Xray M18T Pro
 

Just built this up for reviewage purposes - painted it last night and just put some touring wheel adaptors and GRP foams on there. Not sure what tyres I'll actually use tomorrow but looking forward to giving it a run - it seems like a really nice car.

I love the shell, looking forward to the review! :thumbsup:

This is another Oople review Im really looking forward too, they are the best Ive seen in any magazine or on any other forum.
One thing in particular. The Older M18t chassis has a shorter wheelbase than the Associated RC18T and tended to have more front and back rotation in the air. The RC18T flew flatter and was easier to control. I hope you can let us know how it flies as i know it works great on the ground and steers like a dream with good stability.
Cheers

Nice cant wait to see it today :p

A

saw jimmys little truck today looked ok today i liked the carbonfibre on it nice looking truck :) :thumbsup: get the pics up dude :thumbsup::thumbsup:

A

yeah it was good, I needed more time to get it dialled though. considering it was the first time I've driven it 4th in the B was 'ok' but it should have been at least 2nd. Just drove like a plonker.
Not many photos today as I was changing setup every round to try and get a setup

Looks great,

I also have one of those.
Some advice, stock up on the drive shafts, they break quick!
Or get the aluminium one's.

W.

This is the M18T pro - the drive shafts are hudy spring steel and I can't imagine ever breaking one! :woot:

Oops,

Mine not the pro..:(
Have broken too many drive shafts. Thinking of converting the little bugger into a mini crawler..?

W.

hi jimmy, i raced an m18t at the 1st two micro challanges,and the truck was great. the only problem that i had was that the front wishbones easily broke, which you may want to keep a check on,as the tracks now are tougher on cars than before.
the xray was always faaaassst tho !!!!!

the tracks are indeed MAD! I didn't have any spares like that - and there were no other Xrays there, so I was maybe lucky. but I'd heard about weaknesses before, and reading about the new car is what got me into the idea of reviewing it. There are loads of changes as far as I'm aware, not least of which is the much longer chassis. I was mainly stuggling with shocks today, getting the right damping and getting the car balanced

i used to run the standard shocks 60wt oil front and 40wt rear. also tried the 3racing alloy shocks,but ended up going back to the stockers.
try running it without the sway bars on .
the new version does look good. looking forward to your review...

Thanks, I tried all sorts but ended up with 50wt front, 30wt rear - antiroll bar on the front, but removed from the rear. It was still a bit twitchy but I was using foams on touring wheels - and I don't think I really liked them. I'll try the kit tyres next or some minipins on touring wheels.

Seems pretty strong, I gave it a bit of testing :woot: seems a very nice car indeed. I just want it to go as well as it looks which isn't easy when it's the only one and I'm not an amazing driver.

if your running on carpet,forget the kit tyres, foams are the best way. the gecko's seem to run very well on todays micros. touring car front tyres,37 or 40 shore on all rims. i'm tempted to get a new version, but will wait for your review....

I got the GRP foams just because many people seem to use foams - so I was 'joining in' haha.. but either they needed truing down or I'm just not suited to the way they drive. Craig harris was using the schumacher block tyres as usual and dominated - I think I will try the mini pins I have and see how I go with those.

I just found the foams to be quite twitchy and I guess unpredictable. I was using 40 shore front and 30/35 (cant remember) on the rear

alot of the micro guys turn them down to just over the 50/52mm mark. your right,they do drive differenetly,but seem to be consistant throughout a meeting than rubber tyres.
same with most things,its down to personnal preferance and what works best for your driving style.
any more of your very nice pics??????????????

Of the Xray? not yet - I've got loads but want to keep them for the review which I'm just in the middle of.

:woot::woot::woot: of the xray !!! what else do you have up your sleeve ???????
i'll let you get on with your review mate. don't know why more people in the uk dont race them, they seem to get good results stateside.

Jimbo, what TC hex's did you use? The axle seem really thick to fit them onto.

not sure what you mean, I used the Xray hex adaptors - if you see them you'll understand.

like the paint job jimmy :thumbsup:

Jimmy,

I wonder if your foams are too hard for the car?

Alot of the RC18 drivers are using 30-35 shore maximum due to the light weight of the car.
It seems the harder foams work on the Blaze cos the Blaze is alot heavier.

Also I dont like the idea of using different compound foams F to R...being 4 wheel permenant drive surely you would suffer handlijg/grip issues by using different compounds?

Just a thought..hope it helps :)

Looks good.

