Shinook's SCX10 Pro build

[Shinook]

I got this in today and couldn't resist throwing it together. I started taking progressive photos but eventually got so focused I stopped, but I will post what I have later since I have to resize them.

Here are some things I took away for those interested:

• There are 3 similar axle tubes, 2 of them are identical, while one of them is a fraction of a mm shorter than the others. It is real easy to mix them up, so be sure to consult the 1:1 photo in the manual.
• If you bleed the shocks with the spring collar on then it will keep the proper oil volume when you screw the cap on and the piston will always remain in oil and you won't overfill it, this was pretty nice. Be sure to screw the top on with it fully compressed, it results in some negative travel but prevents lock due to shaft displacement
• The e-clips on the shocks are absolutely tiny. I've done a lot of builds and these were by far the most annoying ones I've ever had to use, they bent insanely easily and I lost 3 trying to assemble it, they only give you 1 spare. I would just preemptively order more.
• The transmission goes together really easily, but note that when you install the skid the two M2 screws that go in fore/after are different lengths, don't mix them up. These are kindof silly IMO
• Getting the slipper eliminator on was really rough, I had to use a pair of needle nose pliers to push down hard enough on it to get it on the shaft.
• There are two really similar looking transmission shafts, again real easy to mix up, but there are small differences in the manual
• There are TON of different screw lengths. They didn't really go to great lengths to minimize the different types of fasteners used and it's a little tedious at times
• e-clips can go to hell
• There are pages in the manual that look like an exploded diagram rather than instructions, you can make sense of it but IMO they should break these down more
• The manual has several omissions, all minor

The shocks are really nice, I think they are going to give Dravtec a run for their money, they are super smooth and low profile.

The transmission is really smooth, as well, very little (if any) play to notice and goes together nice. At this price point, I feel the alloy motor mount should have been included, but no real beefs otherwise. I did note that you can shift it from OD by hand without removing the transmission, which wasn't clear in one of their interviews.

The axles are nice and heavy, again smooth and go together easily.

My biggest gripe is that if you ever have to work on this thing, it's going to be a colossal pain especially the transmission, removing it isn't as easy as something like the VFD or a 3 gear, it's going to basically require disassembling the entire truck to get it out.

I will also point out that if you are a first time builder, I wouldn't recommend this as a first kit without help. Even Harley last night made several mistakes due to the wide range of screws used and jumbled instructions, some items having really similar dimensions, and very specific sizes in certain areas. This is only my second Axial kit, I built a Capra as well, and it feels a little less refined to build than something like Vanquished or Traxxas and other kits I've built, I think its fine for the target market but they'd do well to break down the assembly process a little better. I had issues with my Capra assembly as well, but at least this one came together correctly even if the instructions were a little rough.

My electronics and tires don't show up until Tuesday, I haven't found a body yet either. I'll post when I do get around to installing them, here is my plan:

- No selectable OD servo
- SHV800 steering
- Tug Buddy winch
- Noble 4 tx
- Either 3 Brothers YellowJacket or Revolver motors
- Crawlmaster Mini v1
- Castle BEC
- Ottsix varihub wheels
- Hyrax tires

Probably a Cliffhanger body, if I can find one. I've also ordered brass knuckles and the carbon chassis rails, but these are a few months out.

I'll post the few photos I have of the build process tonight after I get a chance to resize the images.

 

[twade984]

Thanks for sharing, I’m mildly intrigued by this kit.

I’m excited to see people start building them


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[mikro383]

What's the eye to eye measurement of the shocks extended and compressed?

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[Shinook]

Obligatory box photo:

These are 3 of 4 axle tubes, the one not pictured is considerably smaller. You can see where the top one is shorter than the other 2, as I mention above, but not short enough to be easily noticed by eye.

