Losi Baja Rey 1/10th 4WD RTR desert truck

[FastMatt]

Nice, I got last weeks tower special with the battery as well! Guess I have an extra 10t pinion now. Weird it came with a FPV cage, but they’re probably trying to just push some product.

Thanks, I look into those batteries.

 

[edjo69]

Nice, I got last weeks tower special with the battery as well! Guess I have an extra 10t pinion now. Weird it came with a FPV cage, but they’re probably trying to just push some product.

Thanks, I look into those batteries.

Mine came with the light bar and the FPV cage too.

It was good to see your truck all put together out of the box, mine has been apart for 1 month, but I am just about finished. The drive train (mechanics & electronics) will be done this weekend and then the cage goes back on, then lights and light bars, then some scale bits and finishing the rear spare tire fuel cell area. So I figure tops with work/life etc... 2 weeks and she will be all back together a running, which is fine because winter finally showed up here on the Front Range and the next few weeks look to be pretty crappy!

 

[elRayRay]

I just got a BND Baja Rey. This thing is stupid fast! It's going to be so fun. I will hopefully soonish be getting FPV set up. I've been thinking about it for my crawler too, but probably mostly for playback.

Question about wheel options. I would like to go with a beadlock system. Is Pro-Line the only option?

 

[Skipir2010]

Thanks! I just finished getting my yeti raptor body on still trying to find some wheels and tires that will fit and still clear the fenders. Also still waiting for my front shocks to come in its been about a Month now.. haha havent Mounted the spares yet.

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Please
Send a photo of how you secured 2 shock absorbers on your car (On the front pillars of the suspension.)?

 

[mewalsh100]

Mewalsh100, how is your B-Rey coming along?

It's been slow going as I've been traveling a lot for work. I did get the Proline Power Strokes set up though. Bench test has them feeling good, but the first rip will be the true tell.

Still have some filing and grinding to do on the welds to get them all clean and smooth. Once that's done, the cage will get finished in STEELIT Coating.

I'll post some updates when I get some breathing room from travel/work.

Scaling this rig out was always going to be a long-game though, so no worries."thumbsup"

 

[elRayRay]

OK, I just got a Baja Rey BND and it's quickly become a bit of a "project." I broke the driver's side A-arms and bent the half shaft and quickly understood just how difficult it will be to work on this truck. I'm definitely not regretting the purchase, just trying to spend my upgrade and repair money wisely as I want this to be a reliable and fast truck to shred when I want to go faster than my Bomber crawler. I thought the Bomber was a pain in the ass.

So I've got some parts on the way: SSD bulkhead, Hot Racing steering set, RPM bumper and A-arms, Exotek wheel hexes, front skid reinforcement, and 2 diff cups. I'll be doing the rear suspension and axle next and hopefully be done with the "mandatory upgrade" list.

My question is this: Should I put the new diff cups front and center or front and rear? I'm sure getting into the center diff is much more difficult than the rear, but is the diff cup necessary in the center if the front and rear are upgraded? I'm going to continue running the rear diff locked and others open. And I'll be running at least 3s, I don't own a 2s battery and won't buy one.

 

[BAJAREY2017]

I would just do the front and center, I still run the stock ones but upgraded the screws and have never had a problem with either one. After you have taken the truck apart a couple times it’s really not that bad.


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[FastMatt]

I did the screw mod to all the diffs on my new Baja.
Although, I did go through about 4 carbide circuit board drills to get through the hardened ring gears. We stock a lot of these drills at my work. I "borrowed" them. :ror:
You can see the significant difference in diameter of the stock screw on the left vs the new 2.5mm. Especially the minor diameter :shock:
I also had to drill out the holes in the plastic cup itself a little larger because of the diameter difference, otherwise it would crack the plastic. Think I used a #44 drill.

Still haven't run the truck yet tho. We have about 28" of snow on the ground where I live.

