Oh, hello there.
I have returned on this fine Tuesday morning to prove lonleycreeper wrong and shove it in his smug face.
There have been multiple accusations that I do not actually drive my trucks.
Well, I do. So there.
That is all.
Proof? Fine.
I packed up some of my favorite driving companions and headed out for a few hours on the trail. The Bronco is my daughter's and my wife and son handled the driving duties for the TRX4.
While the family was content with just coming along for the hike, I had serious business to attend to: gathering driving impressions for the Honcho.
Right off the bat, I noticed the improved approach angle.
No way a stock Honcho is pulling that off.
One of those things you can't help but notice is the stock tires just don't generate the grip of a good set of tires.
Yes the rock is smooth and dusty but the Honcho struggled mightily to get up this. A climb like shows the stock tires really lack the stick factor of the better tires.
However when the rocks had some more grip, the stock Falkens performed acceptably.
The Honcho made it up without too much tire slip. Makes me wonder if the Nitto tires from the CRC Jeep/Deadbolt would handle this better with their smaller lugs.
This side hill is steep and slippery.
So having driven here many times before, this is a situation where the Honcho's lightweight shines. A heavy truck will slide down that hill towards that surprisingly deep puddle much quicker because physics. See, 5 lbs of lead weight isn't always the answer.
The bumper mod saves the day yet again.
This is when you really notice the other significant weakness of the Honcho: the steering servo.
Are you over your extreme shock of a less than adequate servo in a RTR truck? Ok, I'll give you another minute.
There were a quite a few situations like this where the servo just didn't have the power to turn the wheels mid-obstacle. You basically have to set your front tires up before you start then just throttle through. Not ideal but I managed because I'm fantastic.
This climb was just impressive.
So I talked about the noticeable effects of the stock tires and servo but know what was completely unnoticeable? The plastic links. On this exact trail, I have seen the plastic links on a OG SCX10 RTR flex so badly that the wheelbase shrunk by about 4 inches. I pretty much forgot I was running plastic links on this truck which is probably the best thing I can say about them.
When you have a truck that you have spent a lot of time and effort modifying, it is easy to forget exactly how capable a RTR truck can be. Also, people are disgusting.
It was nearing lunch time and the kids were getting hungry so we stopped for lunch. I climbed one last rock and stuck the landing.
It was left in that position while we ate lunch. You definitely can't do cool things like that with the stock bumper setup.
When I got back to the car and unplugged the battery, I noticed the motor and ESC were not more than slightly warm. That additional gear reduction from the AR44 axles makes life much easier on the electronics.
Overall, I was impressed by a truck that isn't too far from what it is out of the box. Other than the universals, pretty much everything else has been cheap or DIY. Now I have a better idea for the path of future stages.
So there is everything you wanted to know about how the Honcho drives. Any and all questions will be fielded for those who want to know more. Stupid questions will be ignored or mocked.
I will head back to the workbench for phase #4 and lonleycreeper will head back to the drawing board for a new line of smack talk.