Completed axles:

This is what I was referring to with the instructions, there are a few pages like this. It's manageable but some of them (the chassis assembly being the worst IMO) get a little too busy with too many steps, IMO they'd have been better breaking it down similar to how Vanquish does it. It reminds me more of an exploded parts diagram than it does instructions:

Finished transmission w/ motor mount:

Finished slider, aside from one shock:

I built on a weird towel, I know it's fugly, don't judge me

What's the eye to eye measurement of the shocks extended and compressed?

I'll measure this when I get the replacement eclip (I found one on the floor) on Monday and assemble the last shock. IIRC it's the same dimensions as the short Dravtecs.

 

[Shinook]

Turns out the clip size for the LMT is the same and I had (several) blown LMT shocks, this one actually drove the shock shaft into the top cap and dented it...It was long gone so I stole the eclip from it and finished the shock.

At any rate, shocks are 96mm at full extension and around 77mm compressed, give or take a mm or so.

 

[Fallen]

Since the LMT shock e-clips fit, the good news is Traxxas e-clips will also fit then. I replaced my LMT shock clips with Traxxas ones.

The Traxxas e-clips have the same inner diameter, but larger outer diameter. This makes them much easier to work with, and they're stronger (won't bend as easily).

 

[mikro383]

A little longer then I expected thanks

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[B-MOW71]

Glad to see a build thread on this. Following along to see the build progress.

I'm curious to hear how these new shocks are and how they will compare to the Dravtec's after a few runs.

Wasn't going to get this kit, but the more I see it, the more I want it! Lord knows I don't need another project!:lmao:

 

[Shinook]

Well, today was a disaster.

Not only did UPS totally destroy a box I had sent to me w/ Brazin C1 stuff (resulting in missing parts), these Ottsix wheels I've been sitting on for over a year were a total mess. The fitment is so tight that it is nearly impossible to pull the wheels together and when you finally get it together, the metal is super soft and strips real easily. Basically 2/4 of them are wrecked, so they are paperweights, which is annoying considering I got both sets of inserts for them also, but after spending nearly 2 hours trying to get them together and them stripping if you look at them wrong, I'm done messing with them. Massive waste of money on something I like the idea of but won't be hassling with again. I've never had issues with wheels before, but the whole set goes together really tight and combined with the soft metal, they just strip out really fast.

I did get it into a semi running state while I deal with the wheel issues

Drove it around the yard and played around with it a bit, feels nice and smooth, seems to climb well and slide over things nicely, but I don't have any real rugged terrain in my yard. The Cliffhanger body arrives on Thursday, so I'll hopefully have it in a running state by this weekend.

 

[Shinook]

I've seen some discussion on weight. I weighed mine with the electronics (SHV800, Tug Buddy, Holmes Revolver, Crawlmaster Mini, Noble 4 rx, no battery, no spool, no body) and Ottsix wheels with brass Varihub inserts, Hyrax tires, and 3Brothers Antifoams, it came to 2665g, so 5.8lbs. The wheels are moderately heavy at 266g each with tires/foams/brass (base is 3.1oz per wheel plus 1.1oz for the brass, so 4.2oz or 120 grams each before tires). Axial reports the base assembly weighs 3lbs without any components and I saw another build without a servo winch that came in at around 2750gr with battery.

I also noticed a weird flaw with the motor mount if you use Holmes outrunners, the motor mount is recessed slightly to pull the motor in, but that means motors like Holmes where the wires protrude very close to the front will have the wires pinched in the mount unless you grind some of it off. Something to think about if you plan on using one of them, it still fits but the wires are pinched in the motor mount more than I'd like. It also wasn't that difficult to remove or change the motor without any disassembly provided you have long wrenches, it took me about 5min.

I ended up fixing the Ottsix wheels by going to a longer bolt, the bolts they included for the face plate were just too short, no matter what I did (and I spent hours dealing with it), I could not get it close enough to get enough purchase on the threads, so I went with a 2mm longer screw to pull it all together and it made it doable, but still not easy.

