SCX10 III Raw?

[Mad Zero]

17 minutes ago, sosidge said:

Well I wouldn't buy a Vanquish for many reasons, and I wouldn't get the older Pro kit either:

1. No mainstream UK distribution. Reliant on a single shop in Northern Ireland or US imports.
2. Very expensive.
3. The older "Pro" kit is not the latest version of the platform.
4. I think they called the new version a "Phoenix" as a reference to them going pretty silent on the products front for a while. I'd be concerned about their long term future. Their wheels were probably a major money spinner and they've been ruthlessly copied by the Chinese.

If you want a performance scale crawler at a reasonable price with good UK support I'm sticking with my original suggestion of an Element Enduro. With GMade, Axial and Traxxas as runners up.

I had the same thoughts re UK support (although Modeltune have been pretty helpful thus far), I’m not bothered about how long a good kit has been about though. The Phoenix has a funky transmission but I’m not I overly fussed about it given they’re even harder to find & still very far away. I like the look of the GS02 Buffalo (without the blingy light bars) but I don’t know enough about Gmade yet, likewise the Enduro really. Axial I know about. Traxxas I’m not keen on as a company. What’s so good about the Enduro? That wasn’t meant to sound facetious btw I’d like to know lol. 

[Nobbi1977]

Based on this thread I got this

 

 

It will go with my TRX-4 and Wraith

[sosidge]

4 minutes ago, Mad Zero said:

I had the same thoughts re UK support (although Modeltune have been pretty helpful thus far), I’m not bothered about how long a good kit has been about though. The Phoenix has a funky transmission but I’m not I overly fussed about it given they’re even harder to find & still very far away. I like the look of the GS02 Buffalo (without the blingy light bars) but I don’t know enough about Gmade yet, likewise the Enduro really. Axial I know about. Traxxas I’m not keen on as a company. What’s so good about the Enduro? That wasn’t meant to sound facetious btw I’d like to know lol. 

It sounds like your sold on the Vanquish to be honest.

Enduro is good because it has the best dampers in the business, more steering lock than the competition, overdrive out of the box and a low centre of gravity. Basically it will navigate terrain out of the box that heavily upgraded crawlers struggle with. The only small weakness on the original versions is that they ride a little high, but that is rectified in the Gatekeeper, Ecto and Builders Kit 2.

[87lc2]

2 minutes ago, sosidge said:

It sounds like your sold on the Vanquish to be honest.

Enduro is good because it has the best dampers in the business, more steering lock than the competition, overdrive out of the box and a low centre of gravity. Basically it will navigate terrain out of the box that heavily upgraded crawlers struggle with. The only small weakness on the original versions is that they ride a little high, but that is rectified in the Gatekeeper, Ecto and Builders Kit 2.

Agreed, if I had to choose one right now it would be the Enduro Builder's Kit.  Cheap for what you get and really nice.  Definitely this over the SCX I'd say.  I love Axial and parts support is great, but the Element is a bit nicer.  TRX4 is on another level but only the full version with 2-speed and locking diffs.  Fun truck due to the features, but the Sport kit does nothing for me.  Not a huge fan of portals (they're cool but not really necessary) so without the extras the TRX Sport is overpirced.  

[Mad Zero]

6 minutes ago, sosidge said:

It sounds like your sold on the Vanquish to be honest.

Enduro is good because it has the best dampers in the business, more steering lock than the competition, overdrive out of the box and a low centre of gravity. Basically it will navigate terrain out of the box that heavily upgraded crawlers struggle with. The only small weakness on the original versions is that they ride a little high, but that is rectified in the Gatekeeper, Ecto and Builders Kit 2.

Well it’s all in the thread isn’t it, yes I was sold on it but I’ve bottled it  
 

Clearly I need to look at Element. Thanks. 

[Nobbi1977]

17 minutes ago, 87lc2 said:

Agreed, if I had to choose one right now it would be the Enduro Builder's Kit.  Cheap for what you get and really nice.  Definitely this over the SCX I'd say.  I love Axial and parts support is great, but the Element is a bit nicer.  TRX4 is on another level but only the full version with 2-speed and locking diffs.  Fun truck due to the features, but the Sport kit does nothing for me.  Not a huge fan of portals (they're cool but not really necessary) so without the extras the TRX Sport is overpirced.  

I had the full fat TRX-4 builders kit but I never built it. I read a lot of reports of people preferring the Sport due to the fact that most leave the diffs locked and the gearbox in low range all the time anyway. 
 

