Lightly Modded TXT-2 Agrios

[Sciflyer]

Thought i might as well put this up, managed to grab one of these NiB last year. Its been a long but enjoyable build though the bit i hate (painting the body) is still to come.

Inspired by some of the builds on here there were some must-do mods to make this a really nice-looking truck. Full ball bearings of course, and twin UGT 24T motors with steel pinions. Hobbywing WP-880 dual motor ESC for simplicity.

Removed the black anodizing from the side plates and suspension links, looks way better. I used the Xtreme Juggernaut steering servo mounts front and rear. These were a bit tricky to fit, i think i must have assembled the axle/servo assemblies 5 times before i got it right, as the steering rods will hit the suspension arms if not done right.

In the end theres just enough clearance, i had to slightly bend the link rod to clear the servo horn and didnt run a servo saver as there wasnt room, whatever, these are $20 servos so....  Put black heatshrink tubing over the servo cables so it looks better.

Same setup for the rear and i tested it and it all works well. Looks so much better than the factory setup.

 

[Sciflyer]

Of course the axle bumpers were removed and the mounts trimmed off, i may paint the remaining parts of the mounts to tidy them up a bit.

The stock shocks are pretty cheap and nasty (probably because theres 8 of them), the Tamiya optional metal shocks were ruled out because they are just ridiculously expensive so i got some Yeah Racing Desert Lizards, these are a reasonably-priced, internally sprung damper unit that looks good and they come with a bunch of different springs and internal setups. The goal is to get a truck with proper suspension articulation unlike the usual Tamiya setups that are way too stiff and barely move.

[Sciflyer]

Of course the stock wheels had to go, again following some of the great builds on here i went for a JConcepts wheel/tyre combo, unfortunately i picked the Ranger/Midwest combo 2.2s which i was happy with to start with but then after i while I realised they were a bit too small

so after i found out i could fit these to my King Blackfoot.... (which required a slight body lift)

... i then went and ordered a set of Tribute/Firestorms in Clod 2.6 size.

 

[tamiya_1971]

Looks great! I regret not getting one of these four years ago when they were NIB for around $400. 

[Mouc-RC]

Nice! Very clean build indeed, light mods do more than you'd expect, sometimes

Behind-the-axle steering is a must for sure, but not so easy to do, I agree.

Will you go box-art for the body? Mine was 2nd hand, but if had to start from zero like you, I'd try a Baja scheme like Ivan Stewarts Toyota trucks.

 

 

[Nikko85]

I found out recently that the Agrios was based on the Bigfoot 18, so that could be an option to paint?

[Sciflyer]

Yeah im not a huge fan of the box art so i dont think i will follow it. I just looked up pics of Bigfoot 18 and its not bad, maybe thats the way to go

[Mad Ax]

Nice build so far, there's nice attention to detail in this one.

The Desert Lizards are a great looking shock but when I got mine, they still had a lot of swarf and grime inside from the manufacturing process.  Probably a good idea to squirt them out with some break cleaner or something before you run them properly, I had to think what that swarf does to the rubber seals and pistons.

[Sciflyer]

Wheels arrived and i cut out the body ready for cleaning/painting

 

I also decided to remove the excess axle bumper mounting i had left, from looking at the various builds here it looks cleaner. I also completely re-did the steering, now so that the servo horn is right behind the axle. This is a more compact setup and doesn't have the servo horn sticking out between the bottom suspension links. It did require me to get a bit creative with the shape of the steering link rod for clearance though. but it all worked in the end

Just need to decide if I'm going to paint the wheels, glue the tyres then finish the body and its finally done!

[Mouc-RC]

Jconcepts rims & tires really look the part!

Clean & cool steering setup. I think I prefer the horizontal setup I did (also did @87lc2), but I think it would be an even cooler configuration with a low profile servo.

[Sciflyer]

Yes i think a horizontal servo setup is simpler and better, if i was to build another one i would put in the extra effort to make the mounts for it

But this still works so 

[Sciflyer]

I got a bit annoyed when i came to glue the tyres

I noticed before that one of them was not a good fit on the wheel, its like it was slightly stretched, you can see it in one of the pics above

I think maybe it was a manufacturing defect, i thought once i glue it if i can get it to seal on the rim it will be fine, but no. All that happened was after i had put glue around the rim and tried to manipulate the tyre to fit properly it just ended up spreading the glue everywhere and making a mess 

I didnt have any issues with the other 3 tyres so i think there was something wrong with this one. Oh well cant do much about it now but you can clearly see it is not seating properly on the rim 

I also re-did the electronics, wasnt happy with the mess of wires so i cut the motor wires off and soldered the ESC wires direct. They were a bit short so i had to move the ESC forward but now everything is much neater

[Saito2]

3 hours ago, Sciflyer said:

got a bit annoyed when i came to glue the tyres

I noticed before that one of them was not a good fit on the wheel, its like it was slightly stretched, you can see it in one of the pics above

When I bought the Midwest/Ranger whee/tire combo a couple years back I ran into the same problem with all 4. The tires just rocked on the rim like their ID was too big for the wheel. It was a disappointing, wasteful and expensive endeavor. The wheels wound up on another project fortunately, but the tires were a waste. To this day, it put me off from buying Jconcepts tires because I don't want to risk wasting the money. Sorry to hear it happened to you too.