Hopefully getting somewhere interesting with it this weekend so I can do something other than drive on cardboard boxes in my house

 

[Shinook]

I got out on some rocks with it today:

I really liked (past tense) the Crawlmaster Mini / Revolver combo on 4s, it feels like you can punch it over stuff with more control and less bobbing around. It was great until the motor started cogging slightly, I worked with it a bit and eventually it went pop, ending that. Some testing at home shows the ESC was wrecked, it was a v1 Mini. I managed to throw in a Fusion Pro I keep around specifically as a quick replacement, which did fine but I feel it lacked the control and power esp since it is limited to 3s, which meant I had to use much larger / heavier 3600mah batteries, all less than ideal.

I had run my Phoenix just before it and, this is going to be very obvious to anyone else who has run a comp truck, but it was night and day difference. The strange thing is that I didn't really feel like the Pro was hanging up anywhere the Phoenix wouldn't, but that may just be the rocks I was on and lines I took. The biggest thing I noticed compared to other trucks I have is how forgiving it was, it felt like it gave you plenty of warning before it rolled over and if you were easy on the throttle, it would balance really well. I fully expect any low cg chassis would do the same, that being the point and all, but this being my first one, it was the most obvious thing that stood out.

I also found the stock servo arm hits the panhard mount, which is a pretty silly oversight. I couldn't see where I did anything wrong during the build, so I'll probably try a shorter servo horn.

I've reached out to HH about the Mini, but given its age, I am not certain they will replace it. I ordered a Furitek Lizard to try in its place while I wait to hear, I also ordered some 10.3 straight axle SSD brass, which apparently fits. We'll see.

 

[twade984]

I got out on some rocks with it today:

I really liked (past tense) the Crawlmaster Mini / Revolver combo on 4s, it feels like you can punch it over stuff with more control and less bobbing around. It was great until the motor started cogging slightly, I worked with it a bit and eventually it went pop, ending that. Some testing at home shows the ESC was wrecked, it was a v1 Mini. I managed to throw in a Fusion Pro I keep around specifically as a quick replacement, which did fine but I feel it lacked the control and power esp since it is limited to 3s, which meant I had to use much larger / heavier 3600mah batteries, all less than ideal.

I had run my Phoenix just before it and, this is going to be very obvious to anyone else who has run a comp truck, but it was night and day difference. The strange thing is that I didn't really feel like the Pro was hanging up anywhere the Phoenix wouldn't, but that may just be the rocks I was on and lines I took. The biggest thing I noticed compared to other trucks I have is how forgiving it was, it felt like it gave you plenty of warning before it rolled over and if you were easy on the throttle, it would balance really well. I fully expect any low cg chassis would do the same, that being the point and all, but this being my first one, it was the most obvious thing that stood out.

I also found the stock servo arm hits the panhard mount, which is a pretty silly oversight. I couldn't see where I did anything wrong during the build, so I'll probably try a shorter servo horn.

I've reached out to HH about the Mini, but given its age, I am not certain they will replace it. I ordered a Furitek Lizard to try in its place while I wait to hear, I also ordered some 10.3 straight axle SSD brass, which apparently fits. We'll see.

Nice hearing your feedback

I wouldn’t beat up axial too much on the servo horn issue, the shv800 is shorter between the output shaft and mounting ears compared to every other servo I’ve used. It also causes interference with vs410 chassis when using the vp servo horn [emoji2359]


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[Shinook]

Nice hearing your feedback

I wouldn’t beat up axial too much on the servo horn issue, the shv800 is shorter between the output shaft and mounting ears compared to every other servo I’ve used. It also causes interference with vs410 chassis when using the vp servo horn [emoji2359]

Wow, I'm glad you pointed that out, thanks. I removed the servo and put it next to another servo I had, there is a pretty significant gap there, you are right.

