Tower Hobbies Axial SCX10 II Combo

[Nexus6]

Hi, first post and new to RC world.

I plan on getting the "ultimate combo" kit from tower hobbies, it includes the following:

Axial SCX10 II 2000 Jeep Cherokee 4WD Kit
Axial 55T Rock Crawler Electric Motor
Axial AE-2 Forward/Reverse ESC w/Drag Brake
Duratrax Onyx LiPo 2S 7.4V 5000mAh 35C Hard Case Star
Duratrax Onyx 255 AC/DC Advanced Charger
Tactic TTX300 3-Channel SLT System
Tactic TSX45 Standard High-Torque Metal Gear 2BB Servo

All this for $617.35

Is this a good combo setup for this price?

 

[soze]

You can do better.

Axial SCX10 II 2000 Jeep Cherokee 4WD Kit $350 - Get from Tower, RPP or someone else.
Hobbywing 1080 Quicrun waterproof esc $42 - Amazon, RPP, or RCMart
Power HD 23KG waterproof servo for $45 - (or get something better) - Amazon, RCMart.
Gens ace LiPo Battery Pack 5000mAh 50C 2S 7.4V $33 - Amazon
FlySky GT3C Transmitter $45-50 - Amazon

So far that's $520.

That leaves you with $97 to get a charger and motor.

You can get 35T brushed motors from $10-20. ex: (Hackmoto v2 35T 540 Brushed motor - $13)

If you want more room to play with, you can...

swap out the Hobbywing 1080 for a Hobbywing Quicrun 1060 waterproof esc which is $20. So add $20 to the remainder for a charger.

still want more room to play with?

Swap out the Power HD WP-23KG for the Power HD WP-20KG which is $28

 

[MattySlimz1987]

Adding in the old un-waterproof AE-2 I see, hmmm

 

[Nexus6]

You can do better.

Axial SCX10 II 2000 Jeep Cherokee 4WD Kit $350 - Get from Tower, RPP or someone else.
Hobbywing 1080 Quicrun waterproof esc $42 - Amazon, RPP, or RCMart
Power HD 23KG waterproof servo for $45 - (or get something better) - Amazon, RCMart.
Gens ace LiPo Battery Pack 5000mAh 50C 2S 7.4V $33 - Amazon
FlySky GT3C Transmitter $45-50 - Amazon

So far that's $520.

That leaves you with $97 to get a charger and motor.

You can get 35T brushed motors from $10-20. ex: (Hackmoto v2 35T 540 Brushed motor - $13)

If you want more room to play with, you can...

swap out the Hobbywing 1080 for a Hobbywing Quicrun 1060 waterproof esc which is $20. So add $20 to the remainder for a charger.

still want more room to play with?

Swap out the Power HD WP-23KG for the Power HD WP-20KG which is $28

Cool, thanks, I'll look into those.

Adding in the old un-waterproof AE-2 I see, hmmm

Is the AE-5 better?

 

[MattySlimz1987]

Is the AE-5 better?

Not sure as I've never used one, but my very short experience with my og scx10 with an AE-2 seemed to work fine, drag brake did what it did, powered the motor forward and back. It was not waterproof though. The AE-5 is w/p and is what comes in the new 10.2 as its a new esc from axial. If you do some research on this forum you will find some very negative results from both esc's. For 50 dollars more ($409) you can get the RTR truck that has a w/p esc already and everything in that Tower combo minus a battery and charger. Seems like an expensive Duratrax 2s lipo and charger if you ask me($690 is too much) imho. Chargers are cheap.

 

[CR4NK]

Whichever esc you choose, I would get the kit over the rtr IMHO.

 

[MattySlimz1987]

On the other hand I'm with CR4NK on buying the kit version also. Stronger links and the latest trans. Building this truck was also fun indeed.

 

[Ambis]

Having run both Quicrun 1080WP and 1060, and the 1080 is far superior to the 1060. I highly recommend the 1080WP over many even more expensive escs.

Keep away from the AE-2 non-waterproof ESC. It's not bad, but it is just outdated, and does not directly run 3S lipo.

I did not like AE-5. Was not smooth, motor made more noise than with other ESCs.

 

[malickie]

I personally had a couple of AE-5 ESC's smoke on me within about a month so those are not exactly reliable. I try to get pretty much anything Waterproofed but that is my personal preference as I tend to get the rig wet now and than so having piece of mind there is good. Ultimately though it boils down to what you want your rig to be capable of. Also most electronics can be Waterproofed by yourself if you get some MG Chemicals Conformal Coating and look up some youtube videos on waterproofing electronics for RC. Keep in mind though that waterproofed electronics will add more heat to the motor/esc even if waterproofed by manufacturer.

