OS's TRX4 Sport Kit

[dr frankenstyle]

Great work! "thumbsup" It's awesome that you and Jato can do a "build-off" like this. My buddy and I are kind of doing one with the other Kit, but he doesn't read or post here. I'll be watching both of you guys to see how they progress.
Thanks for sharing and keep it up!
oh, and "LIKE" ;-)

8) jim

 

[mewalsh100]

Loving these Sport builds guys. They both came out great and each has their own, unique look. Great Job! “LIKE”!

 

[durok]

Very cool pair of build threads between the two of you...

And the detail work on that Sport body you did is excellent!

 

[OSRC]

Thanks for the kind words, it is fun to do a build-off.... There should be a few more of them on the site. Scale4x4 used to do 1-2 a year, always great fun. Pushed me to do better work than I would normally do, which is the whole point I guess.

So I've added all the upgrades I want to add...but I need to keep it on the down low until we hit the trail again. Made some good changes, truck feels great on the bench. I'll have to figure out how to post some pics of the progress without tipping my hand.

 

[JatoTheRipper]

 

[dr frankenstyle]

LIKE and LIKE :lmao:


:shock: jim

 

[OSRC]

Jato and I decided to keep our mods to ourselves until we meet up to run. Sorta, I think I blathered a bit on some of the stuff I bought.. Anyway, I had ordered mine with the truck so they were here and ready to go! To keep within our budget, I only installed 3 of my 4 upgrades, at a cost of $104.97. Should be the best "performance for the buck" ones. I guess we'll see!

I was happy with the brushed system, though I had this Novak Timbuk2/13.5 system sitting in my box for ages. It's a great system - good RPM's on 2S and a lot of torque. Decided to swap it over since it was just collecting dust, and the power in our rigs was a non-issue. Should give me more run time compared to the brushed system.

I used the old wax trick to quiet down the gears. Traxxas pinions are somewhat loud for some reason..I previously installed a Tamiya aluminum pinion and it was dead silent. But I'd much rather have some more noise and a steel pinion than the quiet of a softer aluminum pinion.

Removing the cage takes 206g off the top/rear of the body. Since were building for performance, it was a no brainer to take it off. I think it adds character to the body though, and after we're done playing I'll probably put it back on. If nothing else, to cover up those holes in the body.

We're allowed to use any wheel and tire combo we already have since we have a ton of them laying around. I have some Hyrax ready to go (see above) but the wheels they are mounted on had some ...fitment issues with the mods I chose. So I washed, cut and siped the stock tires, and swapped over to some CI 4.5 medium foams. Honestly, they feel great. I know Jato is going to be running Hyrax Predators, so it should be an interesting comparison. I'll figure something out with the Hyrax in the meantime and probably bring them with me when we test out again.

Lean and mean, it's ready for round 2. All I can show I guess. I left the suspension as is for now - I was debating tuning it a bit since it seemed too soft, but I want to run it w/o the cage and see how it does. Should wallow around a lot less with so much weight removed up top. In theory anyway.

Weight-wise, I'm down 300g from stock and sitting at 2865g (6.3 lbs) and the weight balance shifted significantly to now 55.5% on the front wheels. Can just feel on the bench that it's got a much better COG as well. Comparatively, my Defender is 3947g (8.7lbs) and 52.3% up front. The Sport is a significantly lighter truck, even with all the scale goodies.

Just waiting on Jato now... "thumbsup"

 

[Topher Builds]

Looking really good!

 

[magic_yeti]

Nice competion.

Also a BIG LIKE

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[OSRC]

Since I'm waiting on Jato to get his parts in, I decided to do a tire test in the meantime to see what works best on the Sport. I had a few sets of tires out from testing with my Defender so I ran in, swapped trucks and had some fun. Tire/wheel/foam setups are in the Defender thread linked above.

First subject - Hyrax. I thought this tire would kick ass on the Defender, but I was less than impressed. However on the lighter Sport, they seemed to do much better. As expected, great grip pretty much everywhere. Maybe they broke in a bit, I don't know.

Next - Redcat IROKS. Again, the only tire that conquered my wood ramps. :shock: Hyrax tires weren't even close. These tires have a TON of raw grip. Excellent in the loose stuff, as you would expect with such a deep tread. However, they seemed to struggle on the rocks. It's interesting, they seem to have loads of grip, but no forward bite. The Sport had so much grip it was "grip hopping" on the steep inclines, but just not getting anywhere. Might add a few sipes to see if I can increase forward bite - if so, these tires would be killer.

Cut Traxxas tires... Biggest surprise of the day. Grip everywhere, and kept up with the Hyrax in all situations. I'm not sure how cutting them has changed the grip level since I didn't really do back to back runs, but call me impressed.

Winner? It was frankly a toss up between the Hyrax and the Traxxas tires. Both were a cut above the Redcats. I decided on the Hyrax as I assume that's what Jato will be running and the puts us on equal footing. But the modded stock tires did fantastic. That they matched the performance of the vaunted Hyrax is no mean feat. I'll be bringing them as well when we re-test our sports. I'd like to run both out in the wild and see if my test comparisons hold up. "thumbsup"

I cannot talk about the $100 in mods yet, we agreed to keep them under wraps, but I will say this truck is a whole different animal from the last time we went running. Jato better be bringing his A game.

 

[soze]

Nice update! I'm interested to see how the siped Canyon Trails do out in the field. Do you have them mounted reverse direction or normal?

 

[OSRC]

Mounted in normal rotation.

