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Percymon

What no Axial Wraith Builds ? - better sort that out then !

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We've had a little bit of Axial build fever on here lately, so with my EXO rebuild approaching the end i thought I needed a more 'Jeep' looking vehicle for bashing.

Spending too much idle time spent on RCCrawler forum has now seen me commit to a Wraith - there's nothing exactly new about a Wraith I know; but its now been around long enough for people to know what breaks, what you can do, and what you can't - nothing like learning from others mistakes :lol:

Great pricing from modellbau-berlinski sealed the deal (cheaper than UK sellers, no import duties, cheap shipping blah blah blah) so the kit version should be with me this week.

For those wondering why the kit and not a RTR version then here are the differences..

kit comes with heavy duty universal axles up front, replacing the dogbones of the RTR version

kit comes with alloy lower chassis linkages rather than the plastic items of the RTR (uppers are plastic in both cases)

kit comes with sticky R35 compound tyres, rather then the harder compound RTR version

kit is typically £70 cheaper because you forego the servo (not man enough for rock crawling), the AE-2 brushed ESC, 20T brushed motor and the radio gear.

the RTR powerplant isn;t too bad in fairness, but for crawling duties its too quick and for diehard speed freaks its too slow.

The kit supplied wheels and tyres will feature on ebay in the near future, I have no use for them on this build :D My choice of wheels and tyres have already been lost by UKMail so I'm waiting on Modelsport restocking and resending them this week (thumbs up to MS who were excellent about the loss)

The same with the Axial kit supplied shocks - those are being replaced by Gmade Team Zero items (thank you RCMart)

I have already ordered quite a few other aftermarket hop-up parts, as my direction with this build will necessitate beefing up certain areas, but as most are being sourced from the US (HRMC will have a import duty field day :( ).

So the next couple of weeks will hopefully see all the parts arriving and the start of the build process.

Stay tuned ;)

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Awaiting pics anxiously :D

I was considering an RC4wd Trailfinder 2 for my next project. Closest thing to a Hi-lift, for much less money.

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Well the kit is with Parcelforce now so tomorrow or Wednesday will be delivery time :D

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It'll be interesting to read your opinion of the Gmade Team Zero dampers. I tried them in my CR01 build and wasn't particularly happy with the lack of bladder, O-ring leakage, and cartridge design. They mostly work because they're inverted on the CR01, but with standard orientation I'm not sure...

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I'm looking forward to seeing how it builds up. I bought my Wraith 2nd hand and it had a lot of good (and not so good) mods already fitted so I didn't quite get the full experience.

Some of the better mods that work well are moving the battery forward with a hinged bonnet for better weight distribution. Mine also came with a chassis mounted servo that improves the scale look a lot. There's also plenty of room for a driver figure :)

If you're not using them Percymon I'd be interested in buying the kit shocks and maybe the wheels & tyres off you. Mine are pretty much knackered.

Good luck with the build, can't wait to see the pics :)

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Thanks for the heads up Paul - better think about some different o-rings by the sounds of it (I noticed last night that two of the Gmade xD piggybacks on my mod clod are leaking as well just sat on the shelf). I have some silicon TRF seals in the spares box, might even have some x seals there too ;)

Mr Crispy - I'm planning on the battery forward and hinged hood mods, albeit I think I'll be running fairly light small capacity packs so not too much advantage of weight shift (it all helps though ;) ). I'll also be flipping the lower mount over to reduce ride height a little.

Plenty of other mods too - what ESC/motor are you using?

I'll PM you about the unused parts later in the week ;)

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Lots of Axial love! The kits don't smell as nice as a fresh Tamiya model though.

What made you choose a Wraith over a SCX10? When I was researching, the Wraith seemed like more of a hooligan, and better suited to a beefy motor and a turn of speed over some fun rooty ground (not that it's a bad thing :) )

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Will be following this with interest. The two Axial kits I've built have both been pretty good (SCX10 & Exo). The manuals aren't quite up to Tamiya standard but they're more than good enough to work from. The Wraith has nearly tempted me a couple of times so it would be great to get some detailed feedback on it.

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Lots of Axial love! The kits don't smell as nice as a fresh Tamiya model though.

Well the box is a bit bigger than I thought it would be (on par with a Hotshot one) and the bundled parts bags are tough polythene. No plastic smell as such but most parts seem to be tough reinforced plastics.

What made you choose a Wraith over a SCX10? When I was researching, the Wraith seemed like more of a hooligan, and better suited to a beefy motor and a turn of speed over some fun rooty ground (not that it's a bad thing :) )

Without giving too much away, you've pretty much explained it ;). Plus the wraith kit at £240 delivered was very good value IMO

http://www.modellbau-berlinski.de/Shop/tabid/78/RC-Cars-Elektro/Crawler/Wraith-Kit-110th-Scale-Electric-4WD-Rock-Racer-AX90020.aspx

Will be following this with interest. The two Axial kits I've built have both been pretty good (SCX10 & Exo). The manuals aren't quite up to Tamiya standard but they're more than good enough to work from. The Wraith has nearly tempted me a couple of times so it would be great to get some detailed feedback on it.