 

[elRayRay]

I did the screw mod to all the diffs on my new Baja.
Although, I did go through about 4 carbide circuit board drills to get through the hardened ring gears. We stock a lot of these drills at my work. I "borrowed" them. :ror:
You can see the significant difference in diameter of the stock screw on the left vs the new 2.5mm. Especially the minor diameter :shock:
I also had to drill out the holes in the plastic cup itself a little larger because of the diameter difference, otherwise it would crack the plastic. Think I used a #44 drill.

Still haven't run the truck yet tho. We have about 28" of snow on the ground where I live.

Yeah, the Exotek diff cups use M2.5 hardware and the holes in the ring gear aren't large enough for the hardware. I used a Dremel with a diamond bit to enlarge the holes. It took some trial and error, but eventually worked.

 

[elRayRay]

Yea, still running the stock shocks. My buddy just put a set of Powerstrokes on his Yeti TT and they sure are nice... but out of my budget. Honestly, the stock BR shocks have been smooth and leak free, I figure that most of the performance gains would come from being properly sprung anyway. If I could get a couple sets of springs to play with, I'd get 1/2 way "there" for 1/10 the cost. I do see stock takeoff Yeti TT kit shocks (aluminum bodies) going for ~$22 for the whole set, are they even worth my time?

I'm quoting you because you are the first one in this thread to have the SSD front case installed.

Did the extra weight of the case dramatically impact your spring rates? I have installed my stiffest springs and even with the preload all the way down, the front has very little rebound to static height. There definitely seems to be enough spring to return to static height. No noticable binding, either. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[BAJAREY2017]

I'm quoting you because you are the first one in this thread to have the SSD front case installed.



Did the extra weight of the case dramatically impact your spring rates? I have installed my stiffest springs and even with the preload all the way down, the front has very little rebound to static height. There definitely seems to be enough spring to return to static height. No noticable binding, either. Anyone have any ideas?

Iv had my ssd diff housing for awhile and it doesn’t weigh enough to make a difference. You don’t want the car to spring all the way up to where the shocks are topped out just to where the a arms are level. If you haven’t cleaned yours in awhile I’d pull the upper and lower a arms and get all the dirt out. It doesn’t take much to make them bind. Also change the oil on the shocks if it’s been awhile. I was running 30w in the front and 35 in the rear with prolines but ran the same with the stock shocks and they worked pretty good.


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[TheLetterJ]

I can't say that I noticed any change in ride height from the weight, it honestly isn't enough to notice, maybe an ounce or 2 heavier? Heck, my battery weighs 15.5oz! I still never put any effort into finding springs that fit, I still find the truck is undersprung at both ends, but more so the rear. Keeping the ends balanced in their action/reaction while driving is what's most important, even if it's too soft/hard at least it will drive consistently and predictably. Trying to tune by the "squish" test, or "drop" test isn't really a good way to go about it, especially on a truck that drives so different going from on the throttle to off... How does it drive?

Keep in mind, all else being equal, stiffer springs require slower rebound. You might be closer than you think?

 

[elRayRay]

Iv had my ssd diff housing for awhile and it doesn’t weigh enough to make a difference. You don’t want the car to spring all the way up to where the shocks are topped out just to where the a arms are level. If you haven’t cleaned yours in awhile I’d pull the upper and lower a arms and get all the dirt out. It doesn’t take much to make them bind. Also change the oil on the shocks if it’s been awhile. I was running 30w in the front and 35 in the rear with prolines but ran the same with the stock shocks and they worked pretty good.


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The truck has only had 3 packs through it; regardless, I put new 30wt oil in also.

I know it's supposed to sag, but it seriously only rebounds to about 1/3 of the stroke...with significantly uprated spring rates.

At the same time, I've installed RPM A-arms and bumper, along with a complete aluminum steering setup. I already suspected the hinge pins binding in the new RPM arms, so I took some emery cloth to them and the contacting surfaces on the arms. When unsuspended (i.e. in my arms), the shocks feel oversprung. When it's on the ground the rear rebounds just fine, the front sits just off the ground.