[Sciflyer]

well in a way it’s good to know someone else had the same problem so i know it wasn’t something i did

[Mouc-RC]

Sorry to hear about your Firestorms problem. Recently bought some Golden Years as you may know, 3 of them were a perfect fit on their rims, 1 had kind of an ovalization like yours, but much less. After 2 or 3 days on its rim, the internal diameter got back to normal. Until now I thought it was a non-permanent deformation due to bad stocking/shipping conditions, but after reading your experience...

Otherwise, I find that the tires work great on my TXT-2, thanks to the foams included. I didn't glue them, but with 2 Sport Tuned and 7,2volts NiMh, tire beads rarely slip from their groove (I prefer having to align them back than knowing I just can't disassemble them because of any glue - personal choice).

Good luck, well done with the wiring

[ROCA22]

Hi, your content is absolutely amazing and very helpful. I just paid a pretty penny for the Agrios brand new in a box shipped from Japan to me her in California. I love how you did a bumper delete and repositioned the servo. I would like to try that as well, but I do not know how to make my own custom servo mounts. Do you happen to sell your servo mounts that have been relocated to the back axles? Thank you in advance for your feedback.

[Sciflyer]

If you want the simpler horizontal mount servo then you need to make your own brackets

I bought the XtremeRC Racing Jugg/TXT mounts which bolt on and mount the servo vertically 

‘It’s just a little trickier to get the steering rods in a good position 

[Sciflyer]

So i think the problem with the JConcepts is related to the foam in the tyres

i think it’s cut slightly too big and so it is stretching the tyre and not allowing it to sit on the rim properly 

i’ve experimented with trimming the edges of the foam and also not running the white foam inserts in one of the wheels, it seems a bit better so i might try to re-do the bad wheel and see if i can get it better

[GTodd]

Great build! It's crazy how much money the Juggs, TXTs, and TXT2 demand.  I purchased a Jugg2 in the fall of 2023 (I need to finish that build thread!!!) and it was 650 minus the wheels and tires. 

I went a similar path with the shocks, bought 8 RC4wd internal spring shocks, they look great but there isn't enough dampening, truck still pogos a little , it's not as planted as my cold with 8 hicaps.

I didn't glue my wheels and tires for 2 reasons. 1 the Jugg wheel and tire are under rare and I don't want to ruin them, and 2 the spinning of the tires in the wheels add a kind of slipper clutch effect which will save your axles .

Looking fwd to the rest of this thread. Nice work!

[Heavy Duty TLT]

I hesitated on pulling the trigger on a TXT-2 six months ago or so, primarily because I didn’t have the funds at the time, but I could have just put it on my credit card…  😅  It was “only” $450 NIB, sigh…  😫

Could you maybe make a steering link similar to the LOSI LMT, where the steering arm is attached to the long link?  I 3D printed the steering links for my Juggernaut, i basically mimicked the JConcepts BTA steering link for the Clodbuster.

Something like this…

The skirt around it comes off, they’re just there to help the printed item adhere to the printer bed.  If I ever get a desktop CNC router I’d make them out of CF.

[Sciflyer]

Links that are angled at the end is good, but i dont think those arms would work as there is seriously no space between the servo and the axle for anything other than the stock rods

I think teh best solution is to horizontally mount the servo, that avoids these issues but then you have to make up your own brackets as there is nothing off the shelf

Actually just thinking about it, i wonder if you could use the Xtreme mounts to put the servo horizontal anyway just by drilling some holes and getting servo mount adaptors? hmmmm

[Heavy Duty TLT]

If you mount the servo on top instead of from underneath, would it hit the upper suspension links/arms?  Would it give you more space for the bottom suspension links?  You have seen the stock Juggernaut suspension links/arms right?  They’re wider than the round aluminum links that you’re using, and my steering links don’t hit the suspension arms.  Have you tried swapping the left and right steering knuckles to see which height is better?

[Sciflyer]

Yeah have tried with the steering knuckles in both positions. Also yes, the servo will be touching the upper sus links if mounted above the bracket instead of below (if you had a low-profile servo this could work though)

I should confirm, the way i have it now is perfectly fine, like it works no problem... but a different setup would be a lot simpler

[Heavy Duty TLT]

I'm sure you'll figure it out, there are so many great hobbyist in this forum alone, that I borrow their ideas.  I'm so jelly you have a TXT-2...  I regretfully passed on an opportunity to get one, NIB, for relatively cheap, but I didn't have the money at the time...     I should have just put it on my credit card...  

Ever thought of putting in brushless motors for longer run time?

I wonder if Tamiya went with the smaller wheels/tires combo, due to the Clod style ones being too big and they won't fit in the packaging...  

[Sciflyer]

I think the reason was to differentiate it from the Clod Buster