Newbie DBXL K&N owner

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scallopking

Well-Known Member
Messages
59
Hi everyone. My wife got me the DBXL K&N for Christmas and I am really stoked. I've run 2 tanks through it so far and tumbled it twice already. I am not a good driver, nothing high speed. Out of the box I really love this thing, I am totally new to 1/5 scale and gas. I just recently got into nitro with a buddies truck he gave me and like the scale and sound of it so much but this is a whole nother story.. I notice it needs quite a bit of steering trim adjustment out of the box - it pulls to left so I trim to the right a lot and it runs straight. Any advice is appreciated if there's something I can look at and adjust. Just doesn't seem normal to me but I don't know really. On my last tumble today it rolled over and later I noticed the roll cage cracked driver outside front bar towards the top. I glued it back together but would hope it hold up more than that really. Before I run it again I've been reading it needs an air filter upgrade. Can anyone tell me what you're running? I'm also looking at upgrading the exhaust and see the one on Losi site but also read about Bartalone (??). Any recommendations on a unsilenced or silenced exhaust pipe is much appreciated. I don't mind if it is a bit more quite. Otherwise I am not running it hard, or track or anything. No jumps but like to crawl rocks in my front and back yard. Are these shocks good for that? I also saw some tires on Losi site creepy crawlers looked nice. Well hey thanks everyone in advance for all your help if there's anything else I really should for it.
 
Ok so first off welcome to the dbxl club! Get a kill switch, outer wears for the engine would be my very first. Next up I would ditch the k&n filter set up in favor of a turtle racing relocation mount with the hpi baja filter. There are several good pipes out there for these, samba, DDM dominator, olimat,bartolone,
 
Welcome.


First upgrade you should probably be looking at is a kill switch.

Some pipes for the DBXL:
Samba.
Victory.
Bartolone.
Jetpro.
DDM.

Check out Daves Discount Motors. They have 10+ pages of upgrades for the DBXL.
http://www.davesmotors.com/Products/Losi-Desert-Buggy-XL-DBXL-Upgrade-Parts/

Also check out Largescalerc.com
http://www.largescalerc.com/LosiDBXLBuggyPartsandHop-Ups.aspx


There is a thread about the K&N air filter and possible replacements.
Link is below.

https://www.largescaleforums.com/threads/dbxl-k-n-edition-air-filter.23019/#post-217090




Saw your post right after i posted mine Seandonato73
 
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Welcome @scallopking. That's a mighty fine women you have there buying you 1/5 scale.

I hate using trim. It may not be avoidable but it should not be excessive. My new 5ive-T was the same as your DBXL out of the box. To change it, I turned on electronics with trim at zero, removed the servo horn and reset it one tooth in the opposite direction. At this point it was steering slightly to the right. From there I had enough adjustment in the steering linkage to bring it back to center. Make sure to get the servo horn screw back on tight or use a little dab of purple or blue loctite. I lost my servo screw on first bash session. I now have a hex head screw instead of a phillips.

Here's a tip I use for bounding plastic. Glue it together, then strip 1/2" to 3/4" of stranded wire, cut the stripped strands, lay them across the break, and melt them into the plastic with a soldering iron. It doesn't look pretty, but it is unlikely to break there again. I've also made repairs to plastic similar to a RC roll cage with tight wraps of bow string serving, then coated the wraps with two part epoxy.

I'm not sure about the filter upgrade. I actually like K&N filters. Just don't believe the advertising hype. I have them on our ATVs with Outwears dust covers. I wouldn't run a gasser RC without an Outwears no matter what filter was being used. I'm sure a DBXL owner will drop in to recommend a proper filter upgrade.

Oh yeah, run it hard and jump it! Good luck and have fun.

Edit: Beat like a rented mule. I shouldn't be watching TV and typing.
 
Haven't had any issues with my drive shafts...yet. the k&n filter with or with out the outer wears sucks. The way it mounts does not have a positive seal to its mounting plate. Where it could suck dirt. Better safe then out an engine. Imo...
That's good to know, thanks. My wife likes the buggy. Guess I better read up on them if I'm gonna have to get her one.
 
Ok so first off welcome to the dbxl club! Get a kill switch, outer wears for the engine would be my very first. Next up I would ditch the k&n filter set up in favor of a turtle racing relocation mount with the hpi baja filter. There are several good pipes out there for these, samba, DDM dominator, olimat,bartolone,

Thank you. I didn't know about the outer wears that looks like it fits over the K&N filter. Yeah, I am looking at videos on the kill switch. I checked bartolone site and they were sold out, I look at the rest, appreciate your feedback.
 
Welcome.

First upgrade you should probably be looking at is a kill switch.

Some pipes for the DBXL:
Samba.
Victory.
Bartolone.
Jetpro.
DDM.

