WHAT THE HECK TOOK SO LONG?!

While this has been the project has taken longer than any other to finally be released, it is also the most special. The BYT MLST truck was purchased by BYT forum members and given to BYT as a gift; a “thank you” for the things that BYT does for them and others.

A custom body was even painted and installed! This makes the truck, and the entire project very special to us and we hope you enjoy it enough to build your own!

When the MLST first arrived, it was pretty much a brand new truck on the market and there were very few hop-ups on the market. The elongated time frame of this project did have one benefit; it allowed the market to come out with new bells and whistles we were able to add to our truck.

Read on fellow truck beaters!

The carbon fiber plates are the exact thickness of the stockers, making the stock hardware usable (however as you will read on the next paragraph, we installed some other chassis goodies that came with specific hardware). The edges, holes and counter-sunk areas of the CF plates are perfect. We sealed the edges of all our CF with a light coat of thin CA glue before taking it out for a thrashing. That should help eliminate any separation of the layers over time.

FFRC did an excellent job on these pieces. They fit perfectly, are SUPER lightweight (exactly 22 grams which is HALF of the stock stuff) and really add an extra helping of “WOW” to the truck. The FFRC main chassis set comes with the upper plate and the two upper braces that tie into the front and rear portions of the truck. These carbon fiber pieces are 2mm thick, the same as the stock plates.

GPM aluminum chassis side rails (part number: MLT014X) were installed to add additional strength and integrity to the chassis structure. The rails look great however there were lots of machine marks on the edges and the finish could have been little better. A few of the holes did not line up perfectly however we were still able to install the rails without much trouble. Some of the hardware seemed a little short however there are so many screws that hold these rails on, it should be fine. The rails are surprisingly light weight. If you are afraid of adding something like this due too weight considerations; it is really not an issue and when paired with the FFRC carbon fiber stuff, it should balance out just fine.

As an alternative, Team Losi offers plastic chassis rails that are chromed so if you want the bling without the weight, check them out. The GPM’s were $23.99 and all in all, we have no regrets about adding them to the truck. If the finish was a little nicer and the holes were better aligned, they would get a much higher recommendation. Even with some minor hole alignment issues, we think they pair well with the carbon fiber for a ultra-tough package that looks slick.

We also added the FFRC carbon fiber antenna plate (part number: MLST002) to our truck. This is a pretty slick item as the front two mounting holes are slotted, meaning you can just remove the rear clip and slide the whole thing off. This is a super nice feature as those little clips will drive you crazy! Removing only one clip (versus three) to get your battery in and out is a very smooth move.

Ahh, let the saga begin. In an effort to not get overly emotional, we will stick to the facts and share with you the various setups we tried. If you are an MLST owner, you are most likely familiar with all of these and may have even tried some or all yourself.

We started with the stock diff gears and they quickly exploded into many, many little pieces. WE went through a dozen sets of these trying different greases, shims….basically anything to make them last a little longer. Nothing worked. So the truck sat on the shelf for months…until GPM came out with some exciting new differential gears. We quickly pounced on these and they proved to be a vast improvement over the stock units, allowing us to get 5-6 packs (at best) through the truck before they blew out. Their method of failure was predictable. The pinion gear split every time. We did this GPM exercise for a total of 4 diff sets and gave up again. Back on the shelf.

To our pleasant surprise, while all this was going on 3Racing came out with a ball diff for the front and rear of the truck. The bad thing is that they do not come with pinions (duh….what were they thinking?). We tried them with the stock pinions (pinions went boom) and then the GPM pinions (split pinions again…no surprise).

Next we tried a set of DP pinions and after paying too much for slow shipping, we found that they did not seem to mesh quite right with the GPM diffs; not to our liking anyway. So without running them, we removed the pinions and put them back in the package. It should be noted that other people have used these pinions with success. Perhaps we just had a bad set or plain ol' bad luck?

At this point of constant and consistent failure/frustration, we were forced to make a decision. Either run with a single Mamba in hopes that the GPM or 3Racing solutions would hold up or scrap the entire project. Scrapping a project of this importance was really not an option. This project was created as a "thank you" for all the members that came together and purchased the MLST truck for BYT. Back to the drawing board!

