8ight T conversion
 

Hey guys,

Just a little show and tell. I got an 8ight T a few days ago and converted it to brushless, of course. Right now, I'm running a Feigao 9XL with 4S and 5S lipo with a Mamba Max controller. I made the motor mount out of 7075 aluminum and incorporates the center diff bulk and motor mount. I'm running 16/44 gearing on 4S and 13/44 on 5S.

Some pics....

My 8ight T with 40 series Moabs
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/DSCF0272.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...DSCF0257-1.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/DSCF0260.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/DSCF0261.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/DSCF0264.jpg

I do have to say, that I haven't been shy about the fact that I wasn't crazy about the 8ight buggy. I also didn't like the 8ight Ts that I've driven that were owned by others; but being lazy, I left mine as it was out of the box and ran it. It actually did pretty well. I then put some 100,000 weight fluid in the center diff and it just came to life for me. It handle very well. It takes the rough stuff as though it were floating, very much like the X-Ray buggy does. It turns on a dime and likes being driven with the rear end, which really helps on our tight track. What can I say? I like the 8ight T.

I also have to comment about the stock tires that came with the truck. I love them. The truck is very controllable in the loose stuff and it down right hooks up on the tight stuff. I'm going to get more.

In case you're wondering what the silver box next to the esc is, it's a cap bank. It contains four 330uf, 35v capacitors. Don't ask me the technicals of why. All I can say is that I can't get my esc over 130*F now, no matter how hard I run it. I ran it for over an hour straight tonight and all it got was warm.

You serious? the caps help you keep the esc cooler?

Great news. Odd, but great news.

Great work man!

Got more of these caps? i read you bought a bunch of them?

Nice screws in your fan BTW! :p

sweet. doesnt look right with the moabs tough.

Serum, I really don't know what to tell you about the caps. I'm an electronics moron. I just thought that there must be something to it when Frank at S&T told me that they recommend the addtion of extra caps to the Quarks when running them in large scale vehicles.

I don't completely understand it, but I will say that the esc is running cooler. I don't think that I'm running conservative gearing either. In fact, I'm running higher gearing than I've ever been able to run with the MM.

I don't know if it's comparing apples and oranges, but with the Muggy and the large 40 series Mashers, I had to gear 9/46, when running 5S just to keep the truck from killing the controller with cogging. At 10/46, I did kill the controller. In the 8ight, I was running the 40 series Moabs (larger and heavier than the Mashers and making the 8ight weigh in at 13lbs.) and I was able to gear 12/44 on 5S.

Don't ask me for any explanations, because I can't give any. I just know that the caps made a difference.

The 8ight does look funny with those tires, but boy does it eat up the rough terrain. My running buddy was teasing me about them saying that if I flipped the truck over, it could probably drive it upside down.

Thanks Aangel; sounds promising. yeah, you most likely can drive it upside down..

These wheels.. Bashingracer.. sounds like an oxymoron to me..

Oh, I don't race with them. I race with the stock Losi tires. Those big tires suck when it comes to handling.

Looks like a very nice conversion, and it actually makes me like a Losi product!

Just not my choice of Vehicle.

Believe me, I'm not a dedicated fan of Losi. There are things that I don't like about the Losi 8ight. Just little things that I've noticed so far that strike me as odd. For example, when you screw into the center diff bulks to mount them to the chassis, you are actually screwing into plastic (or whatever the material is). It's like that on the 8ight buggy too. On my Sportwerks vehicles, the plastic bulks have steel inserts in them and make for a very rigid mount. This was the primary reason that I had to fabricate the sort of motor mount that I did. When I mounted the motor mount to the stock diff bulk, it wasn't nearly rigid enough, as it was on my Sportwerks vehicles.

Also, I've noticed that the screws that hold the front and rear bulks on the chassis are also screwing into plastic. Again, on my Sportwerks, even the plastic pieces have provisions for the use of nuts and there are optional aluminum threaded pieces that can be used. I think that these are going to be problem points for me, since I'm going to be using my 8ight for racing and bashing (playing bumper cars on the track with my friends).

I'm going to have to make an aluminum front bulk for the center diff so that it will be stronger and hopefully someone will release an aluminum version of the front and rear bulks.

These are just the things that I've noticed so far. I'm sure that there will be more. Of course, these things are also weight saving features and since the 8ight T is made for racing and not bashing, I can see the logic; but for what I hoped would be an all around truck, I am a bit disappointed.

Last night while running on the track, I hit the big triple wrong and landed on the very top of the last hill and my chassis hit right in the middle. It bent. Not much, but it did bend. When I put a straight line across the length of the chassis, you can see it.

On the postive side, this truck handles like a dream. As I said, I wasn't crazy about the 8ight buggy, but the truck was a very pleasant surprise.

The only advise that I can give to new 8ight T owers is not to mess with the factory setup until after you drive it on the track so that you'll know what you need to change. Don't just assume that your last setup is what you will need with this truck. All I had to change was the diff fluid in the center. Everything else is untouched. Even my friend who had the 8ight buggy conversion says that the buggy didn't handle anything like the truck does. The only other thing that I'm thinking about changing right now is to move the spacers on the rear hingepin studs to the front to lengthen the wheelbase by another 1/10 of an inch or so. The 8ight T has so much steering that I think that it can afford to sacrifice a tad bit in favor of even more stable running. We shall see.

