Thloftus’ SCX10 II father’s day build

[Thloftus]

We got the transmission and transfer case together today. Pretty nice overall. My only complaint is that it’s easy to confuse the 10 mm and 11 mm OD bearings (means we actually built the transmission 2x times, extra learning for the kids!) and you have to be careful to keep it all together until the transfer case is screwed down. Happy with how it turned out and we’re looking forward to mounting the motor; first kit where we’ve had the electronics before the end of the build.

Here’s an end-on view of the transfer case just prior to attaching the last cover:

And here’s the finished assembly:

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[Rekreant]

Might wanna slop some marine grease in that transfer case.

 

[Thloftus]

Might wanna slop some marine grease in that transfer case.

Yep, we need to get some. We used the included kit grease for now (after the picture). I’ll get some and dump it in there.


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[Thloftus]

Mounted the motor. Pretty hard to resist the HH motors and I’ve had a great time with the Puller Pro in my Bomber; looking forward to seeing how this one does in a crawler.

The 11T pinion may be too small. Fairly difficult to get the mesh engaged well enough given the slots for mounting the motor. I may get a 13T instead. Could also go with the stock 15T. Any recommendations? I’m assuming the stock gears with a 3300 kV on 3S is too much wheel speed ...

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[Capt J-rod]

Get a can of "flex seal" from the as seen on tv variety.... Use it for a backer on the body and it stiffens it up quite a bit. I put a $13 vanquish top shaft in my transmission. Did yours have a ton of end play and sound like a pepper mill?

 

[Col_Sanders]

On dry rock I found the stock tires to work pretty well. In loose dirt they don't do all that great and I'm sure they wont work well at all in mud, but not much of that here. Pro-Line's TSL XLs, Hyraxes, or Pitbull XLs are all great tires. I want to try a set of the new KM3s.

I think the stock TRX springs might be a bit stiff for the 10.2 but that is a pretty easy fix. Traxxas has several different spring rates.

 

[Techno Duck]

The Axial springs provided in the kit fit the TRX-4 shocks also; that's what i did with my rig. The TRX-4 springs felt a little stiffer using the not so exact squeeze by hand method.

 

[fortyeightjake]

I agree with the TRX springs being too stiff. I'm gonna swap my Axial springs onto them before I go out next.

 

[Thloftus]

Get a can of "flex seal" from the as seen on tv variety.... Use it for a backer on the body and it stiffens it up quite a bit. I put a $13 vanquish top shaft in my transmission. Did yours have a ton of end play and sound like a pepper mill?

It definitely sounds like a pepper mill; I’d have to re-check the end play. But after seeing your suggestion and checking a few threads, we’ve ordered the Vanquish top shaft. Almost worth it for the thrill of buying a < $15 Vanquish part, lol! The shipping is a little slow, so we won’t have it until next week. Thanks again, much easier to fix it now.

A spray-on backer for the body seems like a great idea! Did you put it on after painting? Somewhat lame question, I know, but it could help with some of my (already) painted bodies too!


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[Thloftus]

On dry rock I found the stock tires to work pretty well. In loose dirt they don't do all that great and I'm sure they wont work well at all in mud, but not much of that here. Pro-Line's TSL XLs, Hyraxes, or Pitbull XLs are all great tires. I want to try a set of the new KM3s.



I think the stock TRX springs might be a bit stiff for the 10.2 but that is a pretty easy fix. Traxxas has several different spring rates.

Thank you for the feedback! I have limited experience trying different tires and am still learning what works well and where. We don’t have a lot of mud either, aside from making it with a garden hose! I’ll check out the tires you listed - and probably spend hours trying to compare them, Lol! Sounds like we should also give the stock tires a shot first.

The shocks probably are a little stiff given they’re meant for a heavier body? I haven’t tried tuning a suspension at that level with the kids yet (or a whole lot otherwise). Should be fun! Any suggestions for the spring rates to try?


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[Thloftus]

The Axial springs provided in the kit fit the TRX-4 shocks also; that's what i did with my rig. The TRX-4 springs felt a little stiffer using the not so exact squeeze by hand method.

I agree with the TRX springs being too stiff. I'm gonna swap my Axial springs onto them before I go out next.

Thanks for the tip, we’ll try out the kit springs once we have the chassis together!

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[Thloftus]

Not a lot of progress in the last few days, but the speed controller arrived. I’ve read that you don’t need an external BEC since the Mamba X has an 8 A internal, but I bought a Castle 10 A anyway so it’s not a question at all. I paired a HH HV500 with my MMX, no BEC, and was never sure if it was an issue or not. The MMX has an “8 A peak” internal BEC, so it seemed ok, but then I realized that I probably didn’t understand the “peak” spec and others with more experience said I still needed a BEC. I put one on when I switched in a HiTec 7950TH servo and no questions since. The HV500 is going in this truck.

The Mamba X is pretty sick! I hope it works as good as it looks!

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[GrimmTheTourist]

The 11T pinion may be too small. Fairly difficult to get the mesh engaged well enough given the slots for mounting the motor. I may get a 13T instead. Could also go with the stock 15T. Any recommendations? I’m assuming the stock gears with a 3300 kV on 3S is too much wheel speed ...

