Jeff Hoy, American » monster truck

New truck: Losi 1/18th scale Mini Highroller

Jeff Hoy — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:01:31 +0000

The Losi Highroller family is now complete. Take your pick and get it in 1/10th scale, 1/36th micro scale, or in the new 1/18th mini scale.

The Mini Highroller is a fully assembled RTR 2wd monster truck with a tubular styled, narrow chassis, very similar to it’s larger 1/10th scale brother. It’s driven by a RS280 motor controlled by an electronic speed control. Also included are a 2 channel, 2.4 GHz DSM radio; an 1100 mAh NiMH rechargable battery, a wall-wart charger, and some AA alkaline batteries for the transmitter. It will be available in 3 colors, blue, orange, and green and should be on your local hobby shop shelves some time in March.

This little guy is the spittin’ image of it’s larger, older brother, the 1/10th scale Highroller. It looks to be some good fun for those times when the weather outside is frightful and your garage or basement are your only options. Check out the video below.

Did you get a new R/C car or truck for Christmas?

Jeff Hoy — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 23:00:08 +0000

Christmas has come and gone. The presents have been unwrapped with joyous glee. If you’re one of the lucky ones, then hopefully you unwrapped a nice, new radio controlled car or truck. Here’s some of my older articles about how to upgrade and hop-up your new R/C car.

Did you get a Losi Highroller for Christmas? Then you might want to check out a couple of my articles about it. I have written about mine a few times, highlighting some of the ways to make it faster and stronger. Check out my first article about upgrading the speed control to make your Losi Highroller ready to use LiPo batteries. I have also written about upgrading the motor to make your Highroller faster. And finally I’ve shown you three hop-ups to make your Highroller ready for a brushless motor.

If you got yourself a Tamiya Baja King then I’ve got you covered there, too. I’ve suggested some ways to make the Baja King handle better and more durable. I’ve written about how to make your Baja King faster by installing a better motor. And I’ve demonstrated some cheap or free upgrades to the Baja King that you can do with some common house-hold materials and tools.

I’ve also offered Highroller troubleshooting tips and suggestions in the comments to my Highroller review.

Now get out there and have fun.

Micro Awesomeness.

Jeff Hoy — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:23:34 +0000

Well, I love me them Losi Micros and I love me them Losi Highrollers. Now two of my loves have become one. The new Micro-Highroller is a teeny, tiny, dead wringer for it’s bigger brother.

It has officially been added to my r/c must buy list.

Schumacher is win…

Jeff Hoy — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:01:00 +0000

This is one cool looking truck. I want.

RCeasy has the goods.

Just a heads up…

Jeff Hoy — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:01:00 +0000

If you’ve been thinking about buying a Losi Highroller, Stormer Hobbies has it on sale right now for $159.99. That’s $20 off the regular price, and actually below the minimum advertised price so you have to add it to the cart to see the cost.

Highroller changes…

Jeff Hoy — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 06:01:00 +0000

I burned up the speed control on my Highroller and I swapped it out with a new LRP AI Automatic Bullet Reverse that I had been saving for my Thundertech Pro-2. I did run into a small problem with the swap. The receiver lead on the LRP ESC is shorter than on the stock ESC. I had to position the new ESC further forward on the tray than the stock one was. The LRP is also larger than the stock ESC and having it moved forward means it also hangs off the tray a little bit. It’s not a problem at all, but it would have been nice to have a longer receiver lead. The problem was mitigated when I installed Novak’s Smart-Stop LiPo cut-off module, the receiver lead from the ESC plugs in to the module and then the module plugs in to the receiver.

I also finally picked out an ESC for my JRX-S, I chose LRP’s Quantum 2 Reverse Bullet. There’s a problem though, I put the first battery in to test it, got it setup, started running and after about five minutes lost forward throttle. Reverse still works just fine, and I’ve tried resetting it multiple times, and double-checked my transmitter with no love to show for it. I’m going to have to have a little talk with LRP support (handled by Team Associated here in America) and see if there’s anything that can be done. I’ve apparently already voided the warranty by soldering on some Dean’s Ultra plugs in place of the stock Tamiya plugs. The fact that this ESC didn’t make it through the first battery pack really makes me angry. This is the second LRP ESC that I’ve had die in as many months. I’m starting to think I may go back to Novak, maybe orange is my color.

To pile some more on, I ran my SV27 into shallow water and ripped the prop apart, I’m lucky I didn’t do more damage. It hasn’t been a good couple months for me and r/c.

Losi Highroller Review

Jeff Hoy — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:01:00 +0000

Big wheeled, great looking, ground clearance to die for, fun. Those are all phrases you could use to describe Losi’s newest electric truck, the Highroller. It’s a purpose built basher that flies right and looks good to boot.