Alas…Team Losi to the rescue (finally) with metal gear sets. The Viscous Differential Conversion Set (part number: LOSB1250) gives you enough diff components to upgrade the front and rear of the truck. All required parts are included, including 2000wt diff oil and a couple of shims. We used one shim on each pinion and it seems to mesh up very nicely. The ring gears are metal as are the pinions. The machining on the pinions and the ring gears is very good. It appears that they should work very well. The spider gears (4) and planetary gears (2) inside each plastic diff cup are plastic.

After installing these components, the difference in feel was very noticeable. The diffs spun very smoothly and without cogging and bad noises. Note: we did have to lightly file out one of the outdrive grooves as the dog bone was sticking and not moving smoothly. We have a micro file set (picked a cheap one up almost anywhere they sell automotive tools like Sears, Harbor Freight, etc) that worked perfectly. Double check that your bones are not getting bound up in the out drive slots before final assembly.

In order to keep our diff gears running straight and true, we installed aluminum diff cases from GPM (part number: MLT012) at the front and rear of the truck. These installed without a problem, all holes lining up beautifully. The finish is good but again, machine marks were present. Not a big deal as once the truck is back together, you can barely see the cases. These are some pretty nice pieces especially when you consider the amount of machining that goes into them.

To toughen up the center differential, we opted for a factory upgrade, the Team Losi Ball Diff (part number: LOSB1125) and a GPM aluminum case (part number: MLT038) to keep things in check. The ball diff and case installed perfectly and have performed very well. Anyone that has torn into the center diff will instantly notice the similarities between it and the Losi Mini-T transmission. It’s the same setup, just a different case!

Other alternatives for the Losi Ball Diff would be the MIP Ball Diff. The MIP would, in our opinion, would be a higher quality component however we had a Losi diff in stock at the BYT Shop and chose to use that. When/if the Losi blows up, we'll upgrade to an MIP unit.

We have been scoping new suspension arms for our project for some time. The stock units have held up pretty well but we wanted something a little better. Other than the typical run of the mill, low to mid-quality stuff, there were few high-grade options until FFRC finally (sorry but we are impatient here!) came out with some mega-thick aluminum arms. Almost 6mm thick (5.75mm to be exact)! The arms feature nice radiuses on all the corners (no stress risers) and even the edges are smoothed out for a top-quality, professional grade appearance (well, at least until we hit the gravel piles).

The upper arms are adjustable via a turnbuckle. Now, we know what you are thinking! It looks like a potential weak spot right? Negative! FFRC did not just install any old piece of junk on their arms. They stepped up to the plate and used 3mm Lunsford titanium turnbuckles in the upper arm adjustment. This is a great move and is exactly what we would have chosen to use. The lower arms feature additional shock mounting holes, a welcomed improvement over the stockers.

Just look at those arms! The only thing they are missing is the word “BEEFY” laser-cut into them! Fit and finish is 110%. Hinge pins fit nice and snug to the stock hubs and diff cases while moving smoothly and the threads for the shock mountings are well done. No sharp corners anywhere that would cause a stress riser and the finish is very good (no machine marks to be found). Did we mention how beefy these arms are?

To add a little more strength at the wheel area, a classic point of impact, we tossed the plastic c-hubs and steering blocks for some stronger aluminum parts from Integy, GPM and Hot Racing. In the front, paired some GPM c-hubs (part number: MLT019) to some Integy steering blocks (part number: INT T8318SILVER). These pieces fit together very well and we particularly liked the look of the Integy parts. No sharp edges or corners to promote a place for cracks to form (fewer stress risers).

At the rear of the truck, we found a new setup that we just had to try out. Hot Racing offers an aluminum, fixed rear hub/knuckle system (part number: MLT2208) that eliminates the rear turnbuckles and is quite beefy. All the required parts are included in the package, even a hex wrench. The left and right sides are clearly marked and installation was a breeze. Put the hub in place, insert the new hinge pins and install the retaining screws (with a little blue thread locker). These really look great however all of our excitement was lost after we bolted the rear wheels on and noticed the significant amount of slop in the hinge pin tolerance. The pins are too small or the knuckles have too large of a hole in them…either way, they make for sloppy rear wheels. We like the idea. The parts are just not quite right.

