RC Trucks : Rock Crawlers	Updated: Dec 26th, 2008 - 09:30:45

---

Death Metal Garage (DMG) NAT 1/18th Scale Mini Rock Crawler By schmenzer - gorccrawling.com Dec 26, 2008

Email this article  Printer friendly page

The DMG NAT is a replacement tuber chassis for the Losi Mini Rock Crawler. The build quality is top-notch and DMG is a super place to work with.

This orange and black beauty is 4-5/8 ounces stripped of components and is ready to install the gear.

The parts I am using for now:

• Losi Mini Rock Crawler Axles, Transmission, Upper and Lower Links
• Stock MRC Shocks
• Internally Installed Pen Springs for the Shocks
• Stock Losi ESC and Receiver
• Stock Losi Motor
• JR-Servo High-Torque ST126MG
• Eritex Delrin Wheels in a wide offset and RIT dyed orange.
• Front wheels have Blue Compound Losi Mini Rock Claws weigh 6-7/8 ounces
• Rear wheels have Blue Compound Losi Mini Rock Claws weigh 5-3/4 ounces
• Axial Aluminum tray from a Scorpion
• 3 Racing Aluminum Servo Posts
• Kyosho Mini-Z Wheel Bushings as spacers under the tray

These parts will give me a good start but I do have some replacement ideas for the future Including Losi Aluminum Hexes, Losi Metal Lockers, Aluminum C Hubs and Losi's Aluminum Mini Crawler Shocks.

After taking the stock MRC apart. I flipped the tranny around when I installed the skid plate in the new NAT chassis. This gives more room for a battery on the front 3-link which helps lower the CG and makes rolling over less of an issue. BTW, this does not require any more work than flipping the whole assembly. You do not need to remove the tranny from the skid plate.

I originally had a Holmes Mini Torquemaster installed but later switched back to a stock motor for now. I think I just need to run the Holmes in some or maybe a brush is stuck but I had to push the truck by hand a bit to get it moving. Contrary to some comps a touch ca not be held through out the entire run!

I decided to start with a semi droop setup since I had the stock shocks and I like the way the black shocks look plus, after setting up the shocks, I think they might work well. We will see. I used 50 wt Losi oil and some short pen springs inside the shock bodies.

Here are the parts I used for the servo mount:

Axial Aluminum tray from a Scorpion
3 Racing Aluminum Servo Posts
Kyosho Mini-Z Wheel Bushings as spacers under the tray

First up was modifying an Axial Scorpion servo plate to use with the JR ST-126MG servo. I used this servo on my 2.2 rig before I picked up a JR 8711 for it and it was pretty decent on that rig so I am sure it will be fine on the NAT. The servo puts out 142 ounces at 6 volts. I am probably going to get a BEC in case this thing stresses the stock ESC too much. We will see how it goes.

I screwed the Scorpion plate down to a chunk of 2x4 so it would stay put while I drilled and countersunk the MRC holes. I simply used the stock mount as a pattern.

Servo plate screwed down for modification

Modded servo plate

Servo mounted

This shows the Kyosho bushings as spacers

I installed the mount to the axle using some Kyosho Mini-Z axle bushings to raise the plate a bit.

I used 3 Racing servo posts for the Axial Scorpion to screw the JR ST126MG to.

I'll finish the steering in the DMG NAT build part 2.


Related Links

Go RC Crawling - http://www.gorccrawling.com

© Copyright 2007 by rchobbyresource.com

Top of Page