The war at the top of bash mountain is beyond fierce. You’ve got large scale short course trucks, you’ve got massively over-powered 1/8 monster trucks, you’ve got low slung truggies that seem to be glued to the ground in the corners, etc. One of the trucks at the top for Losi is the LST 3XL-E from Horizon Hobby. The LST XL-E represents decades of bashing experience shown in hardcore bashing’s favorite form, a four wheel drive monster truck. Can the Losi run with the biggest of the big dogs? How durable is it? Is it worth the cash to bash? Read on to find out…
From: Losi
Direct Link: LST 3XL-E Monster Truck
Review By: Cubby
Pictures By: Tim Mohr
Specs:
RTR or Kit: RTR
Age: 14+
2wd or 4wd: 4wd
Shaft or Belt: Shaft
Electric or Gas: Electric
Waterproof: Yes
Scale: 1/8
Length: 23″ (not including wheelie bar)
Width: 18.5″
Wheelbase: 15.9″
Weight: 15.5 lbs
Motor: Dynamite 2200kV non-sensored brushless
Speed Controller: Dynamite 150 amp brushless
Low Voltage Cut-off: Yes
Radio: Spektrum DX2E ACTIVE with AVC stability control
Differential: 3 gear style diffs, sealed
Slipper Clutch: No
Driveshafts: Metal, CVD style
Final Drive Ratio: 22.30:1
Shocks: Giant metal bodies, plastic caps
Servo Saver: In steering rack
Screws: Hex hardware
Spur/Pinion Pitch: 1.0 Module
Bearings: Yes
Tires: Losi, off-road tread
Battery: Not included
Part Number: #LOS04015
Warranty: “free from defects in materials and workmanship at the date of purchase”
Bashing Specs:
Front wheel travel: 2.75″
Rear wheel travel: 3.0″
Wheelie on demand: Yes
Backflip off ramps: Yes
Stability Control: Yes, Spektrum AVC
Sound Module: No
Self-Righting: No
FPV: No
Top Speed (measured by BSRC on 6S Dynamite LiPo): 50 mph
Runtime (measured by BSRC on 6S Dynamite 5000 LiPo): 14 minutes
Street Price: $699
Primary Competition: Oh ya, the Losi faces serious competition from trucks like the ARRMA Kraton, the Traxxas E-Revo 2, among many others.
What’s Needed To Complete: You will need to pick up four AA batteries for the transmitter, plus a pair of batteries to power the truck. Oh ya, you’ll also need a battery charger.
Build Quality: We could find no fault with the assembly quality of the Losi. The wheel nuts were tight, the shocks were well built, etc.
Test Drivers: Iron Mike, Sam The Noobie, Hawaiian Chris, Tim Brown, Sean Nelson, T-$$$, and yours truly.
Test Venues: The first venue we bashed the truck at is also the site of our upcoming scale crawling event (April 7th), Crystal City Underground in Crystal City, Missouri. The Underground compound had hundreds of acres of rocks, mud, hills, sand, etc. We also used our Costco parking lot to measure top speed and to do some pavement driving, plus we ran the truck at 2 local city parks.
Set-up Notes: You guys already know we test trucks bone stock, or at least as stock as we can. The 3XL-E was run bone stock with MaxAmps batteries for the transmitter and a pair of Dynamite 3S 50C 5000mAh high voltage packs (they rip btw!) for the truck. Charging was handled by a Dynamite Passport Ultra Force Duo.
Driving: Overall we thought the LST 3XL-E drove well compared to its competition.
For turning, it doesn’t have a lot of side-bite in corners, sometimes that helped it, sometimes it hurt its turning ability. Overall, it tended to push in corners unless you tapped the brake a bit, then that really set the front tires and it could turn on a dime. The rear was well behaved in most corners. The stock servo set-up seemed to work fine for backyard bashing. While not fast, it is crazy beefy and has loads of torque.
The Losi had good suspension and general chassis geometry for jumping. However, the rear wheelie bar often got in the way on landings and on the take-offs of some wood ramps. The wheelie bar also got in the way when bashing over extremely rough ground like large rocks and large dirt clods. However, we found that bar worked really well when making high speed passed on pavement.
For general backyard bashing, the Losi totally ate up grass and loved doing giant drifts in the dirt. It was relatively easy to drive for a truck as fast as it is, plus with the different speed modes and AVC electronic stability control, you can hand it off to nearly anyone.