The thought of a tolerance issue between the FFRC arms and the Hot Racing components comes to mind however the FFRC arms work perfectly with the stock hub setup so we are confident that the problem is with the Hot Racing knuckles.

Back to the front on the subject of turnbuckles: The stock MLST turnbuckles are pretty weak and an upgrade is a must for any serious basher. We typically go with Lunsford for all of our turnbuckle needs however this time we picked up some GPM titanium turnbuckles (part number: TMLT160). As we only needed the front two anyway, the idea of saving a few bucks and getting titanium sounded good to us. The kit comes with the rod ends preinstalled and it comes with new ball studs. The rods have a small hole drilled in them and that is pretty handy for making fine adjustments. We just stuck a small Allen wrench through the hole and gave it a twist. So far so good and no problems to report!

The stock plastic shocks are OK on the MLST but we wanted something better. We picked up the Integy piggyback shock kit (part number: INT T8320SILVER) for our project. This is our first set of Integy shocks and if you read stuff on the net like we do, there are a lot of haters and lovers out there. Looking them over, the shocks appear to be well made. Included are three sets of springs (soft, medium and stiff), extended rod ends and other miscellaneous mounting hardware. We filled up the shocks (no instructions with the kit so we found this that helped: Integy shock filling instructions) with 30WT Trinity Silicone Shock oil. Oil is not included so make sure you get what you need.

The shocks come with short lower rod ends installed and while these would bolt up to the lower suspension arms, we experienced contact between the arm and the lower spring retainer. We installed the extended rod ends to the shocks and they work beautifully.

Ummm…if these are MLST shocks, why were the longer ends preinstalled versus the shorter ones that do not work? Who knows?! At least they included the right stuff.

Our first few runs were made with the included blue springs (medium) and they felt too stiff. The truck was too bouncy. We swapped them out for the orange springs (softer), backed off the threaded collars and the handling is much better. These are really nice shocks and have given us zero problems. No leaks and they are still moving smoothly. The only bad thing we can find with them is that the reservoirs hit the body. Be prepared to jack your body up (they include extended body posts with the shock kit but our FFRC Aluminum posts work fine with our body and mounting height) or do some trimming. We did a combination of mounting it higher and trimming our shell. This contact was mostly in the front of the truck. Not a huge deal but it is worth mentioning.

We also added some GPM aluminum shock towers (part number: MLT028) to beef the shock mounting area up. They fit great and the finish is good. They are pretty dang thick and appear to be pretty strong. We would like to see fewer sharp corners and more radiuses on the towers as it would make them stronger and more resilient to cracking (especially where the vertical mount meets the horizontal plate). During one of our test runs, we were able to bend the front tower on a tumbling /cartwheel escapade on the pavement. The bend was slight and we were able to bend it back into place. The stock MLST shock towers are pretty strong however we have broken two of them. It is a trade off. Either replace a cheaper stock component when it breaks or bend back an aluminum part when it bends. Sometimes aluminum breaks, sometimes it bends so bad you can’t bring it back to life.

A miscellaneous item we added to our project was FullForceRC aluminum body posts (part number: MLT001). These work great and added a little extra “bling” to our baby. There is plenty of adjustment up and down to get the body just where you want it.

The stock hinge pin retainers and the stock skid plates were discarded for some more FullForce RC carbon fiber units. Just like the chassis set, the FFRC carbon fiber skid plates (part number: MLST004) are very nicely made. These skids weigh a total of 0.56 oz (16 grams) vs. the stock weight of 0.95 oz (27 grams). That's a weight savings of over 40%.

The countersinks are perfect and all the holes are exactly where they are supposed to be. These plates received some pretty hard smacks during our testing and other than some gouges and scratches, they are holding together very well. Less weight, sweet looking.....there is no reason these should not be on your MLST! All three skids cost about $30 and it is a great upgrade.