From watching YouTube it looks like they all have faults an need upgrades almost every hard run anyway 😂

[87lc2]

18 minutes ago, Nobbi1977 said:

I had the full fat TRX-4 builders kit but I never built it. I read a lot of reports of people preferring the Sport due to the fact that most leave the diffs locked and the gearbox in low range all the time anyway. 
 

From watching YouTube it looks like they all have faults an need upgrades almost every hard run anyway 😂

I guess if you're a comp crawler then you leave diffs locked and trans in low all the time, but for general trail/crawling/mud use the options are really nice.  I always start out with unlocked diffs and then lock them one at a time as needed to clear certain obstacles, makes the drive a bit more engaging.  You'd be suprised how well a TRX will crawl with open diffs...

To be honest I think a lot of the You Tube guys have no clue how to drive a crawler or take care of their things (most likely because they got them for free and have no attachment to them).  I don't really watch YT RC vids much, but I have seen the standard vids where a guys will run a TRX at full speed through a creek then jump it off a small cliff.  Who does that?  I honestly don't remember the last part I actually broke on any of my crawlers, and I'm out on the trails for a couple hours every single weekend.  If you use them as scale vehicles they're all great and very durable.  I even have that all metal China SCX10 knock-off crawler (got it for free from a supplier at work) and the only thing that has worn out on that were the crappy metal driveshafts, and that took a couple of years to do.

[Mad Zero]

51 minutes ago, Nobbi1977 said:

Based on this thread I got this

 

 

It will go with my TRX-4 and Wraith

Buffalo with anti-bling, nice one. 

[Nobbi1977]

9 hours ago, Mad Zero said:

Buffalo with anti-bling, nice one. 

All the “scale” bits get knocked off first roll anyway so I thought going minimalist would be good. My kids drive all my stuff so it is nice to let them attempt things without the fear of me screaming when it bounces back down 😂

[Mad Zero]

1 hour ago, Nobbi1977 said:

All the “scale” bits get knocked off first roll anyway so I thought going minimalist would be good. My kids drive all my stuff so it is nice to let them attempt things without the fear of me screaming when it bounces back down 😂

Yeah & it looks better without the chrome anyway. Nice stance with that body. 

[Mad Ax]

I recently build the older GS02 chassis, there's a thread about it here somewhere.  It was a fab build and a gorgeous truck and - the very best part - the included tyres are exceptionally good.  I back-to-backed them with the similar-sized Proline Hyrax tyres and found neither to be better than the other.  Given the Hyraxes are £60 for a set of 4 and on most other rigs the included tyres are about as much use as a chocolate fireguard, that makes the GS02 very good value for money.  If you get the blingy version of the Buffalo you get the same tyres, if you get the non-blingy military version you get different tyres.  I don't know how good they are.  When I priced it up (I was thinking about getting a Buffalo) it was more cost-effective to get the more expensive blingy one with the better tyres, then buy the non-blingy military parts to go on it.  I also like the roof rack on the Blingabuff, which you don't get on the military version.

My older GS02 is very strange to drive (the super-floppy cantilever shocks don't help) and it tends to fall over a lot on the trails.  I'll probably reduce the articulation and lower it when I get the chance.  Also the front-mounted battery tray and offset motor is all very neat, but gets in the way of stuff like winches - I ended up chopping a large part of mine up.  I think the newer GS02F is a more conventional setup and has cool stuff like arch liners, the Buffalo has conventional rear suspension so might be better-mannered, but I've heard that the GS02F BOM still has the same strange handling as the older model.

I've got an Enduro Builder's Kit 2 ready to build, it too is superb value for money and has loads of options for building, plus lots of modular parts are available.  I'll be doing a 6x6 build with it next year.  My LHS can order in a complete axle parts set for me.  I considered going 6x6 on the GS02 but acquiring all the individual parts for a 3rd axle was a lot more costly than the Element part set.  I've heard so many good things about it, I'm excited to get the build on.  I'm pretty sure it's heavily based on the original SCX10 but with some useful improvements over that old but effective design.

I also built an MST CFX-W last year, and that's a thing of beauty, both to build and to drive.  In standard trim it's a bit high, so it can roll over on steep sections, but it has portals so it can afford to lose some ride height.  Included tyres are more pants than a pants thing on national pants day.  Not sure if there are any UK MST suppliers, I get all my MST stuff from AsiaTees or RCMart (or drifted.nl for drift parts).

