XTM xlb 1/7 scale buggy build
 

I recently picked up a XTM XLB 1/7th scale buggy on a whim, I got a really good deal on it and it came with a two bags full of extras and spares. I soon started tearing into stuff and trying to find out about the weaknesses of the buggy. My plans are to make it brushless with a MMMv3, Castle 1520 1600KV and 6s lipos. I already have my electronics set aside, but waiting for other bits and pieces before that part.

I learned the chassis is prone to flexing, This is the 1st thing I'm addressing!
second, XTM used planetary style diffs apposed to the spider gear style and the stock 2 speed puts a lot of stress on the diffs because its essentially direct drive.

I started off by digging through my box of Mugen MBX5T and MBX5R spares and came up with some interesting tid-bits... The mugen steering top plate was almost the same dimensions, So after some dremeling and drilling the m3 holes to m4 sized screws. It normally uses holes in the top plate to mount the front body post, The mugen on i had already had holes milled in it so i took a scrap piece of CF and made a plate to sandwich underneath the body post. Works great!
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps7a99fa2a.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps398249a7.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...psa160982b.jpg


After i got all the steering sorted out, i went after the chassis bracing. It normally uses a set of turnbuckles and rod ends, but i already knew that this wasnt going to be strong enough. I Dug through my box of xlb spares and my mugen box again and came up with this;
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps42c2bc03.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...psee1e48e8.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps75b922cc.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps19ede5ba.jpg

A little more dremeling and a 2 more countersunk holes in the chassis and i was able to mount a set of MBX5T chassis braces pretty easily. Took me about 45 mins of thinking, dremeling, drilling to get it all situated. But i was still a little leery of the chassis flex, I know you dont want a stiff, hard as a rock chassis, you do want some flex for traction. But it was still a little to much to my liking.

I then came up with this idea...The diff top plate has a mounting hole in the rear for the rear brace and 2 in the front...so i flipped the plate around!
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...pscba0c9d8.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...psad19dbb8.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps57ae4389.jpg

This is where I'm at so far, I still have to take off the rear hinge pin retainer and modify it for a second rear brace and drill the chassis. I feel it's come out pretty good so far! Sorry bout the pictures, they aren't the best. Took them in the heat of the moment with my phone because it was already sitting there. Anyone has any feedback let me know!

I'm also looking for a set of LST2 threaded shock bodied shocks!

Spent a little more time on the XLB last night. Swapped out the XLB Upper a-arms for some XTM mammoth ST arms. This will allow me to run LST2 sized shocks :sneaky: I also had the front diff out because it was leaking, rebuilt the diff, shimmed and greased it up. I hopefully have a line on some newer style spider geared diffs that should work.

http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...pscdf11008.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps4df4164e.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps1eacb040.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...psff9c2da8.jpg

sense the shocks where leaking all over the place when i received it, i decided sense i don't have LST2 shocks yet, i will rebuild the stock ones to at least have something on it for now. Luckily i only rebuilt one shock and figured out that there was at least 3 different sized shocks in the bag. After that one I looked in the manual and fount the 4 correct length ones i was supposed to be using! Ended up using 50W losi oil because it was the thickest i had, manual shows 100w! also the manual states 30k-100k for the diffs!
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps51544aa2.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps2bf2b421.jpg

Now here she sits, I'm waiting on a plastic diff mount from a XTM XT2E to see if it has the same goofy spacing as the XLB, It was a $3 part and it was cheaper than buying the aluminum motor mount and finding it didn't work.
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps224edf3d.jpg

Is there any way to ditch the 2 speed?

Looks like it will be a fun car!:yes:

Very cool! Love the work you're doing on it. The bitsa builds are right up my ally. I have some spare lst shocks but I don't think you would like the shipping from Oz.

That's some heavy oils all round.

Be watching:intello:

Xtm did make a center diff upgrade but with a goofy 63t spur gear and planetary gears inside instead of spider gears. I have one, but the spur has been stripped and finding one is close to impossible.

I've been doing a lot of research and cross referencing and I think I'll be able to use spider Diffs out of the newer xtm xt2e. I have only found one report of the xt2e center diff and motor mount working on the xlb and all that was said was it works with a little modification....

So i measured the XTM xlb center diff and bearing to bearing it is 35mm, My spare mugen center diff is 32mm. If anyone has a extra center diff measure i'd greatly appreciate it. I cant find any specs on a XTM xt2e center diff yet.

