|
Nice work – XTM's stadium truck looks good right away: Recessed
countersunk screws, no sharp edges and cleanly glued tires. When it
has to be a pre-assembled model, then it should look like this!
Only the plastic tub chassis looks a bit suspicious – but more on
that later. The shock towers are relatively soft – but in case of a
rollover this can only be an advantage.
Apart from its limited throw, the whole steering looks pretty Asso.
Ackerman geometry and the position of the steering linkage can be
changed, there seems to be no bump steering over the whole
suspension travel - nice!
Furthermore the ball studs of the Reely X-Cellerator are equipped
with "foam thing" dust covers which are normally found on more
exclusive offroaders like Team Losi or Associated.
|
Classic
2wd layout -
XTM-Racing's X-Cellerator keeps the proven 2wd concept,
alltough a few mid-motor designs got quite some
attention lately. |
There is one detail on the tub chassis that is normally exclusive to
the Asso B/T4 cars: a recess in the battery slot where the ESC cable
can pass below the battery without suffering any damage, regardless
of the battery position.
The nose section can be told from its American counterpart by the
molded-on kickup plate; the massive bulkhead seems to concentrate
more on mechanical stability and couldn’t poke aesthetics with a
long pole. The long suspension arms look sturdy, don't show much
play and on the aluminum axles you find truck-typical 3/16” ball
bearings. Both toe-in and caster can be set by steel turnbuckles –
normally a hop-up part in this price-class.
The rear end is a typical 2wd design with compact three-stage gears,
e-clip free hinge pins and bronzed steel MIP-style driveshafts.
Pinion and spur gear are effectively protected by a clear
polycarbonate cover – only with the black cap that closes the cover,
XTM's X-Cellerator does a bit of a cargo cult for the first time:
Normally this cap can be opened in order to quickly adjust the
slipper clutch from the outside. Alas, the ‘plug’ of the Reely-truck
is made of hard plastic and will wear out the useful gear cover
after opening and closing it for a couple of times. Some softer
material would have been an advantage here.
|
|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
Front left, rear right: Nothing really new here.
The front suspension uses a kingpin-ball stud which
holds both steering arm and upper arm. The chassis at
the rear goes more with the T4.
The locknut at the slipper should be reversed
because the factory setting is too hard – just loosening
the locknut would render the nylon ring unused and the
slipper might work itself free. In the price class of
the X-Cellerator the quality of the ball differential
comes as a real surprise: It is completely covered (and
therefore not accessible from the outside), runs
smoothly without further fiddling and the big 25
millimetre diff rings make it stay this way.
The slipper shaft plus top gear is all machined
steel – also exceptional for this price range but
important so the gears can stand high torque. |
|
 |
 |
 |
There is nothing really exceptional about the X-Cellerator's
suspension – if it weren’t for the shocks. Apart from their blue
anodic coating they bear a striking resemblance to their Team Losi
counterparts; even the same tools can be used. But they are not
identical: XTM's cartridges are bigger and the shock piston is
secured by a locknut rather than e-clips. A quick look at the
spare-parts list also tells us that a whole set of X-Cellerator
shocks only cost €19,95 – meaning less than five bucks a shock; with
Losi that’s not even the shock shafts!
But with the factory setup no useful driving will be possible – some
things have to be bought with more than just money …
 |
 |
|
The shock pistons should be checked for burrs and
smoothed with 400-grade sanding paper.
The shocks feature no volume compensator, but a
piece of closed-cell foam rubber pushed into the damper
cylinder can do the trick. Like this, the shock is
easier to fill and less likely to leak. |
 |
The springs are pretty soft, especially for the rear end – and the
damper oil is, again, more of the cargo cult-style instead of having
useful effects on the handling. When opening the shock (to install
the mentioned volume compensator for example) you will first have to
get rid of the viscous, smelly liquid inside and then clean the
whole thing thoroughly.
Now the shock can be refilled with 25wt/300 cps silicone oil (Team
Associated brand for example)
Anyone who misses to do this oil change will be granted wild rides
because the stiff kit setup will make the truck lollop
uncontrollably even with the 540 stock motor.
Things inside the gearbox have way better manners: Ball bearings
everywhere and a cleanly built, excellently set up ball differential
leave nothing to be desired. The slipper shaft is made of steel, the
slipper plates are hard-anodised aluminum and, except from some
small burrs, they seem to be up to do the job.
Out of the box the whole slipper construction is put together so
tightly that it won’t slip at all. Instead of protecting the ball
differential, the torque is delivered directly, no-brains style. The
manual tells the newcomer not to touch this sensible adjustment.
Wonder if that’s clever… but we already took care a few paragraphs
above.
The stock motor has not enough torque to damage any gears but
XTM-Racing gives it a different kind of ‚weapon’:
What’s the difference between a shark and this pinion?
Both are grey, but the pinion’s got the uglier teeth!
Admitting a 48dp module to this part might be an audacious
challenge of reality – although - not the regularity of the
teeth but the condition of their surface should become a
problem. In order to illustrate this, the pinion remains inside
the car for now. We will see …
|
A last tip for the steering: the small pins
should be CA’ed into the chassis. Dust covers, like on
the ball studs, keep away grinding dust – a problem with
lots of 2wds. The lug on the upper plate was to be
ground down a bit so that the steering won’t bind. |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
