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Saito2

Losi LMT Monster Truck

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Well, it looks like Axial isn't the only one offering a Grave Digger monster truck anymore. Losi has stepped up to the plate with a whole new solid axle truck platform. Tower has a  Grave Digger brushless RTR version up for preorder at about $600 and a roller version for $400. They may be pricey but a brief look at the specs leads me to believe they're quite a bit more capable than the Axial SMT10. Best of all, it looks to have proper size tires and a correct wheelbase right out of the box. Very impressive looking piece of equipment. 

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That looks really really nice. I was contemplating a Clod build, but this looks superb. However, Horizon... please, please, please do some KITS!!!

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So i JUST picked up an SMT10 kit, swb kit, motor, and body.  Like last week.  This seems like such a better product.  I preodered the LMT the second i saw it.  Hopefully i can recoup most of my investment on the SMT10 kit and SWB kit.  😐

Having said that, i do think the price is too high.  $400 on a prebuilt roller that i would much rather build myself.   The rtrs are $599 which seems crazy to me.

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While monster trucks aren't my thing, I gotta say that this could be the best competitor to the clod ever at least for all-out racing. Chassis looks like some of the popular options for Axial and Redcat based trucks, and everything is mounted super low.  Seems a little pricey to me, but it's probably much cheaper than building a full race clod or SMT10. Losi's build and materials quality is also super high, I've been impressed with my mini-t 2.0 and my brothers Baja Rey. The transmission/center differential is super trick though, the spur and cush drive is directly attached to what is essentially a 1/8 buggy differential turned 90 degrees and mounted in the center. 

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This is a very interesting release, really nice to see solid axle monster trucks getting some love lately.  Would be great as a kit as others have said, but for what you get I think the pricing is very fair.  This is so far ahead of any solid axle off the shelf truck it's not even close.  You could not build a reliable race Clod or shaft driven race truck for what the LMT costs.  From what I've seen it is extremely well set up out of the box and very durable.  The axles are going to become the standard in solid axle racing without a doubt, I'll probably retrofit all of my SMT10s with them when available.  The only thing I dont like are the 2.6/3.5 wheels, but looks like standard 2.6/2.6 wheels will work or you could always just paint the inside of the stock wheels black so they dont look so goofy.

I'm sure I'll get one at some point, most likley the roller.  Have a nice 1/8 Castle system that I pulled from my TXT-2 that would be perfect for this.  

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If my Losi Baja Rey Raptor is anything to go by it gets a thumbs up. Very well put together and is the most realistic driving experience of any RC I've driven.

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Yep, needs to be a kit. That's half of the allure of the hobby. If Traxxas would do a Xmaxx kit I'd have one by now.

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3 hours ago, GTodd said:

Yep, needs to be a kit. That's half of the allure of the hobby. If Traxxas would do a Xmaxx kit I'd have one by now.

Me too. I dont mind it being ready to run, I'd just like to build it myself.  I do like the look of it though. 

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I know most of us here are probably in the minority nowadays, but I cannot, for the life of me, get my head around RTR. Without assembling it, seeing the work that went into the design, knowing what makes it tick, feeling the sense of accomplishment from the build that makes it "yours" when you are done, it just becomes a toy to me. A kit build is a first and crucial step into starting a long-term relationship with a vehicle that last rather than fades as the years roll on. Still, its a killer truck and I'm happy to see someone finally got it right in this area of RC. Getting into solid axle monsters is such a quagmire for those not on the "inside". Axial SMT10 parts bin specials needing durability upgrades or trying to piece together a race Clod can be daunting to the uninitiated.

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6 hours ago, Saito2 said:

I know most of us here are probably in the minority nowadays, but I cannot, for the life of me, get my head around RTR. Without assembling it, seeing the work that went into the design, knowing what makes it tick, feeling the sense of accomplishment from the build that makes it "yours" when you are done, it just becomes a toy to me. A kit build is a first and crucial step into starting a long-term relationship with a vehicle that last rather than fades as the years roll on. Still, its a killer truck and I'm happy to see someone finally got it right in this area of RC. Getting into solid axle monsters is such a quagmire for those not on the "inside". Axial SMT10 parts bin specials needing durability upgrades or trying to piece together a race Clod can be daunting to the uninitiated.

Agree 100%.  If this were a kit I would have ordered already.  I've never purchased an RTR RC vehicle and this is the only one I've ever entertained simply because I love solid axle monster trucks.  What I love most about them is building them though, so this is a tough sell for me.  I do prefer to piece trucks together, but there's just something so relaxing about sitting down and buulding a kit from a box.  I guess that's why Iove Tamiya so much.  I have a few SMT10s because the builders kits are so cheap and I like building them, but they are really not a good truck.  Really dislike the AR60 axles for many reasons, hopefully Losi offers the LMT axles separately and I can throw them under my SMT10s.