I moved to a AX30836 horn, which is a few mm shorter than stock. I'm still missing a tiny bit of steering, but I don't think it is much. A slightly shorter one than the 30836 would probably get closer to full steering.

 

[Shinook]

I keep getting cursed with electronics. While I've got a replacement Crawlmaster Mini on the way, I decided to try the Furitek Lizard 1/10 in its place. I was looking for an ESC to quiet down outrunners and figured it would work out based on the reviews. It doesn't. Judging by the Facebook group, I'm not the only one either.

Prior to the firmware update, there was just no low speed control whatsoever. I mean you'd touch the throttle and it would just take off. I updated the firmware, which addressed that, but it still cogs or flat out stalls, badly. Nowhere near as smooth as the Crawlmaster, even after tweaking settings, it would stall on ledges or under any serious load. I tried 3 different motors, it did better with the 540 Revolver, but the other two I tried were pretty awful. I checked their FB page and it seems a lot of people had the same issue. It also got fairly hot, it is supposed to have a fan but apparently some didn't ship with it? Either way, not great sadly.

I threw a Fusion Pro 2300kv in and have been pleasantly surprised by it the more I played with it. The lack of 4s support is a little disappointing and may end up killing it for me, but it does really well at low speeds. Great low speed control and it seems to punch over stuff reasonably well, but running 4s with my other setup made popping onto ledges and stuff more controlled feeling. I'll solder up the new board and decide, but with my luck right now, I may just leave the Fusion in for the sake of reliability.

On the good news though, the SSD brass for the 10.3 straight axles fits perfectly, so no need to wait until May for the Axial ones to come out if you want brass up front:

 

[B-MOW71]

Sucks to hear about the ESC problems, but glad to hear the Fushion PRO is working. I've had great luck with my Fushion PRO's. If it were me, I'd just leave the Fushion in there!;-)

Nice to see the SSD brass knuckles fit with no issue.

 

[Col_Sanders]

I do think this is by far the best quality kit I have ever seen from Axial but the instructions are the worst that I can remember. The chassis assembly pictures are a total mess. Very hard to read. I got the trans together and ended up with an extra pin. I looked the drawings over multiple times and couldnt figure out where it would even go. Everything seems to work fine so I just moved on.

I dont like how you're going to have to take the whole truck apart to mess with the transmission, but I suppose that wont happen very often so it shouldnt be too big of a deal. The shocks are nice and smooth but the included 35wt is too thin for my liking. I'm going to switch it out to 55 to start.

 

[Shinook]

I decided to keep the Fusion Pro in, although I do wish FOC went slightly higher, it seems to cut out at 25% and I think that is a tad low, because if you hit 26% you can make it cog and it doesn't spin much below 10%, which gives it a really narrow range. I still prefer the Crawlmaster / Revolver combination, but this truck in particular is more likely to be exposed to elements than my other comp truck is and it's already on the heavy side, so I am just going to leave that in for now.

One thing to be aware of is bumpers, standard size bumpers that bolt to rails for other comp trucks will not fit. I found this the hard way, the inner rails are about 74mm wide and the rail thickness is around 3.5mm, it seems a lot of aftermarket rails I see are in between that, so they won't fit without modification.

Entire build with body, brass knuckles, and heavy wheels (I went back to the Ottsix wheels) is around 6.5lbs.

I do think this is by far the best quality kit I have ever seen from Axial but the instructions are the worst that I can remember. The chassis assembly pictures are a total mess. Very hard to read. I got the trans together and ended up with an extra pin. I looked the drawings over multiple times and couldnt figure out where it would even go. Everything seems to work fine so I just moved on.

I dont like how you're going to have to take the whole truck apart to mess with the transmission, but I suppose that wont happen very often so it shouldnt be too big of a deal. The shocks are nice and smooth but the included 35wt is too thin for my liking. I'm going to switch it out to 55 to start.

