8ight T 2.0e Build

Hello,

I thought I'd post up some progress pics of my Losi 8ight T 2.0e build. For this new truck my goal was to make something simple, clean and well thought out. My old E-CRT was great and I will always love that truck but it looked like a mess. Wires everywhere, 5-6 tie wraps visible and all the electronics exposed to the elements. For this race season I wanted something that didn't only run like a winner but looked like one too...

Gotta start out with the obligatory box shot:


Here is the truck as it comes out of the box, along with all the nitro guts still in there:


All that Nitro junk was removed post hast:


For this build I actually bought both the complete Losi Nitro conversion kit AND the RC-Monster 8ight motor mount. I wanted the best of both worlds. Here it is almost complete, the battery tray, center diff and aluminum servo horn are in place. What you can't see is how much dremel action it took to grind down the center diff mount to work with the Plastic Spur. I know it would have been infinitely easier to sand the spur but I felt like if I break one at the track, I want to be able to use a new one without needing to remember the sandpaper.


And now the (near) final product. The only part missing is the motor. What amazes me is how clean this looks for a conversion. No wires all running amuck. Everything seems to be in it's right place and well fastened. I was hoping to use the MMM ESC top brace off the BL-E-Revo but it's not out yet so unfortunately one Zip tie was used. The MMM is mounted ontop of industrial grade velcro with the Zip tie as insurance. I use a Nomadio Sensor so there is an extra pair of wires running to the radio box for the battery voltage sensor. I did have some major troubles fitting the rather larger sensor rx inside the little box. I hit a show stopper but figured a way out. I couldn't close the lid so I had to drill a new hole in the rx box to let the antenna out in a different place, still couldn't close so I had to remove the wires from the servo lead on the voltage sensor and I shunk wrap them by hand, bent them at 90 degrees so they were perfectly flat on top of the rx, then the box would close. I didn't do this for the other servo leads b/c they were OK, only the voltage sensor was too tall.


I didn't install the motor yet b/c I would be too tempted to take it outside and it's a bit snowy and wet today. Maybe next weekned I'll take the 8ight T 2.0e out for a quick test drive. Spring can't get here soon enough!

[Metallover]

Looks really nice!

[Overkill]

Looking great so far

What color scheme are you going to run on the body, or do the 2.0 come prepainted?

Just curious as to what part you had to "dremel action it took to grind down the center diff mount", was it the RCM mount or the top brace mount. With my 1.0, I had to dremel the top mount and bottom plate only using the Losi conversion for fitting the plastic spur. I am looking at the RCM mount as a lighter option, since you have one, can you use M4 screws through the mount instead of M3 or will they have to be opened wider?

Again, looking real factory like

Originally Posted by Overkill

Looking great so far

What color scheme are you going to run on the body, or do the 2.0 come prepainted?

Just curious as to what part you had to "dremel action it took to grind down the center diff mount", was it the RCM mount or the top brace mount. With my 1.0, I had to dremel the top mount and bottom plate only using the Losi conversion for fitting the plastic spur. I am looking at the RCM mount as a lighter option, since you have one, can you use M4 screws through the mount instead of M3 or will they have to be opened wider?

Again, looking real factory like

The body is clear so it's yet to be painted. It is also trimmed which is nice but it has cut outs for the engine head and such which are a bit unfortunate. I'm not much of a painter so I'm going to let a young guy at my local track spray them. Colors will be bright b/c there have been a few races which spill into the night and seeing is better than not seeing. I'm waiting on a 2.0e buggy too so I won't get it painted till that starts shipping.

As far as the dremel bit goes, if you use the metal spur there would have been no real problems. I chose to use the new Losi 45T plastic spur which is quite a bit wider than the steel spur. It rubbed - quite bad - against the RCM mount. I would spin it and see where it touched, then I hit it with a sanding wheel. I kept doing this what seemed like 10-15 times in an effort to take off as little as possible. I also had to hit what I'd call the "D Loop" section b/c it was touching the battery tray - that was super minor as the tray is plastic and it just bent ever so slightly on the velcro loop but I my whole goal here was something very finished. FWIW I've read elsewhere that even the Losi mount has a small amount of spur rub when using the plastic spur.

Oddly I went with the RCM mount because I've got a Tekno Neu and it's not easy or perhaps even possible to re-tap them 4mm. The Losi Mount uses 4mm. The RCM is designed for 3mm. I'd imagine you can use 4mm but I doubt it would ride in the little track designed for the motor mount screws. It would likely be on top of the track, very minor but some work would be required.

