converting a XB8 to brushless
 

I am wanting to get an 8th scale buggy to convert to brushless. have any of you guys converted an xray XB8? any pros or cons with going with that buggy? any suggestions would be great.

thanks,
Bryan

It's a standard 1/8 buggy design so it will be the same as many others. How extreme is the center diff offset in the Xray?

Here's the basic options for conversions:

1. motor over the center diff and saddle pack battery... for this you would want to move the diff to the center line of the car. I also moved the diff forward, allowing the battery packs to fit in behind the diff on my 777.


2. motor goes where the rx pack/throttle servo were... battery pack where the nitro motor/pipe were. Like my 8ight....

here's a thread with some pics etc of mine
http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5572

also check out many others here like BrianG's Hyper8 that he's working on for example...

Is it that difficult to convert a 1/8 buggy? It's a bit worrying.

To do it right? Yes. ;)

The motor on one side, battery on the other is not much work...

The motor in the center and saddle pack battery is a lot of work....

With truggies, both layouts are easy.... putting the motor up front.

I'm planning to get a new MBX-5R buggy. I thought of putting the motor on one side and the batteries in the other side, for the lowest cg, but then I thought that the weight will not be distributed equally. The 1940 motors weigh something like 250-300g and I'm planning to use 6s lipos which will disturbe the balance drastically. So putting the motor in the center with 3s in one side and 3s in the other side is the best way.
Any tips?

On the motor side you would have the servo, and you could also put the ESC on the motor side. One other thing you could do is offset the center diff more to the side that the motor is on, pushing the motor further from the center, and allowing the batteries to be closer to the center. This would redistribute the weight, and if done properly, could allow for a super-low CG and perfect right/left balance.

Wow. 6s in a buggy is very unnecesary. But pobably really fun :)

If you are going 6s you sre probably not planning on racing it as it would be too much power. If your not planning to race a little imbalance is not the end of the world. It has to be pretyy far off balance for you to notice it not flying straight.

there seems to be a lot of concern with the spur gear, metal vs plastic. From what I have gathered it seems that plastic is the way to go but there are limited choices or unavailable for certin cars. does anyone know if there is a plastic spur gear that will work for the XB8? is it that big of a concern as long as you get the mess right?

I think Mike @ RCM will have to machine you a custom adaptor for your diff for the kyosho spurs to fit..

I just picked up a lightly used XB8 myself. If you don't beat me to it, I'll post picks of the conversion when I'm done. Hopefully, I'll be able to knock it out this weekend.

Bshelton and AAngel,

I'm hoping to do a BL conversion of an XRAY buggy soon, myself. I'd certainly be interested in reading about and seeing photos of you progress.

Glassdoctor,

When you moved your center diff on the 777, did you have to add holes to the chassis? Also, were your center drive shafts still the correct length?

I'm actually planning to use 6s to beat up someone I know who happens to brag about making the highest speedruns at our track and that no one is able to give him and equal match. He is using nitro ( if you still have an idea about this outdated technology), too.

A guy here by the neckname " virusss" was able to push his LSP-R to 50mph+ with only a 1930/8 and 4s TrakPower lipos.

If that setup made the heavy MT go this far, I wonder what a setup like a 1940/7 + 6s 4900mah FlightPower is gonna push the poor MBX-5R to?..:)

Yep... I had to put new holes in the chassis. You should see how many holes are in the 777 chassis.... I did two different layouts on the same car, lol. But it works great...

If you move the diff over a bit to center it up the driveshafts will be fine. I need to modify mine though when I moved the diff forward. i used a truggy piece for the rear driveshaft. It was a hotbodies lightning stadium rear axles I think.... longest one I could find. Then I shortened the front dogbone to the correct length, homemade syle :)

Glassdoctor,
did you have to machine any parts for the losi 8 that you converted or did a plastic spur bolt up? I dont have the xray yet but a buddy of mine is getting rid of his. I originally wanted an 8 but I have not found one at a decent price.