TRX4M's - a camping story

[OSRC]

New forum (thanks for all the hard work fellas, looks great!) and it's time for some new threads!

I am a latecomer to the mini world, I didn't realize the value here until we went camping last year and a few runs around the campsite changed my mind entirely. These little TRX4M's are PERFECT for camping. I fit four of them in my overhead bin and they took up less space than a single 1/10. Perfect for most campsites where there's not a lot to challenge the 1/10 trucks. With a smaller scale, every rut becomes a ravine, tree roots become insurmountable objects, and tiny little puddles become mud bogs.

I started out with 2 (OG thread), and picked up 2 more before we left. Couldn't decide on the High Trail or the monster, so I pickup up both. Really, I wanted a Blue HT but they are really hard to find, so I got a blue monster and a black HT hoping the bodies swap back and forth (they do)

Started with the Bronco which was my most capable. Low range gears, full bearings, Holmes power, and brass on the axles. My Defender is a little more scale and set up for towing and exploring. Full lights, Holmes power, standard gears, brass on the axles, hitch, trailer and weighted TRX beadlocks. The Fords were both stock.

Our campsite was right next to a rocky steep trail down to the river. Perfect site!! This steep trail would have gave my 1/10 trucks a workout, so I knew it was Mt. Everest for the minis. No worries, I had one goal - get from the bottom to the top.

Charged up some batteries and gave it a go. Started with the Bronco since it was the most capable. Drove fine, nice and stable, but couldn't get up the trail. It would just stop and spin - there's just not enough weight on the tires to get them to dig in. I did unearth several earthworms though. Used them for fishing later, so I had that going for me which is nice.

Spent most of the time at the top of the trail - it was rooted up nicely and gave me several lines to go down a certain way and come back up. Swapped over to the Defender and tried again. It was more stable than the bronco - those weighted wheels made a ton of difference, but also it was unable to dig in and couldn't make the rocks. Did great on the roots though!

After playing on the hill for a while, I hooked up the trailer and went around collecting "firewood." The Defender was in it's element here, had no trouble pulling the trailer around the various campsites and working my way back to our site with a few loads of wood was a ton of fun.

Then, I broke out the HT. This truck looks fantastic right out of the box by the way -got lots of comments on both from the various campers. Took it out on the steep trail and it did pretty decent for a stock truck. Fared about the same as the Bronco which kind of surprised me. Can tell for sure the bigger tires and stock gearing take a toll on torque, it took a lot more throttle to get where I wanted to go, but the extra clearance from the bigger tires and slightly longer WB seemed to give it an edge over the other two. Hmm...

Then I went bonkers and tried to crawl around with the monster. Surprisingly, it did well - no torque as expected, but huge, grippy tires and a lot more width kept it stable and it did a lot better than I expected. Hmm....again.

Then I just went around the campsites with the MT driving over anything I could find. Really impressed with the truck - it doesn't have a lot of speed or torque, but it got around very well. There was a great spot where there was a deep tire track and it immediately turned into a mini ramp. I could launch out of it and ride a wheely for a while. Had a blast really. No mud to be found though - that's next trip.

 

[OSRC]

(continued)

So, I then did what any other red blooded RC addict would do - broke out the tools, cooked up some meat, had a few cold beers and tore down the trucks completely to swap some things around.

- Swapped over the axles and transmission from the Bronco to the High Trail. Low range gears, bearings and Holmes power plus the better clearance should equal a much better performer on the rocks I would think. Bronco went back to stock...except...

- Swapped the weighted wheels from the Defender back over to the Bronco, which now had stock axles. The Defender already had some brass on the axles and didn't really need it since it just pulls a trailer around - plus the Treal wheels looked much more at home on the Defender

Doesn't look like much, but after about 90 minutes of work things are much different under the hood.

