This rig is an evolution from my former attempt at a VS4-10 with VFD Trans and TRX-4 axles. I had some clearance issues up front with the VFD, so I ended up throwing a 3-gear trans in that rig which was the right call. But that left me with a VFD trans, so I purchased a second VS4-10 chassis kit and swapped the VFD trans over to the the second chassis.
My plan was to run straight axles on the new VFD-equipped rig. I first tried a set of SSD Diamond Pro axles, with the offset front pumpkin - but I had similar clearance issues with those. The pumpkin was not offset enough.
I am aware that there are workarounds for this, but I just wanted a bolt-on solution, so I just bought a set of VP Currie D44's. No clearance issues with these, of course.
So with that, I had a completed chassis - ready for body work:
But I had a hard time finding a body that I liked:
Nope.
Nope.
Then Knight Customs came out with their body mounts for the SCX10-III Jeep Wrangler JLU body on the VS4-10, and I decided to give those a try. I had an unbuilt SCX10-III kit, and stole the body from that kit. The body turned out to be a perfect fit for this chassis.
We have a winner.
I then moved on to exterior detailing. I am not using the SCX10-III interior or cage, which lightens things up a good amount, but does leave the body a bit floppy. With the VS4-10 being a very stout (heavy) chassis, I wanted to do something about protecting the body during crashes and rollovers. So a roof rack from RC4WD was purchased, but the fitment was not very good. I tweaked it as much as a I could, but it would still buckle the sides of the body in pretty substantially, if pushed all the way down. To be fair, this rack was designed for the 2012 JK CRC body, which is narrower.
I liked the basic look of the RC4WD rack, and fortunately, my buddy Richard at Mt. Goat RC does amazing custom metalwork. He was able to fabricate a rack for me that not only looked great, but was much lighter than the RC4WD rack.
And with the exterior mostly sorted, I was ready to finally hit the trail.
Just prior to taking out on the maiden run, I decided to swap in a set of Incision 80mm shocks (like the ones used on the VS4-10 Ultra). I just felt like it might benefit from a lower ride height. This proved not to be the optimal setup, as I was getting hung up on the skid a lot. But it did perform really well.
So after that first run, I removed the 80mm shocks and put the 90's back on. But this time I mounted them on the lower link spots on the axles, which achieved a nice drop, but still gave it more ground clearance that with the 80's.
I also decided to try a different set of wheels.
Ready for round 2 of testing:
Last night our club had a night crawl at a local spot. I'd rigged up the head and taillights, the lightbar, and installed rock lights fore and aft. Everything worked great. Actually, the lightbar was borderline too bright, even running on 6V. It almost shamed the sun.
Taking time out to smell the flowers
As everybody knows by now, the VS4-10 chassis is a fantastic platform overall. I could just never get into the stock Scout-like body, otherwise, I probably would have bought the full VS4-10 kit. But the option to mount the SCX10-III JLU body solved that issue for me.
Now I just need to figure out what to do with the rest of my SCX10-III kit.
My plan was to run straight axles on the new VFD-equipped rig. I first tried a set of SSD Diamond Pro axles, with the offset front pumpkin - but I had similar clearance issues with those. The pumpkin was not offset enough.
I am aware that there are workarounds for this, but I just wanted a bolt-on solution, so I just bought a set of VP Currie D44's. No clearance issues with these, of course.
So with that, I had a completed chassis - ready for body work:
But I had a hard time finding a body that I liked:
Nope.
Nope.
Then Knight Customs came out with their body mounts for the SCX10-III Jeep Wrangler JLU body on the VS4-10, and I decided to give those a try. I had an unbuilt SCX10-III kit, and stole the body from that kit. The body turned out to be a perfect fit for this chassis.
We have a winner.
I then moved on to exterior detailing. I am not using the SCX10-III interior or cage, which lightens things up a good amount, but does leave the body a bit floppy. With the VS4-10 being a very stout (heavy) chassis, I wanted to do something about protecting the body during crashes and rollovers. So a roof rack from RC4WD was purchased, but the fitment was not very good. I tweaked it as much as a I could, but it would still buckle the sides of the body in pretty substantially, if pushed all the way down. To be fair, this rack was designed for the 2012 JK CRC body, which is narrower.
I liked the basic look of the RC4WD rack, and fortunately, my buddy Richard at Mt. Goat RC does amazing custom metalwork. He was able to fabricate a rack for me that not only looked great, but was much lighter than the RC4WD rack.
And with the exterior mostly sorted, I was ready to finally hit the trail.
Just prior to taking out on the maiden run, I decided to swap in a set of Incision 80mm shocks (like the ones used on the VS4-10 Ultra). I just felt like it might benefit from a lower ride height. This proved not to be the optimal setup, as I was getting hung up on the skid a lot. But it did perform really well.
So after that first run, I removed the 80mm shocks and put the 90's back on. But this time I mounted them on the lower link spots on the axles, which achieved a nice drop, but still gave it more ground clearance that with the 80's.
I also decided to try a different set of wheels.
Ready for round 2 of testing:
Last night our club had a night crawl at a local spot. I'd rigged up the head and taillights, the lightbar, and installed rock lights fore and aft. Everything worked great. Actually, the lightbar was borderline too bright, even running on 6V. It almost shamed the sun.
Taking time out to smell the flowers
As everybody knows by now, the VS4-10 chassis is a fantastic platform overall. I could just never get into the stock Scout-like body, otherwise, I probably would have bought the full VS4-10 kit. But the option to mount the SCX10-III JLU body solved that issue for me.
Now I just need to figure out what to do with the rest of my SCX10-III kit.
