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Post by thirdgen89gta on Jan 26, 2012 12:55:58 GMT -6
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Post by thirdgen89gta on Jan 26, 2012 22:53:59 GMT -6
I've decided to name this little buggy "David" because after seeing it next to my Jammin X1 Truggy, the truggy can only be called Goliath in comparison. Its hugely disproportionate!!! If you can't tell from the pictures below, this buggy has already been to the track. I picked it up because the local track is simply TOO small for a monster like the truggy. Even if it wasn't, the truggy is far to fast for the typical cars they see. A 10.5lb Truggy that accelerates like you just installed a flux capacitor set 100 BC can cause some problems for them short course 1/10th trucks. Especially when they are driven by kids who have no business driving a VXL lipo powered Slash and the like. The good, the bad, the Ugly. The Good:- My god its nimbleness. Part of that is its small size, part of is the fact that it has the same steering and suspension geometry of the full size Losi 8ight. Point it the direction you want to go and just keep the throttle steady, it holds whatever line you put it on.
- Another good point for it is that it truly flies like only an 8th scale buggy can. It may be small, but it has as much acrobatic control as a normal 8th scale. Nose up, nose down, you can do it all.
The Bad:- The included charger, battery, and 2.4ghz radio is weak sauce. The Losi 2.4ghz transmitter is exceedingly uncomfortable to hold. Not only that the throttle trigger has some huge dead-band issues before you actually get movement out of the buggy. The steering is numb and unresponsive. However since it uses a standard DSM1 receiver you can bind a Spextrum DX whatever to it. I bound my DX3 to it and the response and driving feeling were tons improved.
- Cogging. Cogging, Cogging, COGGING!!! The motor system is HORRIBLE at low throttle, especially on a low battery. Other than that punch is decent considering the battery can barely put out more amperage than it takes to charge the darn thing. Runtime is about 10 minutes if lucky, but like all NiMH packs performance drops off rapidly from full before the fun grinds to a halt fast. A LiPo is your friend.
The ugly:- Buy shock caps, and shock ends, these will be your most COMMON broken parts. I only broke once shock end, but I did tthat within 4 minutes of driving the buggy around the track. It cartwheeled, and when it landed the back end was sitting heavy. Thankfully, the sway bar end link ball socket fit on the end of the shock shaft and made a decent jury rig and it kept me going the rest of the night. I didn't break a shock cap, but I expect too after reading a bit.
strength and the cool factor. The stock towers are reported to bend somewhat easily.
- I bought 3 pairs of shock caps and stuff for the common breaks. While I was in there I also purchased the carbon fiber shock towers for weight loss,
Total running weight is about 2.3lbs with the battery. Goliath looms in the background over the tiny little 8ight.  Top down view. Its just so CUTE!  |
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Post by thirdgen89gta on Jan 28, 2012 15:29:04 GMT -6
Well, went to the Big Boy track this morning. Ended up driving a stripped down Jammin truggy. Everything was all good. But in the 1st 5 minutes of the 3S2P pack one of the trucks in front of me flipped and the Marshal jumped out without looking for other oncoming cars. I avoided him, but since I had been T Minus 0 for launch I didn't have time to hit the brakes, all I could do was jerk the wheels. I jinked left, shoulda jinked right. Ended up taping the wall while airborn causing the truck to cartwheel. That would have been fine except just as i got the wheels on the ground a Losi Muggy rammed the truck hard starting the catwheel process all over again. That was that, it snapped the wing mounts, and broke the rear chassis brace mount. I mulled it over a bit, and said screw it and took the truck out minus rear wing and chassis brace. Thankfully the battery trays act as chassis braces as well so it was still fairly stiff. Ran a bit longer but without the wing the truck was a little "different". Made a few booboo's and snapped all but ONE of the body mounts. So in the end I was driving around a naked, wingless truggy. It looked the exact same from BOTH directions. Still had fun, even if other people were all worried about how I was NOT worried about the truck. Finally ran both packs down. And then I brought out the Secret Weapon. The Mini 8ight!! Strangly considering how comparatively SLOW it was on the straights I was destroying cars left and right for about 5 minutes. The little thing gripped like nobodies business, and it was so small I could apex everything. Sadly it didn't have enough power to hit the tripple but I could nail the doubles well enough. Finally though my little buggy was brought to an end when the Losi Muggy from HELL came back for more. Smashing my Jammin's wing wasn't enough, he wanted desert! I successfully held the Muggy off for 3 laps. Gaining distance on all of the infield corners. But on the last corner before the main straight I made a booboo and lost some time. Well, it was enough time for the Muggy to catch me and I couldn't outrun him on the straight. He pounded the mini 8 hard and broke the front shock cap + shock end.  That was the end of my RC day. The Mini 8 is so much fun to drive though. I wish it had LiPo. Oh wait, It DOES have lipo. They are just in shipment. Twin 2S 2200mah lipo's and a 3S 1800mah lipo. I also bought all of the Carbon Fiber upgrades for the truck, sadly no-one makes upgraded shock caps, or ends. Those are what break most on these. |
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Post by thirdgen89gta on Jan 30, 2012 18:43:59 GMT -6
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