svt923
I wanna be Dave
We will start off with some self awareness: all of us are nerds. What else would you call someone who spends copious amounts of time and money playing with toy trucks? You are not cool so just give in to this fact because we are on a collision course to create some kind of nerd supernova.
The Capra is a great hero, capable of taking on the most gnarly of rocks. Forged in the dark confines of an Axial office somewhere in California, the full extent of the Capra’s powers are not yet known. If you have experienced any media over the last decade, you know there is a origin story coming.
As with all good superhero tales, we begin with the humble beginnings of our hero. Since the news was still “Axial is releasing a portal axle 1.9 rock buggy”, I was going to buy it. My fleet always has room for a tube frame buggy so the fate of the Capra was woven before it’s existence. Fate came in the form of the good people at Hanger 18 Hobbies who directed this Capra to a man who would change it’s life forever.
When we first met, the Capra was weary from a life of rough beginnings. This seemingly normal kit didn’t even have a home and was living in a box. I found the Capra after being rejected from signing up for service in WWII because of being too small and frail. It had moxie.
Before we go on, yes it is true that an inanimate object was attempting to sign up for 1940s war time military service in October 2019. The timelines in superhero stories are infallible.
The wise master always sees deeper than the surface. Alternatively, the genius scientist always needs chumps ..errr…. volunteers for their crazy, untested, potentially dangerous experiments. I’m definitely one of those roles in this story.
Whether this is a kooky experiment or something more nefarious, the one thing that is for certain is things will not go as planned. So let’s get cracking.
The first step to undertake is the axles.
These new portal axles are obviously one of the major highlights of the Capra. If you are unaware, these new axles are wider than the AR44s and other common scale axles, sport Currie F9 styling, and are molded in different plastic from previous Axial vehicles. They definitely feel more solid in hand than previous Axial axle housings, time will tell how than translates to driving durability.
Going into those fancy new housings, are familiar AR44 ring and pinion gears. This is fantastic because these are still the best axle gear set on the market. New for the Capra is the very welcome addition of a 6 bolt design to hold them to the steel lockers.
For the front, I though overdrive would be a lovely addition to the Capra and purchased this SSD 6 bolt overdrive gear set.
Like others have experienced, the mesh with the SSD gears was not smooth at all. Through a combination of careful tightening of the 3rd member screws and pinion shimming, we eventually got to a point where there is only 1 tight spot in the rotation. It is still undecided if these will be run to see if they break in or swapped for stock gears. The stock Axial gears are infinitely smoother than these overdrive gears.
The patient has been prepped for the massive super steroid infusion, I mean gear installation. Who would knowingly pump a human being with ungodly amounts of steroids for the purposes of creating Nazi crushing super soldiers (yes, those idiots totally bought that)?
The 3rd member requires a firm press to achieve the very reassuring snap of the tight fit into the axle housing. One of the bits of the Capra I have to point out is Axial has completely done away with those stupid M2.6 screws that were popular on the SCX10II. All hardware is commonly available M2, M2.5, or M3 stuff. Hooray!
Portal axles require more gears. These are those gears.
The gears are sintered metal but appear to be very well made. Some sintered gears look like poorly made crap, these are at the opposite end of that sintered gear spectrum. Again, testing will determine if the nice finish equates to a durable gear.
Once you cram the gears into the portal housings, you arrive at this point:
This is a typical portal setup. Some have expressed concerns over the amount of material around the screws on the outer portal cover but I remain unconvinced the portals will see the types of forces that would make this an issue.
A few screws later, we have a complete front axle.
The uncommon portal feature of univerals make me very happy.
The rear is much the same as the front, so much so that I’m going to mostly skip the assembly pictures.
Here is the 1 and only rear axle assembly pic:
This is the inside of the rear portal box and a bearing does not go here. If you do install a bearing, the portal cover will not go on. You have been warned which means several of you will do it anyway.
Back to the front, we now have steering links installed.
The steering links (and all other links) are very beefy steel and fresh new rod ends get installed on all the links. It can not be overstated how much better these rod ends are from the old Axial ends. As these are not made from dried chewing gum, they are way more substantial and when combined with the new stainless steel pivot balls, they work like legitimate rod ends.