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7 hours ago, 87lc2 said:

hopefully Losi offers the LMT axles separately and I can throw them under my SMT10s.

Hoping the same. I'd like some bulletproof axles for my TXT.

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While it's good to see another solid axle monster truck on the stock books, I think it unlikely we'll see a lot over here in the UK.  Firstly, I don't know that Losi gets a lot of love outside of racing circles over here, and secondly, there are no major solid axle monster truck classes here.  So it'll only be bought as a basher or a general interest article, and it's a lot of money for that.

Part of me hopes that the resurgence in solid axle racing in the US will see some UK events taking place.  Trigger King videos show you don't need much - a rudimentary timing system (even a broken beam system would work) and a hall with a flat floor.  Even a barn would be OK, and we've got plenty of those, along with plenty of farmers who will be desperate to get a bit of extra income pretty soon.

On the other hand, this perhaps marks the beginning of the end of the romantic resurgence of solid-axle monsters.  Right now, racing seems to be where crawling was a decade ago - we are starting to see some kits on the market offering most of what we need, but to build a proper race rig you still need to get busy with custom parts or reach out to aftermarket suppliers.  Every rig is different and the scene is full of innovation.  As @Saito2 rightly points out, understanding solid axle racing can be daunting (Trigger King have gone a long way towards demystifying it, for me at least) but there's no substitute for getting stuck in and trying new things.

The day somebody turns up at an event with a bone-stock RTR truck and sets qualifying times against rigs with hundreds of hours of innovation baked in is the day it turns into just another chequebook racing series.

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This rig is pricey but I don’t think I could mod my existing SMT10 to anywhere near the spec of that thing for less than that asking price. 
I have a nice wad of cash leftover from my summer hobby of fixing as selling mowers and bicycles.  
Thing is tempting but If I invest in any new non Tamiya RCs for a self Christmas gift it might be one of the current Gen AARMA 3s series.  I suppose either way I’d be giving my money to horizon, lol.

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On 11/14/2020 at 9:01 AM, GTodd said:

Yep, needs to be a kit. That's half of the allure of the hobby. If Traxxas would do a Xmaxx kit I'd have one by now.

Even better if they did the UDR as a kit. 

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10 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

but there's no substitute for getting stuck in and trying new things.

The day somebody turns up at an event with a bone-stock RTR truck and sets qualifying times against rigs with hundreds of hours of innovation baked in is the day it turns into just another chequebook racing series.

I agree @Mad Ax, that's the tricky part. At first, I was amazed that after all this time someone finally got this portion of the monster truck market right. For competitors, there was always this journey of not quite having what you needed and having to compromise or come up with solutions. The SMT10, while I'm gracious to have it as an option, is a parts bin-special and its durability limitations showed up when it was really pushed. After all this time, nobody seemed to really overtake the ancient Clod Buster (actually only the axles at this point) as the go-to truck for Pro Mod until the SMT10 began making inroads. The Ground Pounder was a flop, the Wheelie King too small, the MST MTX-1 is a no-show for some reason and the Tamiya TXTs, despite their realism, never took off in competition. For Losi come out out and nail it so well is, frankly, amazing. 

A long time ago I have built a V8 Chevy Vega and tinkered with it, making it faster. I had the opportunity to buy a new LS1 4th gen Camaro which was fast off the show room floor. I declined, not only because of having car payments for 5 years, but because it would have made my whole hobby/goals for the Vega obsolete. I don't regret it because I wager I had more fun with the Vega.

The fact the Losi LMT is an RTR truck that will go straight into Pro Mod competition takes all the fun out of that class which makes its introduction a two-edged sword and I'm not sure how I feel about that. In some respects (to maintain the "hobby" aspect) It would have been better if the truck was a perfect entry into Sport Mod. Give it all the right ingredients (and make it a kit!) like a durable enough drivetrain, but give it some room to grow. The journey can be as fun (or more, in my case) than the destination. On one hand, the LMT will bring in those too mystified by building up a mod Clod and give the series a boost. The question is, will it be sustainable? It could get dull without the hobby aspect eventually.

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I woke up in the early hours of the morning wondering if I should get down off my box over my previous post (I had a tendency to overthink things, sometimes).  I mean, if a manufacturer makes something that just works in competition then that's a good thing, right?  And if it gives more people a chance to get into competition then that's got to be good for the series too, right?  It's not as if I'm even one of the mavericks who revived the series and put thousands of hours into building custom race trucks.  I guess as I've got older I've seen how a lot of things have lost their romance a little once mass production sets in.

And it's not as if we really know how this truck will shape up in competition yet.  It looks good in the promos and reviews but will it stand up to racing?  I'm actually excited to found out.  By watching Youtube videos, obviously, because nobody races solid axle over here.

