And I appreciate your work, love what you've been doing these recent years. Awesome. (and sorry for the small heart attack!)

To bring a niche hobby pro spec LCG crawler into the lineup of Axial Kits is an amazing step for LCG RC Crawling , And You did a great Job RC Rich ! looks like a superb crawler , 10/10

If I buy another Axial product (have an SCX10ii and a RR10 Bomber), this will definitely be the one. I love that you guys have taken the hassle out of building these rigs - especially the links.

Hi and welcome, Varg. I'm really glad you're getting something out of my videos! Thanks for letting me know :)

Thank you!

I can tell you my Yikong YK-4101 non pro with tracks and a HW FOC can cost me less than what Traxxas has for sale in their Traxx system, I saved $200 and got a much better brushless system. Traxxas is expensive here and not worth it imo.

Fair enough. There wasn't any traxxas or yikong product in this video but your point applies broadly anyway. Glad you're enjoying yours :)

@@RCTNT that was a brain fart on my behalf, excuse my poo poo brain, Axial makes great stuffs, I am on the verge of getting a SXC6 Honcho. Their price is really good to, almost parity which makes it a ton better than Traxxas. If you ever get bored of any builds, try getting the tracks system for Axial, it's the same for Yikong, I have it on mine and it's amazing. I took off my shell and replaced with cage with drivers, looks like a Mad Max beast now lol.

Haha I bet that's fun. I do have a few tracked vehicles here, but they're either very small or very heavy and slow. We don't get snow here or else I'd have done this already for sure, it looks like fun. Cheers

Thanks Aaron! The 6-Problem Test covers a bunch of different elements of crawling but their difficultly isn't ordered because some rigs will demolish side-hilling and break over (problems 1, 2, 4 and 5) but struggle greatly with ledges and unsupported rear climbs (3 and 6). You get the idea :) Anyway, glad you liked it and welcome!

Thanks

It's a nice implementation, so long as you have a low profile servo!

Oh thanks, now I can hear it too

@@RCTNT LOL I know, I was like Dudes!!! what have you done!!!!

I can't unhear it! Durp Von Fronz has been blocked from commenting on this channel.

@@RCTNT LOLOLOL

Ah, it didn't stick. Oh well!

Thanks, it's not surprising you like the hobbywing FOC gear. Great stuff eh. USA companies like traxxas and axial will understandably service their biggest market and also their home market of USA before elsewhere. Australia is a wealthy country and they will no doubt sell well here too, but we also only have 1/11th of the USA's population!

Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for letting me know :)

Thanks a lot, Michael. This thing is growing on me, for what it's worth. Still testing but I think it'll be a winner.

@@RCTNT Without being too specific which truck is more expensive. your Injora which easily conquered your problems, or the Axial?

The Axial cost more, but not by a huge amount. It cost a lot less in time and effort, that's a big deal.

@@RCTNT Time and effort are often equally important as cost. I thought it was interesting that you mentioned some of the cheaper Axial trucks that do well on then problems you've created.

I'm going to get the cheaper axial trucks out to the gorge and run some gates alongside the scx10 Pro. Should be interesting!

Good point, thanks!

Heh no worries :)

The phoenix wouldn't be able to do any of them without heavy modifying. Not even in the same category with the forward mounted motor. You couldn't build it for any less yourself either.

I have both and have had a chance to compare on the terrain/courses we have here, in every circumstance the SCX10 Pro outperformed the Phoenix mainly due to the Pros CG in comparison. I didn't feel like the breakover on the Phoenix was that much of a benefit and was something you could work around in most cases with line choice, but the lower CG on the Pro means it was able to pull side hills and lines the Phoenix would roll over much earlier. The Phoenix also tips over with little warning, the point where the Pro rolls or tips is much more balanced and it gives you plenty of warning unless you are driving recklessly. If you have line choices, then the Pro will generally give you more to work with than the Phoenix will. Where it has downsides compared to other rigs is, like he said several times, the breakover. If there are sharp edges or corners poking up, it has a harder time getting over them than rigs with more clearance. You have to choose lines more carefully. On the upside, the lower CG and balance means punching it to get over is more controlled and less error prone in my experience, but this is where you have to consider the course you are on. If it is narrow with only one real line, like this course here, then you'll be at a disadvantage compared to rigs with more clearance and higher CG. If you are on a course with a lot of side hills or awkward lines, you'll be at an advantage. A good comparison is Exocageds coverage of this, you can see a lot of the awkward sidehills or lines he does fine, but the course is also wider with more choices. You can also watch Wyatt driving this during testing and see the same thing, in finals he competed against a lot of portal trucks that had an easier time in some areas, but flipped over a lot more. It's all a tradeoff, lower clearance means lower CG and more balanced driving feel, more clearance means higher CG but you get over things easier. I definitely think they could have reduced weight on this, though, and I'd rather see permanent overdrive instead of selectable, but I think they had to market it to the trail crowd also. As for the value, my latest low CG rig is gonna end up being around $1400, you can't build a comp truck like the Pro with aftermarket parts for less than $420 unless you use Amazon/banggood/etc components, which is fine, but Gspeed/Exo/etc will all cost a lot more. I have yet to see how it compares to any of these, though, which is a more fair comparison than it is to something like the Phoenix.

