JOK3R's Monster Truck Reviews

[JOKER]

From here on I will be reviewing the greatest and latest MT's to hit the market.

Up first will be the LST review.

Out of the box it comes with an awesome JR XS3 synth radio and nice dual metal gear servos for steering. It also comes with a High and Low gear and reverse included.

I have owned the first LST in town since early August. I must say from the get go it was missing 2 parts. Axle pin was missing and the set screw holding it in was also missing.

After examining it more I found that it is a very nice truck. The suspension is very nice unlike anything I have ever seen before. My first mod was to take the stock Mach 26 out and putting in my work horse RB WS7II into in. This should have been a straight forward swap but I encountered some probs. I started to unscrew the engine mount bolts out and the head sheared right off. A quick phone call to Losi and my replacements were on the way. I didnt wait for the replacement so I got a new engine mount custom made. I mounted my WS7II into it and fired it up.

This thing is a real screamer. Even though at the time my engine had about 12 gallons of fuel through it it had no problem keeping upto or blowing by many wasp26 and sirio 27 powered trucks.

For jumping the shocks are just great. They take everything that you throw at them. After 3 big races I finally managed to break one shock shaft. It was very odd because it broke off a very small jump and it was a flat landing.

The steering on this thing is also second to none. The 2 stock servos do a good job of turning the wheels on demand. I opted to go with 2 - 200oz airtronics servos for steering and was amazed at how much better it steers. This is a definite must if you want to out handle anyone else who knows how to drive out at the track.

The breaking power of this truck is also very excellent. It will lock up the breaks and forward summersault everytime. I had to turn my breaks down so as not too keep flipping it and controling it through the air while jumping.

Since I only use this truck for racing I have removed my reverse gears out of the tranny and reverse servo as well as the high and low selector leaving it in high only.

Overall the truck has held up very well. Aside from problems that many other users have experienced I have had none, knock on wood. Alot of users have been breaking axles like crazy, cvds and many a broken diff cases.

I also lost an eclip but that was an easy fix and probably a result of a bad landing.

If you dont experience any of these problems you will be a very happy customer.

Losi also has alot of option parts coming out that have not been released yet. Threaded Shocks, different spring wts, HD rails, HD chassis, spurs, sway bar kit and so on.

Coming next will be my review of the ever put down and smack talked about Traxsxas REVO.

I should be getting mine on Wednesday and will put it through its paces as soon as I can.

If you have any questions please post or pm them to me and I will try and address them

[Gixxer]

Nice review ;D

seems to echo what most have said about the LST

every new truck will have some issues, at least it really works unlike the Genesis

[Deanihilator]

Well i got my LST and stock out of the box i finished three qualifiers and one main without even so much as a hint of a problem.

Oh yea and i finished first in the main
This truck gets two thumbs up

Join us next time when we review the REVO .
Same time , same channel .

On JOK3R an D.I.R.T. at the races ;D

[Deanihilator]

I would also recommend removing the spur gear cover as it traps DIRT and clogs up the spur.
I took mine off and the spur is cleaner then new

[Cam Tardi]

hmmm, i thought the spur cover would keep you out of the gears, not get you stuck in them... ;D

keep the reviews comin man, not sure if you are into onroad, but a few onroad ones woudl be nice too..

[Wintermute]

D.I.R.T. said:

I would also recommend removing the spur gear cover as it traps DIRT and clogs up the spur.
I took mine off and the spur is cleaner then new

I think there is a cover for the other side of the spurgear that encloses it completely. Jok3r would know about it. The cover that comes with the lst only covers one side and has a large open area in the bottom to let out anything that gets in.

[JOKER]

yes it will be released sometime this century. I think the star wars saga being released on dvd is quicker than losi and their option parts being released. When they do become available it is a completely enclosed cover that is carbon fiber and the inside is clear so you can see the conditon of your gears. Looks real trick.

Gonna put this LST to the ultimate test at the Dash for Cash tmrw. Gonna finish messing with my truck and gonna get some sleep before mine and Team Kaos departure of 1am saturday morning for the big race.

[glow=red,2,300]604 RACING in full affect...[/glow]

[glow=red,2,300]JOK3R #10...look for that number zooming by[/glow]

[JOKER]

I have just taken shipment of my Revo. Did 45 minutes of running after the racing on sunday. I can say that I am very impressed with the first runs.

I will be giving my reviews shortly on the Revo.

Just a small indication of the review, my LST is sold

[Deanihilator]

Out of the box my REVO is sweeeeeeeeeet

My two cents on the REVO is a few days away yet , but first impressions were great

The LST today had a few issues

I snapped a CVD

Broke a rear arm

Then i bent a front CVD

And the driveshafts kept coming loose.I'm gonna give them the red threadlock treatment next time around.Kinda a stupid design the driveshafts are held on with a grub screw unlike most that have the pin go right through the shaft.

And after the race bashing around i lost another screw from the front CVD

Thanks for the CVD fix Korska

[HarderShaft - New and improved]

Hey joker no review yet??

what happend did it break already

[JOKER]

Well I think its time to get a review in on the Revo. I have now run it in 3 races and my experiences with it have been superb.

The truck in stock form is alittle on the un nimble side. The steering and throttle response is very delayed with the stock radio equipment.

My first upgrades were removing the 2 steering servos and replacing them with one Airtronics 94358 servo. This improved the steering 100%. Very fast. After I replaced the steering servos I then replaced the throttle servo. I also used a Airtronics 94358 servo and that made the truck respond on demand. The throttle mount that comes on the revo using plastic spacers were it screws into the chassis. I found that if you tighten it down too much that it binds and doesnt mover very freely. I put some washers on the top and bottom and this let me tighten it down and stop it from binding. An even better solution would be to replace the spacers with bearings. That is on my to do list.

After I was done with the servos I removed the rx and placed in my old JR XS3 one from my old LST. The abundant features are just what you need to get the servos all dialed in and working 100%.

Now that all the electronics are ugraded I moved on up to the mechanics of the Revo. I started off by replacing every single steel pushrod, turnbuckle and hingepin with Titanium ones. The weight savings and strength gained by going this route is just phenomenol. The weight you save is about 1/3 of the original equipment if not more. The strentgh is just an added plus to an already amazing ride.

I then went into the transmission and installed a custom FOC(forward only conversion). By doing this I got to remove almost 1/2 the gears inside the tranny making it alot lighter and uncluttered. Also with the FOC I removed the opti drive and micro servo that engages the reverse gears. Again a big plus in removing unwanted weight that serves no purpose on the track.

The 2.5R engine is an amazing little powerplant. It is a small block .15 size nitro that can keep up to alot bigger engines. The only modification that I did to this engine was removind the ezstart system and replacing it all with a pull start. This freed up alot of weight again as that easy start assembly and all the wiring really adds up. Starting the Revo with the pullstart is fairly easy. Just about 10 pulls to get the nitro primed through the long fuel lines then it starts right up.

more to come real soon, wife needs me to clean up the house alittle first hehehe