This kinda got put on the back burner right now as i have gotten busy with changing career's. But the xt2 mount did come in and is not going to work :cry:

I emailed mike about getting one made as he made one for a member previously. I Think i found that a OFNA jammin X1 center diff should work inplace of the XTM 2spd setup

Well some good news, my buddy came over to the west side of the mountains for the weekend to visit and had brought some of his rc gear over. Just before him leaving we spotted a kyosho diff from his e-mbx5T conversion that had bad internal bevel gears. Lo and behold its 35mm bearing to bearing! :yipi:

So I'm gonna order new gears and a 52t spur gear and then I'll be moving on to the next step! I wish Mike would get back to me on a mount, I really don't want to have to fab up a tekno mount. :no:

we put lst diffs in a buddys xlb, the held up, the stock xlb diffs failed pretty fast on 5cell

I found a Kyosho center diff that will work and I mailed the diff/mount and related parts to Mike to have him make me a motor mount. Hopefully he has some spare time to whip one out for me.

Where the LST diff's drop in or was there some modification needed? I know the stock xlb diff's with the planetary setup aren't very good, but i hear good things about using the XLT2 spider style as an upgrade. I'd like to hear more about the lst diffs though!

it wasnt drop in, but it wasnt to crazy to fit them in if i remember right

Still waiting on my diff mount from mike...been a long drawn out process so far. At least waiting has paid off a little, I was able get 6 losi xxl shocks to continue on with the conversion! I didn't even realize how huge these shocks actually are! Now to figure out how I'm gonna get them on lol. Pardon my messy work area, I just brought my MGT in and plopped it on the desk
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps9d06fcad.jpg

Nothing like a lst shock. Makes the rest look like they are missing some parts!!!

Cool build, I will be watching!

Haha yeah! I've never seen one first hand before, only pictures and my first reaction was "Holy F%&# these are huge!" I still need to get some lst shock standoffs and I was hoping i dont have to buy full tower setups off of Ebay sense i dont need the rest, but it looks like it might go that way

Linc i'll be using the 40 series crimefighters from you on this bad oscar once its all done :mdr:

Don't know what it was - I tried them in my XL Savage and just kept snapping shafts but they are huge and looked great

Wow that's crazy! Well I don't plan to bash too hard with this. I don't have any huge jumps or anything. So hopefully they hold up!

Gotcha, did not realize that was you that bought the tires. They are on their way to you in 2 boxes.

The mounting points will have to be strong, and if the arms flex a lot I can see the shock shafts having issues.

Started mocking up the LST shocks i got, Need to find some longer screws and make some bigger standoff's But I'm liking the look so far. Im in need of some Blue shock bodies and caps thoug, To me the black just blends in to easy with the rest of the buggy and doesn't pop out with their shear size.
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps04506469.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps1d0ca3c9.jpg

So i did some more mocking up today sense im still awaiting longer hardware to mount my lst shocks. I played a little with limited the shock travel as they longer than my stock ones. The rears are almost perfect at 51mm of shaft and the fronts i set shorter at 47mm of shaft exposed. The one issue i see so far is i have no steering movement lol! Also i dont have 23mm hexes for the wabash wheels and bow ties yet! they are just mocked up to the 17mm hex.

I have some mugen axle extenders i can play with but with 40 series tires they hit the shock spring retainer. So either i just run maxx size which im ok with sense i have a bunch anyway, but i thought 40 series tires and LST shocks will add more of a bigger scale look. I have some Blue aluminum shock bodies coming hopefully soon (Thanks Miamizfinest!)

here's some better pictures outside in some natural light, Don't mind the shocks lol, one looks like it might be falling off sense i dont have them fully mounted yet! Things are starting to come together...just really waiting on Mike with my mount now.......2 months later....Without further ado!
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps5c0e341f.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps78983257.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...psfce12a66.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps9f1a2710.jpg

Well my hardware came in yesterday and i now have the shocks fully setup on the xlb. I decided to stick with the maxx sized bowties i had on truggy wheels for now because the 40 series are huge lol.

Also another good note, Mike pm'd me today letting me know my mount was done! hopefully will get some pictures up soon!

