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What fits in the palm of your hand, has a multi-geared transmission with a diff AND a slipper, has fully independent suspension, painted lexan body, rechargeable battery, standard pistol grip transmitter, built in receiver with a proportional reversible speed control and a standard servo, battery charger, 16 AA batteries, and is less than $100?
The only suspect, at this time, is the Team Losi Micro-T. Released just before Christmas of 2006 (now that was really good planning at TL), and quickly sold out across the nation before Christmas ever arrived, the Micro-T is simply a further miniaturization of the Mini-T. The scale makes it necessary to take some liberties with the chassis design, but the fully independent suspension and drive train are just like its full scale brothers. If you were ever a Mini-Z Overland fan, this was what we were looking for when the Overland was released. Granted you may never get 1 of those exquisite Kyosho Auto-scale bodies on the Micro-T, but you do get a vehicle that handles bumps and jumps like its champion heritage demands.
This is as complete a RTR as you will ever find. The radio has adjustable trims and dual rate, and comes with the 8AA batteries to get you going. The rechargeable battery comes with a quick charger, powered by, of course, yet another set of included 8 AA batteries. The radio/receiver uses standard 27Mhz crystals, so almost any complete set you have sitting around can be used, including Kyosho or X-Mods. If you haven't gotten the picture in focus yet, when you buy this vehicle, you get EVERYTHING you need to have a ton of fun right out of the box.
Driving this little stadium truck, the smile factor goes off the chart. Any living room can become a race track. Drop some magazines or flatten out a book (don't tell the librarian that you broke the book's back) and you have an inside off-road course. This thing is fast! Really fast for its size!!! And yes, the drive train will hold up pretty well to instant reverse to forward trigger pulls, resulting in long wheelies!!! It can turn on a dime on carpet, but keep your speed down or it will traction roll for sure. Use your imagination and the Micro-T can eat up a lot of your spare time, especially if more than 1 propagates the track.
The bad, thankfully there isn't much. Ok, let me tell all you full scale guys, this is not your 1/10 scale truck and it will not hold up to hitting the dining room chair leg at full tilt boogie without something going crunch. The good, you probably have enough loose change sitting in that old mason jar to buy any replacement part your need. The replacement parts are cheap and now are readily available. Before you get your first charge started, take the time to loosen all the transmission screws, bottom and side. You want them snug but not tight. If you keep them tight, the gear case will distort and cause drag on your drive train, reducing the wheelie action, run time, and top end speed. You want the full fun experience, don't you? Take the time to check it.
Your front tie-rod arms are very thin plastic. If your kit did not come with some little yellow/green lexan tie rods, ask your supplier. The stock tie rods break easily. But hey, if you're the least bit handy, you can cut new ones from any thin plastic; from soda bottles to parts packaging to any old lexan scrap you have sitting around. Oh, pets can have a love hate relationship with your new Micro-T. You love to chase them and they hate to be chased, some of the time! Check your axles for pet hair, dander and other floor level crud. It can cause your vehicle to steer wrong and creates a drag on you power output.
Aftermarket performance parts and appearance parts are plentiful now (spring of 2007) and more and more small scale suppliers are getting product to market. You need to get full bearings for all the axles; your drive train already has bearings. Take your choice of steel or ceramic, they are out there. Upgrade your shocks to either grease or oil filled. If you keep losing the little e-clips on the axles, threaded axles are the trick. They come with mini-z size nuts and reduce the frustration factor for all of us who are visually or dexterity challenged. Aluminum gear cases, arms, shock towers, suspension blocks, bulkheads, dogbones...they are all available in numerous colors.
Replacement chassis have been few and far between, but your favorite shop, TinyRC.com, has one of the few mass-produced chassis available. Developed by zero-products.com, the chassis will accept all your stock components and any aftermarket components developed for the stock chassis. You will have to cut your front bulkhead to get a suspension mount for the front, but the rest just bolts on. Hopefully in the future, an aftermarket supplier will come out with a reasonably priced front lower bulkhead. These Stock Conversion Chassis (SCC) are made from high quality quasi-weave carbon fiber, in black CF or red Texalium, and are cut by a professional chassis manufacturer using CNC machinery. The design was developed on Cad systems. Fit and finish are superb and these chassis are more than capable of handling modified electronics and motors, perhaps even micro brushless systems. And the pricing is reasonable, as only TinyRC.com can do.
So you've come to the right place to get your Micro-T running faster and more reliably. Welcome and enjoy the mini/micro rage!
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