Really though people would need your budget to give you a better idea on what electronics to get, if you are trying to stay around what Tower has the Ultimate Combo for than most of the suggestions I have seen are pretty sound, do keep in mind though with the cheap brushed motors you are most likely going to be replacing them more often. If you have a larger budget than you could start thinking about going brushless waterproofed motors and ESC's as well as a better servo than has been suggested so far. The benefit of brushless is that they tend to run cooler typically and you can buy some that are waterproofed which would lead to longer life if you do wind up going into water, they also tend to give better wheelspeed if you need it.

As for the whole kit vs rtr, both are very capable at the end of the day, though with the RTR you will most likely be needing to dig into the transmission to replace the Plastic gear it has in it as that is a common failure. The links are neither here nor there between the RTR and Kit, Kit has Aluminum Links, RTR has Metal Links which leads to more weight down low so honestly the links are kind of a wash. The one major difference is the transmission's, the RTR has the OG style Transmission which has a higher COG (Center of Gravity) while the newer one that is in the kit has a lower COG, plus with the kit if something breaks you will know how to fix it as you have already gone through building everything where as with an RTR you will probably need to dig out a manual to figure out what you need to do to fix whatever it is that broke. Also with the RTR you will likely be replacing the Electronics quicker as the RTR Servo is fairly weak and has a plastic gear again that is prone to failure and the RTR motor/esc are not the greatest (personally had both the motor and esc smoke on me when I had the RTR, as well as the Servo give out on me because of the plastic gear).

 

[JatoTheRipper]

The SCX10 II is on back order. Neither Tower nor RPP has them in stock.

You can do better.

Axial SCX10 II 2000 Jeep Cherokee 4WD Kit $350 - Get from Tower, RPP or someone else.
Hobbywing 1080 Quicrun waterproof esc $42 - Amazon, RPP, or RCMart
Power HD 23KG waterproof servo for $45 - (or get something better) - Amazon, RCMart.
Gens ace LiPo Battery Pack 5000mAh 50C 2S 7.4V $33 - Amazon
FlySky GT3C Transmitter $45-50 - Amazon

So far that's $520.

That leaves you with $97 to get a charger and motor.

You can get 35T brushed motors from $10-20. ex: (Hackmoto v2 35T 540 Brushed motor - $13)

If you want more room to play with, you can...

swap out the Hobbywing 1080 for a Hobbywing Quicrun 1060 waterproof esc which is $20. So add $20 to the remainder for a charger.

still want more room to play with?

Swap out the Power HD WP-23KG for the Power HD WP-20KG which is $28

Great post. I'd only disagree on the battery (I much prefer Turnigy) and the transmitter (I hate the feel of FlySky and I'd get the Turnigy TS4G).

Adding in the old un-waterproof AE-2 I see, hmmm

Who added in that ESC?

Is the AE-5 better?

No! The AE-5 is a POS like most of Axial's electronics. Get the HobbyWing 1080. It's waterproof, smooth as any silk, adjustable and includes the programming card for $40. It can't be beat. If you want to save money the HobbyWing 1060 is fine, but it's not adjustable.

 

[monster 550]

Any rc will get expensive as you add to it so I would personally either get a kit and save to buy good electronics so you're not throwing money away or buy used. Most of the time used rigs already have upgrades and save you money in the long run. I would stay away from that combo and the rtr. Good luck on whatever you do and have fun, welcome to the not so cheap rc world.

 

[MattySlimz1987]

Who added in that ESC?

Apparently its in Tower's "Ultimate Combo" if this exist's.
I can see them throwing those in there because of dead stock...
A Quicrun (either one) would be more thoughtful of them of course.

I personally had a couple of AE-5 ESC's smoke on me within about a month so those are not exactly reliable.* I try to get pretty much anything Waterproofed but that is my personal preference as I tend to get the rig wet now and than so having piece of mind there is good.* Ultimately though it boils down to what you want your rig to be capable of.* Also most electronics can be Waterproofed by yourself if you get some MG Chemicals Conformal Coating and look up some youtube videos on waterproofing electronics for RC.* Keep in mind though that waterproofed electronics will add more heat to the motor/esc even if waterproofed by manufacturer.

Really though people would need your budget to give you a better idea on what electronics to get, if you are trying to stay around what Tower has the Ultimate Combo for than most of the suggestions I have seen are pretty sound, do keep in mind though with the cheap brushed motors you are most likely going to be replacing them more often.* If you have a larger budget than you could start thinking about going brushless waterproofed motors and ESC's as well as a better servo than has been suggested so far.* The benefit of brushless is that they tend to run cooler typically and you can buy some that are waterproofed which would lead to longer life if you do wind up going into water, they also tend to give better wheelspeed if you need it.

Good pre-experience info here.
May I also add, a brushless system is going to give you a LOT more run time, 30+ mins give or take.