Well said!

Your stuck right where I’m stuck! It’s made for a specific use so I understand that but it’s a lot of $. Not saying it’s not worth it I’m at a place where I’d like to get one to do a comp build but don’t have many hrs to o a full build so it makes it appealing to me. Maybe if on sale or with point discount then it may happen.

I'm off to the gorge in the morning with a few rigs, now I have a body on this thing. We'll see how it goes in a different location with some comp gates laid out, and I'll run my own p/scale rig too - and the TRX4 Sport and GS02F kits too, so we can compare a few worthy comp builds :)

Thanks. I arguably do have others here already. But the 6 problems test everything, it's just not break over. Problem 1 and 5 have side hilling, 3 and 6 test centre of gravity for steep climbs, problem 2 tests steep descent and extreme articulation, problem 3 has negative overhang on entry, 6 tests droop and extreme transition from hole traversal to steep approach, 5 tests approach and departure angle on that first transition, etc. I think they're pretty balanced, but poor breakover is challenging due to the nature of the course. I'll get this to the gorge with a couple of other rigs soon and we'll run some gates there :)

Low cog did the trick here!

That's not the case in USA?

Thanks R S :) The Fusion Pro would be fine on this rig, but consider dropping a couple of pinion teeth and going with maybe 11T 32p pinion rather than the included 13T (I think it's 13 tooth, might be 14, can't recall right now). I'm running stock gearing on 3S and the 1400kv motor, yes. Good idea, maybe I'll do a battery video and a motor video. I have a growing to-do list but that sounds like it'd be a useful one. Thanks for the idea. Body was just a cheapie from AliExpress: a.aliexpress.com/_mP8lNGa

For sure they did!

Thanks Bill. I'd say you're about right on the tuning, at least on my course here. Cheers

@@RCTNT yeah I'm by no means a tuning guy but it's just where I seen its short comings on the course.. I like a lot of what's been put into that rig though.. even the way the frontvof the axle steering is set up had no issues I seen in either approach or departure.. n I would definitely stay off the overdrive for your problems... peaky is a good term lol. love your videos beyond all others because your honest even when you feel you don't want to be brutality so.. I could feel that here.. your a good man in many respects... n it shows..

Aw thanks Bill. I'm trying to balance entertainment and a bit of consistency in testing. It's a fun hobby to be sure.

Thank you! 120mm might be a bit much but I think you're on the right path. I'm considering 95mm or so, with a semi droop setup. It's a great machine otherwise and it did well out in the gorge today when I filmed a follow up to this vid. Breakover still a problem of course, but it's a solid rig.

You've got it right. Esc has built in bec that feeds 6v to rx and shift servo. Bec gets power from battery connection and its hv output goes to steering servo. For Steering servo, there are 3 wires: - signal and ground come from rx. - Only power comes from bec.

The phoenix portal needed some tuning to get it to climb to my liking, which I've documented on the channel here. I agree with what some others have discussed in the comments here that longer shocks and some droop could help the scx10 pro here too. I'll look into that.

Thanks Andy. The materials aren't bad here. It seems like the front of the skid and those front links are just getting in the way a bit. It's a bit of a puzzle to design these, I suspect. You want a nice low cog. But you also want good breakover. How to you get the motor nice and low and still have the drive shafts at a good angle to the axles? Etc. I think the best idea to improve this so far was from another viewer in our comments here: getting longer shocks and trying for a little droop. I had similar success with the phoenix portal, helping the wheels reach down a little more. My expectation is that with some time, there will be a few 'must-do' mods for this chassis to make it pretty competitive. It's already good. But there is room to improve and I don't think it'll be too much trouble to get it there. In the meantime I'm going to get a body onto it and we'll get it to the gorge with a few other relevant rigs to run some gates for a comparison.

Probably similar money, given the dlux fab transmission and the links I had to chase down. Certainly the scx10 was a faster and easier build, by a decent margin.

@@RCTNT Yea, it looks to have its advantages. But, now that the idea is out there, I can see a few more companies running with the idea at a more realistic price. Thanks. Love the channel.

Bent front links, you reckon? I was wondering about an extra 10mm of undamped shock travel, a little droop for some extra wheel reach without sitting it up higher. Hmm.

