Coming Out of Retirement--AX10 Monster Truck Build

[K.O.M.]

I've been in the RC hobby since the mid-90s, or as the smart-a** kids these days says, the "late 1900s." I've tried several times to say I'm done building and will just be a casual hobbyist, get an inexpensive RTR kit every once in a while, and then flip it on FB Marketplace.
My 11 y.o. recently dragged me out of RC retirement since he wanted to start flying airplanes. This was back in October, 2024. We now belong to a local RC flying club, and with that, the group of members that frequently clear out their inventory to make room for the latest and greatest. Most of the time, it's aircraft related, but last weekend, we were gifted the following:



Original AX-10 Kit version, with the green links, metal pivot balls, and metal nylock nuts. In this picture, my son has already done quite a bit of cleanup and started a mockup for a monster truck conversion.

The rig already had Hot Racing alloy rear axle lockouts, c-hubs, steering knuckles, and shocks. The following is what we've added in addition so far:
-Duratrax Munition wheel/tire set
-Hot Racing 15mm axle extenders
-generic Vanquish style 3-gear metal transmission
-generic hardened steel driveshafts

This is a quick and dirty build that is mostly to introduce my son into working on his own, so while the overall performance is nothing to write home about, he'll be learning basic mechanical skills working on this by himself.

 

[JatoTheRipper]

That's an awesome rig. I'm jealous. Looking forward to see what you do with it.

 

[K.O.M.]

That's an awesome rig. I'm jealous. Looking forward to see what you do with it.

I'm getting ready to have some overdue garage work done, and as I unearth boxes upon boxes of stuff, I actually still have a very good condition AX10 roller/slider. I'm surprised at the condition it's in, not only that, but some period correct upgrades like an RC4WD R2 Dig transmission w/skid, another bolt-on dig for the stock transmission, a bunch of axle mount battery trays, heck even the old 2/3A NiMH saddle packs we all used before small li-po packs were the norm.

I think the AX10 roller is in too good of a condition to turn into another project for me, but I'll blow the dust off and post it in the classifieds to see if anyone else wants in on the old-school action.

 

[K.O.M.]

The little man was too anxious to wait to have it running, so as per my previous post, while I was digging through some old boxes of RC stuff, we just wired it up with whatever brushed electronics and batteries we could find: Novak Rooster ESC, Tamiya Super Stock brushed motor, whatever Spektrum receiver we could find that would bind to his DX4, and these Duratrax 6-cell NiMH packs that are still surprisingly alive after being in a hot/cold garage for years.



I needed some RC airplane parts, so I ordered the cheapest painted and cut body I could find, but this surprisingly fits the aesthetic so far. I like it enough I may order a couple more as I foresee some carnage.

 

[K.O.M.]

Edit: these are Imgur videos, click to view. Any help to make these play in the forum is appreciated.










The boy's got no mercy for the throttle, within 1 minute, we've got first attempts at Monster Jam freestyle. I'm not really a monster truck person, but who knew a 2x4 and some car ramps would be fun?!

Now that I know what this thing can do, we can get started with the rest of the build.

 

[hnoroian]

I love seeing vintage rigs come back to life.