Features

The Highroller has a three gear transmission, a 12-turn closed endbell modified motor, and high performance speed control with reverse and reverse lockout. Big bore shocks, massive tires, a ton of ground clearance, and skid plates all make sure that this truck can be run anywhere and over any obstacle that might be in it’s way. Full ball bearings in the transmission and at the wheels are a great inclusion on an entry level kit like this one. A 2-channel 27Mhz transmitter and receiver offer a reasonable amount of control but little adjustability. A 2.4Ghz radio like those included in some of Losi’s other kits would have been a better option I think, but Losi was obviously concerned with cost with the Highroller.

What’s in the box?

As a RTR the Highroller includes almost everything you need to get started, except batteries and a charger. The truck, radio, manual, and accessory bag pretty much round out the complete contents of the impressively large box.

There are some tools provided for basic maintenance, but in my opinion they are substandard. The 4-way wrench included only works on the wheel nuts and slipper nut, not the shock nuts or ball studs for the steering. Add to that the fact that it’s made out of plastic diminishes it’s worth to me. A steel 4-way couldn’t have been that much more expensive. Two allen wrenches are included, the smaller of which is easily rounded off if you try to torque the screws too much. A flat wrench is also included for the turnbuckle tie-rods and it works well enough even if it is a tight fit. If you’re handing this truck a lot of punishment you may want to consider investing in a better set of tools.

The manual provides a ton of great information on running, tuning and maintaining your truck. Make sure to give it all a good read before setting out with the Highroller. And refer to it often if you’re new to the hobby and want to make performance improvements.

Prep time

The Highroller is a RTR, but that doesn’t mean you should just put a battery in and start bashing. Take some time to check that all the screws are tight, all the tie-rods are the same length, and everything spins and moves freely. It might also be wise to use some thread-locker on the few metal to metal screws on the truck. I found a couple of the screws were loose on my truck and the slipper clutch was very loose. Beyond that the truck was well put together, though I did greatly miss the opportunity to do it myself.

Fun time

As usual I replaced the stock receiver with a unit compatible with my Futaba 4PK transmitter. Unless you spend a lot of time tweaking your settings and know what they do the 4PK won’t offer many advantages over the stock transmitter other than the better signal of a 2.4Ghz system. The stock radio will work just fine for pretty much everybody.

I put in a fresh Team Orion 3400mah carbon edition race LiPo and hit the dirt. This is a big truck with big tires, so it didn’t really rip away, it kind of lumbered up to a top speed of just over 15mph. It’s certainly not going to beat any speed records or even my Baja King in a drag race, but for what it is the speed was impressive enough.

High speed responsiveness isn’t all that great, I put the Highroller through a slalom course at high speed, the truck didn’t take it too well. It handled fine at about half throttle. Trying to swing those big tires and high chassis around takes some serious work on the part of the servo and suspension. A bit of tuning may get it to handle the corners quicker but may make it a little less stable in other ways.

Trying to make fast stops or sharp turns under braking is a bit of a mess on the street. The Highroller tends to 180 in both of those circumstances. From what I can tell this is caused by a very loose differential. Being a gear diff the only way to tighten it up would be to use a heavier grease. The diff isn’t sealed though, so applying grease to it would only help for a very short time.

The Highroller flies flat with little input from the driver and when it lands you hear a satisfying whomp from the massive tires compressing. And no matter how crooked my launch was, the Highroller always landed wheels down and ready for more. There’s enough ground clearance and suspension that chassis slap never even came up as a concern for me, even off some massive jumps. The Highroller soaks them all up in stride and keeps on running. I even managed to pull a couple slap wheelies after I adjusted the slipper clutch a little bit.

All that said though the Highroller isn’t made for racing, it’s made for bashing. And you can do that with gusto with this truck. You can drive this truck pretty much anywhere — rocks, grass, bad streets, playgrounds — and have a ton of fun doing it. The Highroller really is a blast to drive in a way I haven’t experienced in a long time. It’s going to flip and roll and tumble it’s way over anything you throw at it and you’ll probably be laughing about it instead of running a calculator in your head trying to figure out how much it’s going to cost to fix it. The Highroller is fairly durable and braced in all the right spots. Skid plates help protect the steering and transmission and the motor is mounted high over the transmission to keep it up out of the way. Big bumpers front and rear help to keep walls, curbs, and other cars at bay. In my drive time I only experienced one bent axle, easily fixed with a couple pairs of pliers, and a couple cracks in the body shell also emerged.

Not so fun time

Unless you’re a gearhead that is. The maintenance and tuning of the Highroller isn’t difficult, but it would have been easier if I had built it myself and known all the issues involved with it’s assembly.

The truck is meant to be sturdy and as such there’s a lot of braces installed that you have to remove if you want to strip off some of the bigger parts. Trying to remove the transmission was quite a pain the first time, but then I realized I didn’t need to take off everything that I did, so it’s been easier since. Instructions for assembly and disassembly would have been very nice to have.

My particular Highroller came out of the box with crazy amounts of toe-out at the front and negative camber all around. I adjusted the toe to about 1.5 of toe-out and I put the camber to about .5 negative front and rear. That improved straight-line handling quite a bit and reduced steering a tad which is giving the truck a bit more stable feel during cornering.

