93dabeast

My Feedback: (1)

i hate u lol cause now i want one of those but am too broke to buy one right now lol.

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

RC is always a love/hate relationship

I love/hate the guys at PZ for putting out so many cool micro planes. I have to have one of every modelt they come out with[:@]

stussy2870

Hey Guys- Im new here and new to the MLST2 MoneyPit

so a brief history- Got a Raminitor for Xmas, was like... holy Crap this thing is cool!! Drove it around my house a bit and started asking questions about modifications. I got a few diff answers but the one that stood out most- Dont mod it, Sell it and get a mini LST2LE at minimum. Its more durable, comes w/ better equipment etc etc..

So i did just that....

NOW- the not so proud owner of a miniLST2LE
Ive had it just over a week Yes 1 week and this is what has already gone wrong
1) Arrived w/ a Dead Lipo- just great since i had ZEROexerience w/ these batts I went and bought 2 more from EbayOtherwise i'd still be waiting to drive it
2) Dead Servo- Maybe 7 full batterys have been run through the truck to this point ALLINDOORS
3) Dead ESC- Just last night Reverse and Brake quit working... Yippeee.. Now it pretty much dead in the water

Im pretty sure HH is sending me a new Batt- I had to take pics etc..and im sure that a new servo is coming- got the confirmation email... Now im just waiting on the ESC

.....sigh.

Anyway The Reply to 93Dabeast
Is that a direct replacement to the stock servo savor? What else would i need? I want to "Beef" up the servo situation WITHOUTgoing Exotec or whatever its called. I dont want to dump hundreds and hundreds of dollars into it, im already sunk for about 70.00 over the purchase price (Spool Center gear- after Mini-T Ball Diffscrew broke whiletightening it down for the10th time, Mini-T Dual Disk Slipper and 2 battery packs.) At the very most, 2 replacement servo's but as cheap as possible the Mortgage has a slight edge over High Torq servos

Thanks to all who read and respond!!

Paul

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Paul,
Yes you are in the money pit. I wish I could help you but I sold mine a long time ago when I realized the piece of junk I bought.
I now have The Photon V2 brushless buggy and additional on-road kit. See my post above. I only spent $144 each and they came with brushless motors, mamba esc's and 3s lipos with decent chargers that I use as back ups for my good charger.

What was your purchase price? I would say you can still get out while the gettin is good.

93dabeast

My Feedback: (1)

yea it was a direct drop in. i dont know how people are just straight up breaking these things. i have had mine for a short while now and i dish out plenty of abuse and it hasnt broken on me yet.

tylerjackson

My Feedback: (1)

I just got mine back! Its completely stripped down ready for some modding!

Lilredmachine

hehe.

Money pit.

Everything is aftermarket apart from a couple of bits. This doesn't break. Ever.

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Put an open policy on the wallet
Just kidding, I look forward to your success and fun running.
Keep us posted on progress, parts and prices.

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Lilredmachine,
Don't mean to be a pessimist, but that sure looks heavy and it may not break, but that aluminum sure will bend and it will be replacing time. I like RPM stuff better, because it is lighter and comes with a lifetime warranty. But I bet the don't make stuff for the MLST.

Anyway, that is an awesome truck and looks great and I bet it is very fast. Maybe not the best dirt racer though.

I wish I had a pic of my all aluminum Brushless TC3 from years ago. She was sweet.
But this is what 90% RPM and 10% aluminum looks like, with the aluminum in the right place. The chassis

stussy2870

Thanks for the reply wheelnut I dont really want out.. Thats the problem. Ugh... Every 5 or so years i get the bug and it puts a 2k spanking on a credit card, the wife wants to strangle me and im totally fixated on "fixing" it..

paid 189.00 for the Mini lst2 LE.. Pretty decent price so i wasnt complaining there...Im just dissapointed in the quality of the items that are in this truck. Kind of a kick in the *** when i think back to the Raminator- I ran about 10 packs through it, Never a problem, no servo issues, no esc issues, battery was strong etc etc. Igo to the Mini LST2LE for "upgraded"Mechanical and Performance parts and its just been problem after problem.