[Mad Zero]

1 hour ago, Mad Ax said:

I recently build the older GS02 chassis, there's a thread about it here somewhere.  It was a fab build and a gorgeous truck and - the very best part - the included tyres are exceptionally good.  I back-to-backed them with the similar-sized Proline Hyrax tyres and found neither to be better than the other.  Given the Hyraxes are £60 for a set of 4 and on most other rigs the included tyres are about as much use as a chocolate fireguard, that makes the GS02 very good value for money.  If you get the blingy version of the Buffalo you get the same tyres, if you get the non-blingy military version you get different tyres.  I don't know how good they are.  When I priced it up (I was thinking about getting a Buffalo) it was more cost-effective to get the more expensive blingy one with the better tyres, then buy the non-blingy military parts to go on it.  I also like the roof rack on the Blingabuff, which you don't get on the military version.

My older GS02 is very strange to drive (the super-floppy cantilever shocks don't help) and it tends to fall over a lot on the trails.  I'll probably reduce the articulation and lower it when I get the chance.  Also the front-mounted battery tray and offset motor is all very neat, but gets in the way of stuff like winches - I ended up chopping a large part of mine up.  I think the newer GS02F is a more conventional setup and has cool stuff like arch liners, the Buffalo has conventional rear suspension so might be better-mannered, but I've heard that the GS02F BOM still has the same strange handling as the older model.

I've got an Enduro Builder's Kit 2 ready to build, it too is superb value for money and has loads of options for building, plus lots of modular parts are available.  I'll be doing a 6x6 build with it next year.  My LHS can order in a complete axle parts set for me.  I considered going 6x6 on the GS02 but acquiring all the individual parts for a 3rd axle was a lot more costly than the Element part set.  I've heard so many good things about it, I'm excited to get the build on.  I'm pretty sure it's heavily based on the original SCX10 but with some useful improvements over that old but effective design.

I also built an MST CFX-W last year, and that's a thing of beauty, both to build and to drive.  In standard trim it's a bit high, so it can roll over on steep sections, but it has portals so it can afford to lose some ride height.  Included tyres are more pants than a pants thing on national pants day.  Not sure if there are any UK MST suppliers, I get all my MST stuff from AsiaTees or RCMart (or drifted.nl for drift parts).

Thanks for that chap, I decided to go with the Element BK2, a Sendero pickup body & some VS4-10 bumpers. I’ve not chosen the round squashy bits yet. I been looking at Fastrax Rockos (am offered a set NIP by a mate) but can’t find much written about them, they any good? 
As for the kit the Element will do what I want & once you eliminate the Vanquish (cost), & the SCX III (no RBK) it starts to stand out. Gmade had me distracted with the Buffalo but I did find comfort in Element’s AE connection, I had a bit to do with AE in my racing days & really admired those guys. I’ve read the Element plastic is that really glassy stuff they made the RC10 T4 & B4 etc from, if true that would be a good thing. 
Electrics will be the 1400Kv HW Axe R2 Foc combo I recently bought, a Power HD LW- 20MG servo & a pretend-Sanwa rx made by Chinese slave children. 
Thanks for all the advice & opinions, as always much appreciated.. drinks are on Sosidge. 

[Mad Ax]

10 minutes ago, Mad Zero said:

Thanks for that chap, I decided to go with the Element BK2, a Sendero pickup body & some VS4-10 bumpers. I’ve not chosen the round squashy bits yet. I been looking at Fastrax Rockos (am offered a set NIP by a mate) but can’t find much written about them, they any good? 
As for the kit the Element will do what I want & once you eliminate the Vanquish (cost), & the SCX III (no RBK) it starts to stand out. Gmade had me distracted with the Buffalo but I did find comfort in Element’s AE connection, I had a bit to do with AE in my racing days & really admired those guys. I’ve read the Element plastic is that really glassy stuff they made the RC10 T4 & B4 etc from, if true that would be a good thing. 
Electrics will be the 1400Kv HW Axe R2 Foc combo I recently bought, a Power HD LW- 20MG servo & a pretend-Sanwa rx made by Chinese slave children. 
Thanks for all the advice & opinions, as always much appreciated.. drinks are on Sosidge. 

Never used a Fastrax Rocko so can't help there, but it seems the world is starting to catch up with how Proline and RC4WD make their tyres - yesterday a set of Chinese tyres arrived from Amazon, 100mm 1.9s, Dick Cepek clones, very scale looking, super-sticky set of 4 with foams, £17 delivered.  Compare that to around £30 a pair for an RC4WD tyre and that's nearly a quarter of the price.  The downside is they may possibly be made from moulds stolen from one of the main brands (which is happening a lot in China right now).

