Running a brushless set-up on the LRM

[pmathews924]

I'm okay with the slow, gradual failures I can keep an eye on or find after the race...I'm a nut about taking my car apart and cleaning it after I run it.

As long as it can last 10-15 minutes per night that's all I'm gonna need, lol.

[pmathews924]

...and 30min of bashing later, I snapped a slider. What's the most durable option for rear axles?

Sliders, CVDs, or dogbones?

[clm]

Being a Losi you are pretty much stuck to semi-universals that have a plastic yoke on the bone still or cvd's. You will however need to find the outputs for the transmission for either of those which may be more troublesome, it might be easier to find a whole retrofit transmission then outputs for the lrm.

But back to your question... CVD's are more durable due to the plastic joint still used in the Losi style universals.

Chris

[pmathews924]

What about the white super sliders? I already have the outdrives to make them work...

[clm]

The white super sliders were designed to reduce friction in the daxles in the era of the brushed motor and not to be any stronger, if the grey ones don't hold up the white ones won't either.

Chris

[hondaman]

pmathews924: Love your car.. I have a JRX-2 myself and I have been keeping up with this thread and your others as I am looking into getting into the brushless thing like you are with my own JRX-2.. If I may ask, where did the slider break? The shaft or at one of the yokes?? I remember tons of people running wicked mod motors BITD and they didn't break these too often except in a crazy crash.. But I am getting to understand that the power of these new motors are way different.. Got alot to learn all over again..

Shawn

[pmathews924]

Thanks dude...been workin' my butt off on that stupid thing and I was ready to put it on the track until this happened. The sliders I was using were used to begin with (on top of being 20+ years old) so I expected them to fail at some point, just not so quickly. Here's a pick of where it broke...joint at the end of the male section. Once I got my hands on the part, I've run about 90 minutes worth of a Paragon 18x5, Reedy Sonic 17x4, and now the 17.5r SP brushless so it's been exposed to a ton of torque. It did break when I rolled the car, but it was a pretty mild crash...popped the car over a curb, kind of cartwheeled across the bumper, and it impacted the concrete squarely on the rear wheel.

I've been out of work for the last couple months so I've had more than enough time to re-learn all of this stuff, lol. BITD my old man did all of the pit work and I just drove and told him what the car was doing. I was like 9, so I couldn't turn a screw without stripping it. Now I'm the driver and the mechanic, so I've had to re-learn all of the old tech and learn all of the new tech, and I'm trying to learn as much as I can because 2nd place makes me sick to my stomach. I had zero intentions of building this car to sit, and I need it to hang with the new b4s and any other AE or whatever POS cars that are out there. After I dropped the brushless system in there, there's no doubt in my mind I'm fast enough to compete if I can knock the rust off my driving skills. If you have any questions about anything feel free to PM me or just post your question on the forum. This forum has been incredible...the guys on here are awesome and know more about pre-94 Losi cars than I will ever forget.

One thing I found out last night (on this forum actually) is that the Traxxas Bandit uses (almost) the same slider axle. From what I read I'll have to modify the pin hole slightly to fit the yoke, but I can deal with that. A set of Bandit axles is going to be around $6 (compared to $30+ for a set of white sliders), and my local shops might actually have it. The guys at the local shop are typically morons and never have what I need, but Traxxas is super popular in my area so I think they should have it. The plastic isn't 20+ years old, it's new, and it's designed to hold up with newer technology...and from what I've seen so far Traxxas stuff is usually pretty durable.

[knixdad]

I need to look but I swear I have a MIP CVD conversion kit in a box somewhere for the JRX2.

[pmathews924]

Check it out y'all...$10 for 6 pairs of sliders for a Traxxas Bandit, and they're damn near identical (Traxxas slider up top, Losi on the bottom)...wonder where Traxxas got the idea from?

The only thing you have to do is drill out the pin holes because the traxxas holes are a little small...1/8 was the smallest bit I could find and there's a little play which can't be a good thing, but it will work for now. If you want the fit to be exact, I think a 7/64 drill bit would probably be perfect. As soon as I find out where that bit went I'm going to drill the rest of them out. The Losi male end is longer (sounds about right, lol), and the Losi female is slightly shorter, but when connected they fit like a friggin' glove with the LRM.