At this point im looking at upgrading the Servo's, The Steering linkage and the Servo Saver. Just want to find the best bang for teh buck combo on those items without going nutzo. I would love top dump more and more money into it to get it bullet-proof but is that really necessary for kicking this thing around my living room and an occasional romp through the grass??? i hope not.

stussy2870

lilred

What servo savers are on there? I see blue alum but are they "aftermarket"... did you change out servos etc?

Lilredmachine

They are stock servos. With a decent enough servo saver setup, they are surprisingly reliable. I have never blown one in my MLST or MLST2 in two years of ownership. Full mod list is:

Drivetrain:
GPM alloy front and rear gearbox cases
3 Racing center gearbox case
Mip lightened and hardened top gear
Hot racing alloy center spool
Topcad toughened spur
3 racing alloy slipper setup
Hot racing hardened pinion
GPM titanium center diff joints
GPM alloy diff outdrives
GPM steel center shafts
Hot racing Lightweight diff posi locking plate in rear diff
Monotuning lengthened dogbones (not presently fitted)
Alloy hexes

Chassis:
Integy X Evo carbon kit
3 racing chassis side rails
Integy carbon top plate
Integy wheely bar

Steering + suspension:
3 racing alloy steering setup
3 racing sway bar kit
Xspede 70mm alloy shocks with 25wt Trinity oil and standard Losi springs
Monotuning alloy 10mm wider track arms (not presently fitted)
3 Racing alloy steering knuckles
3 racing alloy c-hubs
GPM alloy shock towers
Atomic titanium steering link
Atomic titanium steering tie rods

Power system:
Wraith 7k motor
Quark Pro car 33a speedo
TP 2000mah 7.4v lipo
Deans connectors

Miscellaneous:
Hot racing hub adapters for running 2.2 rims (not presently fitted)
GPM alloy body posts
New Era wing mount
New Era wing

Any info you need should be in there.

Wheelnut, there is no way this truck is heavy enough to bend any of the aluminium parts fitted to it. Not even at the 50mph it is capable of with a 3s lipo and the 2.2s on the stock gearing. Maxx size trucks are a different matter, RPM is fine for bashing but the flex they have annoys me to the extent I don't run them on anything that is not a pure bash truck. As much as I enjoy variable suspension and steering geometry i like my truck to handle the same most of the time.

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

The little bit of flex you get on RPM won't be noticed in off road racing. I have done it many times and placed very well.

Lilredmachine

And I have never bent an aluminium part on a mini. I guess we just have to disagree huh? Incidentally it's a tad rich to comment that my off road mini has to much alloy when you had an all alloy TC3... Which is especially pointless. And heavy.

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

To rephrase your comment, we will have to agree to disagree

Yes, the TC3 was a HUGE $$$ Mistake. Though it made a nice show piece.

93dabeast

My Feedback: (1)

just added some new parts onto my mlst. i will take some pics later tonight when i get out of work.

stussy2870

Well- Because im apparently a degenerate, Horizon has asked that i now send ALLdefective parts back to them for "inspection". Is it really my fault that they put crap in these things? I know, there are probably just as many people without problems as there are with, i just happen to be on the unfortunate side. Im just blown away by how much crap has gone wrong..

So now, snail-mail out to Chicago, god knows how long it will take them to "test and determine"...and then im at the mercy of thier discression. Hopefully Joe QualityControl Tester has had his morning coffee and isnt pissed off b/c his kid kept him up all night.

This hobby is supposed to be fun isnt it??

sorry for the rant guys, i just needed to vent a little.

93dabeast

My Feedback: (1)

here are a few pics of mine

ISIRC10

Been reading up on this thread the past few days... and decided to ressurect my MLST2.
I got it back in '08 for 100 bucks used. There wasn't anything particulary wrong with it, a bent dogbone which I straightened out and a missing body and charger. I ran it around for about four times when one of the servo savers popped loose and got lost. I ran without it for maybe another five runs before I stripped the right servo. Then I shelved it. Now I have decided to convert to a singe servo setup, using a futaba high torque servo. While I am making the necessary parts for the conversion, I have decided to completely overhaul the thing, and am wondering if this setup would work and what it would yeild. I am trying to minimise the costs of the whole project so I went to the cheapo chinese place and looked around.

