THE ELECTRICS
On the other side of the chassis, you find the servos and electronics with a one-piece radio tray which has a sealed compartment at the back for the FM receiver and a supplied 6V flat receiver pack. In front of this is the metal-geared SS-1 throttle/brake servo that provides 49 ounces per inch of torque at a speed of 0.19 seconds, which is pretty good. The final part of the radio tray holds two HT-1 servos to provide power for the steering. These pump out a very impressive 85 ounces per inch of torque at a speed of 0.15 seconds each.

This dual servo set-up is different from almost every other buggy and truck design as while the LST2 utilises two steering servos, they are placed on either side of the truck and are often hard to get working in perfect synchronisation. The two servos in the Muggy however are right next to each other so send power simultaneously into the bell crank mechanism and give an unrivalled amount of torque to the steering. Incidentally, while a rechargeable 6V battery pack is supplied with this kit, you do need to provide your own charger to get some power into it. .

SOMETHING DIFFERENT?
The front and rear end are where this truggy differs from everything else because as mentioned, they are directly from the LST2. We shall have to find out if this is a good or bad thing but we know the idea was conceived by top Losi team driver Adam Drake and he’s had some great results racing it in the US, so it can’t be all bad although Drakes driving ability may just have something to do with that.

New front and rear sway bars have been added to the Muggy although when levering the arms up and down they don’t seem to have too much of an impact on the opposing arms. One thing you can’t miss are the massive oversized shocks which make Losi kits so distinctive, four of these grace the truck and they all are made from plastic with a threaded shock body. It is a real shame that they’re not the aluminium versions featured on the LST2 and it does make this premium quality kit look a bit cheap.

The other let down in this area is the lack of aluminium diff cases. The plastic ones were a real problem on the original LST and it was almost a prerequisite to fit aluminium ones to stop the flex in the diffs. This is a feeling Losi must have shared as the new LST2 and even the lower priced Aftershock both come equipped with them. So why are they not included on the Muggy? Our only explanation for this is that by utilising a centre diff the power is distributed more evenly, putting less pressure on them, although I feel like I am now making excuses for Losi and to prove by disbelief in this statement, the first thing I did was add some aluminium cases.

The only disadvantage of using a truck set-up at the front and rear is you don’t quite get the same amount of adjustability as you find on a traditional buggy/truggy set-up. This won’t be an issue if you never hit the racetrack and if you do, you still have two shock mounting options and the ability to change the toe-in with the adjustable steering turn buckles. If you want to set your camber you’ll need to buy some after-market A-arms from a company like RPM. On the plus side, CVD drive shafts are used to send power out to the wheels and the rugged plastic shock towers will take more of a pounding than most aluminium ones. The LST set-up also benefits from easy access to the diffs, although remember that with all Losi kits, the screws on here are mainly imperial and not metric and whilst you do get a set of imperial Allen keys with it, if you have fat fingers like me, you will soon find yourself having to shell out for some imperial drivers. If you do, then the three main ones you will need are 1/16”, 5/64” and 3/32”.

RACE SPEC-ING
From its looks and set-up, it would appear that the Muggy has been designed as more of a basher but as it has truggy specs, there’s nothing stopping you racing in this rapidly growing class. This is exactly what I intended to do and while I was investigating it, I made a few tweaks!
The Muggy’s instruction manual offers clear guides to setting up and maintaining the truck and under the differentials section, it points out that they¬ are filled with grease from the factory, but silicone fluid should be used for greater tune ability. They even give you a suggested set-up of 7,000 in the front, 10,000 in the middle and 5,000 in the rear, so I followed Losi’s advice, cleaned the grease out and added some silicone fluid, only I opted for a set-up of 10,000 front, 20,000 centre and 5,000 rear. While the diffs were out (which was very simple thanks to the easy access) I added some aluminium diff cases for piece of mind, as mentioned earlier.

The shock oil seems good out of the box but I moved them to the outer mounting position on the lower A-arms to lower the ride height and I also tightened the sway bars right up on both ends. My final tweak was to lose those 20mm hexes! With CVD drive shafts all round, this was quite easy as you can use hexes from just about any buggy or truggy. The Muggy wheels are offset so I opted to use the Fastrax 15mm extended hexes to maintain the same width when running the smaller non-offset standard sized monster truck wheels. With the smaller wheels fitted, the Muggy has a whole new persona and looks very aggressive!