Over the last three weeks I've been getting my LMT back into summer shape. Summer is when our LMT ends up at the beach with us a lot, and needs to be a reliable and fun truck.
Prior to this, the LMT sat broken for about 2 months. My 5 year old son was driving it at the outdoor track 1/2 mile from our house. A bearing in the center gearbox seized, and resulted in the center transmission housing melting.
The bearing in the center of this gear was filled with melted plastic.
This is the second time I've had to replace the center transmission housing due to failed bearings. The stock housing is installed in such a way that the ENTIRE truck has to be disassembled to replace it. I didn't want to have to do this again so...
I bought the Vitavon aluminum transmission housing.
It's designed such that you can remove the housing without having to tear the whole truck down. But hopefully I don't have to remove it, ever!
While I had the truck torn apart, I also replaced the rod ends on the suspension linkage. They had all stretched out, allowing a lot of play in the suspension. Two batteries in, and the new rod ends are already stretched back out. Maybe it's time to spend more money...
I replaced the stock shocks with Pro-Line's Powerstroke XTs. Since I now had the four stock shocks just hanging around, I decided to try a dual shock mount. I ordered this kit from CPE Racing, and in they went. The kit is just hardware, and only cost around $15.
The suspension set up is heavily affected by my sealed tires. Since they aren't vented, the truck bounces around on these big balloons. I currently have 15WT oil in all of the shocks, but I might need to thin that out to maybe 10WT.
My daughter drew up some logos for the name we gave the truck: Stoodint Driver. I had stickers made, that came out too small. But oh well, on the truck they went.
I built these ramps for my front yard. My older kids like to do freestyle competitions with this truck. Those two ramps, and an old motorcycle tire in the yard make for a fun course.
The backflip ramp is about the same height as the truck. The other ramp is slightly taller and makes for some great height. These ramps are too big for unlimited 3S. They were sending the LMT "to the moon" as your favorite YouTuber would say.
I also added a new Hi-Tec servo, with the stock Losi 25T servo saver. I'll probably eventually buy a nicer 25T servo saver, as the Losi one keeps coming loose.
I run this truck on 3S with the throttle EPA limited so that it's top speed is similar to a 2S. That increases my runtimes. It also gives me the torque to adjust the truck's attitude mid flight. But I think the truck drives most realistically on 2S.
She's at least ready for another summer of beach trips and sand freestyle competitions.