Losi/Horizon Hobby - Rock Rey

Fine-tuning the Rock Rey to Tear Up the Track

- Kevin Hetmanski

The second I saw a picture of the Losi Rock Rey I fell in love and just had to get my hands on one. I had become interested in building a rock racer, and with a new backyard track going in at my house, I would have a place to run some laps. I also want to do some bashing with it, and during my testing, I found that it needed some minor tweaks to get it to perform like I would want it to. For the rock racing part of the build, I needed to add some durability, and on the bashing side, I wanted to improve performance, which would also pay offon the track. I grabbed a bunch of Losi option parts, a Spektrum servo, some new Pro-Line tires, and some other goodies to make my dream come true.

Beefed-Up Suspension and Steering

Though I didn’t have any issues with the stock steering parts, I decided to enhance durability and rigidity (and add a few style points) with some choice aluminum parts. The stock steering components lean more toward the soft side, which means they basically act like a servo saver and protect the steering servo. Losi offers aluminum versions for crisper steering response, which I installed. I also replaced the upper track rod mounts, upper and lower rear bulkhead mounts, and rear shock tower with Losi’s aluminum units. When it came to replacing the rear links, I only changed out the upper links. Losi does offer aluminum lower links, which are stronger, but sliding over rocks galls the aluminum and slows the buggy down. Plastic links slide more easily, and I think of them as sacrificial parts. Once they really get chewed up, a new set is only $14. The upper links were replaced with strong stainless-steel ones from Vanquish. They are much stronger than the stock pieces and will ensure that the axle stays centered under power and in rough terrain.

PowerStroke’d