My new Kyosho USA-1

[sgirouard]

I had a good offer on a Kyosho USA-1, but I was very hesitant because these trucks aren't known for being in great condition. It was a good deal so I took the leap.

Well the truck arrived yesterday and I'm truly impressed. The body is in excellent shape, not a single crack, just missing the engine and a mirror. Not crazy about the all black paint but whatever, the decals make up for it.



The previous owner really went all out.

It's got a sassy chassis (I believe this is a sassy), thorpe diffs, thorpe dogbones and axles, aluminum steering and a center mounted 1/4 scale servo that can turn all 4 tires with the truck standing still. It also came with a pair of green monster motors, and overall the truck is really clean for it's age.

[Hcp22]

Nice find and the motor shows up eBay from time to time

[highwayracer]

That's a great truck. Looks like the weak points have been addressed (drivetrain and steering).

[sgirouard]

The only weak spot left on the truck that I can find are the knuckles but Burns aluminum knuckles are supposed to be a direct fit. Gonna look into that.

[highwayracer]

The only weak spot left on the truck that I can find are the knuckles but Burns aluminum knuckles are supposed to be a direct fit. Gonna look into that.

Let me check on that for you. I have the USA 1 parts (electric) and some burns parts as well.

[Diamond Dave]

Sassy chassis it is, nice find. Build it up to a really good runner?

[sgirouard]

Yeah. I already have a couple guys wanting to trade for it. But its so nice, I might have to keep it. Put it along side my dual brushless clod project I'm working on

Keep in mind, it's mid project

[RichieRich]

Yeah, looks like he did spring for some fantastic upgrades. These trucks had many weak points and he got almost all of them.

[squirrelnutz]

Can you post a pic of the inside and how the center servo is connected to steer the front and back? I just picked up a Double Dare and the stock steering set-up is one of the dumbest I've ever seen. It looks like your truck has some kind of modified turnbuckles on the upper arms?

I love the look of my Double Dare but performance wise...it blows

[GoMachV]

Pretty sure those are stock uppers on a USA-1. I think the rest of the series was narrow and fixed.

[Puffdogg]

I always wanted one of these trucks growing up.Nice score...

[sgirouard]

I ended up selling the USA-1 to fund some other projects. I don't hold onto vehicles unless I'm going to run them and I was terrified of breaking the USA-1 so it went to a collector.

To answer your question about the steering. The sassy chassis was a completely different steering system than the stock. The stock was the same as the Double Dare. Where the servo is mounted at the front and used a pin to move the steering "block". Then it had a metal rod shaped like an elongated U to rotate a duplicate steering block in the back. You got about 25% steering to one side and almost none to the other.

This chassis had the servo mounted mid chassis, with a rod on top and bottom (similar to the stock clod servo design) but the linkages went to aluminum bell cranks. The steering was a HUGE improvement. With this chassis it turned in about a 4-5 foot diameter circle.

The Double Dare and the USA-1 were basically duplicate trucks (minor differences) except the USA-1 had long suspension parts and larger tires.

I found this pic