The FFRC CF outer diff brace set (part number: MLST005) weighs in at an ultra flyweight of 3 grams. These fit up great and the only bad thing is that they get hidden after everything is installed. They are sharp looking and it is a shame they get buried! We looked them over after a few months of bashing and they still look like new. Lighter weight and they work very well…these are a great little item for only $8 a set (front and rear plates).

Ok. Everyone that has checked out our projects before know that we love the Mamba system. What’s not to love with excellent electronics, super fast RPM brushless motors and ease of programming with the Castle Link system? Let’s get down to the setup. Our contact at Castle Creations gave us the following guidelines for proper system up:

#1 - The recommended battery is the Apogee 1570mah LiPo pack (2 or 3 cell….we are using the 3 cell)

#2 - Solder BOTH positive and negative battery input wires on the Electronic Speed Controllers (ESC) to the same Deans ultra male connector.

#3 – Use a “Y” harness to connect both ESC receiver leads into the throttle channel of the receiver. (the shorter the wires the better). We found a double link connector at or local hobby store that works well and is only 3 inches long (MPI Maxx part number 3163, double link, universal).

#4 Update both ESC's via the Castle Link (or by the transmitter method) separately

#5 Program both ESC's separately for:

• LOW start power
• LOW timing
• 9v cutoff (you will need to adjust this for your particular battery if it is different than a 3 cell lipo)
• 10% or more drag brake (your choice)
• 60% brake power
• 25% reverse speed

We followed these instructions to the letter and our truck is smooth and fast. It is not 60MPH fast due to the gearing of the truck however that is not what we wanted anyway. Beyond the “hey…I got dual Mamba’s in this thing” factor, we wanted torque and lots of it. That is exactly what we received with this setup.

The Apogee 1570mah Lipo with Deans plugs fits tight in the MLST but it fits! It provides oodles of power and run time. Our run times spanned from 10 minutes (very hard bashing) to about 17 minutes (longest run we had). The exact 3-cell Lipo battery we used is no longer available at Apogee however they do have 2-cell versions in stock. This would be a good alternative and would be a little easier on the drive train while still providing tons of fun. We recommend contacting them to see what they have as a replacement. The guys and gals at PFM Distribution will take very good care of you; their service is excellent and there products are even better.

To hold our dual Mamba setup tight and provide some extra motor cooling, we installed the GPM aluminum motor plate with heat sync (part number: MLT018). Once we installed this and put our gear cover back on, we realized it is pretty much a complete waste of money. The heat sync is inside the gear cover where there is no outside air circulation! We highly doubt that this provides any benefit at all. Skip it. We did see another motor plate / heat sync that would work better. It is from Hot Racing and has the heat sync mounted above the cover where it has air circulation. Check that one out before the GPM.

To upgrade our slipper, we installed the Racer’s Edge hard coated slipper package (part number: RCEK1714). We have used this same slipper setup on our Project Rocket Ship Mini-T for years and it is still going strong. It worked very well on the MLST with the dual Mamba setup and enabled us to give it just enough slip on take off for smoother and straighter launches.

The MMMLST was hammered relentlessly on the street, grass and dirt piles once we had a diff gear set that would hold up. On the street it is fast. Fast but not Rocketship Mini-T fast by any means. This is OK by us as the speed is very manageable, yet it is still freakishly fun. It handles well on the street, especially after we installed some softer springs. We did have a little bit of trouble getting the truck to drive in a straight line under power and this might be caused by the slop in the rear knuckles. There is some more fine tuning to do yet to see if we can work that out. The road is tough on the tires and we found our skins getting worn fast after a few packs of high speed fun. We do not have a radar gun (yet) but would guess the MLST to be doing about 35-40MPH at wide open on the road. We will be acquiring a radar gun shortly and will get some real numbers up for you to chew on.

It is Winter here in Wisconsin as I type this and our grass is dormant (and I cut it pretty short at the end of the growing season). The MMMLST owns the grass. Keep in mind that you should take care to only run it in the short stuff. Taller grass will get the motors and ESC’s hot very quickly! The torque is incredible and when you give it some gas, it almost seems to get moving so fast that it is just skipping across the top of the lawn! What a blast! The ground clearance, aggressive tire tread and dual Mamba power is made to conquer the short grass. The grass offers a little more cushion on landings and cartwheels as well and that is not a bad thing.

