Project: Losi Ten-T Truggy

Prep Your RTR TEN-T For Track Duty

Most Ready-To-Run vehicles will never see a track. The main goal behind them is ease of use and exceptional durability. Nowadays people just want to pull them out of the box and go. That being said, what if someone that owns one of these RTR vehicles decides to actually race? Does he have to purchase a new vehicle or can the one he currently has be able to put him in the winner’s circle? We’ll see what kind of performance we can get out of a TEN-T as I take one out of the box, rebuild it with a setup straight from the Team Drivers at Losi, and see what it can do around the track.

Electronics
Since most people won’t be swapping out any of the electronics, I decided to stick with the stock equipment also. I was excited to try out the Spektrum radio anyway since I’ve heard so many good things about it. Make sure you charge the receiver pack completely as the onboard starting system heavily relies on this pack. Speaking of the starting system, this was also my first experience with Losi’s new R.O.S.S., or Remote On-board Starting System. This trick setup uses a push-button on the transmitter to start the truck. It’s a completely slick system, and makes starting the truck an absolute joy (and this is coming from someone that doesn’t enjoy starting Nitro engines!). I kept the R.O.S.S. installed on the truck also, as I can’t imagine too many people removing this little gem (plus, I was curious to see if it would cause any parasitic drag on the engine).

Suspension Setup
I gave a call over to Losi, in Ontario, California, and spoke with Kevin Gahan, one of the resident fast-guys at the track with the TEN-T. We spoke about some of the tuning he’s tried, and he e-mailed me one of his latest setups. Working with the shocks, Kevin has drilled out all the holes on all 4 pistons using a #56 drill bit. This opens up the piston holes slightly to allow for a little more damping in the shocks. Kevin fills the front shocks with 40wt and the rears with 30wt Losi oil. Stock front shock springs are used, while the rears have been replaced with Gold springs.

Front camber links are in the stock position. The rear outer link, however, has been moved to the inner hole. Front toe-out is set to 2 degrees, front camber is -1 degrees and rear camber is set at -2 degrees. I altered Kevin’s suggested rear camber to -1 degrees, and adjusted the ride height slightly by setting the front arms level and the rear arms slightly above level. Stock anti-roll bars are used.

Drivetrain
All three differentials are filled with a light grease from the factory. This helps lubricate the internal gears, but makes the out-of-the-box Ten-T a little lazy on the track. Following Kevin’s suggestion, I removed the 3 differentials and replaced the stock grease with 5000wt diff fluid in the front, 5000wt in the center and 2000wt in the rear. This procedure may seem like a lot of work, but it is one of the best performance changes you can do to the truck.

Body, Wheels & Tires
The stock Zombie-Max tires are wrapped around a cool looking set of the Force chrome wheels. Great for bashing and everyday use, you’ll want to swap them out to take full advantage of the TEN-T’s 4WD system. I mounted up a set of soft, Losi Eclipse tires (red compound) on their black-chrome Force wheels. These wheels perfectly match the sick design sprayed on a TEN-T clear body by Bradley Fine Line Design.

The Drive
Pegasus Hobbies, in Ontario California, was the testing ground for the race-renewed TEN-T. Pulling the T from the box (for the second time), I charged the receiver pack and poured in the fuel. Now the moment of truth; I turned on the transmitter, turned on the T and pushed the little starter button. A few whirls and pops later and my Frankenstein had come to life! A few slight engine adjustments and I set the T down for a few warm up laps. Good steering … check. Throttle is very responsive … check. Jumps level and corners pretty flat … check. Ok, let ‘er rip!

Barreling down the front straight, the tremendous power this little engine puts out is beyond impressive, even with the R.O.S.S. still attached. The front tires looked like miniature sawblades the entire way down the straightaway! Under heavy braking the truck would lock up the wheels and push quite a bit. That was easily solved by a quick adjustment to the dual-brake system. Through the corners, the steering was much better thanks to Kevin’s setup tips and the soft Eclipse tires. I would like a little more rotation in the corners, but that is a driving preference and something I can work on with some more track time on the Ten-T.

Final Thoughts
Can the Losi TEN-T get you to the winner’s circle? I think the truck has everything there you need. The suspension is fully adjustable. It accepts a wide range of race-compound tires. The engine is extremely powerful and, while not really a race feature, it has the very-cool on-board starting system (I have to keep mentioning it because it really is that cool!). And now, you have a base setup to work with (you can visit my blog at http://www.rcdriver.com/blog to see the full setup). Seems to me that the answer to the question “Can the Losi TEN-T get you to the winner’s circle?” is a resounding yes…now it all depends on you! So take a little time, rebuild your Ten-T with the base setup (the ENTIRE setup; don’t short-cut this one, boys and girls), and get to the track!

Links
Losi, www.losi.com

Gallery