I just ordered a VS 4-10 phoenix portal kit from amain and was wanting to put a few upgrades in while I was building it. Will the aluminum bearing plates go in place of the plastic ones. I see that the plastic ones have nubs/ stand offs in the directions but the online photos I see of the aluminum ones do not.
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Aluminum Bearing plates
- Thread starter dmill78
- Start date
Yes the standard vfd aluminum bearing plates will work, they were included with the Phoenix straight axle kits.
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Panther6834
I wanna be Dave
Unless Banquet has changed the packaging, the aluminum plates were not included in the original VS4-10 Phoenix Kit (ie. the kit with portal axles. The kit includes the plastic plates, as well as a plastic motor plate, and plastic transmission standoffs. Again, unless Vanquish has changed what's included (since the Phoenix Portal was released), of you want the aluminum versions of these, you'll have to purchase them separately.
Also, be aware that the kit includes sintered metal gears. If you want stronger (ie. CNC machined) gears, those will also have to be purchased separately.
Overall, the Phoenix Portal Kit is a fantastic kit...was VERY enjoyable to build...but, in order to help keep the price down, I can understand why they chose to include these plastic & sintered metal parts. Put another way, this allows them to "make up the loss" when people order the 'upgrade' parts. Other companies do the same thing (heck, Tamiya offers many of their kits in different 'trim' levels, with each 'level' above base including more & more upgrade (called "Hop-Up") parts), releasing a variety of upgrade parts at the same time a kit is released, and then releasing more upgrade parts as time passes - Traxxas does it, Associated does it, all the Horizon Hobby brands do it, Tekno does it, XRAY does it. In other words, they all seem to do it this way.
Whether you stick with all the kit parts, or upgrade all upgradable parts, you're going to luv building the Phoenix Portal.
~ More peace, love, laughter, & kindness would make the world a MUCH better place
Also, be aware that the kit includes sintered metal gears. If you want stronger (ie. CNC machined) gears, those will also have to be purchased separately.
Overall, the Phoenix Portal Kit is a fantastic kit...was VERY enjoyable to build...but, in order to help keep the price down, I can understand why they chose to include these plastic & sintered metal parts. Put another way, this allows them to "make up the loss" when people order the 'upgrade' parts. Other companies do the same thing (heck, Tamiya offers many of their kits in different 'trim' levels, with each 'level' above base including more & more upgrade (called "Hop-Up") parts), releasing a variety of upgrade parts at the same time a kit is released, and then releasing more upgrade parts as time passes - Traxxas does it, Associated does it, all the Horizon Hobby brands do it, Tekno does it, XRAY does it. In other words, they all seem to do it this way.
Whether you stick with all the kit parts, or upgrade all upgradable parts, you're going to luv building the Phoenix Portal.
~ More peace, love, laughter, & kindness would make the world a MUCH better place
Last edited:
discgolferlee
Rock Crawler
I also ordered the phoenix portal kit 2 weeks ago and will be building it soon. I opted for the aluminum transmission stadoffs as a cheap 10 dollar upgrade but am considering the aluminum motor mount but $41 bucks is a little steep and has me on the fence.
Panther6834
I wanna be Dave
As I'm not much a 'crawler' (truth be told, I recently sold all of my crawler stuff), I can't claim to know how much stronger the aluminum VFD motor plates ('standard' & lightweight) are over the plastic plates included with the Phoenix Kit...but, with almost every kit I've ever built (crawlers, bashers, race vehicles), if it included a plastic motor mount, and an aluminum mount was an 'optional' pay, I get the aluminum mount. The few...very few...exceptions are my 1/10 race vehicles that came with carbon-reinforced mounts. Even my boats (except for my two SonicWakes) have aluminum motor mounts.
The reason is simple - aluminum is going to (almost always) be stronger, and more rigid, than plastic. Any time you're dealing with a lot of torque, which could potentially 'twist' the motor mount, that's not good...e considering it can completely put the alignment between the pinion & spur gears (or the motor shaft & flex shaft tube, in the case of boats) "out of whack". My philosophy is, if there's anything I can do to eliminate that from happening, I will. Sure, it might be overkill in some vehicles, but better safe than sorry...or, as I sometimes put it, "Better to have and not need, than to need and not have."
~ More peace, love, laughter, & kindness would make the world a MUCH better place
