LOSI LST XXL Conversion ideas

[mistercrash]

I think that with enough time and money, you're never locked into any build.

The 3 mm thick CF plate came in so I made the middle skid plate that will hold the batteries.



With most of the tools I use for building now out of the boxes, working is now easier and faster so I should be able to finish this build sooner than I thought.

Here's a pic of the chassis rails mounted on the skid plate with a couple of CF strips to bring it down 9 mm. Some may notice that the top of the rails have more holes than stock. That's because I drilled the bottom holes for the middle skid right through the rails. Even though I used 25 mm long screws to secure the skid to the rails, the thought of having those screws strip out because of the weight of the batteries worries me just a little bit. If that happens then I will use screws long enough to stick out the top plate and use nuts to lock them in.



A pic of the spacer strips that bring the skid down, lowering the CG.



I am now waiting on these supplies to finish the build.

The double slipper plate
The 2.5 mm thick CF plate to make the top plate
The E-Revo tranny motor mount and motor plate (the motor plate is to use as a template to make a 6 mm thick CF motor plate)
The Racers Edge servo horn
6X10 mm bearings for the Muggy steering bellcranks
The 0.1'' thick 6061 T6 aluminum plate to make the front skid doubler to hold the Muggy steering.

I also ordered some ABS plastic boxes that I will study to see if I can make some battery boxes out of.

[mistercrash]

Some goodies came in the mail yesterday. The ABS boxes, the Hot Racing double slipper and the E-Revo tranny. I was going this route at first for the battery boxes.



It would've worked but I still needed to make some blocks to go on either end of the batteries to keep them from sliding. It left the batteries much exposed and it would have been difficult to put some foam padding and have it stay there. When I got the ABS boxes I thought that they would work much better for making proper battery boxes that secure and protect the batteries. The finished boxes have an interior dimension of 185 mm long by 39 mm wide by 52 mm high. Plenty of room for a lot of batteries on the market and some foam padding.

[mistercrash]

Once I was done with the battery boxes, I worked a bit on the tranny. I wanted to set up the slipper even though I still don't have the motor plate and mount.
I will try this Hot Racing double slipper with 6 stock slipper pads at first to see if it works. If it doesn't then I will make an aluminum slipper disk like what I am using on the E-Revo. The Hot Racing slipper looks very nice, fits extremely well and has less wobbling than the stock slipper assembly.



I took 4 Traxxas screw pins and grinded them down to use with the RC Monster drive cups. The Traxxas output shaft has two flat spots and a hole and I wanted to use that to secure the drive cups which have two threaded holes for grub screws.



So the screw pins will go in the drive cups and rest against the flat spots of the output shaft with the small pin part I left in the hole. It should be very strong.



One last pic.

[mistercrash]

Picture posting time!

Sorry for the delay but I started putting everything together and it was going so well that I couldn't stop.

After a couple months of thinking, planning, drawing, thinking, redrawing, shopping, and yadeeyadeeyadah. This is what I came up with for a LST conversion.

PARTS MODIFIED

I modified the chassis rails to make room for the Muggy steering. The bellcranks of the Muggy steering were also modified.

PARTS FABRICATED

To make the conversion, I made a new chassis top plate, a new middle skid plate, a front skid doubler for the steering, battery boxes from project boxes found on ebay, a mounting plate for the receiver box, a system to support the rear of the motor, a new motor plate. While I was at it, I made the plates that go under the shock towers out of CF but that is optional. I could've made other stuff out of CF but for now I want to keep those stock aluminum parts on the truck.



PUTTING EVERYTHING BACK TOGETHER

This is just a series of pics of the build in sequence. Many pics so I'll to post a few times.

TOP PLATE

[mistercrash]

CHASSIS RAILS, MIDDLE SKID AND BATTERY BOXES


COMPLETED CHASSIS


FRONT END

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REAR END


MMM, RECEIVER, CAP BANK AND MOTOR WIRES

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WHEELS ON, BATTERIES IN. IT'S ALIVE!


LOOKING PRETTY


TOTAL COST OF THE BUILD
$1293.56 CDN. Almost $340.00 of that is for shipping and brokerage fees

[mistercrash]

I just took the truck out for a spin. Just taking it easy in front of my house to get a feel for the truck. Handling is very very MT like

It is very different from my race E-Revo which has a more Truggy feel to it. But it was fun. I was running on a set of 3S lipos that were pretty empty, the top speed is not impressive. I will have to play with the gearing on that. I say it really felt like a MT probably because I am still on the stock springs and am running the thin sway bars at their softest setting so the suspension was very plush and soft. But those batteries placed low and on either side of the chassis are making it so the truck does not flip on fast cornering. Instead the tires will just loose traction and the truck will slide. No flipping on the lid at all. I have tons of steering off power and still a lot on power. Having so much weight up front really helps. That 1521 has so much torque I will surely be able to gear down to get more top speed. I had to bring the brake power up because that cap bank smooths the braking so much, it was hardly noticeable. I'm up to 75% braking from 30%.