Motor: www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewItem.asp
ESC: www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewItem.asp
Battery: www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewItem.asp
(I have the 3s version of that battery allready if I need some more speed)

so, what do you think? I am looking for speeds between 25-35 mph, nothing ballistic. (I have a mamba T4 on 3s for that!) Will I be able to acheive that with this combo, or is 18A not enough for the ESC? should I look for a higher kV motor?

thanks for the input

93dabeast

My Feedback: (1)

i spoke too soon. one of my steering servos just took a crap. so the next mod for me will be the exotek single servo chassis:

http://www.exotekracing.com/EXOTEK_N...ONVERSION.html

FRENCHBLUE72

those hobbyking batterys take forever to arrive so be prepared..

stussy2870

How did the HobbyKing parts turn out? I was thinking of going thier "cheaper" brushless route. I dont need 50+mph and im getting tired of killing the stock ESC's running stock Frenzy's using a 1300 lipo.

ISIRC10

Well, I haven't ordered them yet... being winter, and many of my models were in need of repairs, I decided to kepp it and play around in the snow for a bit. for now, this project is living off of spares - or other equipment that is lying around. After some satisfying runs with a protoype of my single servo conversion, I decided to make a more sturdy version out of 1/8" delran... and got a bit carried away.

I redid the chasis, changing many of the aluminum peices to 1/8" lexan, which I had plenty of lying around. while I had the whole thing dissasembled, I decided to throw a brushless on it. I had a mamba and a feigao 380L 2800 kV motor vacant, so in they went, disregarding the obnoxiously disproportionate power system. For power, I used a 20c 1050mAh 3s lipo from hobbyking. A new aluminum motor mount was constructed, and everything was mounted neater, removing the mountain of electronics that the stock model had. I found the largest pinion that I had and gave it a go... speed was gps'd at 27.3mph, which was deceptively quick for such a small vehicle. Acceleration was ballistic, as it would wheelie even with a fairly loose center diff. run times were between 20-25 minutes, which was more than enough for my fingers to get cold. The steering was awesome, as my setup increased travel and removed slop (used aircraft fittings and had the second arm riding on a stainless steel ball bearing)

I understand that almost everything in the truck is overkill, but hey, it didn't cost me anything! sometime this summer I may go for the hobbyking deal, but probably get a large 380 sized can somewhere arounf 4000kV and run on 3s. The esc I posted probably wouldn't work so I am currently looking for other options - possibly a castle micro as their ESCs have always been good to me (as has their customer service)

Might post other updates/pictures if I have the time... will definitely post if I get a new setup ironed out...

stussy2870

Wow, thats pretty slick and Sick...

I have losi sending yet another ESC to replace the 2nd dead one that all of a sudden stopped going into Reverse and had ZERO brake. Once that one dies, which im sure it will, i will hit Hobby King for thie set up..

http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...idProduct=4213

http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...idProduct=7186

60 bucks Shipped for a Brushless setup- not too bad. Again, dont care for 50+mph... if it hits 30 i'll be more than happy. Not to mention, the faster it goes, the more crap will break so im also tryng to limit damage on both the truck and my wallet.


By they way, did that single servo conversion cost you 80+ to make?? LOL- Nice work on it, looks perfect i would expect you could probably sell that "conversion" for half the exotek and still put a couple of easy bucks in your pocket.

ISIRC10

yeah, I have heard good things about the hobbyking car ESCs... rebadged hobbywing if I remember right...

BTW, I think that exotec conversion thing is really stupid... I mean, yeah, it looks nice, but I can make a similar one out of aluminum (about $.50 material wise) and delran for even cheaper... and it's fairly easy to do, I used a drill press, jig saw, dremel, and some files to make it.

oh, that motor you have - you may want to consider buying one with a flat endcap in the front - that way you won't have to change the stock motor mount to accomodate the front bearing (If you are making your own motor mount, this shouldn't me much of an issue)

I am going to order a 1/8th scale conversion bl system from hobbyking (going in a 1/10th 4wd nitro tamiya buggy) next and might just throw a similar combo to yours in to save on shipping... right now, I am content with messing around with what I have.