Finally put the motor and ESC wires in. Did a bench test, all sounded and looked good. The MMM is brand new (it's a v3 replacement for my v2 that died) so I won't feel totally safe until it has 3 or 4 packs through it. Very wet and muddy outside so no chance of running it just yet. Now that it will move I'm very anxious to take it out and at least check out the turning radius and the top speed as I've got it geared. (I've added 1 tooth from my settings last year, it may be a little too fast for the track but I wanted to try it.) I did check the weight and fully RTR with wheels (no battery or body) the Losi is .8 pounds lighter than the old CRT was. That's about 10% which I think is quite a bit at this scale. Anyway here are some more photos:

[Metallover]

It's.... sooooooo clean....

What battery are you going to run?

Enerland Packs. I'm about to send mine over to Lincpimp for conversion from 2s packs into 4s packs. I've got 5100's 5000's and 6000's all in 2s...

[Metallover]

Are they Neu? Polyquest? Flightpower?...

btw what is that red box in front of your motor?

Enerland Polyquest. (Specifically PQ-5100RXP, PQ-5000RXQ, PQ-5000XQ and PQ-6000XP)

The red little box is my AMB transponder for racing.

beautiful Rc !!! i love !
good job

[BL_RV0]

Looks great.

[Overkill]

How's the build coming along? Have the guys at your track painted your body? Have you had a chance to run it?...........All these questions :)

Originally Posted by Overkill

How's the build coming along? Have the guys at your track painted your body? Have you had a chance to run it?...........All these questions :)

Sorry for the lack of updates. Here is the current scoop...

While yesterday was the first day of Spring, it is still not quite spring like. The temp at my house this morning was 17 degrees. To remove the temptation of driving in either to cold or too wet conditions, I mailed my LiPo packs off to Lincpimp for conversion from 2s packs into 4s packs (my former truck used two 2s packs to form a bridged 4s pack.) Anyway you can see here that he finished:

http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/show...&postcount=149

And I'm just waiting for them to arrive.

As for the body, I was waiting there too to have it painted by a local guy at my track. The delay was that I wanted to have my new 8ight-E 2.0 and give him both bodies at the same time in the hopes of getting a near matching paint job. The 8ight-E was supposed to be out March 17th, it has been slightly delayed till April 6th (or so) and because of that I mailed the 8ight-T 2.0 body to my buddy for painting, if they don't match, oh well, you will never notice because they will be moving so fast!

My game-plan is to take her out for her maiden voyage next weekend. I will of course post photos and results. I don't think I've driven a Losi since the 8ight T first came out and even that it was a few gentile laps on a buddies nitro. Certainly never driven any of the 2.0 stuff...very anxious to see how it drives and how the durability is (not to mention the first run of the MMMv3.)

Ok, first update, I got my batteries back from Lincpimp and he converted all my 2s packs into 4s packs. I have to say, I was hoping his work would live up to the hype but in the end it was even better than I could believe. Thank you SO much Linc! The packs look amazing and they fit perfectly in the Losi battery tray.

But there is more...

I FINALLY took it out today! Now I live on a dirt road, the dirt this time of year is actually very much like the racetrack surface. As soon as I dropped the truck down I noticed the servo was reversed - no biggie - a quick change on the radio and it was pointing in the right way. I slowly crept up on the driveway (which is paved) and did a few low speed turns to just work out the diffs and check the turn radius, very impressive. I couldn't wait anylonger. I headed to the dirt road and gunned it. A-freaking-mazing.

During my build I've been checking the weight of the truck and totally ready to run, with battery and cables, everything (except body, my body is out being painted by AXM) it weighs 4290g (9.46 pounds) which sounds heavy but is almost a full pound lighter than my old CRT. With the weight savings and the free drivetrain on the 8T 2.0 the brushless power is just disgusting. It throws the truck around like a rag doll. I did gear up by 1 tooth (14t on my pinion) and the truck was the fastest I've ever driven. The sound was totally different too (and I've been using a plastic spur for years) it just sounded free-er. More like the whistle you hear on a 1/10th truck. I tore up and down the road for a while, roost tails were flying everywhere. Then I started to hit some bumps and driveway lips. Granted, these were not as big as typical track jumps but the truck was just WAY more composed than the CRT over the same obstacles.

It's always hard to judge the performance on a 10-12' wide road vs a narrow track but I'm much more impressed than I thought I'd be. I can't wait to get it on the track and start getting to know the handling characteristics of this truck. I'm sure given the way it accelerates alone it is going to shave several 10th's off my lap times!