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iTrader: (3)

Been racing RC 40 years off and on, mainly 1/10th 2wd offroad. Some friends was into crawler, rock racers, and bouncers, got me interested so I grabbed a Ryft and caught the bug. Wanted some with 4 wheel independent suspension and look at the Laser nut and Tenicity DB pro and decided to go with a race kit. Choose to start with a Tekno SCT410.3 and go from there.

Stayed with the stock 410.3 chassis for now and used the cage and body panels from the Tenicity DB pro. Have the cage mounted and an RC8B3E wing and wing mount. Body panels should be here tomorrow. With how hard to get and expensive the cages and body panels are I also set it up with a Pro line Megalon lexan body.

For tires I mounted a set of Pro line Hyrax SCXLs and a set of Jcon Scorpions both on Jcon SC wheels. Had to cut the back side of the Scorpions to fit the 3.0 side of the SC wheels.

Had to modify the motor plate to take a 12 tooth pinion, stock the smallest I could get to work was a 14 and I thought that would be to high with the 6" Scorpions tires. Will check motor temps and adjust from there.

Played a little on a dirt pile to try it out with the Hyrax tires and it did fairly well. Hoping saturday to go with some friends and hit some quad and SxS hill climbs and put it to the test against some Ryfts, Bombers, Rock reys, and modified Yetis.

Here are a few pictures.

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iTrader: (3)

I have gotten to take the DB48 out 2 times with my friends that have been climbinf for awhile. 1st time out I was able to make a long quad climb no one else could using the speed and handling the DB48 has over the other buggys. One hill was very technical and I made it with my Ryft but could not get the DB48 up it. The DB48 wheelies way to easy and anytime you have to back out of the throttle and then hit the throttle again it just loops out.

2nd outing we was climbing a place dirt had been dug out. In places it was 60' plus long climbs. I was able to make all the hills the other guys have been making plus the 60' plus line, So over all the DB48 is working great except for the wheeling.

I started out with 100,000# in the center diff, 30,000# in the front, 20,000 in the rear. It wheelies like mad and the front tires balloon like crazy. Switched front diff to 2.5 million #, the center and rear to 1 million#. Stiffer rear springs, and 4 teeth higher on pinion.
Wheelies worse now but front tires are not ballooning. Going to add weight to the front to try and counter the wheeling and if that does not help will have to buy the truggy chassis and stretch the wheel base.

With the DB Pro body mounted.

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iTrader: (3)

Weight did not help, put 20oz on the front bumper and it didn't seem to change much. Truggy chassis ordered, should be here thursday. Hoping that fixes the wheeling problem.

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iTrader: (3)

I put the truggy chassis in, with the extra wheelbase it climbs that much better. No more insane wheelies, the thicker oil in the center diff stopped the front tires ballooning. With the extra length and the SC wheels, it became very roll over happy. So I cut the threaded parts of the rear outer hinge pins nd drilled holes into the A arm for screws to capture the outer hinge pin, this allowed me to fit 2.2 wheels. Hill climbing quad climbs it is killing everything my friends have. Hoping to get to race it against other rock racers sunday on an 1/8 scale track. Mounted the Losi Laser nut cage and made my own body panels out of some old lexan sheets I had. The backing wont peel off of the old lexan so I will get some new lexan and paint the panels then. Here are a couple pictures the way it sits. I used the people insert out of the DB pro cage I had for the short wheelbase.

AHR43

First thought this was a series or collection of cars. Reading on I realized it was the evolution of a hillclimber. Anytime I come across hill climbing and r/c in the same sentence I get excited to read more. Funny how things come together. Only today read a review on the Losi Lasernut U4 in the July RCCA.

Really liked how your DB48 has progressed. Have bookmarked this thread to follow along your progress. Keep up the good work on the Big Show. Congrats too on 40+ years in the hobby.

Cheers and Regards. 'AC'

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iTrader: (3)

Thank you.

I checked out both the Laser nut and DB pro. From reading on them both being RTR everybody talked about upgrading to the Losi 4wd SC parts as things broke. So I added up what it took to upgrade the Laser nut and DB pro vs building a DB48, and unless you are going to run the RTR electrics, it is cheaper to build the DB48.

