Hardcore

It was about 1.5C that day, so the water was ice cold haha. I've still got a few old AM radios with crystals from my much younger RC days. Maybe i'll fit one of them for a laugh and properly sink it 😜

For the most part it was fine haha. A little water might have got inside the front foams and a little got into the receiver box but i had already waterproofed the receiver before. Shame the water was so high it came over my wellies. I was trying to stay near the edge but didn't expect it to drive off on it's own when it lost signal 😂😂

Trying to drive as slowly as possible with my heavily modded SCX10 Honcho & TRX-4 Bronco with some slow mo and bloopers towards the end.

Thankfully not. The electrics are all coated in a waterproof material, but even then they are inside water proof boxes as well. The radio signal can't penetrate water on my Flysky so as soon as the receiver box goes under water, it loses signal.

Took both the D90 and SCX10 down to the local river, then realised i forgot my transmitter batteries for the SCX10 when i got there 😅 Still had good fun with the D90, going as slow as i could with the 5 slot set up. Doesn't like being fully submerged though

Just a quick shakedown test after a partial rebuild on the Bronco.

Hey all. Digging out my Carnage again to do some beefing up of the durability. Plans are to fit Aluminium Wishbone mounts Aluminium steering linkage / bellcrank Carbon upper deck Aluminium lower plate Shim the diffs It currently has. Copy of a Hobbyking 120a sensored ESC (only running 2s) Steel spur gear, of standard pitch (forgot what mod it is?) Front & rear ARBs I had a few questions. I plan to use a standard 540 sized brushless motor. What KV would you recommend for 2s? What is the smallest pinion size that can be meshed when using the stock pitch on the gears? What is everyone using on the aluminium chassis to protect the spur gear? Any other suggestions on worthwhile modifications for duribility?

I've got a sealed can Holmes Motor here (21t Trailmaster Sport 550) and some of my rigs owe me more than double what you've quoted, but every one of my rigs at this point now are running a Chinese motor. IMO the top of the range Holmes motors can't be beaten for quality and performance and John does a lot for the Hobby and is a great guy. But from my experience their budget sealed can motors don't perform any better than the Chinese motors that cost a fraction of the price.

They're good motors for sure, but i wouldn't say they're just as cheap. About £25 delivered. The fully rebuildable Chinese motors with ball bearings at both ends and adjustable timing can be picked up for about £8 a piece delivered.

Some of that is incorrect. A 16t 5 slot motor will have a similar RPM to a 35t 3 slot motor, however the 3 slot motor produces more torque and power. The 5 slot motor has been low speed resolution however. Also, the 5 slot sealed cans from Holmes Hobbies are Crawlmaster Sports and the 3 slot versions are Trailmaster Sports.

Looking good. On the 1080 ESC, if you haven't already, change the PWR frequency setting from the default 8k (IIRC) to 16k It makes it even smoother again and removes the whine noise from the ESC

The under drive gears and 9t pinion would have helped a lot towards that as well. This is about as slow as i can get the low end on it.

I think so as well. The 880 is about the same price as a 1080 and most 550 motors will run 4s fine when geared down properly, so essentially the only added cost is with price of 4s over 3s. I reckon i might change more rigs to this if any 1080's fail. Thanks! It's good fun to drive and now i can use low gear for really technical stuff or rocks, and high gear can be used more often when trailing. The pinion gear noise is pretty grim

I've had these parts for months but just no time to fit them until recently with the lockdown. Surpass Hobby 12t 550 5 slot motor from Ebay. Approx £15 delivered. Hobbywing 880 ESC from Hobbyking for approx £30 delivered. Turnigy 2200mah 4s Nano Tech pack for approx £15 delivered.

It'll be running a 5 slot, 12t 550 Surpass Hobby motor on 4s just shortly.

My Bronco had been sitting in bits, in a box the last 9 months. I managed to get 95% of it back together quickly just now and wanted to test a 12 turn, Surpass Hobby 3 slot 550 motor i had sitting about. The truck is using a 9t pinion gear, and has underdrive gears in both axles to get the final drive as low as possible. Although it can crawl and slow speed is okay, it's not for me. The throttle resolution is poor and even with such low gearing the motor lacks torque for any kind of finesse when under load. Fine for more open trails for sure, but anything, or on rocks it's a nah. Going to try a 21t 550 on 4s next as i think that'll work a lot nicer.

