The Backyard – Beefing up my TLR LMT

Greetings all and welcome to The Backyard!

A couple weeks back I took part in the annual BIGFOOT 4×4 Open House r/c race, and it came up on me so fast that I didn’t really write about any of my own personal r/c monster trucks that I competed with!

I raced my Rotten Ol’ Apple Retro Clod Buster and my Rotten Apple 2 ACRC Havoc truck. I need to do some updated write-ups on those trucks because they’ve changed a bit since my original posts on them, to which I just linked to.

I wanted to focus today’s post on my Losi TLR LMT and the modifications I recently performed to it.

The TLR Losi LMT is a solid race machine compared to the stock Losi LMT 1.0 (note that I’ve not competed with a 2.0, so I can’t really compare that), but my biggest issue with it, having campaigned one for the last couple years, is that it feels a little too light.

The carbon fiber chassis combined with shock-on-trailing-arm suspension makes for a very reactive truck, and it felt a little “ice skate-y” to me compared to monster trucks that were a little heavier. Especially my Treal-equipped original LMT.

Well, that original LMT has lived a good life- it’s actually the truck that we reviewed back in 2020– and so it was time to retire her. I stripped the Treal axles and links off of it, mated them to my TLR LMT, and then did some shock tuning by using heavier 50 weight oil.

The tires are gold compound JConcepts Firestorm Racers w/ Slam Tech Foams mounted on 2.6 Tribute Wheels and I’m using the wide adapters. Note that I used gold compound on all my trucks because the race was on asphalt. I use blue compound if I’m racing on dirt.

I absolutely love how the truck handles after the modifications. The Treal axles help the truck dig into the corners vs skate, and it feels like I can lay the power down quicker and more consistently as the rear end is less likely to break loose.

My race day at Open House was a solid outing. I made it to the finals in Retro Clod, losing to JConcepts founder Jason Ruona. Sport Mod wasn’t great, as I busted a servo saver during a qualifying pass and I didn’t have a spare on me, so I gutted it out for racing, which didn’t last long! My TLR LMT, which races in the Pro Modified Class, laid down a good qualifying pass but went out early in eliminations due to spinning out on a freshly rained on track.

All things considered, I was very happy with all of my trucks. I hadn’t raced on pavement in a long time, and it is wild how you can go from 100% grip in one round of racing to hardly any in the next, thanks to a quick rain shower.

I am looking forward to getting these trucks on dirt later this Summer with the Off-Track R/C guys! More to come after that!

That’s it for me this week! Until next time, keep it on all 4’s!