 

[alexleblanc]

this and Jato's thread convinced me to go ahead and order a TRX4 sport kit, should be here Monday - looking forward to the build.

 

[alexleblanc]

Those Kyohso Magnetic Mayhem 550 motors were badass, I've had several and sold my last one since they were going for a lot of dough. Traxxas Titan 550 21T motors have been working great for me in most of my crawlers.

Interesting about the weights vs the Defender that I've got.

Great price on a super sweet kit!



Correct and good point. "thumbsup"



Weird the Edge Lock tape worked well for me, I always re-burnish the edges before painting and light on the first coat to lock it down.

Traxxas makes a nice and simple slipper eliminator kit that I bought and need to install on mine, crawlers don't need slippers, only $10 too.
https://traxxas.com/products/parts/8249

Agree that stock tires are quite good for included tires, Simple Green soak and foams, helps too. They actually look ok too, just wish Traxxas name wasn't giant sized on the sidewalls.

Shocks might benefit from one step stiffer front and rear, oil seems good as is though. Are the kit springs lighter rating than the Defender springs?



Sweet, start a thread when it gets here!

i should actually do a build thread for once, i'm terrible at taking pictures and posting it like i should be.

 

[OSRC]

Haven't forgotten about this project. Been sitting on it for a while until Jato was ready for a run, but I can only keep secrets for so long.

So the goal was to spend $100 on our kits to get better performance, and include any "free" mods we wanted to do along the way. Here's what I did

Bowhouse battery tray was a no brainer. First time I've gotten a molded one - it's much nicer looking than the 3-D printed one. I've got three of these now and each time the quality looks better.

Decided to go with front overdrive. TRX4 already steers pretty well, so it's more about helping the somewhat short-ish WB on steep climbs.

SSD knuckles were the last purchased mod. Also pretty much a no brainer. Perfect fit and finish as always. "thumbsup"

A few free mods. Moved the bumpers in as far as possible, and just trimmed the body to allow them to tuck in. Kinda wish I hadn't done it, it looks a bit daffy though there is a nice increase in both approach and departure angles. Of course, removed the rear adventure cage for now.

The stock power was fine, but I had this old Goat system sitting here doing nothing, so decided to swap it in. Has much more punch and just as smooth. Power was a non issue between our trucks, so this is more about efficiency than anything. Still a great system imo.

Have a choice of 2 wheels and tires. Hyrax or cut stock tires. Both filled with PL dual stage foams. In testing on my little course, I couldn't tell the difference between the two to be honest. We'll see how they do on the trail - I'll bring both when we run.

And though it's not a mod per-se I did wire up some basic lights and put those light buckets to good use. Yes, it says "Axial recovery vehicle" on the back.

I'm ready to get this truck dirty!! After our test run, I'll put the cage back on (the holes in the body annoy me to no end) and have a few more goodies waiting around.

 

[Natedog]

Very mods so far. Why not cut the body molded in 'bumpers' completely off, lower the body little, trim the sides and raise sliders up a little too? Also can trim the backsides of bumpers and slide them in farther (drill new holes in bumper mounts), flip bumper mounts too?

 

[OSRC]

Jato and I have not quite been able to get our schedules to line up (and mother nature is not helping...) So I went ahead and messed around with the Sport a bit more.

Added a YR front axle to add a bit more weight up front since I put the rack back on. Feels nice and balanced now... if I need a bit more weight down low, I have a set of Beef Patties here as well. Shouldn't though, it feels just right. Cut off the fake fairlead as well.

Added a black pinstripe between the blue and silver which sets it off very nicely imo... Also touched up the flairs and painted over the faux bolts for a cleaner look.

Put the adventure rack back on...just looked so plain with out it. I did paint and weather the accessories a bit so they didn't look so plastic-y. Not great, but better!

Ready for the next trail run! Been beating the heck out of the Bronco and Defender. Time for them to take a break... There's not nearly enough scratches on this one.

 

[OSRC]

Very mods so far. Why not cut the body molded in 'bumpers' completely off, lower the body little, trim the sides and raise sliders up a little too? Also can trim the backsides of bumpers and slide them in farther (drill new holes in bumper mounts), flip bumper mounts too?

Fair question good sir. So far the bumpers haven't been a problem, so no need to hack anything up just yet. Seems to have plenty of approach/departure angle as is, and what's cut off cannot be re-added, so leaving it be until it becomes an issue.

Plus, I'm sure I'll be adding a nicer front bumper eventually. Thinking a pre-runner style. I'll trim and adjust then.

 

[OSRC]

Finally got out to play a bit. With the cage back on and the extra weight up front down low, the Sport is now a monster. It was pretty good stock, but now it's very stable and very capable.

Would have never done this stock...with the adventure cage out back, it tended to lift the front wheels and flip on steep climbs. Now with weight up front and down low, it's very capable on climbs - it'll still roll over backwards, but the threshhold is much higher. My well tuned Defender was the best performer out of the bunch, but I think the Sport will now walk all over it.

Stock tires, after some trimming, have now broken in and are quite good. No reason to put the Hyrax back on imo, plenty of grip as-is.

But what is good can always be better... I thought the body looked too plain without the cage, but was a bit too rear heavy with it. What to do? Compromise...out came the dremel and the Xacto. A few minutes later, I had this:

Think it looks better than the plain body, with none of the weight out back. Pretty happy with it. Hoping to get it out this sunday for a full trail run.

 

[B-MOW71]

I like the look of it with the cage cut off. It looks a lot better and should perform very well without all the extra weight. Great job on the cut!

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