Southern Scale Trail, April 2022

[Mad Ax]

This year's outdoor event season kicked off with an open day at the local quarry.  Billed as the Southern Scale Trail, this isn't the main event that takes place in September, but an open quarry day at the same venue and organised by the same team.  No gates, no courses - there was a small competition for a limited number of entrants, but otherwise it was a case of turn up, throw in a battery and go crawling.

The day began with a quick bash with the MTX-1 - more details in this thread: MST MTX-1 - but essentially it ran really well on 3S despite the tyres constantly coming off the wheels, and it survived a ridiculously high jump.  Sadly no photos as I was busy driving at the time.

Then we grabbed the trucks and went for a cruise through the woods.  I started with the MST CFW-W, with its new lower 70mm shocks, and my crawling buddy had his F150-bodied TRX-4.  With no set courses to follow it was a quick and easy cruise through the woods.

 

[Mad Ax]

It looks like I was going for some romantic flashback-style photography here, but in actual fact it was around this time that I discovered my lens was covered in smoosh, which I wiped off with my T-shirt.

[Mad Ax]

[Mad Ax]

After that we went back to the van and cooked up some sausage and egg rolls, perfect fuel for a day on the trails, talked nonsense for a bit, inspected some sales (a guy was selling a running Bullhead with electrics and radio for £160 - I'd not long made the payment for the LMT-10 which has been stuck in LA since 2 days before this event started, so I didn't buy it - now I'm wondering what to do with the refund I'll likely get for my missing LMT-1...), then battery'd up the BOM for another run.

What follows is basically hundreds of photos of it, because it's just so photogenic.

[Mad Ax]

[Mad Ax]

[Mad Ax]

After the little comps were over, we were able to get on the courses and have a quick challenge through the gates, before packing up and heading home in time for pizza and beers.

[Mad Ax]

[Badcrumble]

Looks like a grand day out. I hope to get there one day!

[Mad Ax]

Always a grand day out at the SST, @Badcrumble, although the September event is better because it has marked trails.  This year's event will be better still because it's two days with camping.  It's a real shame it landed same weekend as Revival, and was announced after I'd already placed my Revival entry.  I could have restricted my Revival choice to the earlier July event.

[Tamiyastef]

What a nice spot to enjoy some crawling! Some thoughts and questions. That BOM of yours looks very photogenic, much more than I thought it would. Your CFX-W doesn't seem to have that notoriuos negative camber on the front. Is it just the pictures or did you do something to sort that out? The f-150 looks so much better than the "naked" defender you pictured, it's hard to believe they are the same except for the body. Any idea where you got the black hooks you have on the red tow rope in the back of your BOM? 

[87lc2]

Somehow I missed this thread.  Awesome shots!  Looks like a great day all around.  Thanks for posting the photos, I love seeing this.  Still in love with that Carisma 76 F100 body, I need to mke a Bigfoot out of that body one of these days.  Unfortunately I can only get them from overseas and shipping is as much or more than the body...

Thanks again for posting, love seeing these.  

[Mad Ax]

On 4/30/2022 at 9:08 AM, Tamiyastef said:

Your CFX-W doesn't seem to have that notoriuos negative camber on the front. Is it just the pictures or did you do something to sort that out? The f-150 looks so much better than the "naked" defender you pictured, it's hard to believe they are the same except for the body. Any idea where you got the black hooks you have on the red tow rope in the back of your BOM? 

The CFX-W is standard apart from shorter shocks, it still has the crazy camber.  It must just be the angle of the photos.  I don't find the camber an issue, I think it's a side-hilling thing, it's certainly better at side-hilling than the BOM (which seriously just likes to flop upside down like a deranged collie).

The black hooks came attached to the red tow rope, which I got at the Scaler Nationals a few years back.  It's quite possible an Overland RC tow rope, they stock quite a lot of tow ropes as well as shackles to go on them.

https://www.overlandrc.co.uk/product-page/black-clasp