Running the medium blue in back and white hard in front with stock oil weight. With the Anacondas on ashpalt it is rock solid and hard to flip. With bow ties, dirt hawgs etc on grass it flip pretty easy and is a little bouncy on the rough stuff. I tend to run a little bit of pre-load with the rears just a touch higher than level and the fronts a bit more as the front tends to bottom out when braking. If you want I can check on the mounting holes used for the front and rear.

AHH! I just realized I've left out the HPI MT2. That one would be good because I am 100% sure my lhs carries parts for them. I'll start my research.

The HPI MT2 is a solid platform for sure. I know because I have/had one. However, if you do get one, make sure it is the 18SS version. The hardened steel diff gears are a MUST for BL power, and I found I needed the aluminum diff housing as well.

I was just thinking this model as well. The LS10 and the MT2 look very similar and I am wondering if anyone has experience with either. The HB and HPI are same company I wonder if the LS10 mount would work on the MT2.

I've been looking into these two cars for a long time and they may make a fun fall project.

The plastic pull-out servo/radio tray on the MT2 looks like it would present a challenge and not sure if there is a diff or slipper in the middle.

The slipper on the LS10/GT10 looks like something that would actually be kinda handy for the BL conversion, especially with the plastic center gear.

The MT2 uses a center slipper with Savage spur gears (Mod1). My original conversion used 1/4" aluminum angle to mount the motor, and it also had a screw tieing the motor mount to the center bulkheads.

Then later on I got fancy and made a whole drop-in center mount out of aluminum. It was heavy, but worked.

Adding a typical RC-Monster motor mount wouldn't work too well, I think, as the screw holes are in odd locations and I don't think a motor mount would line up straight.

I have seen a couple of guys convert B44 into a T44 that looked pretty cool and seems to be a solid platform.. I don't know what all they changed but I saw a list on here or rctech showing what all they replaced...

I ran the same setup for a while and had similar problems on our local clay track. With the white F & blue R spring setup the car would clip something on the inside of a turn and the car would flip. A good test is to place the car on a flat surface and lift one front wheel. With the white springs you will notice that the shock on the wheel you lift will not compress. This is why the car flips. I found with stock shocks I could only run the Blue F & Grey R spring combo. I would the play with higher damping pistons to keep the car from bottoming too much.

In the end I did the Traxxas Revo shocks on the front and Ofna LX 1 front shocks on the rear. Now I can run soft springs for stable handling and use the larger damper to control big hits. I have a post about these mods: http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11153

This mod is the ballz for the .5. It solves alot of handling problems. The susp is now very nice, plush but doesn't bottom out over good sized jumps. The springs are widely available and in good assortments to allow a lot of tunability as well. I think Mike even has it on his ext arm .5 in the store's pics. I showed him mine at the track and he was impressed by what an improvement it was over stock.

Other note: A neighbor of mine bought a used 18SS from the LHS, and I went bashing around w/ him w/ it. Gotta saw I wasn't impressed by it. Maybe it was a bit abused, but the stupid ballends kept breaking and even a stub axel snapped when I very lightly slid into an obstacle. We (I, he was a noob) had to fix it several times that day. Like I said, maybe it was just a lemon, maybe its just that it was a smelly slow nitro, but I didn't like that truck so much. I would not trade it for the .5 by any means, esp given the abuse I've put the .5 thru w/o much problem.

The only thing I'm not so hot on on the .5 (besides the shocks) are the F upper arms. Mine haven't broke, but the small turnbuckle is a bit bent. Been fine for a while now, but if there is a flaw that would be it. Oh yeah, the servo saver... prone to breakage if its mounted in the outer ackerman, inner ackermann and its fine.

Every car has its weak spots. I am leaning towards the OFNA atm. It seems smaller so it would be lighter and faster.

What about a Kyosho DBX or DST? Has anyone come up with a motor mount for one of those?

I've gone through at least 4 upper front turnbuckles. I even tried a Ti pair and they snapped just as easily. (I can never understand why people say Ti is stronger because every piece I've ever upgraded to Ti has snapped or bent more easily that the Al or steel one it replaced and I just end up going back to the stock metal anyway)

I killed the servo saver on the crt.5 but then just replaced it with the upgraded aluminum one from Nitrohouse (the Al upgrade parts are pricey but the quality is really impressive).

Has anyone tried the extended A-arms Mike just put up on the site? I am tempted, but no sure how much of a difference .6" is going to make. And if the upper A-arm is now made out of Al and I snap a turnbuckle in the threads I am going to have to dremel a very expensive piece of metal to get it out rather than a cheap piece of plastic.

I've had the same problem with the upper arm turnbuckles both steel and ti. IMO the ti did snap easier than the steel. I have also had them snap off flush with the upper arm and had to cut a screw driver flat into the turnbuckle to remove it. I think I'm going to try the Lunsford 4mm x 23mm turnbuckles next and just drill out the plastic parts from 3.5mm to 4mm.

Anyone seen a steel 4mm x 23 - 25mm turnbuckle?

I was toying with that idea as well and it sounds like it could be a very good protective move and pretty easy to do.

How about these:
http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...ducts_id/13309

If Hudy Steel isn't up for the task I don't know what is!!!! (Not sure if they ar 3 or 3.5mm though)

Well skip the lunsford titanium hinge pins - they are as soft as butter...

The stock steel are much better...

Yeah - and 5 times cheaper - I just don't get it...... None of the Lunsford stuff I have bought over the years has been strong and they constantly advertise how much stronger their stuff is over the stock steel.

As far as this thread goes - it really seems like the CRT.5 is the way to go - the 1/10 4WD truck market seems pretty dry and most of the models out there are 2+ years old and don't benefit from the latest in technology with captured hinge pins and the such.