The steering setup is a servo on axle setup which is great for simplicity and performance. As we learn from every new release, half the buying populous will complain that it doesn’t have the other type of steering setup. Of course they were also complaining about this kit coming with portals and the SCX10II not coming with portals. People are miserable jerks.
The stock servo horn is a steel insert inside a plastic horn, similar to Losi 1/8 vehicles. The insert has been proven largely bombproof in other vehicles, the horn is not however. I chose to install a Vanquish horn on the Holmes SHV500v2 that will be pointing the tires in the desired direction.
You may think the servo mount looks to be the one from the Wraith/Bomber. If you think that, you would be wrong.
The Capra’s servo mount moves the mounting hardware in from the AR60’s servo mount so the mounting screws don’t end up in the middle of the upper link mounts. If you want an aluminum servo mount, you will have to wait approximately 8 minutes before the aftermarket is on it.
The instructions tell you to build the shocks and links next but the benevolent power granting genius never follows anyone’s rules which always forces them to resort to unorthodox and likely less than scrupulous means. So to the transmission we go.
Inside the case, is 2 gears but the star here is the dig feature anyway. All the important components of the dig are rather beefy chunks of machined steel. I gave the shaft the dig slides on a good coat of grease to help ensure smooth movement.
On the other side of the transmission, we have a familiar spur mated to an unfamiliar external idler gear. This setup helps keep the transmission more compact than the old 3 gear setup but your pinion choice will be limited.
Speaking of pinions, my intention was to get this assembled to test out the gearing options available. I got the transmission assembled then found out my collection of pinions ranged from the stock 14T, 13T, and then a 9T. Pinion inventory fail on my part. I went with a 13T for a little more gear reduction.
One note that is probably outside of the norm for most kits; you will want to grease the spur, idler, and pinion gears to keep wear and noise to a minimum.
While we are on the subject of gearing, the Capra isn’t setup for a ton of reduction. Out of the box, you are looking at a 30ish:1 overall gearing. People who are tossing in 3500kv motors are going to be seriously surprised when their Capra’s rip off at 20 mph on the first throttle pull. Moderation is going to be your friend with this one. My choice:
This Holmes Crawlmaster Magnum 16T. It should have enough wheelspeed to bump up or jump the occasional gap combined with the finest low speed control and all the torque you can get out of a brushed motor. You don’t make Super Soldier Serum out of crap, only the finest for making your living weapons. That is until the government funding gets cut then you spend 100 times the cost of the original recipe to make a cheaper recipe.
Now we have a new transmission to mount to a new skidplate.
The dig unit is operated by a micro servo. Axial designed it to fit the Spektrum SX107 servo which comes with the proper base unit to fit the dig servo saver to the servo spline. You can make lots of servos work with varying levels of effort. I exerted very little effort and bought the drop in Spektrum option.
A little trimming on the servo mount created some additional clearance for the wire so it wasn’t being pushed at a harsh angle.
If you are curious how the new transmission compares to the good old 3 gear design, it is quite a bit shorter (even with the long mounting bosses on the bottom) and not much longer front to back even with the dig unit.
One of the other big improvements to the Capra was in the shock department.
You get nicely coated shock bodies with new seal components and 2 complete sets of shock springs. All of this is very promising and I look forward to seeing how these work.
Unfortunately, that won’t be happening on this truck.
My Capra will be getting a full set of Dravtech shocks. You may ask why would I do such a thing and the answer is a long one, as in the shocks are too long. Yes, that was an awful joke but it factual statement as well. The truck is a mighty tall one with portals and the stock 97mm shocks. These Dravtechs come in at 92.5mm giving my Capra a healthy ride height drop and spiffy good looks. A fun bit of information: the stock upper and lower shock mounting pivot balls fit nicely in the Traxxas rod ends of the Dravtech shocks so no need to worry about spacers or funky angles.
More beefy steel links join the front and rear axles to the skidplate.
The front and rear links are identical in length for both the uppers and lowers. Well I assume they are identical because the manual is inconveniently blank for the assembled length for the rear upper links. I built all the uppers to the same length. The links are all a turnbuckle-esque design with one side being threaded in the opposite direction. Some won’t appreciate this but I am a big fan of being able to adjust the length of the links without disassembling anything.