Maybe with more trucks like this on the market, we'll see more of a solid axle revival in the UK and maybe even a race series.  If it wasn't for the dreaded pandemic I'd be talking to a few people about setting up a local solid axle club, but this feels like completely the wrong time to be trying to arrange public gatherings.

Anyway, I'm getting a bit off-topic, I just felt the need to apply some balance to what I'd written earlier :)

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Since i'm not part of the scene i love to see new Trucks.

There are not a lot of Monstertrucks avalable that i'm aware of.

 

BUT i do not know how to feel generally about the availabe Models out there.

 

I miss the time where you coud enter a LHS and were able to choose a kit and extra hop up Parts for all their Models.

 

Now you have to have a Store of 500 squaremeters to show a bit of every good Brand. There is Tamiya, Kyosho, Axial, RC4WD, Chinese Toys, Minis, Micros, MiniZ, Losi,....

It's Overwhelming.

 

Also there is no Customshop. 

It would be awesome if you could buy Axles, Chassis, Suspension, Bodys and Wheels seperatly.

 

I know that the Internetshops are the Future and LHSs are dying. So i would love to see a dedicated Monstertruck Store with nothing else the Monstertruck Parts.

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50 minutes ago, whahooo said:

I know that the Internetshops are the Future and LHSs are dying. So i would love to see a dedicated Monstertruck Store with nothing else the Monstertruck Parts.

If there was the customer base to support it, there could be monster truck specific stores.  There are crawler-specific stores here in the UK.  Unfortunately they are webshops, but it's nice to have some sites to visit where I don't have to wade through toys / heli parts / receiver batteries / other random stuff just to get to the bits I want.

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I'm wondering whether this will become the new 'standard' for monster trucks and if it will mean the demise of Clod hop ups. I was planning to do a clod build at some point in the near future and although this LMT looks fantastic I do worry about spares back up. Especially here in the UK. Looking at spares availability for recent Losi releases its seems pretty much non existent. So I'm wondering whether to proceed with the Clod or take a punt on the LMT...

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6 hours ago, toyolien said:

I'm wondering whether this will become the new 'standard' for monster trucks and if it will mean the demise of Clod hop ups. I was planning to do a clod build at some point in the near future and although this LMT looks fantastic I do worry about spares back up. Especially here in the UK. Looking at spares availability for recent Losi releases its seems pretty much non existent. So I'm wondering whether to proceed with the Clod or take a punt on the LMT...

Go forward with the Clod regardless.  As cool as the new LMT is, Clods will always be around and will always be competitive at the top level of solid axle racing.  It might take more time and money, but the motor on axle setup is just superior to the shaft drive for racing when set up right.  Might not be scale, but it just works.  I actually prefer shaft driven trucks for the realism and that they are more like a full size monster, but a nice setup on a Clod-axle race truck just works.  

Also, Clod spares will be around forever and be plentiful/inexpensive.  Losi says it will have parts support for this truck, but we all know how that goes.  Once it's out of production (if it doesnt sell well, if they lose the license, etc) then you can be sure parts support will be non-existant.  Sort of like when Axial discontinued the original SMT10, it was getting a bit difficult to find spares for a while.  Of course the drivetrain parts were available as they are just Wraith bits, but SMT10 specific parts were getting harder to find and more expensive when you did find them.  

In short, buy the LMT if you like it but don't give up on building a Clod-based truck because of the LMT.  You wont regret it.  

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On ‎11‎/‎14‎/‎2020 at 3:01 PM, GTodd said:

Yep, needs to be a kit. That's half of the allure of the hobby. If Traxxas would do a Xmaxx kit I'd have one by now.

I agree 100% the build is part of the hobby. I used to love building my heli`s. Thing with Traxxas though,even if a kit the part count is so little! that must be why they are so tough. Not many parts AND plastic in most cases. I think the TRX4 is prob the most complex or that trx6 thingy

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So, even if this truck is the true game-changer it appears it will be in competitive circles, it might not be the end of development. While it may be a leap forward, I doubt it will be a total dead-end for product development. Given time, even the LMT might be improved upon. Whether it will be akin to the original RC10 (which led to even further development) or put us where we currently are in buggy development (minor tweaks and revisions over the coming years, but likely no more big design shakeups, like the adoption of mid motor in 2wd) will reman to be seen. The Clod will survive because its is so long-lived and adaptable while providing a MOA option for competitors. The SMT10 I worry about. I feel a bit bad for Axial as they listened to customer feedback and really did make meaningful improvements upon its re-introduction. It has made decent inroads into competition once solely dominated by Clods, but will it be enough? Its cheaper price tag may keep it alive in other markets perhaps or the aftermarket may step up to bring it closer to LMT levels, if that's even possible. Who knows what the future holds but I'm fascinated by it vs the rather staid pace buggy development is at now.

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