Side note...one of the guys at the Hobby Shop told me, "that's a pretty sweet XX." Sure dude. They also thought I was crazy when I told them I needed Traxxas parts for my 20yr old Losi. When I showed them the parts side by side it got kind of quiet.

Problem solved...time to go break something else on my car (probably won't take long if I keep pounding these Keystone Lights, lol).

[hondaman]

Nice find.. Going to keep this in mind for my car.. Found the Traxxas prokits for like $8.. Yours broke where I had a feeling it would break in a crash.. The axle shafts are metal and have no give while the inner joint would give a little since it is plastic.. Mine is till a 5-link so I bet i will break a mount first.. Looking to buy some Robinson Racing parts for that or do what a few Jrx2 racers did BITD and put a longer screw with a nut so it won't tear out like they mostly do at the ball for the link..

I have noticed that the guys at hobby shops are up to date on the popular stuff.. I don't know how many times I have been told I should buy a new car.. Glad I found a place like this..

Shawn

[knixdad]

Well, if they actually paid attention, they'd realize that the current Stampede/Rustler/Bandit designs are just as old as the your vintage Losi.

[pmathews924]

That's what kind of blows my mind...these guys work at a hobby shop, race 3 or 4 days a week, but at this one shop in particular their knowledge only goes back a few years.

The guys that own the racetrack are much more knowledgeable...guy that owns the new track is actually the same guy that owned the track I raced at back in the 80s/90s. When I walked in there for the first time with my car three or four guys including the owner were like, "WOW! Jrx2, pro upgrades, h-arms, single disc slipper. How'd you get the 2.2" wheels to fit? How's that LRM holding up under lipo power? I'd love to see this on the track because a bunch of us have old cars and we've been wanting to start up a vintage class."

When I told them my name they were like, "No sh!t? I remember the little blonde kid standing on the milk crate and his dad working like a mad scientist in the pits. That's you? How's your old man doing? Is this the same jrx2 you raced BITD? Do you still have your old Big Brute?" I guess the best way to put it is they're racers first, and built a track so they had a place to hang out.

[hondaman]

I wish my old track was still in business.. Shutdown probably 15 years ago.. I was there all the time.. I miss that place.. It is great when you have a place like that with good people running it and remembering the old faces.. I guess that is why Norm always went back to Cheers for all those years.. A place where everyone knows your name is like home.. You are a lucky guy..

Shawn

[DerbyDan]

Check it out y'all...$10 for 6 pairs of sliders for a Traxxas Bandit, and they're damn near identical (Traxxas slider up top, Losi on the bottom)...wonder where Traxxas got the idea from?

traxxasslider.JPG

Problem solved...time to go break something else on my car (probably won't take long if I keep pounding these Keystone Lights, lol).

Thanks for the 'heads-up' on the Traxxas sliders... they do almost look like the same moulding! But if they work then thats great for keeping our Losis on the track! Of course a very similar driveshaft design appeared on Schumacher's CAT before the JRX2 release

I was lucky to be able to build up my car using some NOS sliders - which so far have done about 2-3hrs of total run time without failure & thats with some running on my local club's super high grip indoor Astro track with the 8.5 Orion VST.

[matt1ptkn]

Great find on the Traxxas sliders. That's great to know, but I think I have now retired my Jrx-T from oval racing. The XXX-T just takes the oval turns much better. And I know what is meant about the local track, built by racers and remembering the old faces. I don't think I have raced on a Sat. yet where someone hasn't said "Do you remember..." or "remember when..." Good times. I also was in a similar situation - I began racing at 9 with my Dad as my pit manager/crew. After age 14/15 I took almost two decades off. Now that I have gotten back into it, I have to do it all!

Also, about the white super sliders. I read somewhere that the material was different. No just a different color, but that the material was much more rigid. This seemed right when I tried to install my first set of white super sliders this past summer, because it was much more difficult to stretch the white ones over the universal ball than any of the grey ones ever were. I've played with the truck on the street and been pretty crazy with it and haven't broken any more. But I'm interested to see how the Traxxas sliders hold up.