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FAST LANE MACHINE COMBO BULKS AND CHASSIS

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS - COMBO BULK HEADS AND DIFFERENTIALS:
In the ever so popular effort to make a stock T-Maxx stronger we often turn to aluminum products. For this review I turned to Fast Lane Machine to see what they could offer the most abuse driver in the area. After buying many different types of products claiming they could take some abuse and finding out they didn’t even compare, I was a little hesitant to try this set up from Fast Lane.

After a few emails between Fast Lane’s Jamie I decided it was time to try out the product. I decided first to try out the Front and Rear Combo Bulks FLM17500 & 1850 weighing in at a very light 138 grams. When I first got them I thought to myself these are going to be so tough. The reason being is they hold themselves together and don’t rely on the skid plates bulkhead braces and the shock towers to hold the shape or support them. There are three of the black oxide screws thru the case to hold the Bulk less diff together. After staring at them for a good amount of time I decided I had better order the lightweight Chassis weighing in at 186 grams for this winter rebuild project.

Here are some combo bulk spec's from the Fast Lane web site:

Front and Rear Combo Bulks FLM17500 & 18500 $120.00/set

ASSEMBLY:
So on to assembly of the new products. I got everything lined up and cleaned up and then moved onto the Combo differentials. I started to assemble them and then discovered that when I went to screw on the drive cups of the XTM CVD’s that I was using I couldn’t get the screws thru cause of the lack of a channel to run a driver thru. I contacted Jamie from Fast Lane on the issue and I was informed that I had a older version and that I could:

A. Send them in for the new ones.....or

B. Cut a channel in them myself and it would not void the warranty.

So I decided to cut my own and be on with the build. Once I cut a channel everything went smooth from there.

Next was the A-Arms I run RPM arms and they have to be shaved just a little to fit in the bulkhead area. I trimmed the arms and they slid right in. I didn’t have much of a problem with this cause my arms was used and perhaps a little warped or whatnot.

I also decided to run the LUNSFORD titanium hinge pins. I was able to get them all into the new bulkheads but had a problem with the short pins cause of the extra support that Fast Lane used on the bottom A-Arm, with this extra support it requires that you use the longer pins for both the front and rear. They do include them with the kit but they are steel and I wanted titanium so I contacted LUNSFORD and our friendly Lunsford rep was able to steer me in the right direction. So now I have the A-Arms on and the differentials together and they look so good.

So while drooling I screwed on my Titanium Skid plates from GARC and found out very quickly I wasn’t able to run very long screws into the Bulk Less differentials. It did bother me at first but you will see in my later comments that it makes no difference. So now that I have two complete beautiful Front and Rear Combo Bulks from Fast Lane Machine, I set them aside and started assembling the Chassis.

FAST LANE CHASSIS:
The Chassis is an awesome piece of art and very impressive and that’s before I even ran the truck at all. I started with the transmission first and it was a super tight fit, which I love the idea of a nice tight fit but perhaps a guy with a nice aluminum case would think differently. After I had the transmission bolted in I moved on to the chassis braces and let me tell you these things are great! They bolt to the chassis instead of the only area of support being the transmission areas like the stock truck, the screws on this were a little shorter then I prefer. But I guess I am just a nut for the longer screws wherever I can get them, more screw means more holding power. Everything with the chassis went fine and then I came across another high point of the chassis. The steering (and reverse) servo has direct mount threaded holes into the chassis. How awesome is that?

Here are some chassis spec's from the Fast Lane web site:

With the Chassis assembled and the Bulk Less diffs ready to go it was time to mate them together. This went together like butter and bread. Everything lined up so perfect.

Now I have a truck with a 6mm thick Chassis structure and a Bulkhead system that holds itself together time to go out and beat my truck.



TIME TO BASH / FINAL THOUGHTS:
Some guys would start out small to see if it will hold up at all to anything but I could tell that this was no joke of a set up. So I opted for the stone pile down the road. The stone pile has a huge runway and a 10 foot drop on the other side. So I get about one practice run in and decided that was enough and went out for a long run into the pile. I hit it hard and the truck launched high. I landed that one perfect and brought her back around for another go at it. This time was fast and higher around the 10-12 foot high mark. I was flying a little off and applied the brakes to correct the problem, well I over corrected and did a strait nose dive onto the concrete landing area. Right then the truck shut down and I said to myself I guess this is it already. After a quick inspection of the front of the truck I noticed the only thing broken was the screw that hold the RPM bumper to the stock bumper mounts!!!!!! Nothing happened to the Chassis or the bulk less!

I then checked the spur and a couple other things and fired her right back up. Some would leave after that scare but I wasn’t going to give this truck a break at all. I went right at it same speed and same runway and this time I was going for the back flip. Well I rolled her over perfect and landed it fine. I played with it for about the rest of the tank till a nasty sideways landing took out my stock fuel tank and put me out of business for the day.

The next session of bashing was done at a small BMX track a few days later. I have not seen such terrible landings ever in my life. I did so many cartwheels I could have won the Olympics. I got maybe 3 tanks thru it that day and then my spur decided that it had enough and gave out on me, so that ended that bash session. I took the truck home and went thru everything as far as screws and anything else that should be addressed after such a beating. Nothing was disturbed at all and the only thing noticeable was the huge scratches on the Titanium skids and the Chassis braces.

I have ran this truck many times after these bash sessions and in fact the other day I had another terrible landing that claimed the life of my R/C Solutions roll cage and the truck showed no signs of fatigue and or stress anywhere!


NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: Review written by "N8", BYT Forum Moderator and BYT Web Site Contributor. N8 is a resident MAXX expert here at BYT and has been a long time member and supporter. Thanks for the great write-up N8!