The HT was MUCH improved. Wow, what a difference. Note that I am down in the rocks now... Very stable, tons of torque and now I could almost get up the hill. The stock tires - while they look aggressive - really aren't and still had trouble digging in.

Swapped over to some soft Injora tires I had on some beadlocks and now I'm dialed. Turns out the softer rubber and much more aggressive open tread is just what the doctor ordered - it was able to dig into the dirt much better and had much more grip on the rocks - easily conquered the hill! Rocks and all.

So mission accomplished, and I just played around a bit the rest of the trip.

Defender had no issues losing the weighted wheels and did just fine - went out and collected more firewood. Looks much better with the Treal wheels imo.

Swapped bodies between the HT and the MT so my daughter could go bash on it and she gave it a workout. Held up fine to many tumbles, flips, rolls and wheelies.

Bronco was just about as capable as before, just lost the low end torque from the gearing change. The weighted wheels really made a difference and it was just as planted as before. Plus the Methods look much better here than they do on the Defender. My other daughter gave it a pretty good workout too and it held up perfectly.

And finally, I put the MT body and stock wheels back on HT, though I added a wrap of lead fishing sinker stuff to the stock wheels and I freaking love it.

So what now? We're camping again in July and I plan to make some changes here and there.

Defender - stays as is, nothing planned. Maybe a few scale bits here and there, that rack looks awful empty up there.
MT - bearings and maybe a motor upgrade for now.
Bronco - goodbye! I have a Meus kit here and the Bronco is going to be the donor. Bearings and motor at minimum, though I'm sure I'll add something as I go.
HT - leaving it alone for now, drivetrain swap was a total success. Maybe a tire and wheel swap, though I love the look of the stock wheels.

 

[JatoTheRipper]

The Traxxas minis look so awesome. I hesitate to call them micros because they're larger than typical micros.

Great pics. Still trying to find a good motor to go with the crawling gears in these things. The Holmes 66T is a bit too slow for my liking.

 

[smog]

This is great, but now I want to go camping. Looks like it was a great time. Fishing, crawling and good food.

I have been wanting to pick up one of those Broncos for awhile now. I gotta get on that

 

[hnoroian]

Yeay for camping!!!

 

[OSRC]

A Camping Story, part II!

The next camping trip was coming up, and wanted to make some changes to the Bronco. I kinda went crazy on Amazon and ordered a ton of stuff. I had already picked up the new chassis (Injora, not Meus as I was thinking earlier) and decided to go all in.

-Aluminum transmission w/steel low range gears and motor
-Aluminum +4 axles
-High clearance links
-Brass wheels w/RC3WD tires

After about an hour of wrenching, I had this. Pretty much all that's left of the Bronco is center skid, driveshafts and electronics. Wasn't sure about the Injora parts, but everything has a nice finish and fit together perfectly.

Quick test run on the workbench to make sure it was all good before packing it up and it crawled right up the wall. Interesting.

This week we were camping out at Lake Erie, and I have to say it was absolutely stunning. Being an East Coaster, I've never seen a sunset over water. Every night we'd all get ice cream and head down to the beach to catch the show. One of the best camping trips we've ever done.

Anyway, being right next to the beach there wasn't much to crawl on, but with a mini you can find almost any place. The campsite had decorative rocks all over the place and they were perfect for a little testing.

The tires aren't really broken in yet, but I put nearly 2 packs through and this little guy is extremely impressive. Pound for pound, one the best pure crawlers I have. Very happy with how it handled itself on the rocks. Grip was excellent, stability was fantastic and with nearly zero overhang on both ends I made some very impressive lines.

The Injora parts worked out well - everything was super smooth and quiet, even with all metal gears. Wasn't sure what to expect, but overall I'm very pleased with the transformation.

I did get the HT out as well for a bit. Also got a workout in the rocks, and picked my way through the little creek that ran through the campsite.

Good sense of scale. Even the smallest creek becomes an obstacle course. I love it! With low range gears I didn't have much speed, but it was plenty for noodling around.