Agreed the manuals aren't as good as Tamiya, too much referencing back to the sprue diagrams at the start of the manual, and the very similar shade of grey on the schematics aren't clear either. After rebuilding an EXO (just body parts still to paint) I know what I'm up against ;)

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Agreed on the manuals, better than some I've used but Tamiya rules for completeness and clarity :)

If nothing else the battery forward mod will at least get the weight away from the absolutely worst place you could have it... namely high up at the rear! (It's like riding a motorbike with a fat pillion on the back) The Twin Hammers is the same. I don't know why experienced RC companies do this poor thought out design especially in what is advertised as a fast, rock racer. It just encourages rollovers.

Battery forward and flipping the axle shock mounts gives you a much better COG and it'll start behaving like a rock crawler and retain a lot of articulation. ATM I'm still running a 35T motor in my Wraith in an attempt to keep pace with my Twin Hammers earlier this year. But now I've got the SCX10 at trail speeds I'm probably going to swap it over for something a bit slower like a 55-65T. It's fun fast but I prefer the trail/crawler pace these days :D

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Just a couple weeks ago I pulled my Wraith kit off the shelf and started putting it together. Just the axles so far. I've had the kit for over a year, and could never get a plan together.

Not a big fan of crawling, but I do like the CKRC Blazer and Bronco bodies. From watchingTop Truck videos, I knew the scx10 is tough, so I'm not worried about the Wraith if left mostly stock. But then I saw the CPE Barbarian. But then expensive mods are needed. It's bad enough my Clod is gonna be a $1200+ build.

Looking forward to this build. Maybe I'll be inspired to take a direction with mine

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ATM I'm still running a 35T motor in my Wraith in an attempt to keep pace with my Twin Hammers earlier this year. But now I've got the SCX10 at trail speeds I'm probably going to swap it over for something a bit slower like a 55-65T. It's fun fast but I prefer the trail/crawler pace these days :D

That's interesting, you must be crawling :)

reading other forums it's looking like I need at least 3S lipo and a decent brushless motor where I'm heading :rolleyes:

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...(It's like riding a motorbike with a fat pillion on the back)...

Genius comment :D

As all the Axial boys are hanging out in this thread, have any of you seen/tried the two speed gear box that's available from RC4WD

http://store.rc4wd.com/AX2-2-Speed-Transmission-for-Axial-Wraith-SCX10Honcho_p_2463.html

I'm thinking that the SCX10 (when I finish it...) will be a great climber, but given I like to build my runners for speed, probably not good at covering ground at pace. Wondered if this would improve things.

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Nice full box there :)

Zombioded - I've been wondering about those 2 speed transmissions for a while now. I've not been able to find any reviews in regards to how well they perform but I know their ratios are a lot more useable than the Twin Hammers. The low gear is a little slower than standard Wraith/SCX10 set up and the high gear is something like 4x faster!

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Nice full box there :)

Zombioded - I've been wondering about those 2 speed transmissions for a while now. I've not been able to find any reviews in regards to how well they perform but I know their ratios are a lot more useable than the Twin Hammers. The low gear is a little slower than standard Wraith/SCX10 set up and the high gear is something like 4x faster!

another option is to run a crawler biased brushless system on 2S , but add a second battery to use on 4S when a bit of pace is required

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I've looked into the RC4WD trans, but if I get the CPE Barbarian chassis, there won't be anything left of the original kit. Like building a mod Clod.

But yeah, I'm sure I'll get it. :)

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I've looked into the RC4WD trans, but if I get the CPE Barbarian chassis, there won't be anything left of the original kit. Like building a mod Clod.

But yeah, I'm sure I'll get it. :)

**** you! I want to do this project next! Been googling around the CPE Barbarian chassis and there are some lovely builds. Please share your experiences with us, and pop in Willy driver to justify it's existence on this site :)

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I ordered what I hope are the final parts for my ''initial'' build this morning - HPI 86014 bevel gears to convert the front axle to a geared diff, rather than using the kit supplied alloy locker. I won't be rock crawling this Wraith, so the front gear diff should give me improved steering and possibly better control at speed.

All parts are now on route, some from HK, some from the UK and some from USA - with luck, next week will be a premium postie week, and I can then get cracking :D

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Watching this build with interest.

I have a stock built wraith, that needs a rebuild , so will be interested in seeing the modification/ hop ups.

With the battery in the rear I found it likes to roll over at any high speed.

I think mine has a crawler motor in it now, as I got fed up of putting it back on its wheels after roll overs.

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Well a week on and most of the parts are here, but unfortunately I'm waiting on a few key ones :angry:

I can't even build the shocks, still waiting on a variety of different seals from Banzai - and I will be lucky to see them this week really.

I'm chomping at the bit to get going - all this waiting is giving me extra time to read more forums and buy more upgrades :(

I've even started drafting the text for the steps in the build lol!

Coming soon.....

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Before you start the build, get hold of some button head and socket head M3 screws youse in place of the kits self tappers, particularly on the axles as they will work loose and fall out pretty quickly.

Beef tubes in the axles help a lot too, not only adding strength but a bit of weight down low too, I made mine from brass rod with a drill, some round files and an m3 tap for the C-hub screws. Next time I'll buy them as filing the grooves for the lower suspension mount screws is a right pain.

When you build the front diff, if you get the seal set for the Exo, you can play with the oil weights to get the right feel for how tight or loose you want it.

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