Check out Daves Discount Motors. They have 10+ pages of upgrades for the DBXL.
http://www.davesmotors.com/Products/Losi-Desert-Buggy-XL-DBXL-Upgrade-Parts/

Also check out Largescalerc.com
http://www.largescalerc.com/LosiDBXLBuggyPartsandHop-Ups.aspx


There is a thread about the K&N air filter and possible replacements.
Link is below.

https://www.largescaleforums.com/threads/dbxl-k-n-edition-air-filter.23019/#post-217090




Saw your post right after i posted mine Seandonato73

Great links - thank you much. Lots to go through and not as easy as I thought. Some bed time reading.
 
Welcome @scallopking. That's a mighty fine women you have there buying you 1/5 scale.

I hate using trim. It may not be avoidable but it should not be excessive. My new 5ive-T was the same as your DBXL out of the box. To change it, I turned on electronics with trim at zero, removed the servo horn and reset it one tooth in the opposite direction. At this point it was steering slightly to the right. From there I had enough adjustment in the steering linkage to bring it back to center. Make sure to get the servo horn screw back on tight or use a little dab of purple or blue loctite. I lost my servo screw on first bash session. I now have a hex head screw instead of a phillips.

Here's a tip I use for bounding plastic. Glue it together, then strip 1/2" to 3/4" of stranded wire, cut the stripped strands, lay them across the break, and melt them into the plastic with a soldering iron. It doesn't look pretty, but it is unlikely to break there again. I've also made repairs to plastic similar to a RC roll cage with tight wraps of bow string serving, then coated the wraps with two part epoxy.

I'm not sure about the filter upgrade. I actually like K&N filters. Just don't believe the advertising hype. I have them on our ATVs with Outwears dust covers. I wouldn't run a gasser RC without an Outwears no matter what filter was being used. I'm sure a DBXL owner will drop in to recommend a proper filter upgrade.

Oh yeah, run it hard and jump it! Good luck and have fun.

Edit: Beat like a rented mule. I shouldn't be watching TV and typing.

lol, thanks I think so too. wow okay great tip but also information overload. I need to lookup the servo horn (I said I was a newbie). so what do you mean you turned on electronics with trim at zero? is it easy to remove the servo horn?

too cool, I always just use super glue or if I get fancy some type of epoxy but never really holds -have an electric 1/12 buggy and broke/fix the shocks. I don't think this break will hold the next time out so this seems like a great fix vs. buying a new part - I need a soldering iron now! If it breaks again I will give this a try,

so far it looks like outer wears covers is a common denominator. definitely going to get this for right now. I am not really interested in too complex upgrades. haha, my luck just driving calmly I crash - jumping is a whole nother thing - I will break it for sure.
Look on DDM they got every thing you coudl want and need(y)

right on! thanks
That's good to know, thanks. My wife likes the buggy. Guess I better read up on them if I'm gonna have to get her one.

my wife likes the buggy too. she took me to the hobby store. they have a whole line up of larger/large scale RCs. this was her favorite.
 
Welcome! Where you from? If you set your steering trim to the center of its knob rotation, that's called zeroing it out. Then you can take the small screw out of the steering servo horn and remove the horn. That will allow you to freely turn your wheels straight then set the horn back on the servo and, with a dab of blue loctite, put the screw back in the servo horn to the servo. More than likely, you will still have to move the trim knob, one way or another a little, when you get up and running again. YouTube helps a lot on these types of things for visuals.
 
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hi I am in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ah that makes sense about zeroing it, I should have figured that out really - duh. This is really helpful - thank you and Top Dead Center for the assistance here. well really everyone for being so helpful and friendly. Yep, I will watch youtube on it and follow it - indispensable tool. I need to go get some blue Loctite first though- don't want to do it without that evidently.
 
hi I am in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ah that makes sense about zeroing it, I should have figured that out really - duh. This is really helpful - thank you and Top Dead Center for the assistance here. well really everyone for being so helpful and friendly. Yep, I will watch youtube on it and follow it - indispensable tool. I need to go get some blue Loctite first though- don't want to do it without that evidently.
Welcome,

# 1 upgrade should be kill switch

Air intake = I like the triple dome with red neck outer (not impressed with outer wears, they help) but good cleaning and oil after use is by far best practice.

Rock crawling with 1/5 scale gas be a challange for sure (clutch engagement rpm) IMO
Parts
I like DDM, as mentioned above, great service, parts solection, prompt shipping
they HAVE NOT LET ME DOWN YET
 
Welcome,

Rock crawling with 1/5 scale gas be a challange for sure (clutch engagement

Just wait till the losi rock rey is out for a bit for 1/6 scale rock/trail rig....I wouldn't bother with a gas truck they don't have near enough gear for it or reverse.... not to mention no drag brakes or the like.
Something I forgot to mention, yours is new so losi may have updated by now.... the shocks suck! Even after heavier springs and tons of wasted oil, i bit it and went to 5ive t front shocks all around. Greatly improved the "jumpability" of the dbxl and a lot less nose dives coming off a jump. Not something I would worry about right away. I just broke a front sway bar mount the other day, fixing it made me think of how much I couldn't stand the stock shocks. Here's the how to link.
https://www.largescaleforums.com/threads/how-to-5ive-t-shocks-on-dbxl.21690/
 
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