Glassdoctor, if you see this, are you running the springs that came on your truck or did you opt for one of the optional sets?

The conversion looks good!

I agree the moabs look a bit funny.

I'm guessing the caps take a bit of the load (particularly instantaneous power draw from the motor) thereby reducing the strain on the ESC.

I'd like to know more about how you wired it up and the value of the caps.

Thanks!

Pro.

Yea, on the Jammin, the center mounts have steel posts that the top and bottom screws go into.

On the parts that are plastic, the screws are HUGE and the plastic is hard.

Pro, one of the things that I do love about the MM is it's design from the standpoint of the placement of the components and connections. The thing is just plain easy to work on.

Anyway, I'm using 4 cap banks in all of my conversions now. I used a piece of 1/8" copper tubing and flattened it in a vice. This made for some pretty rigid copper strips. I then soldered the caps to these strips. After taking precautions to avoid a short, I mounted the cap banks into a piece of 1/2" aluminum channel and then encased the caps in home made thermal epoxy. Besure to take not of what is + and what is - before you pour the epoxy.

I use devcon two part epoxy and mix it with aluminum oxide powder. The aluminum oxide effectively turns the epoxy into a thermally conductive block when it hardens. This is a good alternative to Arctic Alumina as it is very inexpensive and you don't feel to badly about having mixed to much.

I then used a couple of short pieces of 12 gauge wire to make the connection from the cap bank to the under side of the pcb on the esc. I soldered the wires from the cap bank directly to the power leads sticking out of the bottom of the pcb on the MM. All I can say is that it works.

supra, oh, the screws are 4mm screws and they are substantial. The plastic is also hard. Very hard. I'm assuming that all of the plastic parts are made of the same material. Last night I slapped the heck out of the wall in a turn on the track. When it happened, I thought to myself, "something broke." Well, all that happened was that I bent the steel hinge pin stud, but none of the plastic parts even cracked. It is tough stuff. I just know that steel would have been tougher.

All in all, I'd still by the truck if I had it to do again. It actually makes me look good on the track. If those that might be offended would forgive the analogy, I'd say that the 8ight truck is like the XB8 of truggies.

Nice work AAngel! How is the left to right balance witht the single pack set up? I have really been eyeing the 8ight T at the hobby shop, and most of the guys racing have gone to it.

bdebde, the battery placement has always been a concern for me, with regard to its effect on the way that the vehicle flies over the jumps. Oddly enough, the 8ight almost seems like someone was thinking, "hey, we should design this to work with a single pack instead of two." If you look at the chassis from the top, you can see that the center diff is crammed to the right side of the truck/buggy. There is barely room for the motor. Well, maybe not barely, but it's not as roomy on the right as it is with most setups. Consequently, this give you lots of room to bring the battery closer in line with the center line of the chassis.

I was doing one of those, "let's see how it runs" tests last night; and I was jumping our triple without regard for setting up for the following turn. I was aiming for maximum air, to see how the truck behaved. I was getting a good 8' off of the round, maybe more. It was very stable and flat in the air. If I hit the jump anywhere near straight, the truck would land on at least two tires every time. When taking jumps in a manner that minimizes the time that you spend not accelerating, you'd swear that the balance was 50/50 left to right. In short, it's perfect. In fact, I really don't know how you would put two packs on the 8ight, without having one hanging over the side of the mud guard on the right side, completely screwing up the balance.

Yeah, I noticed how far over to the right the center diff was. Also hoping (as you confirmed), to be able to get good balance with the larger batteries. I don't like anything over 5000mah in the buggy because it gets too heavy on one side. Looks like the 8ight T is gonna be next on my list. CR$P, may have to sell one.

Hmm, I would not say X-ray. It's Losi, plain and simple: Good ideas with not the best quality to go into it.

But the thing that got me was when you said you bent a chassis. I reccommend then installing the motor mount as it seems the middle is taking all the force with the F and R chassis braced forcing it there.

Awesome conversion AAngel!! Really nice. I am surprised that the extra caps made such a big difference... but its great that the temps are staying so low for you.

I think he deserves a little bit of good luck for a while considering his history lately. :)

Brian, thanks for the words of encouragement.

I think that I did just tweak my chassis. It's odd in that it still tracks straight. I haven't had to adjust anything to compensate. Maybe someone else out there with an 8ight can put a straight edge to theirs and see if the center is bowed up a tiny bit.

As for my comparison of the 8ight T to the XB8, I meant it. To me, the XB8 is the easiest driving buggy out there. I had plenty of experience with the 8ight buggy, and the truggy doesn't drive anything like it. Icouldn't drive the buggy to save my life, but I love the truck.