A friend was fitting a new 5 slot motor into his Ascender to test and was nice enough to send me some clips to edit and upload over Whatsapp (hence poor quality) Some side by side tests with a variety of conditions with the Surpass Hobby 13 turn 5 slot, vs the 27 turn 3 slot.

Alright, alright. Two completely different trucks, different weights, different gearing, wheel size etc etc. But with the current "Lockdown" with Covid 19 just now i wanted to see how the freshly rebuild trucks are with regards to slow speed control with a short test in the garden.

Boom Racing D90. 1.55 alloy beadlock wheels. 1.55 Micky Thompson Baja MTZ tyres. Hobbywing 1080 ESC. 2S Lipo. RC4WD 64 tooth 32p spur gear. 9 tooth pinion gear. Suprass Hobby 16 turn 5 slot 540 motor. Conformal coated receiver. High torque steering servo. 90mm internal spring dampers, with 15 weight oil Cosmetic mods / changes.

He's not sold the Mamba X combo yet. It's the 2850Kv slate motor i believe. But it's no longer in use As mentioned, Holmes review was when it was the version 1.0 ESC on the original firmware. But there have been at least 2 big firmware updates since then and also a newer V1.1 ESC and with each step, performance has improved overall. Exocaged RC on Yotube has a lot more up to date reviews with the latest firmware and even the 550 sized version. At first he wasn't a fan as they lacked the punch his other systems had (Holmes / Castle / Tekin) but since the later updates his more recent comp builds are either brushed 5 slot, or Hobbywing AXE I went for the 2300kv version in an original style SCX10. It crawls just as slow as the TRX-4 above even though the kv is higher. My only complaint is i wish they done something closer to 3000kv in 540 size as the 550 size is 2700kv and 3300kv but the 5mm shaft on those ones i a paint as you are limited to how small a pinion you can use.

If you're going to be getting them wet often, i'd go for the AXE system. I've 2 friends with Mamba X's and they start cogging like mad after long trail runs in wet conditions. Usually fine for a couple of hours, but eventually the dielectric grease they put on the sensor cable to protect it washes off. 1 friend has already picked up 2 AXE systems since the Mamba X Slate combo and doesn't run it any more The other friend is about to do the same. The other friend and i were out trailing for about 5 and a half hours yesterday in wet conditions but intermittently he'd get long periods of terrible cogging with the water getting into the sensor connections despite dielectric grease, but even doing some mud bog runs, the axe was flawless. From my reading / observations with the AXE vs Slate combos Mamba X has a better BEC. It's 8A. Old AXE ESC is only 3A and new one is 4A Mamba X has more tuning features Mamba X has more punch Mamba X can use other motors and even brushed Mamba X can use up to 6s AXE is silent (no noise from the ESC) AXE has much better slow speed control. Even better than the 5 slot motor / 1080 ESC i had before it The new AXE firmware has given them much more punch since the Holmes review Fully waterproof. Submerge it all day every day and you'll only ever need to lube / replace the bearings 550 sized can available for more power & torque but still the great slow speed control. AXE has bluetooth AXE is cheaper.

Testing an Axial 20 turn motor usually found in the RTR Wraith in my SCX10 Honcho. Testing low speed control and top speed at the end It seems fine for trailing, but i wouldn't be a fan of it in rocks or competitions. 90 tooth spur 13 tooth pinion 3s lipo Underdrive in rear

My almost all metal heavyweight, original style SCX10 with a 5 slot motor and my friend's lightweight, SCX10 II Honcho running a similar spec 3 slot motor. Weather was pretty poor, but still lots of fun Although the 5 slot in my green Honcho is a little smoother lower end, it didn't have as much punch or wheel speed as the 3 slot in the SCX10.2

I had been running a 9t pinion in my TRX-4 for a while and it was smooth on the low end and speed was still fine. But i figured if i geared it a little more, i can use a more powerful motor without losing control or having issues stalling Even general trailing is fine with the 15t motor in high gear. Should be even better with a Hobbywing AXE fitted eventually

The RC4WD AX2 2 speed gearbox can be easily installed in things like SCX10's and has a really good range between hi and low. They're about £45 delivered from china and use a full size servo. You can go from seriously low rock crawling creep speed, to enough wheel speed to do small jumps, fly up dirt hills spraying dirt and do donuts etc. It adds a little more weight up high, but it's worth it for the extra fun.