Well, I think this is a good stopping point for now. I can’t go through the whole story in a single issue. How am I supposed to pad my view stats with a single post. No one would come back if you got everything at once. So definitely come back for more quality internet tiny truck adventures.
The Capra is a great hero, capable of taking on the most gnarly of rocks. Forged in the dark confines of an Axial office somewhere in California, the full extent of the Capra’s powers are not yet known. If you have experienced any media over the last decade, you know there is a origin story coming.
As with all good superhero tales, we begin with the humble beginnings of our hero. Since the news was still “Axial is releasing a portal axle 1.9 rock buggy”, I was going to buy it. My fleet always has room for a tube frame buggy so the fate of the Capra was woven before it’s existence. Fate came in the form of the good people at Hanger 18 Hobbies who directed this Capra to a man who would change it’s life forever.
When we first met, the Capra was weary from a life of rough beginnings. This seemingly normal kit didn’t even have a home and was living in a box. I found the Capra after being rejected from signing up for service in WWII because of being too small and frail. It had moxie.
Before we go on, yes it is true that an inanimate object was attempting to sign up for 1940s war time military service in October 2019. The timelines in superhero stories are infallible.
The wise master always sees deeper than the surface. Alternatively, the genius scientist always needs chumps ..errr…. volunteers for their crazy, untested, potentially dangerous experiments. I’m definitely one of those roles in this story.
Whether this is a kooky experiment or something more nefarious, the one thing that is for certain is things will not go as planned. So let’s get cracking.
The first step to undertake is the axles.
These new portal axles are obviously one of the major highlights of the Capra. If you are unaware, these new axles are wider than the AR44s and other common scale axles, sport Currie F9 styling, and are molded in different plastic from previous Axial vehicles. They definitely feel more solid in hand than previous Axial axle housings, time will tell how than translates to driving durability.
Going into those fancy new housings, are familiar AR44 ring and pinion gears. This is fantastic because these are still the best axle gear set on the market. New for the Capra is the very welcome addition of a 6 bolt design to hold them to the steel lockers.
For the front, I though overdrive would be a lovely addition to the Capra and purchased this SSD 6 bolt overdrive gear set.
Like others have experienced, the mesh with the SSD gears was not smooth at all. Through a combination of careful tightening of the 3rd member screws and pinion shimming, we eventually got to a point where there is only 1 tight spot in the rotation. It is still undecided if these will be run to see if they break in or swapped for stock gears. The stock Axial gears are infinitely smoother than these overdrive gears.
The patient has been prepped for the massive super steroid infusion, I mean gear installation. Who would knowingly pump a human being with ungodly amounts of steroids for the purposes of creating Nazi crushing super soldiers (yes, those idiots totally bought that)?
The 3rd member requires a firm press to achieve the very reassuring snap of the tight fit into the axle housing. One of the bits of the Capra I have to point out is Axial has completely done away with those stupid M2.6 screws that were popular on the SCX10II. All hardware is commonly available M2, M2.5, or M3 stuff. Hooray!
Portal axles require more gears. These are those gears.
The gears are sintered metal but appear to be very well made. Some sintered gears look like poorly made crap, these are at the opposite end of that sintered gear spectrum. Again, testing will determine if the nice finish equates to a durable gear.
Once you cram the gears into the portal housings, you arrive at this point:
This is a typical portal setup. Some have expressed concerns over the amount of material around the screws on the outer portal cover but I remain unconvinced the portals will see the types of forces that would make this an issue.
A few screws later, we have a complete front axle.
The uncommon portal feature of univerals make me very happy.
The rear is much the same as the front, so much so that I’m going to mostly skip the assembly pictures.
Here is the 1 and only rear axle assembly pic:
This is the inside of the rear portal box and a bearing does not go here. If you do install a bearing, the portal cover will not go on. You have been warned which means several of you will do it anyway.
Back to the front, we now have steering links installed.
The steering links (and all other links) are very beefy steel and fresh new rod ends get installed on all the links. It can not be overstated how much better these rod ends are from the old Axial ends. As these are not made from dried chewing gum, they are way more substantial and when combined with the new stainless steel pivot balls, they work like legitimate rod ends.
The steering setup is a servo on axle setup which is great for simplicity and performance. As we learn from every new release, half the buying populous will complain that it doesn’t have the other type of steering setup. Of course they were also complaining about this kit coming with portals and the SCX10II not coming with portals. People are miserable jerks.