I had to dig through the VS4-10 manual a few days ago and it reminded me of just how bad this one was in comparison. They really should improve it, a lot of the pages are just exploded diagrams and I think that's gonna be rough for newer builders. IMO they should have included a spacer or something to eliminate the standard gearing and perm. do underdrive. There is a spacer someone designed I might try to 3D print, but like you said, getting to it is such a pain, I'm not sure it's worth it. He claims the spacer saved 50g, which I'm not 100% sure is worth the effort.

I am running 27wt in mine, I think having the truck not be overdamped is good when it needs to drop an axle to reach a hole or something similar. The shifts in weight on sidehills or transitions shouldn't be that dramatic if you are driving slow enough, but we'll see. I'm keeping it thin for now.

 

[Col_Sanders]

I put in 50wt and like the way it feels. Hoping Axial offers up some other gearing options for the trans since SORRCA killed selectable overdrive in competition. I might just toss in some UD gears in front axle to tame it down a little. Last comp had some side hill that I was having a hard time on with the 40% or whatever the Phoenix has. Our first real comp is this weekend.

 

[Shinook]

We had a small comp with about 8-10 people this weekend, so I got to use it a little more on rocks directly this weekend and was pretty happy with how it is set up.

The rear of the truck feels pretty light, a little too much, so I may experiment some with adding more weight to the rear via brass on the axles. I found on a few sidehills the rear of the truck was sliding down and noticed the tire wasn't really compressing much, it also tended to lift a little bit on steep descents, just slightly. It could also be my foams, I'm using 3 Brothers Anti-foams and they don't really compress on sidehills the way that regular foams do, which I guess prevents rollover but may limit grip? Not sure, I'll have to experiment around and see what the best way to solve that is.

The truck definitely has some issues with breakover on sections with peaks, you have to be really mindful of the hangup points. I watched a few of the portal builds straight roll over stuff with no issue that I had to take alternate lines to get over, it is really planted though and very predictable I felt. I was able to deal with the breakover fine on this course, but I could see where it may be a problem on some.

 

[Shinook]

Going on 3 months now with mine and a fair bit of driving. No major issues, no leaky shocks, everything seems to have held up fine.

I've added the Axial brass front/rear, I think it's best to do both or none. Having the SSD brass only up front made it a little divey off ledges and the rear a tad light. It does ok without brass and it does fine with both front/rear, but I'm not sure I'd do just the front.

I also added aluminum C-hubs and motor mount. The motor mount is a flat face, which is better for revolver type motors, and it seems slightly lower profile. The c-hubs lack the bump stops of the plastic axles, which means you can adjust the steering to be a little more aggressive if you want.

The biggest change I made was to the Brazin Pacesetter. I think it seems well put together and thought out if you want a more aggressive skid angle, but I could honestly take it or leave it. They both offer really great clearance and slideover when needed, I watched portal trucks at my last comp get hung up on ledges I didn't on the same lines. I think aftermarket chassis options on this are gonna be difficult because stock is so good. That said, the Brazin chassis does offer fewer body/shock mounting options while making the mounts easier to hide if you do a drop bed. It is such a marginal change though.

For all the butt hurt around this release from some other chassis brands, it's remarkable how competitive it is straight out of the box. I've driven a lot of the other common chassis options around and it's pretty amazing how good it is in comparison, I spent a lot of time driving a few other C2 comp trucks recently including a GSpeed v4 and the Pro is right there with them despite all the whining on Facebook about it. I think people were way too quick to write it off.

I went back to the Fusion 2 in 1 2300kv, I tried a bunch of electronics options and tbh, it just works and it does really well with the stock pinion size. I don't see much reason to move away from this at the moment.

I'm working on a bobbed Proline Tacoma body at the moment, hopefully will finish trimming it and painting it this week. I also designed some sliders I could 3d print that rise up more to capture the bottom of the body a bit better. I'll post photos when it's done, once I get all that mounted, I'm gonna put a drop bed and interior in, then likely leave it as is.