Well i finally got my Aluminum shock bodies from Miamizfinest in the mail the other day and had a chance to put them together today. Still waiting for a email from mike so i can try and finish the project soon. Soldered up bullets onto the MMV3 and a castle 10a BEC also. Need to get a battery tray and radio box situated, but i want to get the motor mount and center diff back in before i do all that

http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps7cf620d3.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps1bb60ee6.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps2350d276.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...psd7ae45e4.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps5ad07391.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps0f67f0d0.jpg

Looks killa with the 40 series. I know it's not the better for handling but I like monster looks. IIRC muggy shocks are slightly shorter than lst. They might suit better on the front but I think they were only ever made of plastic.

Nice build:great:

I think with the muggy shocks only the actual shock shafts where shorter. With the fronts I have now. I have limited the travel so they aren't as long as the rear. They seem to work pretty good now, but I'll find out once I actually get it running.

I hope it all turns out as good as your LST/muggy rigs panda. I saw pictures of the one you did with the buggy body and it looked really cool!

The muggy shock bodies are shorter - but I haven't seen them available for sale anywhere in a while now.

Edit - and nice build, I should add.

Thanks Cerberus. This fella just above me does awesome builds, check'em out. He's much more thorough.

Thanks guys, I received my mount from mike yesterday. I'm at work or I would post up some pictures. I got the Cc Cc1520 mounted, I made an ESC mount with the left over nitro mounts, some lexan and a traxxas ESC hold down. Set up my radio and receiver, programmed the esc. Still gotta set end points and steering.

I'll be stopping at my lhs on the way home for a losi 8ight battery tray, pinion and possible a stampede radio box. May even be able to test run it tonight!

Thursday i started by putting my mount in and mocking things up seeing what would work.

http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...pscadff91c.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps3506eaa2.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...psce19e4c1.jpg

Friday i stopped at my LHS and got everything i needed and started mocking things up, I really wanted the chassis layout to be more of a traditional truggy style layout with the motor on the servo side, but it just didn't end up like that. I would have had to dremel the chassis a bunch in the already large 2 speed opening. So i opted to flip the mount and run the 1520, which ended up working out well!
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps811b9930.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps6290e15c.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps851de82e.jpg
This was my late Friday night test run, Its hard to read, but it came in @ 12lbs 15oz RTR. I didn't have time to setup my radio box yet so i slapped it together just so i could run it!
I tried running the Trencher X's but they ballooned really bad and also limited my steering sense they rubbed on the LST2 Shocks, They where fun and did lots of wheelies though! Some of these pictures didn't turn out as well as i hope, but here's one next to my next project a Losi Muggy. The XLB got quite dirty from the 2 thrashings I've given it!

After the 2nd test run and adjusting the preload way too much i ordered the RcRaven Dualrate springs, as the black ones where way too soft

http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...psbc0d6c46.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps01853e36.jpg
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps1fb3d30d.jpg

Just to see what would work ha? Given the state of that last pic... how did it work?

Haha well the pictures with the radio box where from yesterday when I got that all situated and did a proper bashing. I have a video from yesterday when my buddy stopped by and I let him take xlb for spin. I'll try and get it up soon. But it went really well!

here's a short video i shot before my buddy thought he blew up the diff, turned out to be a small stick in the wheel and cvd lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJHMYpZ9Qys

Cool! Looks like it handles well.:yipi:

Yeah i was surprised how well it handled also! It's a nice change of pace from my Monster GT that when you toss it around at high speed it just rolls over lol. I can actually drift this thing around in the dirt without flipping it. I'm gonna try some Mbx5T axle extenders as right now i have my radio limited to about 45% servo travel lol. so I'm hoping setting the tires out further i can adjust the radio and get more steering out of it.

Yesterday i ran 2 more packs through it and on the last pack the front diff started clicking real bad, Which is what i expected from the get go, being a used nitro with a direct drive 2 speed. I alrady have a bunch of spares from the previous owner, but im gonna go ahead and upgrade to the XTM Rail/XT2e spider differentials w/ straight cut gears instead of these sun gear ones. From what i've heard those diff shimmed should be fine and hold up a lot better than the ones i have now.

Offset rims wouldn't help?

They probably would, But i don't have any at the moment lol. I mounted all my Maxx size tires onto truggy rims that have no offset.

The other night i tried to install regular 1/8th adapters on the xlb to find out the axle pin was 2.5mm instead of regular 3mm pins! I tried drilling it with some HSS bits i had and it didnt work well. Ordered a cobalt 3mm bit and it worked fine. Now the XLB has offset adapters and now i have 30% more steering over what i had before! it turns like a true buggy no rails now!