Losi Rock Rey Project
Page 2: Upgrades!
Why did I do these upgrades? In hindsight I'm not sure I
know. It would be hard to argue they really made the vehicle any
better. They did alumify it though, and I like that. Most of
these are aluminum parts from Losi, but I've also got some SSD parts
and some Proline tires.
The first thing I did was to tackle the wheels and tires. The
first image shows a comparison of the foams that came with the new
Proline Hyrax tires compared with some dual stage foams I got
instead. These have a soft outer ring and a much harder inner
ring. The second image compares the completed old and new wheel
and tire assemblies. The new version has aluminum beadlock
wheels. I never really used the stock wheels and tires so they are
still brand new and should find a home somewhere.
The first of the aluminum parts to be added were the rear links.
The kit version already came with nice metal upper links, but I also
added these Losi lower links. Sadly, the plastic rod ends are very
weak and break easily. The stock arms were probably better.
You can also see aluminum link brackets. The second image also
shows new aluminum rear shock towers.
The link mount on the rear axle was already aluminum, but I added this
nice metal third member from SSD. The primary advantage (besides
luster) is that it uses bigger bearings to support the pinion. The
second image shows the rear axle with all the upgrades attached to the
chassis.
This next bit was hard. I replaced the steering bellcranks and
support brackets with aluminum. These are deeply embedded between
the chassis plates which I really didn't want to take completely off
because I would have had to un-solder the ESC, so I struggled mightily
to get the new parts in place without bits falling out.
I replaced the entire front bulkhead assembly with aluminum This
required tearing the front end down to almost the first step. Once
it is installed, you can hardly see that it is there, but I know.
These pictures show all the upgraded parts installed onto chassis.
There's a lot of metal here, and that makes for a sturdy rig.
When the cage is installed in the right hand image, this thing is a
tank. It looks like the Tumbler from Batman.
The last thing I wanted to try was a body wrap. I couldn't come up
with a good paint scheme for this one and I wanted something more
graphical so I got a wrap from Freqeskinz. These are adhesive
sheets that become malleable and shrink with heat. It takes
patience and care to get it right. I did not do a perfect job, but
I'm happy with it. I started by painting the whole thing black
for a good neutral backing and then stuck the individual slices in
place.
The final results! This is a good looking truck. The right
hand image shows all the stock parts which were removed and
replaced. Most of them will go in the trash, but I'll hang onto
the lower links in cases I ever need them.
Phase 2:
I've had a number of part failures over the years. I once broke
one of the steering knuckles smashing into a pile of rocks. More
recently, I broke the bracket which supports the camber links (upper
suspension arms) twice in two consecutive runs. This was odd given
that I had driven this rig for 2 years without that issue.
Perhaps the plastic becomes more brittle over time. While
investigating the front end, I also found the front bumper support
broken. The picture on the left shows the broken parts after
removal. The picture on the right shows the severed camber link
mount. If you look at the fracture surface you can see how little
material there is for load transfer. Not a great design.
While fixing the broken parts, I also decided to upgrade the camber link
mount and steering parts to aluminum. These parts are already
getting hard to find so I figured to time to get the good stuff was
now. The photo on the right shows the newly installed aluminum
camber link mount. The bumper support (still plastic) has also
been installed.
Here you can compare the steering before and after the upgrade.
Both the steering carrier and the knuckle have been replaced with
aluminum. These are significant machined parts. I usually
don't like aluminum steering because it cannot flex to absorb impact the
way plastic can, but given the brittle failure the plastics have
demonstrated, this should still be an improvement. Plus it looks
cool.
©2018 Eric Albrecht