I run the 3300 kv stubby from hh with 3s on stock gearing and I love it. Good crawling speed, superb wheel speed. You have both. Bashing and crawling.
I am using the ble pro esc.







https://youtu.be/uA5-6kc8KWU

https://youtu.be/G6SS1wk1pDU

 

[Thloftus]

I run the 3300 kv stubby from hh with 3s on stock gearing and I love it. Good crawling speed, superb wheel speed. You have both. Bashing and crawling.
I am using the ble pro esc.







https://youtu.be/uA5-6kc8KWU

https://youtu.be/G6SS1wk1pDU

Awesome, looks fantastic! Great to see how the stock gearing plays out with the 3300 kV stubby and 3S combo in your videos. I was afraid it would be too much, but the kids will love the bashing possibilities - looks like we’ll be trying out the stock gearing, Lol!

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[Techno Duck]

I am using the Mamba X on my rig with the Castle 2850kv motor and the pinion provided in the kit (i think its 15t). I opted to get the Castle BEC also. Im really happy with this setup, but i admit my only brushless experience was like 10 years ago when Novak released the SuperSport setup.

Use the coupon that came with the Mamba X to get the free Castle Link so you can set the BEC voltage and the ESC settings. If your using a 4 channel controller, you can setup the AUX wire on the ESC to control turning the drag brake on and off on the fly. Took me a few tries to get it working on my Futaba radio, but its a handy feature. If the 3300kv motor is too much for you or the kids, you can tweak the settings of the ESC to make it more manageable.

 

[Col_Sanders]

I am using the Mamba X on my rig with the Castle 2850kv motor and the pinion provided in the kit (i think its 15t). I opted to get the Castle BEC also. Im really happy with this setup, but i admit my only brushless experience was like 10 years ago when Novak released the SuperSport setup.

Use the coupon that came with the Mamba X to get the free Castle Link so you can set the BEC voltage and the ESC settings. If your using a 4 channel controller, you can setup the AUX wire on the ESC to control turning the drag brake on and off on the fly. Took me a few tries to get it working on my Futaba radio, but its a handy feature. If the 3300kv motor is too much for you or the kids, you can tweak the settings of the ESC to make it more manageable.

One of the biggest benefits of the Mamba X is the built in 8A BEC. You don't need an external BEC unless you're doing something like running 4 wheel steering with some high torque servos.

 

[Capt J-rod]

paint the body with a lexan friendly paint. I used Tamiya. Be careful, there is a lexan tamiya paint and then a plastic one... Back the paint job with more tamiya. Most guys back with either white, silver, or black depending on the color you are after. I let that dry over night and then sprayed it with the flex seal. Let that dry about 8-10 hours then pull the window masks. I didn't want it to kick all the way in fear of the window masks getting sealed in permanently. The window masks are a pain and don't really fit the contours of the windows perfectly. Also set aside about 3-4 hours to fit the grille into the Cherokee body. Sandpaper is your friend. I used some shoe goo as well as the screws to hold it in. Also leave some extra on the back tailgate depending on which bumpers you plan to run. The stock bumpers get hung up on everything. It will likely be one of your first upgrades.

 

[Thloftus]

I am using the Mamba X on my rig with the Castle 2850kv motor and the pinion provided in the kit (i think its 15t). I opted to get the Castle BEC also. Im really happy with this setup, but i admit my only brushless experience was like 10 years ago when Novak released the SuperSport setup.

Use the coupon that came with the Mamba X to get the free Castle Link so you can set the BEC voltage and the ESC settings. If your using a 4 channel controller, you can setup the AUX wire on the ESC to control turning the drag brake on and off on the fly. Took me a few tries to get it working on my Futaba radio, but its a handy feature. If the 3300kv motor is too much for you or the kids, you can tweak the settings of the ESC to make it more manageable.

Will do, thank you for the advice! It’s awesome they include a coupon for the Castle Link. Makes me want to push the build forward so we can get to this part - although a “slave driver” experience may not be the happy memory I’m hoping to give the kids, Lol!

My son, especially, will love the truck even more if it’s overpowered. I’m more worried about all the crying I’ll do if he bashes it to pieces!

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[Thloftus]

One of the biggest benefits of the Mamba X is the built in 8A BEC. You don't need an external BEC unless you're doing something like running 4 wheel steering with some high torque servos.

Is it a more substantial BEC than the one in the MMX? The HH HV500 we’re using for this truck may have been causing brown outs when I used it with the MMX and no external BEC on my Bomber (w/ 3S), although I’m not certain and may have had some other problem. Figured I’d take the overly conservative approach this time.

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[Thloftus]

paint the body with a lexan friendly paint. I used Tamiya. Be careful, there is a lexan tamiya paint and then a plastic one... Back the paint job with more tamiya. Most guys back with either white, silver, or black depending on the color you are after. I let that dry over night and then sprayed it with the flex seal. Let that dry about 8-10 hours then pull the window masks. I didn't want it to kick all the way in fear of the window masks getting sealed in permanently. The window masks are a pain and don't really fit the contours of the windows perfectly. Also set aside about 3-4 hours to fit the grille into the Cherokee body. Sandpaper is your friend. I used some shoe goo as well as the screws to hold it in. Also leave some extra on the back tailgate depending on which bumpers you plan to run. The stock bumpers get hung up on everything. It will likely be one of your first upgrades.

Nice, thank you for all of the input! It’s super helpful, especially since we don’t get a lot of chances for re-dos (or first tries either, Lol)! I wondered if installing the grille was tricky. We have a rotary tool, no-so-steady hands, and perfectionist anxiety which should help, right?!

Nice idea with the flex seal, I may give it a try on some of my other bodies also; seems like a good idea regardless.


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