Power: It rips. Well, ours was shipped in “low” mode, which was not fast. But then we found the medium and hi settings and the real power came out. Yes, the Losi has crazy full-on brushless power. It has the power to pull long wheelies, the power for multiple back-flips, etc. If you like speed runs or hitting big ramps, it has loads of power for that too.
From a dead stop the truck occasionally had a slight cog, then all that glorious low-end power kicks in. You know the kind, the kind that sends photographers running from gravel being thrown at them like it came out of a shotgun. After that, the truck quickly blows through a smooth mid-range into its top end which loved to just keep on pulling.
Ya, it has a lot of power, but does it get hot? Ours did not. After a 14 minute run on 6S we temped the motor at 120 degrees F. Our ambient temp was 45. Out of the box, yes, we think the Losi is geared better overall than most RTRs. It has loads of power, it has a decent runtime, and its motor does not get too hot at the end of a run. Speeds are in the low 50 mph range (on 6s) which is good for a truck this size.
Radio: The included Spektrum DX2E worked well for us. No, it isn’t uber like the DX6R, but it gets the job done. But wait, there’s more! The DX2E is one of the newer “ACTIVE” units that not only has improved range, but also makes it easy to add telemetry.
Broken Parts: OK, so how tough is the LST 3XL-E? Really tough, or at least much tougher than the big monster trucks from a decade ago. Yes, you can backflip the truck multiple times and not break it. You can hit ramps all afternoon and not break it. It is the most durable big monster truck that we’ve tested from Losi. At the end of the day, our test unit suffered through several packs of extreme bashing before we tagged a pole and snapped a front tie rod. However, if you are wondering in your mind “Can I really go big with that truck and have it not break?”, the answer is yes. Ours went through quite a pounding before breaking a relatively small part.
Misc Notes:
We liked how the 3XL-E had two body clips up front, and none in the rear. After removing the body clips, the body simply rotates over backwards, making the truck easy to work on.
Blue chrome? Heck ya, while not scale, the majority of our test drivers thought the blue chrome wheels were seriously cool.
How about that center diff? Actually, the center diff in our truck worked well. The front wheels did balloon a bit, but not ultra-bad.
The big Losi comes with a metal servo horn! And it goes on a large scale servo! Very nice and very durable.
The Losi comes with 17mm wheel hexes. This gives this truck tons of options for aftermarket wheels/tires.
Uh ya, so about that powerful motor. It has loads of power and ran cool for us. The huge heatsinks on the stock motor do a great job. However, the Losi doesn’t use a “standard” motor mount. When you go to change out the motor, you’ll need to by a new motor mount to install an aftermarket unit (#LOS242021). We would have much rather have seen a universal motor mount.
Ya, about those shocks, they are enormous. While a bit on the light side for damping, they really did a solid job of soaking up all sorts of nasty. Oh and, those 5mm shafts are gonna be crazy hard to break.
Best Mod: Our first mod would be to remove the stock wheelie bar. Removing the wheelie bar makes it much easier to wheelie and backflip, while also making it easier to drive off-road. If you speed run, you will want to leave it on as it really does help on high speed passes.
Summary:
A = Outstanding/Best in Class, B = Above Average, C = Average, D = Below Average, F = Horrific
Time To Bash: B If this is your first truck, no worries, we found the Losi to be easy to get up and running. The ESC is pre-calibrated, the transmitter is bound to the receiver, all you need to do is to charge and install batteries. It also has low/medium/high speed settings to match your skill level.
Workability: B With nice hex hardware and an open layout to spin wrenches, we found the Losi easy to work on. We also really liked how easy it was to switch out batteries with the truck’s rear pivot body.
Car Show Rating: B Our test crew loved the chrome blue wheels and the modern graphics on the body.
Bash-A-Bility: B Our Losi took a lot of abuse without breaking. Yes, you can break it, but it takes driving it pretty extreme to do so.
Fun Factor: B Ya know what, it is almost impossible not to have a good time with the Losi. All that brushless power makes you want to keep hitting jumps faster and whoop sections even harder.
Handling: B The Losi is a nicely rounded package. It drives well for a large monster truck and loves going big off of jumps.
Value: B The Losi is one giant, gnarly monster truck for the cash. At a $699 price point, it absolutely comes with some of the higher-end features that you expect at that price point.
Parts Availability: C The LST 3XL-E has been on the market for a while now. We did find a couple parts locally and found loads of parts on-line.
BigSquid Rating: B+ We found the Losi LST 3XL-E to be one gnarly bash machine. It has crazy power, it has big suspension, and it loves to bash. If you are looking to go big with your bashing game, the LST 3XL-E is a great truck to go epic with.