If you have a chance to get up close and personal with the Fastrax tyres you can give them a squidge and see how soft and sticky they feel  

[sosidge]

2 hours ago, Mad Zero said:

Thanks for that chap, I decided to go with the Element BK2, a Sendero pickup body & some VS4-10 bumpers. I’ve not chosen the round squashy bits yet. I been looking at Fastrax Rockos (am offered a set NIP by a mate) but can’t find much written about them, they any good? 
As for the kit the Element will do what I want & once you eliminate the Vanquish (cost), & the SCX III (no RBK) it starts to stand out. Gmade had me distracted with the Buffalo but I did find comfort in Element’s AE connection, I had a bit to do with AE in my racing days & really admired those guys. I’ve read the Element plastic is that really glassy stuff they made the RC10 T4 & B4 etc from, if true that would be a good thing. 
Electrics will be the 1400Kv HW Axe R2 Foc combo I recently bought, a Power HD LW- 20MG servo & a pretend-Sanwa rx made by Chinese slave children. 
Thanks for all the advice & opinions, as always much appreciated.. drinks are on Sosidge. 

Fastrax Rockos are good, they are made by Louise RC, and also sold under the Duratrax brand, nice soft compound and really good in cold British weather. Fastrax label makes them a lot cheaper as well.

Glad to see you saw sense and went for the Enduro!

I think you'll find the 1400kv Axe a bit slow unless you go to 3s, or fit a really big pinion.

[Mad Zero]

47 minutes ago, sosidge said:

Fastrax Rockos are good, they are made by Louise RC, and also sold under the Duratrax brand, nice soft compound and really good in cold British weather. Fastrax label makes them a lot cheaper as well.

Glad to see you saw sense and went for the Enduro!

I think you'll find the 1400kv Axe a bit slow unless you go to 3s, or fit a really big pinion.

Oh good I’ll have them then, I have squidged the (mounted) tyres through the packet & they felt ok but couldn’t open them without buying them obviously.

Yes well the Element comes with a built in ‘Sosidge made me do it!’ excuse 

As for the Axe tbh that’s the reason I went with the 1400, previously I’ve gone middle range speed-wise with crawler setups but had to tame it with mucho expo & use barely any trigger so I’m thinking it will give me a broader throttle range. My Wraith isn’t too bad but with this I’m hoping for scale speeds & better control so I can drive it realistically. As you suggest though if it’s tooo slow I should be able to get around it by changing the battery or gearing. Suck it & see situation. 

[sosidge]

5 minutes ago, Mad Zero said:

Suck it & see situation. 

Yes I've gone the other way with my next build, 2100KV AXE and 3s LiPo. But if I lose that low end driveability I'll know to go back to something a bit milder.

[Nobbi1977]

10 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

yesterday a set of Chinese tyres arrived from Amazon, 100mm 1.9s, Dick Cepek clones, very scale looking, super-sticky set of 4 with foams, £17 delivered. 

Link?

[OldSchoolRC1]

Excellent choice! Just built this one, my second BK. Think you'll be quite impressed with it when complete. 

[Mad Zero]

1 hour ago, OldSchoolRC1 said:

Excellent choice! Just built this one, my second BK. Think you'll be quite impressed with it when complete. 

Nice looking machine. Thanks yes I hope so, it’s not the boxer-bulging lay awake at night truckgasm the Vanquish was but one must cut ones cloth etc.. All my crawlers have been either proper crawler crawlers or mod Clod/TLT type affairs so realistic trucks that crawl a bit are a new thing.  

[Mad Ax]

10 hours ago, Nobbi1977 said:

Link?

Sorry, was going to add one yesterday but was on the work laptop and didn't have access.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09B362BFH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'll do a proper review on my F150 tow truck thread early next week, but I can vouch they do mount on RC4WD wheels without too much hassle (actually the easiest tyres I got on those wheels) and the 100mm size is a bit of a guess, they are slightly over 100m which means they touch each other on my 6x6 setup, so I've either got to abort mission or space out the axles a bit more.

[Mad Zero]

So, there we go:

Bit embarrassing really, I’d literally just finished the ‘I might have accidentally bought a new kit’ conversation and a DPD van pulled in 

[Mad Zero]

On 12/3/2021 at 11:46 AM, sosidge said:

Fastrax Rockos are good, they are made by Louise RC, and also sold under the Duratrax brand, nice soft compound and really good in cold British weather. Fastrax label makes them a lot cheaper as well.

