TLR 22T 2.0 review

I’ve got one more car in my possession that I haven’t reviewed yet, and that’s the TLR 22T 2.0.

I’ve had this car for about 3 months now, and it’s the first car I bought used.  While I got the car pretty cheap ($150 roller plus lots of extra aluminum parts), it still cost me quite a bit to fix a bunch of things that were done wrong.  I’m not super anal about how my cars are built, but the previous owner definitely did a bunch of things wrong that I had to correct, so overall I didn’t save much over a new kit.  It’s pretty much turned me off from buying a used kit again, and when you consider the wear the plastics go through after a normal season, you can see that for the most part a new kit makes more sense.

But enough about my personal history of the car, let’s go onto the review.

Overview

The TLR 22T 2.0 was the last of the 2.0 kits, and features all of the upgrades to that point.  You get the bellcrank steering, revised caster and steering blocks, improved shocks with X-rings, and a new slipper clutch.  Like all of the 1.0 and 2.0 kits, it can be built as rear motor or mid-motor, and includes all of the parts (and both bodies!) to make that happen.  At $299, it’s a pretty good value and is the cheapest of the 2.0 kits, despite having the most parts in the box.

TLR tends to come out with a buggy first, then the short course, and finally the stadium truck.  So it’s pretty much the fully realized evolution of the 2.0 generation.

Build: 8

I didn’t build the kit, but I have built the SCT 2.0 and swapped chassis and diff builds and shock builds as well as replace the steering bellcranks, so every part of the kit has been disassembled and reassembled.  The kit for the most part works fine, but I have found errors in the manual (wrong part #’s, wrong dimensions, etc.) and the sheer number of hex drivers that you need (0.05″, 1.3, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5) is somewhat annoying.  The steering system is a bit fiddly with the bearing washers and the way it threads together, and the rear end is a bit fiddly with the way the toeblocks are held in with tiny screws.  It’s not bad, but I don’t find it to be an elegant design.  I’m sure the design goal of rear and mid-motor makes for a more complicated design.

Performance: 9

The handling of the car is it’s best attribute.  You get amazing traction, it drives predictably, it’s a very stable and forgiving platform.  I do find mid-motor to be fairly sensitive to setup, a 1mm change makes for a BIG difference in this car, and can turn it from terrible to amazing (or vice-versa!) with minute changes.  The kit setup is pretty good, most people use a brass rear pivot block and slightly lighter shock oil in the rear.  I also ended up going up 1mm on the front and rear shock tower ballstuds, and the car drives great.

It does tend to have a fair amount of body roll – I’m not sure if it’s the long arms, or the inline battery or what exactly, but my car is setup pretty well and I don’t think you can completely tune this out.  I do have it setup for a bit of body roll to get traction, so it may be more setup than anything else.

My primary performance issue with the car is that it’s a little behind the Associated truck in terms of a 3-gear transmission.  I love the way the B5M drives with a 3-gear, and the lightened drivetrain definitely makes a difference in acceleration for spec classes (we race 13.5 here).  It’s also not a light car (my car weighs about 1930 grams), but pretty much every car in this class weighs a lot.

It also would be nice if you could mount the battery transversely – I find the car to nose down a fair amount jumping.  This is with an in-line shorty, I think a transverse battery would help the weight distribution a fair amount and help the jumping.

Durability: 8

I have broken a few parts on the car.  The slipper spring also tends to wear out in this car – it’s a common problem with all of the 22 cars, the spring is just kind of weak.  Not that big a deal in spec classes, but with a mod motor you need to crank it down significantly.  I have also stripped a front and rear camber block, so I recommend you use longish ballstuds and put grub screws in the holes next to the ones you use.  This helps keep the ballstuds from ripping through the holes in a crash.

Value: 9

At
$299, the truck is a pretty good value, especially considering you get all of the parts to go mid or rear motor.  Nobody really drives the car rear motor, so I’m not sure that value is fully realized as opposed to the T5M which costs $20 less.  But the parts are high quality, the shocks are second to none, and you get a lot in the box.

Support: 8

TLR support is good, Frank Root has a strong online presence and will provide a lot of information to racers.  It’s not as strong as Associated (nobody’s is!), but it’s probably the second most amount of information you get out.

Dislikes

I find the build of the car a little fiddly, and the 4-gear transmission is a bummer, but the car drives awesome and handles amazingly.  The slipper is not as good as the Associated one IMO and can be frustrating for newer drivers.  I had a lot of issues with my 22SCT slipper, but the 22T is lighter and with a spec motor not a big deal.

I also find the steering to develop slop a bit quickly IMO.  Crashing a lot doesn’t help, but the plastics do tend to wear out a bit quicker than Associated in my experience.

Conclusion

The car is a very easy and forgiving car to drive, it’s a good value, and is definitely capable of winning races.  My 11-y.o. son finds it easier to drive than my Slash, even though it’s 2WD.  It just a very smooth and predictable car.

I’ve driven a well setup T5M and find the T5M to be more of an aggressive, quicker steering vehicle, while the 22T 2.0 is more a smooth, easy to drive vehicle.  They have different personalities, and you really can’t go wrong with either of them depending on what you’re looking for.

Recommended.