The stock servo horn is a steel insert inside a plastic horn, similar to Losi 1/8 vehicles. The insert has been proven largely bombproof in other vehicles, the horn is not however. I chose to install a Vanquish horn on the Holmes SHV500v2 that will be pointing the tires in the desired direction.
You may think the servo mount looks to be the one from the Wraith/Bomber. If you think that, you would be wrong.
The Capra’s servo mount moves the mounting hardware in from the AR60’s servo mount so the mounting screws don’t end up in the middle of the upper link mounts. If you want an aluminum servo mount, you will have to wait approximately 8 minutes before the aftermarket is on it.
The instructions tell you to build the shocks and links next but the benevolent power granting genius never follows anyone’s rules which always forces them to resort to unorthodox and likely less than scrupulous means. So to the transmission we go.
Inside the case, is 2 gears but the star here is the dig feature anyway. All the important components of the dig are rather beefy chunks of machined steel. I gave the shaft the dig slides on a good coat of grease to help ensure smooth movement.
On the other side of the transmission, we have a familiar spur mated to an unfamiliar external idler gear. This setup helps keep the transmission more compact than the old 3 gear setup but your pinion choice will be limited.
Speaking of pinions, my intention was to get this assembled to test out the gearing options available. I got the transmission assembled then found out my collection of pinions ranged from the stock 14T, 13T, and then a 9T. Pinion inventory fail on my part. I went with a 13T for a little more gear reduction.
One note that is probably outside of the norm for most kits; you will want to grease the spur, idler, and pinion gears to keep wear and noise to a minimum.
While we are on the subject of gearing, the Capra isn’t setup for a ton of reduction. Out of the box, you are looking at a 30ish:1 overall gearing. People who are tossing in 3500kv motors are going to be seriously surprised when their Capra’s rip off at 20 mph on the first throttle pull. Moderation is going to be your friend with this one. My choice:
This Holmes Crawlmaster Magnum 16T. It should have enough wheelspeed to bump up or jump the occasional gap combined with the finest low speed control and all the torque you can get out of a brushed motor. You don’t make Super Soldier Serum out of crap, only the finest for making your living weapons. That is until the government funding gets cut then you spend 100 times the cost of the original recipe to make a cheaper recipe.
Now we have a new transmission to mount to a new skidplate.
The dig unit is operated by a micro servo. Axial designed it to fit the Spektrum SX107 servo which comes with the proper base unit to fit the dig servo saver to the servo spline. You can make lots of servos work with varying levels of effort. I exerted very little effort and bought the drop in Spektrum option.
A little trimming on the servo mount created some additional clearance for the wire so it wasn’t being pushed at a harsh angle.
If you are curious how the new transmission compares to the good old 3 gear design, it is quite a bit shorter (even with the long mounting bosses on the bottom) and not much longer front to back even with the dig unit.
One of the other big improvements to the Capra was in the shock department.
You get nicely coated shock bodies with new seal components and 2 complete sets of shock springs. All of this is very promising and I look forward to seeing how these work.
Unfortunately, that won’t be happening on this truck.
My Capra will be getting a full set of Dravtech shocks. You may ask why would I do such a thing and the answer is a long one, as in the shocks are too long. Yes, that was an awful joke but it factual statement as well. The truck is a mighty tall one with portals and the stock 97mm shocks. These Dravtechs come in at 92.5mm giving my Capra a healthy ride height drop and spiffy good looks. A fun bit of information: the stock upper and lower shock mounting pivot balls fit nicely in the Traxxas rod ends of the Dravtech shocks so no need to worry about spacers or funky angles.
More beefy steel links join the front and rear axles to the skidplate.
The front and rear links are identical in length for both the uppers and lowers. Well I assume they are identical because the manual is inconveniently blank for the assembled length for the rear upper links. I built all the uppers to the same length. The links are all a turnbuckle-esque design with one side being threaded in the opposite direction. Some won’t appreciate this but I am a big fan of being able to adjust the length of the links without disassembling anything.
Well, I think this is a good stopping point for now. I can’t go through the whole story in a single issue. How am I supposed to pad my view stats with a single post. No one would come back if you got everything at once. So definitely come back for more quality internet tiny truck adventures.