Glad to see you saw sense and went for the Enduro!

I think you'll find the 1400kv Axe a bit slow unless you go to 3s, or fit a really big pinion.

Gonna give those tyres a miss, the wheels they’re on are meh & the glueing is pretty messy. I was hoping I’d dodged the whole 1.9 tyre/wheel research thing because it bores me to tears but looks like I’ve no choice now. 

[Nobbi1977]

28 minutes ago, Mad Zero said:

Gonna give those tyres a miss, the wheels they’re on are meh & the glueing is pretty messy. I was hoping I’d dodged the whole 1.9 tyre/wheel research thing because it bores me to tears but looks like I’ve no choice now. 

The price of 1.9 research scares me. I can get a DT-03 for less than a good set of tyres 😢

[sosidge]

17 minutes ago, Mad Zero said:

Gonna give those tyres a miss, the wheels they’re on are meh & the glueing is pretty messy. I was hoping I’d dodged the whole 1.9 tyre/wheel research thing because it bores me to tears but looks like I’ve no choice now. 

100% avoid wheels that have been glued. Beadlocks are the way to go with crawlers, the tyres last forever so you don't want to glue them up to one wheel, also a set of heavy wheels are a great low-cost upgrade.

I agree it can get a bit confusing as there are a lot of options out there. For cheap beadlock wheels I'd suggest the Fastrax heavy weight wheels that are about £30 a set. Or you can get some "Chanquish" wheels from eBay/Aliexpress but there are several types out there that look similar and I'm not sure whether they are all as good as each other.

For tyres the Fastrax ones are still a good deal when new so I wouldn't rule them out (just make sure you are getting the Rockos or the other ones that are obviously the same as Duratrax). Otherwise Pro-line have always made a good tyre, I have Class 1 KM3s and Class 2 Krawlers in the G8 compound, you might even be bold enough to try the softer Predator compound (I know I will be trying them next).

Class 1/Class 2 (or even Class 0) is a decision worth making fairly early, the Sendero RTR comes with a tyre that is slightly under Class 2 size, Class 1 tyres can often look more scale (I have them on both of my current runners), Class 0 can look even more scale with the right body. Worth having a look at photo galleries of what others have done to get the proportions right. Once you've trimmed your arches for good clearance with Class 2, a Class 1 tyre can look a bit lost.

The bigger tyres go over more stuff, although do give a slightly higher CofG which can make the truck more unstable. Most people go to a Class 2 tyre as the default choice for actual trailing/crawling but Class 1 is becoming more popular, my class 1 trucks have always been surprisingly good.

[Mad Zero]

9 minutes ago, Nobbi1977 said:

The price of 1.9 research scares me. I can get a DT-03 for less than a good set of tyres 😢

I hear you bro

7 minutes ago, sosidge said:

100% avoid wheels that have been glued. Beadlocks are the way to go with crawlers, the tyres last forever so you don't want to glue them up to one wheel, also a set of heavy wheels are a great low-cost upgrade.

I agree it can get a bit confusing as there are a lot of options out there. For cheap beadlock wheels I'd suggest the Fastrax heavy weight wheels that are about £30 a set. Or you can get some "Chanquish" wheels from eBay/Aliexpress but there are several types out there that look similar and I'm not sure whether they are all as good as each other.

For tyres the Fastrax ones are still a good deal when new so I wouldn't rule them out (just make sure you are getting the Rockos or the other ones that are obviously the same as Duratrax). Otherwise Pro-line have always made a good tyre, I have Class 1 KM3s and Class 2 Krawlers in the G8 compound, you might even be bold enough to try the softer Predator compound (I know I will be trying them next).

Class 1/Class 2 (or even Class 0) is a decision worth making fairly early, the Sendero RTR comes with a tyre that is slightly under Class 2 size, Class 1 tyres can often look more scale (I have them on both of my current runners), Class 0 can look even more scale with the right body. Worth having a look at photo galleries of what others have done to get the proportions right. Once you've trimmed your arches for good clearance with Class 2, a Class 1 tyre can look a bit lost.

The bigger tyres go over more stuff, although do give a slightly higher CofG which can make the truck more unstable. Most people go to a Class 2 tyre as the default choice for actual trailing/crawling but Class 1 is becoming more popular, my class 1 trucks have always been surprisingly good.

Soft sticky Vanquish VXT type tyres (fairly scale looking & not too wide) on pressed steel beadlocks which require minimal trimming to the Sendero (pickup) body. That’s the brief. Doable?