What could be improved

Not much is needed to make the Highroller better. It already comes will full ball bearings and turnbuckle tie-rods, two very nice features for an entry level truck. I would suggest a stronger steering servo to swing those big tires a little easier, that might make it a bit more responsive. You might also want to replace the servo tape used to hold the receiver and ESC in place, when I replaced the receiver it pulled off quite easily. The only other thing this truck needs is a sealed gear diff or adjustable ball diff. I think that would greatly improve street performance. Overall the Highroller is a good package out of the box.

Conclusion

From the outside it may look like Losi is trying to position itself as another Traxxas. The new Highroller just seems to add to that because it’s obviously meant to compete with the likes of Traxxas’ Stampede or Tamiya’s Super Blackfoot, two other 2WD monster trucks. Is Losi doing anything better than those two with this truck? Not really, it’s more or less the same. Traxxas’ Stampede is cheaper but offers no other real advantages over the Highroller. If you want to build your own truck though get the Blackfoot as it’s the only kit truck out in this class. I’m still not a fan of RTRs.

Probably the one place where this truck wins over the other two is style. It just looks a lot better than the ‘Pede and Blackfoot, but that’s purely subjective. For first timers you can’t go wrong with the Highroller. It’s performance could use a little adjustment but it’s no slouch. It flies well, lands soft, and takes it all in stride.

Info

Manufacturer: Losi; Horizon Hobby (distributor)
Product website: http://www.losi.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=LOSB0103
Where to buy: Stormer Racing ($159.99); Your local hobby shop (±$159.99)

Heavy Metal

Jeff Hoy — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:01:00 +0000

Tamiya’s Clod Buster has been the godfather of R/C monster trucks for over two decades now. I always wanted one but have been put off by the cost of entry. I may just have to buy myself this new version though.

Tamiya has always been known for their attention to detail when it comes to creating new models. The Clod Buster is no exception. It’s modeled after the original monster trucks that emerged in the early 80’s and it plays the part extremely well. It’s much more scale looking than modern racing r/c monster trucks, it’s got solid axles instead of independent suspension, a realistic old school body cast out of abs plastic instead of polycarb, and awesome looking wheels and tires. And, it’s HUGE. But this new edition adds a little bit more to the cool stuff.

This famous monster truck now comes in a special edition that features a brilliant metal plated body.

When you metal plate stuff, that increases it’s awesome factor exponentially. A fully chrome plated body on a huge monster truck would be a major head turner. Look for this one in your hobby shop soon, but be prepared to be in line behind me.

Check all the specs over at RCeasy.

Two significant events today…

Jeff Hoy — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:40:05 +0000

First, I got my HighRoller, and it’s a blast but may be a little more delicate than I had assumed. On the first full battery pack I managed to bend one of the axles. That’s not surprising though considering the abuse I was handing out to it. The bent axle hasn’t really affect much yet except for having a wobbly tire, but the vibration could lead to problems down the road. I think I’ll try to bend it back with a vice and some pliers, maybe a little heat, but if that doesn’t work out I’ll replace it.

The second sigevent is that I got my PureTen GP running again with the Peak Performance Diablo .15 engine and hacked together flywheel. At this point all I’ve done is break in, running the engine very rich at just above idle for a few tanks of fuel, but with that out of the way I’m ready for a full test of my Frankenstein creation. I’ll just have to wait and see if the flywheel and clutch handle the high rpms and power of full throttle running.

I still haven’t finished my JRX-S yet because I’ve decided to swap electronics in it, specifically I’m going to put in a more race oriented ESC and use the one I originally purchased for it in my Pro-2. I’m looking at the LRP Quantum series because of it’s size and power, but right now I’m only finding very expensive brushed/brushless compatible ESCs when all I’ll be running is brushed. I’ll keep looking though.

Now that I have all these cars running I’m going to have to start slinging paint at the bodies. I have to paint the JRX-S body, the PureTen’s new one, and a replacement for my totally jacked Baja King body. When my Thundertech Pro-2 gets here add that to the long line of bodies I have to paint. That means I’m going to have to buy a lot more paint too. Of course when I finally get it done I’ll have pictures-o-plenty.

First Impression: The Losi HighRoller rocks.

Jeff Hoy — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:12:22 +0000

My new HighRoller just arrived via UPS and I wasted no time ripping it out of the packaging, swapping out the receiver for a unit compatible with my Futaba 4PK transmitter, and stuffing in a fully charged LiPo.

The first impression on getting the truck out of the box was “holy $#!7, this thing is awesome lookin’!” My first impression upon tossing it on the ground (literally, I’m not afraid of dropping this truck, it just exudes toughness) and yanking on the trigger was a giddy, child like laugh as it tore off down my driveway and into the weeds and rocks of the field next to my house.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a big tired basher truck, my last one was actually a Tyco Turbo Hammer, and I’ve missed it greatly. I didn’t get to drive the HighRoller long before my transmitter battery went flat because I forgot to charge it, but I had a blast. I think this truck it going to be my goto basher r/c car from now on.