I can't say that I noticed any change in ride height from the weight, it honestly isn't enough to notice, maybe an ounce or 2 heavier? Heck, my battery weighs 15.5oz! I still never put any effort into finding springs that fit, I still find the truck is undersprung at both ends, but more so the rear. Keeping the ends balanced in their action/reaction while driving is what's most important, even if it's too soft/hard at least it will drive consistently and predictably. Trying to tune by the "squish" test, or "drop" test isn't really a good way to go about it, especially on a truck that drives so different going from on the throttle to off... How does it drive?

Keep in mind, all else being equal, stiffer springs require slower rebound. You might be closer than you think?

When I hit the brakes, the skid scrapes the ground. Small sidewalk seams give it a bump.

I'm thinking about trying some springs inside the shock body to give some support. I'm sure that shouldn't be necessary, though. Maybe some more emery cloth work will help.

 

[BAJAREY2017]

I wouldn’t get to worried about how it is when you’re pushing down on it but drive it and see what it does. I think the drop test gets it just about perfect for me. I’d recommend pro lines whenever you can, they are definitely worth it, huge improvement over stock shocks. For a solid axle truck it handles really good, Iv had mine for a couple years now and it’s still my favorite truck.


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[elRayRay]

I wouldn’t get to worried about how it is when you’re pushing down on it but drive it and see what it does. I think the drop test gets it just about perfect for me. I’d recommend pro lines whenever you can, they are definitely worth it, huge improvement over stock shocks. For a solid axle truck it handles really good, Iv had mine for a couple years now and it’s still my favorite truck.


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It only drives well when accelerating, when off the throttle (at 0 drag brake), it handles VERY light on the rear end. The drop test from 8" slaps the front skid and returns to about 1" of the floor. Is this your experience?

 

[BAJAREY2017]

It only drives well when accelerating, when off the throttle (at 0 drag brake), it handles VERY light on the rear end. The drop test from 8" slaps the front skid and returns to about 1" of the floor. Is this your experience?

Solid axle trucks do feel a little light over a independent rear sct. I do a lot of steering with the rear end of this truck, that’s why it’s so fun to drive but you can get it to handle pretty good with some work. I drop mine from about a foot and it doesn’t slap the bottom and it returns to both ends are level. Post a pic of your set up. What kind of driving do you do.


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[elRayRay]

I'll post a pic or 3 in a bit. I'm reassembling after putting the suspension pins in a drill and hitting them with 1000 and 2000. Will report back.

 

[elRayRay]

Pics as promised:

Unsuspended, no weight on suspension

"Sagged" suspension, only static weight on suspension. Notice the oversprung front ride height

"Squish" - Pan mostly flat on floor

And rebound after releasing. It seems like the pan should be level, right?

I'm going to the park to give it a shakedown, but it really just doesn't feel right.:x

*Edit- It's raining, no shakedown. I'm going to put it away for now and revisit after I drive it a little. Maybe it is supposed to drag it's belly across whoops and bumps and take shots to the front skid on the regular.

 

[BAJAREY2017]

How much preload do you have in the rear? When I had stock shocks I had 50wt in the rear and hardly any pre load


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[elRayRay]

How much preload do you have in the rear? When I had stock shocks I had 50wt in the rear and hardly any pre load


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In the above photos, a little in the rear, maybe 6 mm of thread. The fronts are all the way down, with significantly stiffer springs.

I've since taken the preload all the way out in the rear and about halfway along the shock body up front. It sits level and has about 20 mm of clearance from top of tire to fender. It "looks right."

If I set it down, the front sags far lower than the rear. If I squish, it rebounds to a good ride height in the rear, but I have to lift the front and let it settle back in to level.

I greatly appreciate your help and I don't know if I'm just over-thinking it, but I feel like I know how this should work and something seems off. And there's still the issue of dragging the pan off every small bump.