@@RCTNT I'm off work till Sunday so I planned on testing some desert lizard shocks from my gspeed build (smallest springs in the bottom half filled with 35wt oil mounted upside down for lower weight). Did a test with em on the pro... could get the rig damn near vertical before the suspension started to push the front of the rig back. Rear doesn't squash when digging in, instead it pushes back a lil. Going to the local crawl spot later today.

Nice. That is not surprising to read, good work! Happy testing, then!

I owe this thing a run on other rocks. It gets high pointed easily enough unfortunately, but it's low cg otherwise still sees it perform well in general. High clearance links up front aren't as helpful, though they can still be of benefit at times, but it's the rear that gets stuck dragging over peaky obstacles more often.

Hi Brian, yes they do. I cover that in this short video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hbR8qaR3mL_Sp5c.html

It's growing on me too

@@RCTNT definitely ive build some lcg trx4 sport style rigs on the budget..but if you gave me a 500 dollar blank check I'd head down the injora highway with the new hobbywing esc receiver 80 dollet combo and have money left over for pizza 🍕 and beer 🍺 cheers mate nice review

Haha good one, and you're dead right, more money doesn't necessarily mean better performance!

@@RCTNT true that brother

You need a third channel for the overdrive shifter, if that's what you're asking. You need to set the end points on your radio to ensure you're not stressing the servo. Some radios make this more complex than others, but that's what's needed if you want it to shift. You can otherwise just lock it in 1:1 or 60:100 ratio, rear:front.

Injora is doing amazing things now, yes! What a time to be in RC! (I know I say that a lot these days, but it just hits me so often - love it!)

Heh, welcome back and thank you for such a thoughtful comment! The Baja Pro X tires will be tested in all terrains in the upcoming big test series I have planned for the coming months. They may do okay in some terrains, we shall see! I have a better comparison coming very soon (tomorrow) between the INJORA LCG chassis and the SCX10 Pro. Filmed it in the gorge earlier this week and it posts up in 15 hours or so from now. That'll show us how they go through gates on a few comp courses, alongside a couple of other more tame crawler kits (TRX4 Sport and GS02F). There is a bit of a learning curve for this car, I suppose - mainly, for me at least, getting used to the gearing and throttle curve and also the low breakover clearance. Working on improving it. This is a wonderful machine. I think with some improvements we'll have it to a point where I'm happy with it as my main rig. (The INJORA LCG build only has portals on the rear, and the skid and front link positioning on mine is more responsible for breakover clearance than the rear portals, I think. Though they help, for sure. More coming soon. Cheers!

@@RCTNT as much as I really enjoy your content, it's always so informative and entertaining, I simply cannot adequately express how much I'm looking forward to your tire shootout. The previous ones still rank amongst my favourite videos (and that's saying something, because you have some really outstanding videos competing for that title), so new additions to that series will be phenomenal.

Aw thanks for the encouragement!

End points define where the servo stops. As long as that point is within the mechanical range of the interface (ie. it isn't straining to get to a position that isn't physically possible) then once it's moved there, it'll be locked, but at rest. No strain, no worries :)

I just filmed the head to head for these two. Same wheels and tires. Vrd stance came out ahead. It isn't over yet and it wasn't scientific, but that's where things stand at the basic config for both.

That is a quality summary of its performance, thank you for articulating that so well. I must agree, the shocks are a big factor in particular.

Yes! That's not a bad idea

Fully support this theory as well!

I agree, and it seems like when the front of the skid was hung on problem 4, we weren't tipping forward like I would have expected. less catchy rails, more front weight(?), longer reach, and a shorter servo.

Good!

Thanks David! I suspect the baja pro x tires will have their optimal surfaces, I just haven't found it yet. Haven't looked hard, to be fair. I'll begin filming the tire series in April and I'm looking forward to it!

@@RCTNT the Pro X's work great on the granite and quarts we have around here. That said, I will keep a few dollars stashed away for additional tire choices:-)

Nice to know, we haven't got quartz here but granite aplenty!

Reasonable point, though the scx10 pro has brass in the axles and another 220g across the front wheels. They were similar in this video.

Ah yes, they are weighted, which isn't ideal but it's what I had at the time of this video. They're 110g beadlocks.

Yes, this was a surprise. But I'll run it in a few local comps and we'll see how it goes before I modify it.

It's a performance vehicle, so you want small and lightweight. I used 700mah 3s 70C batteries, but if I wanted longer runtime over performance, perhaps a 2s 2200mah 50c would do. It also depends on the electronics you're running - mine has a 12v direct current servo, for example, so 3s is far preferable in my case.

Thanks for the advice! i Appreciate it❤@@RCTNT Edit : so the S stands for the number of cells right?

Yep, that's right.

I don't understand what you mean, sorry. Servo steering support? Everything you need is in the kit.