Psf

iTrader: (71)

What motor and battery are you running?

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iTrader: (3)

Hobbywing Xerun XR8 SCT Brushless ESC/3660D G2 Motor (3200KV) and Pro-Match 3s 8000MAH 150C. It hauls the mail. Had to sand down the motor mount to get an 11 or 12 tooth pinions to mesh.

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iTrader: (3)

Was not able to take the DB48 and race. Everybody backed out on going. Going to see if they will let me on the track with another class next time I can go.

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iTrader: (3)

Ok I got new lexan sheets and made new panels and painted them the same as my other cars. Also attended my first timed hill climb competition. I competed in straight axle and U4. In straight axle with my Ryft I would finish 4th after choking away the best practice times on 2 out of 3 hills. But with the better handling DB48 I would set the fastest time on all 3 hills for the overall. There was one Lasernut and it was fast, but lost the RTR front diff climbing the 1st climb. So very happy with the DB48. No regrets on building the DB48 vs buying a Lasernut. I had been looking forward to facing the Lasernut.

themountain

Please explain in detail !!

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iTrader: (3)

With the Lasernut you need to buy the Lasernut $539, then ditching the RTR electrics, diffs, drive shafts, axle, shocks and other parts. Replacing all of them with the Ten-SCTE 3.0 parts so the durability and handling is race grade not RTR grade. When I figured it up it was around $750 to $800 to build a race grade Lasernut minus electrics.

To build my DB48
Tenko SCT410.3 kit $369.99
Truggy chassis TKR5601 $96.99.
Steel diff coupler TKR5075 $9.99 ea- x2 $19.98
Differential-outdrives-center-lightened TKR5112X- $19.75
Front Center Driveshaft TKR5191- $17.99
Rear Center Driveshaft TKR5676- $14.49
Chassis Braces TKR5362- $14.49
Lasernut cage LOS230078- $16.99.
Lexan sheet from Ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/22287536951...53.m2749.l2649 $14.65
Total $584.65. All prices from A main and some are higher than when I built mine in the spring. I had all my parts for under $500 with Amain discounts and Amain money.

To mount the Lasernut cage I used the rear mount from the DBPro and bolted it to rear tower. There are more ways to mount the cage at the rear. For front used a piece of aluminum angle bolted to front tower and machined body post from nylon stock.

For 2.2 wheels I had to get 23mm hubs for the wheels and cut the outer hinge pin on rear A arms so they was flush with outside of A arms. Then drill holes in A arm to use small screws to capture the hinge pin.

For the body I cut the sheet of lexan roughly to a little bit bigger than what I needed. Bolted the lexan to the cage by the center side bolts then drew cut lines and bend lines on the lexan. I used vinyl siding trim benders and duck bill visegrips to bend the lexan. Cut and bent the lexan to fit then bolted panels on and used a few zip ties where I felt it needed more secure.
I also trimmed the rear bumper and it made a neat little bumper wheelie bar.

For the wing it is a AE RC8B3E wing mount I had laying around and a Proline wing I already had.

For me I was not going to be happy with RTR grade parts and shocks of the Lasernut after mainly racing offroad for 30 plus years and buy a Ryft. The Ryft was my 1st and last RTR RC. I use a Sanwa M12 radio on all my RCs, and sensored motor/ESC combos. Was not about to use a RTR radio, ESC, and motor. 1st thing with my Ryft straight out of the box was strip all the electrics. If you go dig in about the Lasernut, people talk about how you have to upgrade the diffs, drive shafts, and axles to have a dependable drive train. I put a Hobbywing XR8 SCT speed control with a 3200KV motor on 3s I wanted not to blow diffs and axles all the time.

themountain

Noice but some parts are missing on your list .....anyhow ...it would be a hoot if Losi would offer the lazernut as a kit.

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iTrader: (3)

What am I missing? Yes it would. Even better if AE would drop a desert buggy.

themountain

You didnt mention all the things you need to actually run a car...servo, wheels,radio, battery, etc
In a RTR Losinut you change the bearings,gearbox inserts and the drive shafts and you are good to go for quite a while. Thats like 120$ on the RTR price ...so not that big deal.