Going camping again in two weeks, this time at a smaller lake (one that is not great and hopefully will be getting them all out for a run. If I can find a 2-speed trans in the meantime for the Defender that would be fantastic. Not many changes planned as of right now. Debating a motor upgrade for the MT - speed is good, but it has zero low end torque. Other than that, very pleased with my mini fleet.

 

[Jfrisch1]

Mini crawlers are a must for camping, just sucks when one of my kiddos mixes up a remote and we don’t find out until we get there lol.

 

[ferp420]

i need to get back on my injora buggie i just have a hard time building micros

i spent a fair amount of time on lake erie back in the late 70s early 80s i learned to sail on that lake the old fishing towns and tiny back woods harbors will be forever imprinted in my memory

 

[JatoTheRipper]

Cool update. Looks like a nice place, but that's a far drive!

I'm surprised you bought RC3WD tires!

 

[OSRC]

One more camping trip in the books! The TRX4M's were in full effect between boating, swimming, and a few cases of adult beverages.

I added some new bumpers and some scale rooftop goodies to the Defender, and it's looking pretty decent. As usual, I tooled around the campsites and picked up "firewood"

The High Trail got put to work as well, exploring some of the washouts near our site. There wasn't much rock here at this campsite, so there really wasn't a ton of stuff to crawl over. A few washouts is really all I could find. I brought the Tarantula, but there wasn't much to challenge it, so I put a pack through the HT instead. Great little truck!

My daughter was wheeling the MT and gave it a full workout in the mud. Fun little truck, but just lacks power. Good enough for my daughter, she went out of her way to find anything wet. Truck held up great and made me kind of glad I slacked off on getting bearings installed.

I ordered an Injora big block motor while sitting around the fire, and it was waiting when we got back home. Should help in the torque department, that's for sure.

Had to replace the stock ESC since it can't handle the current of the big block so I picked up an Injora ESC to match and swapped in a GT5 receiver. I managed to cram it all in there somehow.

With a quick basement test drive it for sure now has the torque it needs, easily 2x more than the stock motor, but internally the transmission has crawler gears. Not so good for an MT. Going to open it up and see if I can put a set or stock range gears in it.

 

[Speedy-Triple]

Nice 4ms love the high trail... I have yet to get my hands on a 4m but have not pulled the trigger. Too many wants not enough been wanting to pick up a black Bronco and make a Mini Braptor out of it but also love the F150 in doo doo brown. Its great you are taking them out to places and enjoying time with your family. Props to making it work and still have fun while at it.

 

[OSRC]

Last camping trip of the year, to a place called Boulder Woods - fantastic little redneck campground about 45 minutes away - perfect for a quick weekend camping trip. Most campsite don't have much for my 1/10 trucks, but this one sure does (Literally named Boulder Woods!) I should have brought some big trucks, but I wanted to play with the little guys.

Giant rocks are everywhere. This baby was right on our site, and I may or may not have tripped and fallen over it after a few too many Leinenkugels. About 8-12" tall, and plenty of little ledges for the crawlers to climb.

Drove up this rock, did a 20pt turn up top on the little ledge and drove back down. This little guy just gets it done. I'd like a little more suspension travel, but that's it. Drives like a dream.

Fantastic little crawler, pound for pound, one of my best.

High Trail had a great time on some of the less extreme terrain. Glad I swapped over the crawler gear to this truck, it's a blast to wheel and got a ton of attention from fellow campers. I let a few guys test it out and pretty sure I'll see a few more of these when camping next year.

And finally hauled some rocks around our campsite. Holmes power for the win! Got a pretty good amount of weight in there, and standard gears in the truck. Thought I might cook something, but it was solid. Love these little TRX4M's.

 

[JimK]

What a great thread. Love all the cool pics of your tiny trucks! Nothing better than exploring around the campground with our rc rigs both big and small.