reckboy

Hi gang,
been bashing with my Losi Mini 8ight for quite a while and wanted to get into something in 1/10 scale for better bashing in the rough terrain around my area. The Mini 8ight will be strictly for on-road now.

Anyway, I ordered the Duratrax Evader Brushless today and a couple of 2s 5300 mah 50c lipos. I already have Castle Link from another project so I will put that to use and set the ESC to my liking the easy way.

Are they any must have upgrades that will needed for durability? I have read the rear hubs are a weak spot.

Any advice would be appreciated.

reckboy

Received my BL Evader from UPS today. All seems in good order. My batteries fit nice and tight. I took a couple hours tonight to go though it and do a few things..

Installed my preferred receiver and radio.
Flipped the motor over so the wires are on top.
Tightened the motor screws and pinion set screw.
Set the gear mesh.
Set the slipper to the manual's recommended 1.5 turns out from tight.
Drove it around the garage to set the steering trim and EPA.
Castle linked to set the ESC the way I like it.
Installed aluminum rear hubs.
Blue Loc-Tite the rear wheel nuts.

Now all I gotta do is wait for the weekend to go out and have some fun!

reckboy

Waiting for the weekend and maybe a break in the rain... Not going to test the "Water Proof" claims too deeply...

So I went thru and topped off the shocks with AE 30wt and bled them properly to get rid of that squishy sound. all better now. Loc-tited nuts and bolts around the truck and added washers under the rear wheel nuts to help disperse the stress of any future bad landings. It was a suggestion from a friend on another forum and it makes sense to me. he also suggested checking for gaps in the tire gluing from the factory. Looks like they did a good job on mine so I haven't had to add any CA yet.

reckboy

Finally got a chance to run my evader for the first time yesterday. Yup, a break in the rain! 2 packs... Well... 1 and a half packs thru and wouldn't you know it, I side-swiped a curb a good clip and snap the both the ball cups off the rear left turn buckle. Lost one of those little springs in the process. Totally driver error.

So my impressions before I crashed hard.. FAST and MONSTER TORQUE!!! Okay I have the Castle Link and set the ESC to 0 timing advance and 100% punch control for my maiden voyage and still.... WOW! Wheelies all over the place. Blew the glue bead off one of the rear tires in my first speed pass. I will use that as my excuse for losing control on the following pack and banging into that curb.

Any way. Stopped by the LHS and got some new ball ends and some tire glue on the way home. Cheap and easy fixes. I used a small piece of fuel tubing to replace the missing spring because the LHS didn't have a replacement. I found that the tubing was much stiff and didn't give the dog bone as much freedom of movement. A friend on another forum suggested trimming a click pen spring to fit. Did that, much closer to the manufacturers tolerances IMO.

hotrod87

iTrader: (252)

These are fun trucks. Glad to see you're enjoying it. Hope the sun starts shining for you.

reckboy

Well, I have 10 packs thru my evader brushless now. No more broken parts since my tierod break on my second pack due to the curb sideswip.... See a few posts back for the details on that...

So yeah, 10 runs in. My pinion and spur seem fine still. The gear box does seem a bit noisy though. Since my motor plate look slightly bent, I ordered the upgraded heat sync motor plate. It looks thicker and will straighten out the rear alignment. I will also take the opportunity to open, inspect, clean and re-lube the gearbox. Probably won't pull apart the diff unless it is showing some sign of needing attention.

I also noticed a crack in the front hinge pin brace that is actually molded into the front bumper. I ordered the $3 aluminum hinge pin brace that is actually an upgrade part for the evader nitro. I will probably have to get creative with the Dremel to mod the front bumper to occomodate the new brace. Kinda looking forward to working that out.

Since pretty much all my runs so far have been on asphalt and concrete, my stock tires were pretty much toast. I thought I would use the baking method to remove the tires from the rims, put the front tires on the rear wheels and visa versa in the hopes of getting a few more runs out of them.... Epic Fail. The Duratax wheels melted. New proline velocity wheels and hpi geolandars on the way.

The two Nano-tech 2s 5300mah 50c Lipos that i picked up for this rig are working out okay. Even though I bought them at the same time, ran them the same number of times in the same car with the same LVC (3.2 volts per cell), one pack is noticeably better than the other. I even store them at proper voltage between weekends. Pack #1 takes ~5200mah when charged, but pack #2 takes only ~5000mah. Pack #1 also seems to be punchier longer than pack #2. That being said, #2 is still more than acceptable to get crazy speed and torque for bashing.

All in all, my BL Evader is really fun for me. Tweaks and fixes are all part of the hobby IMO and I really enjoy the process.

sun_dance

iTrader: (6)

I have a couple of Evaders (1 nitro and 1 electric), but was hoping that someone here has a lead of a good place to get some cheap bodies...since 1 of mine is almost entirely trashed...the other is ok, but it never hurts to have a spare. thnx

reckboy

I have been keeping an eye on eBay for an extra truck body too. They are going for about $16 -$25 depending on type/style. That is not quite "cheap" though. Will keep an eye out and let you know if I see anything.

sun_dance

iTrader: (6)

But heck it's only a thin piece of plastic...I figured it would be even cheaper

reckboy

My new parts came in. I took a few quick pix to share how some of this stuff looks mounted up.

HPI Geolandar tires on Proline Velocity wheels:


Duratrax Hinge Pin Brace and lightly modded front bumper:


Duratrax Motor Mount Heat Sync. you can see the aluminum rear hubs a too:


Another angle of the Motor Mount:

Trev3

Hi guys I'm new to this forum and noticed this evader thread. I'm posting some pics of my st conversion. I race it every Thursday at my local track in the 2wd sc class and what a blast.

Trev3

more pics

Trev3

got to figure out how to post all at once.
I have more I can post later at once if you want and a parts list, but you get the idea
Trevor

reckboy

@Trev3 - Love it! your chassis extension looks very clean. What is the blue disk up front? A counter weight or something?

Trev3

Because of the extension, I had to install some weight to balance the truck out. I'm glad you like it. It was a fun project.