10/18/05

The aluminum knuckles from RC4WD are sold by the pair, complete with attachment hardware, and will fit either Clod or TXT-1 axle housings. The knuckles are not cast, but machined from stronger aluminum billet. Each knuckle is built from two pieces. A steering arm is attached to the main knuckle body using a pair of 3mm socket head cap screws.

The machining is clean, the parts align well, and the steering arms provide a choice of two different holes (3mm) for attachment to your tie rod or draglink. One point to note is that the steering arms on the RC4WD knuckles are thicker than stock. They are also vertically centered on the knuckle, whereas the steering arm on a stock plastic knuckle is offset a bit. This may move the location of your steering rods slightly.

The aluminum knuckles are heavy-duty. The main body has thick walls and the steering arm mount area is substantial. The attached arms are thick as well; so broken knuckle parts should be a thing of the past. Despite the heavier construction compared to a stock knuckle, the overall size of the aluminum knuckle is smaller.

I weighed each knuckle on a scale and was surprised to find that the RC4WD knuckle and hardware was slightly lighter than the stock knuckle and screws, despite the beefy aluminum construction. Cool!

The knuckles mount to the axle housing using a set of delrin spacers, washers and supplied 3mm cap screws. The dimensional tolerances allow you to easily snug down the screws to keep them tight, while leaving the knuckle free to move. All supplied hardware is stainless steel.

I compared steering range of a stock knuckle (with steering stops removed) to that of the RC4WD knuckle. I found that the aluminum knuckle had more angular movement than the stock set.

Overall, I was very pleased with the new knuckles. They look sharp and should be essentially unbreakable on my comp crawling rig.

-Jay