Joined the 1.9 club! (MST CFX-W)

[sabo308]

A few weeks ago I decided to take advantage of RCMart's free shipping deals and treat myself to a new rig. I initially had the intention of getting an SCX10II, but with everything Axial out of stock everywhere and my wanting something a little bit different from the standard Axial norm, I went with the MST CFX-W. I was able to get pretty much everything for this build (already had the servo) for just over $700AUD shipped to my door, which is a ridiculous deal in this part of the world.
I've been putting it all together over the past weeks and finally managed to finish her off.

Here's what we have:

-MST CFX-W chassis (stock except for all plastic rod end balls replaced with Traxxas steel balls)
-Axial Jeep Nukizer body
-Hobbywing Quicrun 13.5T 2850kV sensored brushless motor
-Hobbywing Xerun 120A SD sensored brushless ESC
-Flysky GT3B radio system
-Savox SB-2273SG servo

The build process went well and was quite enjoyable. The instruction manual is nice and clear and I can't remember any glaringly obvious errors or inconsistencies.
I've seen a couple of people mention the MST plastic, and I have to agree that it is a lot nicer and feels a lot more durable than the plastic you find in Axial kits. The rock sliders are really solid and should hold up well.
I made up and aluminium plate to mount the electronics on the rock sliders, as opposed to mounting them at the rear of the chassis on the stock battery/electronics, because I couldn't run the wiring the way I initially wanted to from front to rear. This made cable management a lot easier (even though it's still pretty messy) and allowed me to mount the rear of the NuKizer body a bit lower.
I've only run it on the rocks in the backyard as yet, but so far so good. The Hobbywing combo runs really well with how I have it programmed, and the startup smoothness actually impressed me. Not up to the level of Holmes motors, but A LOT better than what I was expecting. Future running/testing will see how the 2 pole motor and the ESC handle real rock crawling terrain, but so far it seems like a genuine budget friendly alternative to a Holmes setup.
I'm running the stock glue on wheels and tyres/foams at the moment, but I'm expecting some SSD beadlocks to arrive in the next couple of days. I like the look of the stock tyres, so I'm gonna keep running them and see how they perform.

Anyway, here are the quick and dirty backyard pics. Excuse the sub-par job on the body... I messed up the holes for the body posts and didn't care from that point onward, so I just rushed the painting to get it done.

 

[soze]

Nice, I can't wait to start on mine. It's just sitting there in the box calling my name. Got 2 other builds to wrap up first though

 

[CyberFox]

very good choice "thumbsup"

Why don't you put your electronics on 2 little plates on each side of the car to have a better weight repartition, instead of everything on one side ?

 

[sabo308]

Nice, I can't wait to start on mine. It's just sitting there in the box calling my name. Got 2 other builds to wrap up first though

Yeah man, it's a nice chassis. Everything is nicely made and the transmission is super smooth.

very good choice "thumbsup"

Why don't you put your electronics on 2 little plates on each side of the car to have a better weight repartition, instead of everything on one side ?

I did consider that before I realized I could cram everything on the one side. The effects of the weight on one side aren't really noticeable, but who knows, I may move some stuff over to the other side at some point in the future.

-----------------------------------

I received my SSD Assassin wheels yesterday and got them all mounted up, so today was the shakedown run.
Here is what I make of it so far:

- Chassis performs well, the extra clearance of the portal axles is hugely noticeable
- Drivetrain is really smooth and much quieter compared to my Bomber
- Motor positioning does raise the COG slightly above other chassis with lower mounted motors
- Hobbywing brushless setup performs well, although the start up and low end resolution is nowhere the level of the Puller Pro setup in my Bomber.

All in all I'm quite happy with the MST CFX-W so far.
It's a quality bit of kit and makes for a fun scale crawler.
I do now understand though why Holmes motors are as great as they are.
Running the Hobbywing versus the Puller Pro I have in the Bomber, I appreciate much more the engineering and refinement that Holmes puts into his products.
The Hobbywing motor is quite smooth and predictable on level ground or inclines when there is more load and resistance on the motor, but lacks the ability to creep and inch when descending like the Puller Pro does.
I plan on experimenting with some smaller pinions (running 17T at the moment) to see if I can squeeze a bit more low end control out of it though, so I'll see how that transpires.
One thing that really surprised me though was the lack of heat build up in the motor and ESC. I was running for a good hour (didn't even run the battery dead) and both motor and ESC were only ever so slightly warm.
This was with the ESC fan plugged in, however I wouldn't hesitate to unplug it or even remove it altogether as it doesn't seem to need it at all.
I would definitely consider this Hobbywing setup for a rock racer type rig, where ultra smooth low end isn't quite as critical.

A crappy phone pic from today:

 

[Matt@AMain]

Ive been playing with the CFX-W for a bit now, and it is a killer little truck! I had my electronics mounted on a lexan plate mounted to the sliders when I first built it up, but this is how I have it setup now. Im not 100% happy with it, but I like it better than mounted to the sliders.

 

[soze]

Ive been playing with the CFX-W for a bit now, and it is a killer little truck! I had my electronics mounted on a lexan plate mounted to the sliders when I first built it up, but this is how I have it setup now. Im not 100% happy with it, but I like it better than mounted to the sliders.

Nice! Just gave me some ideas when I get around to this.

 

[Newjackle]

Which tires are those please?

 

[Matt@AMain]

Which tires are those please?

Not sure which post you are referring to, so....

Stock tires are made by MST, and are a non-licensed replica of the Nitto Mud Grappler. They look great and work well.

Tires on my truck are Pit Bull Rock Beast XL 1.9 - these are a great tire, but are big. The regular 1.9 Rock Beast is a better choice for an aggressive scale tire.