Finally broke down and got the Bronco muddy... I had it "On Display" over the holidays with some of my other cars and got a lot of compliments from family and friends. But enough of that, it was time to go play. Loaded up the truck, a bunch of my new batteries, and headed off to my usual playground. The last few clean shots...lol.
I almost thing the TRX4 has too much flex. I've gone back and forth on it with my Defender though I haven't changed anything yet. I really noticed it on the Bronco for whatever reason. Might limit the shocks a bit internally to calm it down.
Heading up over the mountain... Did a nice loop that starts out down at creekside, winds up and over the mountain with a very nice hill climb to start, and all kinds of places along the trail to play.
For the first run, I tried a 3S pack for the first time. I tend to poke around and drive in a scale manner, so I really didn't notice the extra volts that much. Definitely works better with the stock gearing than 2S. I grabbed a rather large hardcase pack I picked up on my last order not really thinking about it. Well, this truck wanted to flip back on it's roof any time I tried a serious uphill climb. It was awful, couldn't even get on my standard test rock. At first I chalked it up to the shorter WB, but eventually I clued in that that huge heavy pack is making a ton of difference....So along the way I swapped in my smaller 2S pack. Can see the size difference between the two
Field work station.
Boom, what a difference. This chassis is very sensitive to the battery weight since the battery is located kinda center-rear in the chassis. Swapping in the lighter battery completely changed the handling dynamics. Now it crawled like it should. Walked right up this rock, drama free. Much, much better.
Interesting thing I've noticed this year - it's been wet. Very wet. Usually, the leaves are pretty heavy and a nuisance this time of year. However, all the rain has kind of compacted them down and made a nice mat on the ground. I can drive on top of them to get to various areas I can't get to in the summer. Found this little spot just off the trail - a few challenging rocks were hiding off to the side. I spent a lot of time exploring off to the side of the trail, it was a ton of fun.
Of course, those leaves also hide holes too. Got completely wedged in here.
After swapping the battery and playing around with the spring preload a bit, I got the handling about where I wanted it and just relaxed and let the TRX do its thing. Noodled along the trail in 2nd gear where it was flat, downshifted to first when I got to obstacles and locked and unlocked the diffs as needed. Tried to do as much with the diffs unlocked as possible, only locking when I needed to. Such a fun trail truck.
First thing I'm doing when I get home is cutting off that hitch mount that hangs under the rear bumper. It was a straight up land anchor - if it caught something, it wasn't letting go. Wish my winch anchors grabbed this hard.
Coming down the backside of the mountain, the trail turns into a creek for a little while. Super Swamper territory! Running PL TSL XL's - great tires for the varied PA terrain. I've got 99 problems, but traction isn't one of them.
Hit my test rock on the way out - much better! Actually got up on it and got to the top. Damn hitch mount was getting in the way of course, but it pulled through.
Don't plan much in the way of changes other than that awful hitch mount. Stock electronics are staying until they fail, everything worked perfect. The steering servo felt much stronger than the stock on in the Defender for some reason. Can't say I even noticed it while driving.
I know this goes against the conventional wisdom, but I felt the Defender was a better runner out of the box - that longer wheelbase counts for a lot, even with the heavier body. Especially when climbing. Needed to lock the diffs a bit more too - the Bronco is lighter and doesn't put as much weight on the tires. Still, does pretty good even with open diffs. Might add a bit more weight down low, and maybe a set of UD gears out back. That's about it.