Quick build: Lesu MCL8 Wheel Loader

[Blender]

Gonna start dumping more content here since I miss the heyday of this place and PMD's forum.

Acquired a kit a few months ago. Been together and tuning on it for a while now. Barely any customization on this machine. Chose green and Grey on a whim and later added the decals. Built box-stock, swapped all the electronics and slapped in a Jeti receiver.

Pump ESC: Castle Creations Talon15
Drive ESC: Fingertech Tiny ESC
Pump: Stock with included brushless motor
Valve servos: Stock
4 spool valves (including one aux)
Selectable diff locks
Radio: Jeti 10 channel

On to the pictures:







Electronic space is super tight. This is the best I could do for fitment. All servo loads shortened and labeled. No light/sound controller now, but will add a compact light controller in the box above the cab. The jeti ESCs i love just won't fit. Instead I added a brushless rpm sensor and their battery voltage/current/capacity sensor. 2S 2200 mah pack fits, barely. Run time is around an hour.


More about how it runs and a bot of a review:
Parts quality is very nice. Virtually every parts is steel or aluminum. Fitment is good. The countour machined portions of the engine covers and tub had some chatter making paint prep more work. Overall very good. Fitment is well figured out. Every nook and cranny is used.

Hydraulic system runs a little hot if pump is allowed to idle full time. Start-stop of the pump isn't smooth due to sensorless brushless. A biddy recommended swapping a brushed motor. Still looking for a drop in option. Valve Servos are loud, but no jitter. Hydraulic valves have a lot of deadband. Paired with the jumpy start of the pump made feathering the controls nearly impossible. It is all fixable though. Pump start was smoothed out with the talon ESC. Servo curves were made for each valve to take out the deadband. Pump RPM was controlled to ramp up fast, but not overrev. Walking a narrow line to get good feel. The sole remaining shortcoming is the sole steer cylinder is a little on the small side. Having asymmetric steer force, the stiction in the cylinder is noticeable. Not as smooth as a wedico loader.



Drive is a small brushed motor. It is a little low on torque when climbing steep obstacles. Maybe my ESC choice is to blame. I'll search for an alternate to try, but it has to be small. Steer angle could be improved too. Included diff locks are great. The front is a little finicky to setup.

This machine is usually used to move Jersey barriers. I should add side shift via the aux hydraulic port.

[frizzen]

Awesome looking loader! I'm really digging the rental fleet livery.

Sounds like some great driveability upgrades and tuning. Sensored or Brushed should be able to start smoother What size motor do they use?

Does your radio have channel slaving, so you could ramp up the hydro speed when channels call for moving valves?

Great to see some fresh builds on here

[jerry56]

I'm also glad to see more bui8lds.... I gotta get my self in gear....
I like the Sunbelt colors too....
Did you buy the decals somewhere or make them....

[Blender]

Originally Posted by frizzen

Awesome looking loader! I'm really digging the rental fleet livery.

Sounds like some great driveability upgrades and tuning. Sensored or Brushed should be able to start smoother What size motor do they use?

Does your radio have channel slaving, so you could ramp up the hydro speed when channels call for moving valves?

Great to see some fresh builds on here

Thanks Frizzen. The stock motor is a brushless outrunner 2800kV 22-24mm diameter and 30-35mm length. It's somewhere around a 280 sized motor in brushed size. I have not yet disassembled it to see shaft diameter. I'd like to order a spare pump to experiment on.

I do have the mixes to run the pump as needed. It's the only way to keep the oil cool. The start/stop is hard for the motor especially under pressure. I thinks it's setup as well as I can get it. Slightly slower than ideal, but allows some fine control.

[Blender]

Originally Posted by jerry56

I'm also glad to see more bui8lds.... I gotta get my self in gear....
I like the Sunbelt colors too....
Did you buy the decals somewhere or make them....

Great to hear Jerry. We'd all like some fresh content.

The green was kind of an accident. The proper machine should be yellow and grey. Almost all brands are yellow or orange which is no fun. I found a neon green paint so I went with it. Already had several cans of light grey. After it was painted I randomly drove by a Sunbelt yard and that made it click. I had to continue the theme.

The decals were of my own design. For this and the Hitachi excavator I used Inkscape drawing program. It's free, but kind of confusing. It creates "vector" images so they can be printed in very high resolution. I'm bad at the software, but eventually I can bump my way through it. As for printing I had previously asked a local vinyl guy. He can print stuff that small, but can't cutout each letter. Instead I used drytransfer.com which does some kind of filmless decal. Not sure how they make them but the result is adhesive only under the ink with a top sheet to align each loose letter. This guy does the smallest minimum order size, but they're still expensive. Kind of hard to put on too so I always put spares on the sheet. I should clearcoat over them for protection, but I never actually do.

Here's the remainder of the 4x6" sheet:

[Zabco]

Really a nice little machine. Great job. Agree with others, nice to see some new builds. Who did you get the kit from?

[Blender]

Originally Posted by Zabco

Really a nice little machine. Great job. Agree with others, nice to see some new builds. Who did you get the kit from?

Thanks Zabco.

I used Toucan Hobby. They accept PayPal which I prefer for international transactions. I like putting stuff together a certain way so a kit was a must for me. I'm always tempted by their paint service for the reasonable cost and nice finish.

https://www.toucanhobby.com/products...840de872&_ss=r