Taller tires always give bigger clearance, yes. The max tire size for this class is 4.8" and in this video I'm driving on 4.75" tires, for what it's worth.

Heh, well, yes, it's always the driver - but in this case, it's always the *same* driver, which is the point. I can say I am a consistent driver, which is helpful for comparison tests. I do have credentials to back up what I'm doing here, too: 2nd in Scale-1 last year, 2nd in Mini in 2019 and 9th overall in the 2018 Worlds - been doing this for long enough to have hopefully some useful opinions to share! Thanks for watching :)

Not the same kind of rig at all. Nobody is winning comps in an element chassis.

@@shaynejenkins446It is if you know how to build it... Comps are won by drivers

I reckon I could do ok with a stock Ecto. Winning, it's possible. Ecto vs scx10 pro? Comes down to the course!

Hm, I don't know about that. Maybe on some obstacles, but I have serious doubts about that claim on comp courses! Could be wrong, sure, but I'd have to see it to believe it!

It certainly was fast and easy to build. That is worth something, particularly if people decide they like the axles and transmission, for example. Say you're low on time (or just desire) to build up a comp rig, but you want one for this season. You buy this kit for the axles, transmission and suspension. You fit your chassis and links of choice, electronics, then body and wheels. It does make a big chunk of the build a lot easier.

It's been run under wraps for about a year, you can go back and look at a few US national comps where it was run before it was announced and did really well, so the potential is there for the design. There is also the benefit of ease of availability, piecing together a custom comp rig isn't hard if you have done a kit before, but pulling parts from 10 different vendors can mean sometimes waiting for stock to come in or parts to be made, if you need a kit now then this is a good complete option that has proven it can perform well in competition. They are also releasing carbon chassis rails, aluminum motor mount, brass f/r, and a few other things aimed at improving the performance. I think where experienced folks will skip it is due to customizing it for their terrain, some places do better with a low CG truck like this while others may need more breakover or clearance. An experienced competitor will understand that and build a rig that suits their comps and terrain over buying something that is all together. So some experienced builders may still use this kit, I've seen a few on FB talking about running it at comps already, but like shown here, some will skip just because it doesn't work for their terrain. Our comps here have less sharp rocks and more awkward lines/side hills/drop offs, which means low CG and being somewhat forgiving before it rolls over are all really important. I see some of the terrain others drive on and can immediately point out spots I know it would hang up on compared to other trucks. My testing here shows I think it'll be competitive, but going out west to places like Utah or Nevada, likely less so. IMO it has its place even for experienced builders, I wouldn't dismiss it based on it being a full kit despite there being some room for improvement, but it isn't going to fit every area or comp. The axles and shocks are also pretty nice, I'm really interested to see where people run with the modular axle design.

Yes to all of the above! You write really well. And I agree - will be taking this out to a local comp spot hopefully tomorrow (just finished the body) and we'll see how it goes there. I might bring a couple of alternative cars to compare to, as well. Should be interesting!

Because after owning a Slash 4x4 I've vowed to never give Traxxas another cent. What a waste of money that thing was.

@@zanthraxnl your problem with traxxas...

The TRX4 Sport Kit is brilliant. I don't think it's going to do as well as this on many courses, but as far as performance for money, the Sport and the gmade GS02F are both very hard to beat. Once I get a body on the Scx10 Pro here, I'll get them all out to a rocky location and lay some comp gates. We'll see how they all perform.

That's not really the point. Axial is the first to release this as a complete kit. Same as the XR10. Living in Europe I don't think I could put together a better chassis for less if I included the shipping costs for multiple overseas orders.

I think they got the timing right. Crawling is gaining momentum now after a decade of slow down. Value for money is yet to be seen. It's a lovely machine, to be sure, but I'm not yet sold on its performance. A different location and comp gates will help me find that our son!

Lol. Try building a truck like that for $430.

Depends where you are in the world, I think. In Australia at least, this was an expensive machine compared to my other comp rig. The value is there for the scx10 pro though, I think. They've done a good job.

Which company is that? INJORA? I wasn't aware that was the case. Sounds like I'd better look into that. You've got me worried about this now, is this chassis a copy of another one?

They all basically copy each other. If you use them for after market parts then by your logic every single company that provides after market parts is ripping off the original manufacturers who have copied somebody else.

No adjustment possible in the provided shock hardware except piston hole choice from 2 to 4, iirc. The alu chassis does scrape, yes, but look at the skid and links on Problem 6 - they're all covered in rock dust too. Break over from the front seems to be the issue on some rock formations. As far as being a low cg performer though, my expectation is that this will do very well. I've just prepped my film gear and some trucks and gates. Will run these tomorrow in the gorge location and we'll see how it goes there. Looking forward to finding out!

@@RCTNTOK cool yes I just know ally on rocks is grippy. Sounds good will be super interesting to see how it goes.