If I did tweak the chassis on that jump, I'm not to worried about it. The motor mount is fine. Nothing moved. Didn't strip any gears or anything. Besides, I'm not the first to have bent a chassis on that jump. To be honest, it's just plain stupid. The guy that was working the jump, when the track was reconfigured, had it in his head that he wanted BIG air going over it. The problem is that with the way it is angled, there isn't much room for error.

hey,
just wanna tell you that there is a big problem with rear outher hinge pins.


also, this may not be a nice thing to say about losi
( i do still love losi aswell) but,
quality is nowhere near xray.
i have two t2'007 to compare 3 different losi too, the losi's are all not as nice.
( 1 XXX-T MF 2, 1 XXX-4 G+, 1 8IGHT-TRUGGY)

remember that this is my opinion. thank you.

After I made the comment, I knew that I shouldn't have. All I was saying was that, to me, the 8ight truck is as pleasant to drive as an X-Ray buggy.

I don't know what you call a big problem, but I did bend one, and I had to knock the heck out of it to bend it. Even still, the truck continued to run and replacing it was no big deal. Besides, I would have much rathered bend the hingepin that break an arm, or worse. If the hingepin is the weak link, then so be it. When you smack something, something has to give.

Is anyone out there running an 8ight T or similar truck with a 9XL/MM combo on 5S lipo? If so, can you let me know what gearing you are running? I put some pretty big tires on my 8ight T for bashing and would like an idea of a good starting point for the gearing. I don't want to fry my MM AGAIN, until I get my Quark back from S&T.

i see your point about the driving.
i'm more about the mechanic aspect then the driving.
i kinda bought the 8-t because mike was building one for himself and he will sell all the needed parts in the store.
on the xray i will try to do as much as possible myself.
dont have a mill tough but i'm sure i can find someone who does have one.


lots of people bend hinge pins on the 8-t.
there are new harder one's from losi but those just snap.
the new one's are grey.
but yeah, better a pin then an arm or something.

OK guys, I need some help. I went out to the track today. My setup was a 9XL with the Mamba Max on 4S lipo geared 16/46 with the stock Losi truggy tires. After 30 minutes of running, the esc was at 115*F and the motor was at 190*F.

I just don't know what's up. I don't think I'm undergeared. Any body have any advise? Maybe I should go back to the 8XL, because the 16T pinion is the largest that I have.

Sounds like it's overgeared drop a tooth on the pinion.?

Yea, if it was undergeared, everything would be hot, over just the motor. That's how I learned it.

If the losi tires are 5.7'' diametre then your geared for high 30's maybe 40mph aren't you? So I would gues overgeared slightly, for racing. 30 minutes is a long time to be on the track, if you were driving hard the whole time, especially for a feigao.
Was it not very fast, if you say you might go back to the 8xl.

I don't think anything is wrong, Anthony. Actually, I am surprised the Feigao could hold out for 30 minutes in race conditions without going over 200 degrees(I have de-magnatized Feigaos in less time on the track). I would say your set up about as good as you can be with a Feigao motor.

I guess I'm just going to have to hunker down and get a Neu. I've just been avoiding it because the Mamba Max is running so well.

I didn't think I was overgeared, because if I was, the esc should be at more than 115. Although the added caps did bring the temps down, I don't think that the caps would keep the esc cool in an overgeared situation. Besides, I did try gearing down, and the motor got hotter.

I only mentioned the 8XL, if it happened to be that I was undergeared. I figured that I could go with the lower turn motor and the gearing would come in line.

Well, there's that cute little Neu 1512 2Y on ebay right now.

Oh, I forgot to mention...the 8ight truck is wicked fast on the track with the 9XL. I think it's perfect for our track. The way it's setup now, when I get on it, it's only on the verge of out of control, and it's still one of the fastest vehicles on the track, if not the fastest.

hotandcold runs that motor in his truggy(crt). the one on ebay is also a great price. I was going to pick that up for my buggy when I bought the 1521 from him. For that motor you will want to go back to 5s though.

Config Help
 

Hey! Any suggestions for motor/esc configuration? Got the 8ight T. Just ordered the motor mount. I have a Novak HV Maxx 6.5 kit. Will that power the 8ight T sufficiently or should I move to something else? Also, the HV 6.5 uses a 3.2mm rotor. The 8ight T spur is 32 pitch. I can't seem to find a 32 pitch pinion that fits a 3.2 mm rotor. Can anyone point me to a solution for this problem?

Thanks!

3.2mm=1/8" and the 8t has a MOD1 pitch so look for the 1/8" mod1 pinions I'm not sure how that motor will work in a truggy I have no experience with them? :)

1/8" Mod1 pinions available in RC-Monster store.

I assumed the losi uses a MOD1 spur though?

you guys have seen the 8ight motorplate which is in stock now?

yes losi is mod 1 gears aswell.
also that novak spin about 70k rpm.
in a truggy you need from 25000 rmp towards 40000 rpm. depends on gearing, you cant gear the novak right in a direct drive truck.

HV 6.5 in the 8ight T
 

Fantastic! Thanks guys! Are you sure there isn't any way to gear the HV 6.5 for the 8ight T? It sure would be nice to save a little money.

No, not recommended. It would run very hot. You can test it, and report back..

We call you testdummy..