MB-010S Lazer Questions
Hi,
I just picked up a mini-z buggy MB-010S Lazer. So far kiddos and I are having lots of fun with it around the house and outside on our driveway. Couple questions: 1.The tires seem to pop off the rims easily. Do most people just glue them onto the rims? When you need new tires do you just buy new rims and tires? 2. Any point in getting the foam inserts for the tires? 3. Will the bumper from the mini-z optima fit onto the Lazer? I foresee some wall hits in the future and would like some sort of wide front bumper. 3. KT-19 Tx: I get 15 maybe 20 ft of range and the buggy looses signal, and it goes off course. Is this normal due to it being such a small scale? My RTR 1/10 Traxxas rigs with the stock TQ Tx get at least 100-150 ft of reliable range. thx! |
Hello and welcome to the jumpy jokers of the mini-z series.
1. I have the Lazer too but I own the ASF brushed series. I don't use glue but I did switch to sponge (foam) inserts which seemed to reduce the problem a lot. Before that I noticed the tires tended to pop off more when I raced on smooth surfaces with lots of cracks/gaps, like bricked pavement. 2. For me, it worked but only on the surfaces and I ran on (smooth bricked pavement). Yours may be different. 3. I haven't tried this but I heard (note: hearsay) others have done so and is a good means of protecting the front of the buggy 4. As an ASF board owner I am not sure if this is normal. My ASF buggy + kt 18 gets around twice that range, and although I don't have a fhs sports buggy, I've handled the sports mr03s a bit and didn't feel the range to differ from the mr03 ASF by a lot. Sorry... |
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Now that I have a little ramp the buggy gets a couple inches or air and seems to be bottoming out on landings. Are there different springs or a shock kit you all recommend that wouldn't adversely affect it's handling? |
Regarding a jump setup, I generally leave my shocks stock. Btw have you protected the chassis under the tie rod? That part is notoriously prone to snapping after some air...Atomic made a part that drops and screws right in :) so it might be best to hold off from too many jumps until then.
I don't quite jump it a lot, but when I do it's off a moderate ramp that's straight and not curved, like a sheet of plastic propped on brick. Is your motor stock? I couldn't get much power out of the stock ones...perhaps angle the ramps less or make have a longer runway? Usually my ramps are barely taller than the buggy itself, but if u keep bottoming out maybe you can stick a coin on the buggys nose and see if that helps. Just my 2cents |
MAR racing in Japan have some good ramp setups. They are an rc Hobby shop who have a few indoor courses for mini-z, including our beloved buggy series.
Just go to u tube and do a search for 'mini-z buggy mar'. They are the first two vids that pop up. It may provide some inspiration or not as your using an outdoor setup. Most of their ramps are made long and some have level takeoff point which may be handy for stopping the car from landing on its can... |
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Yeah for the ramps mine are more level and not curved. I've added some of the spring spacers that came with the buggy and will see if that helps the buggy not bottom out so much on landings. Motor-wise I'm still stock. At the moment they are fast enough for me, plus I want to get my kiddos involved so big speed will just end up with them breaking stuff. My wife was shocked when I told her how much these buggies were - I should have lied... If I had the space inside I'd be doing a on-road RCP type setup, but since I don't all I have is my driveway to work with and the buggys are great in that regard. When running them inside the kiddos get all excited trying to chase them and I get all nervous as they get close to stepping on them! About that Atomic part that protects the chassis from snapping - is it the "Atomic Mini-Z Buggy MB-010 Chassis Protection Skid Plate Cover" you are referring to? I wonder if I can still use the front bumper with that installed. |
Yes it does illicit a few raised eyebrows when I tell others how much the buggy costs - to them it looks like something kmart would sell for under twenty bucks but of course it is a whole lot more than that :)
Regarding the Atomic part, that is indeed the part that I was referring to. I don't know if it'll interfere with installing the bumper from the optima but I have a gut feeling it won't as the bumper seems (note: not certain) to utilize the screws that are positioned in front of the Atomic part. It's prolly worth it to have a look at the exploded parts diagram of the Optima buggy on Kyosho's website to see where it actually screws in - it's usually hidden in the manual pdf. BTW Kyosho also have a similar hopup which protects the chassis from snapping but I haven't yet tried that one... What pinion are you running? |
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I'm on the stock pinion...not sure which one that is... how about you? Any reliability concerns about getting more speed from a different pinion? Or is just easier to get a different motor? To be honest I'm still kinda new to the mini-z scene and haven't opened up the rig yet. Only mod I did was gluing the tires on the lazer; the spikey optima tires seem to stay on real well so I won't be gluing those, but I foresee those "spikes" wearing quick. |
Update:
So I got the atomic chassis reinforcement plates for both my buggies - looks like they will work nicely! Switched the pinion to the 15T from the 13T in search for more speed. However, on my Lazer, at some point my rear differential was getting sticky - I opened up the diff and those tiny 3 spider gears were all missing teeth. I checked the bearings and none of them seemed to be binding. I ordered the optional ball diff (part# MBW028) - is this supposed to be better (stronger) than the stock rear diff? Is a ball diff supposed to act like a limited slip diff whereas the stock differential was basically an open diff? Is grease required - and if so is white lithium grease ok like I use on my traxxas vehicles? Any other tips when switching over to the ball diff? I see that it comes with a few metal plates - what are those for and do I need to do anything to them like sanding? Is the other aluminum diff (part#MDW018) worth $50? Any feedback would be appreciated. Thx! |
G'day Joe mate, the pinion change is most welcome as I find the buggies quite slow on stock gearing, so good for you!
As per the spider gears they are known to shred/snap sometimes but this hasn't happened to me (yet). Yes a ball diff is an lsd option but I don't have much experience in it as I've never upgraded my buggy beyond stock diff. I try not to gun the throttle too hard upon landing and I suspect this helps to preserve the diff...however I have totalled a ton of tires lol... Regarding what kind of grease should be used, I don't have much experience with the type used in traxxas models but the diff for the racer series included kyoshos own grease, not sure of the viscosity level of it but it was like watery Vaseline. In the mr01 days some of us used graphite grease. Is the buggy ball diff the same for Awd (ma020)? I'm as new as you are to awd/buggy ball diffs so I can only guess the metal plates would need to be sanded /cleaned periodically for optimum performanc as I've done with the balldiff plates on my mr03/02. An aluminium diff sounds nice. I don't have it but I hope others who do will chime in. All the best from oz |
Thanks for the info Geo-Z! I'll get the ball diff in a couple days - I hope it comes with some instructions and let u know how it works out.
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I got the ball-diff (part# MBW028) installed after breaking the stock one on the rear.
The ball diff came with 3 sets of shim plates and I installed the ones recommend by the instructions. You can also adjust the ball diff to be tighter or looser using a screwdriver. The instructions say to tighten it so that when you rotate one wheel the opposite wheel rotates freely in the opposite direction and I did just that. Honestly I can't tell the difference. I have 2 mini-z buggies, one with the ball diff and one still on the stock diff. I drove them back to back and I don't really see any benefit other than the ball diff seems to rotate smoother when you move the wheels by hand. My goal is to get a bit of LSD (limited slip diff) effect so that the rear end will rotate easier when the throttle is applied, kind of like oversteer. Perhaps i'll play with the adjustments to see if I can get that desired effect. BTW I have the larger 15T pinion and xspeed motor installed on both and they are much faster! |
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