of that. I also use the same 3mm screws the mount the spur gear to the center diff to mount the motor, and they have worked great.

Shark,Thanks for posting the pictures !
The question is now where do I aquire some of these "motor support braces"
I looked on Losi's site in the Hop ups,optional & parts list and see them no where ?
Thanks.

They come in the Losi conversion kit. Can also be purchased seperate from the losi conversion kit. # is LOSA4462. Come with 2 other pieces also.

Wonderfully pictured explanation, Many thanks Shark.

Losi please make motor supports with several thickness to fit mainstream 36mm and 42mm motors.

Bondonutz, I order them from Impaktrc. They carry a lot of hard to find Losi E-parts and have pretty good prices.

Here is the url, looks like you get the bottom, top plates and the motor support brace for under $6.

http://www.impaktrc.com/product_info...oducts_id=3196

I agree 100% that chassis flex is a good thing. I was a K-boy (Kyosho) for the longest time, but I tried a Losi and couldn't believe how well it handled. I attribute some of this to the flex-tuned chassis. You probably don't want to bolt the rear of the motor down but the way the Losi brace is designed, well it allows a little sliding action when the chassis flexes. I did some eyeball testing and put some pressure on the chassis too see where the most bending was occuring, and it appears the most flexible point was just in front of the rear bulkhead brace and well short of the center diff. Even with the Losi motor brace in place the chassis could be flexed with no problems. I mean if you think about it, would you mount a nitro engine in a buggy just using the two front engine mounting bolts? A nitro motor is held down to chassis even more so than any brushless setup I have ever seen, and the chassis seems to flex just fine. And to have an electric motor that weights close to a pound just held by the front endbell and two tiny 3mm bolts and then slamming it down from 6 feet in the air over and over, just boggles my mind.

I think I'm going to pick up some of those wheel nuts. I was testing my 8T yesterday at the track. I was coming down the back straight away approaching a big jump when my front left wheel decided to come off. The wheel hit the jump and flew! the truck cartwheeled over the ramp. Luckily I found the nut and was able to get some more practice in.

big thanks !

can you guys tell me which modifications are necessary to fit the mamba monster and the 2650kv motor? I currently have a xcelorin and it is completely plug and play!

Excellent Thread!

For motor screws, use the same screws that hold the differentials together. You can also get the motor wires to point in pretty much any direction you choose (so they don't hit the body). Since the endbell rotates 120 degrees and the motor mount screw locations are 90 degrees apart, there are actually 12 possible directions to point the wires.

Nice!!! How did you attach the ESC? Zip ties?

Yes. You can also buy the Mamba Monster hold down bracket which is made from Traxxas.