Xray also offers a variety of foam tires in different shores for the Truck in the right diameter/offset. I know they aren't easily available where you are. Just a heads up though.

I noticed with the larger skinnier foams of Sedans the additional ground clearance provided too much roll and made the truck less neutral in the air. *

If you need more spring choices, the Rc18T springs can work by replacing the bottom retainer. Mini Quake (forgot the UK name) springs work as well. Both aren't the exact sizes so you might need to have some weird looking preload on the shocks.

Hit me up if you have any more Q's.

*Edit: Also, the larger sedan tires can actually create more breakage as they can glance on pipes easier causing more backlash up the suspension. And since the diameter is further from the axle center, more sideways pressure on the hubs under these conditions.

I just got hold of some rc18 springs - gonna try them tomorrow. to be honest though the car was pretty dialled last week and I won by a couple of laps. So I don't think I need to change it too much for that track.
I'm used to the harder front compound, I see it as cutting spikes on a buggy - so you have less grip up front. but I'm not used to foams so I'm not really sure if it works that way.
I used schumacher mini pins last week when I won the club meeting - I forgot to take my foams.

I'm currently running with 3mm limiters in the shocks and 20g of lead next to the motor

Cool beans. :thumbsup: As Im sure you already know, other than diameter changing. Foams (especially thinner side walls) wont absorb as much as the small imperfections of the surface it rides on. So your suspension might have to be slightly softer to compensate versus running rubbers. Foam shores effect this as well with the softer shores allowing a bit more absorption than the stiffer.

Just so you can get an idea of how small they run foams here, I have included a picture showing Zack Barrys three cars from the Nats warmup race. As you can get a better sense of tire diameters between them. This was at a carpet only "off-road" track, so the various surfaces you run on at once for the UK club meets may not apply.

From L to R
M18T w/Xray Foams. M18MT with Rubbers (Rules). M18"B" with Rubbers (Rules)

As I'm planning to build a circuit in my garden (carpet/grass/sand), I wanted to know if the Xray M18T (Pro) is reliable and handling well without having to mod it. Other options are the Asso RC18B (what do you like the most: buggy or stadium truck?) and Losi Mini-T Pro (although it is discontinued by Losi :cry:).

Handles very well and is reliable from what I can see - I've raced it 6 times and not broken anything and nothings fallen off etc. I actually put some hopups on it today but I don't think it really needs any hop ups.
Theres not that much you can change in terms of settings - but that's probably not a bad thing.

The one thing I put on it today, which is what all the Xray drivers at the meeting also tried, was a wing mount and a normal 18th scale buggy wing. This made a huge difference to the performance - it flew very well in the air and just felt a lot more planted and balanced and easier to drive.:thumbsup:

Thanks for the fast answer, I'll ask some opinions about the Asso RC18B and Mini-T Pro in an other topic, after all this one is about the Xray:)

And what a superb wing mount it was too!

Haha, Jimmy's wing was AWESOME!!!:woot:

Sand, if its fine particles may cause some problems in the long run if you have a tendency to run it and forget it. If you however air hose it off after runs to help keep dust from migrating into the pivot crevices, you can expect a long life from your joints.

On another subject..

I'm afraid to ask about this wing... :wtf: ;)

I always clean my cars after a day of driving (not with air, but the better/slower way:)), so it shouldn't be a problem I hope.

yours and jimmys wings were equally spectacular! how to make a wing mount in 5 mins with minimal tools!! bloody funny

I tidied it up a bit last night and made it not quite so stupid looking! If anyone ever doubts the effects of even a small wing - I challenge them to race my car before and after!
Mark Stiles got 3RD in the A with his Xray which I think he was really pleased with. I won the B final and I think Tel got 6th in the B?

I need to find myself a scale looking wing now

Jimmy, the wing that comes with the Kamtec Mako Blaze shell is one of the best looking 'scale' wings I know of. I had one on the back of my RC18T truck body as seen here:

http://carlventer.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ex2.JPG

But saying that Dan and Simon Osbourne are making the Phatbodies Bender and Greedy wings for 18th scale cars as well.

how do I get in touch with those latter bad boys? I actually used one of the 'phat' wings at the weekend, but it was a prototype and borrowed so I had to give it back.
I've got an rc10B4 wing on the truck now! haha.

Jimmy, Dan Osbourne is a member on here, user name Danosbourne6661.

Fancy a bender?

I know someone who is very Greedy :p

Who ate all the cake?

Here is a blueprint to cut out a tower clamp wing attachment. You can use the RC18B's wing mounts with it.