Tearing around the dirt is also a ton of fun with the MMMLST. Grab a handful of WOT and watch the tires knife and the dirt fly. The diffs seem to do a pretty good job in distributing the power from front to back and left to right. The stock tires are ok in the dirt however a good pair of step pins would have been perfect in the dirt we were flying on. There is simply too much power to put to the ground. The low timing settings on the Mamba system does help a lot but even with that, it is quite aggressive and doing all wheel slides and donuts is not a problem. All the humps and bumps were soaked up with no problem by the little piggy’s. We did not sky the little guy overly high, four feet of air was probably the max we were launching on a regular basis. Come on! It’s only an 18th scale truck.

Our MMMLST does not seem to fly very well? Perhaps we are not used to airing it out yet or perhaps we are just cruddy drivers? Maybe it is some of both? We will be playing with some settings to try and reduce the nose diving we are experiencing during flight.

Stay tuned for some videos....we'll have some posted as soon as our camera man becomes available.

We are sticking with stock steering servos and receiver (it is a great little stock receiver) for now as we wanted to get this project online. We plan to upgrade the steering as a Stage 2 of the project. The stock steering servos and servo savers are OK at best. There are a number of upgrade options on the market including a single steering servo setup that we will most likely install.

Another area for upgrade would be the dog bones. CVD’s would smooth out the drive train and potentially reduce some drive train stress from dog bone binding. Plan on a full set of MIP’s hitting this truck before Spring arrives.

One thing we find odd is the lack of wheel and tire options for the MLST. We thought by now there would be tons of options out there and as it stands, there are really not that many. This is the reason we stuck with the stock wheel and tire setup as we felt there are no other options that would perform all that much better on the wide variety of terrain we frequent. We will keep our eyes open for something in the tire and wheel department and hopefully, we will find something we like for Stage 2.

Finally, the project is finished and has turned out to be a success. After so many failed differentials, we had lost almost all hope. Was it worth the wait and heartburn? We think so and we hope you do to. The truck is incredibly fun to drive and it has taken on an all new attitude in strength and power. Once Stage 2 is in place, we feel we will have the Ultimate MLST in our stable. The MLST itself is a fabulous truck and in our opinion, it pretty much rules the 1/18 scale monster truck market. Its size, ground clearance, dual motor setup and striking resemblance to the LST make it a tough truck to beat. However it has been almost completely useless to us until the release of the Viscous Differential Conversion Set....go out and get it. It is worth every penny.

The FullForce RC components are as they have always been, very high in quality and performance. We find no gripes with any of the FFRC pieces. After dealing with some more “middle of the road” type products on this project, our appreciation for top quality has gone up. Thanks FFRC.

The GPM parts, in general, were full of sharp edges and corners. These sharp cuts are places for cracks to appear. We are not knocking them. They are what they are. Inexpensive aluminum parts. For the serious basher, be selective about what parts you invest your money into. Our favorite GPM part in this project was the diff cases (front, rear and center). They were well done and fit very well.

The Mamba motors are simply amazing. Smooth, fast and they work very well as a pair. Castle owns the 1/18th scale brushless market (in our opinion) and lately, there have been some other players like Dynamite trying to get a piece of the action. Mambas have always worked so well (this is our 4th truck equipped with a Mamba brushless system), we have never thought about trying anything else. Their performance gets that much better when powered by a top quality Lipo like Apogee. The folks at PFM really know their stuff when it comes to battery power. The Mamba/Apogee combination is a big winner.


WHERE WE GOT OUR STUFF AND WHAT IT COST

My favorite part of this entire, incredible 1/18th scale truck is the body that members of the BYT Forum had custom painted for me. Not only did they surprise me with the MLST, they had this body painted! In fact I am going to retire the body soon as to not destroy it. It will live in the BYT shop as a constant reminder of what BYT is all about.

Thank you everyone (now....go Beat Your Truck!!)