Southern Scale Trail 2021

[Mad Ax 9325]

Blink and you miss it!  After a crazy year, the vintage racing season is suddenly over.  But as one door closes so another opens, this time in the form of the autumn crawling season.  This year it opens in style with the Southern Scale Trail - a new national-level event, now in its second year, based in a quarry just 30 minutes drive from my house.  Don't get me wrong, I love my road trips and my long weekends camping, but with fuel prices skyrocketing and so many miles already under my wheels this year, it was nice to have something local.  I didn't have to leave home until 7:30 and I was back in time to say goodnight to my daughter.

Of course the reason for this thread is the bit in between, which we call the scaley crawley bit.  This bit usually involves traipsing around knee-deep in mud rescuing stuck trucks from swamps before the receivers burn out, but even the notoriously fickle English weather was kind to us, and it stayed dry for the entire event.  Not that it really matters - I've always held that trailing in the wet is just as fun as trailing in the dry, but it's nice to not have to clean three pairs of boots, two pairs of jeans, several pairs of socks, air out two sodden raincoats and soak the transmitters in a bowl of uncooked rice for two days to get all the moisture out.

I arrive bright an early, just after the gates opened at 8:30, to a car park that was already filling up.  I had time to get out my camping table, set out my rigs, unpack my batteries and transmitters, buy some raffle tickets and even grab myself a bacon and egg roll before my trail buddies turned up.  Joining me for the day would be my long-time local buddy Nick, driving a full-fat TRX-4 with an oldskool Ford body by Carisma, and his brother Haden with his TRX-4 Defender.  We quickly loaded our batteries, filled the rucksack with tools and headed off for the first trail.  Since my CFX-W hadn't had a proper outing on a tough trail yet, and also had a winch fitted, I decided it should be my first ride of the day.

Which lasted as far as gate 2 on the first course, when it decided to snap a propshaft.

 

[Mad Ax 9325]

Leaving my buddies to tackle (or, more accurately, go around) the tricky gate 2, I ran back to the van to swap a pack into the BOM.  I didn't even give Gate 2 a second attempt, and picked up the trail at gate 7.

[Mad Ax 9325]

The light makes it hard to see, but there are little gate flags all over this lunar landscape.

It was around this time that I noticed the BOM's steering was a bit floppy.  As the truck is 99% stock, I figured it had to be a weak servo saver and decided not to worry about it.  A moment later the Tx started warning me of low voltage at the receiver.  That blatantly shouldn't be a thing since I was running a 4250mAh 3S LiPo and 7.4V BEC, the receiver was in a waterproof case and we hadn't even been through any water yet.  I spent 10 minutes stripping open the box to get to the Rx, but still couldn't make heads or tails of the problem.  And then I touched the steering servo.  And yelped.  It was red hot.

Turns out something had moved internally, it was off the end of its adjustment but couldn't turn back, so it was stalling and overheating, drawing all available power from the BEC.  Fortunately it hadn't killed the receiver (those FlySky units are much tougher than they look) but there was no fixing this rig trail-side, so once again I was back to the van to get my last running rig.  We weren't even 30 gates into the first course  

Next rig out to play was the trusty old SCX10, which has never let me down on a trail in all the years I've owned it.  I didn't get any pics of this stage as I picked up where I left off on the trail and was playing catch-up to Nick and Haden who had gone ahead without me, Grand Tour style.

[Mad Ax 9325]

Pretty soon we came to the indoorsy bit, with lots of hand-crafted scaley bits.

Then we were back outside, where the trail took us up and over an APC.

Yes, you read that right.  An APC.

How.  Cool.  Is.  That.

[Mad Ax 9325]

When we saw some actual wildlife.  We don't have coyotes or bears or dire wolves in England but we do have these.

Then I drove over a tyre

[Mad Ax 9325]

Course complete, it was off to the trade stalls to grab a new servo, then back to the van to repair the BOM

Before we hit another trail, this one taking us around a dustier, less rocky part of the quarry

 

[Mad Ax 9325]

After that, yet another course, this one with around 200 gates*, took us in under the trees for a dark woodland session.  Sadly I hadn't had time to wire up the LEDs on the BOM yet.

*I don't know exactly how many there were, for reasons that will be revealed

This is the notorious Gate 13, which despite not being the 13th gate on the course, deserved its name.  I might have made it up if I'd had a winch on the BOM - definitely something to remember for next time!

With the horror of Gate 13 behind us, we found ourselves back in the woods once more for a very tricky section.  The climb wasn't that bad, but then there was some side-hilling to do over the tree root at the very top, which virtually nobody got over safely (the CFX-W might have excelled here...)

 

[Mad Ax 9325]

It wasn't long after this that I started having more problems with the BOM.  That servo saver that I'd worried about on course 1 wasn't actually a servo saver at all, it was a plastic servo horn, and the day's crashes and rolls and hard steering had taken its toll on the splines.  With no steering to speak of, I sulked off yet again to the trade stalls to buy an alloy horn.

Back at the van, I decided not to repair the BOM after all, but swapped a propshaft off the SCX10 and onto the CFX-W so it could get a proper run.  At this point we also picked up some burgers from the food van and had a wander around the trade stalls, and wept over our raffle tickets in dismay when we found we hadn't won anything.

We found one more trail to play on in a gravelly part of the quarry.  This one was a bit of a milk-run compared to the others, but after so many crashes and rolls in the woods section it was nice to have a relaxing end to the day.  My feet were pretty much done by this point, the sun was shining and the conversation was good, so I didn't want anything too tricky.

This wasn't technically part of the course - I just wanted to see how high I could get

[Mad Ax 9325]

So, what have I learned?  With the Scaler Nationals less than a month away, this was a good chance to test out the weak points on the rigs.  It's one thing to break all 3 trucks when you're 30 mins from home, another entirely when you're 3 hours away.

Rig of the day: SCX10.  I've had it for years, it's got bare-minimal upgrades (Proline tyres and beadlock wheels, transverse battery, front winch), it's gone to every scale event I've done, it's rolled down more hillsides than the Peak District Zorbing Champion, it's still on its original transmission and gearbox and it's never done any worse than jam a cheap winch on the trails.  It's a true diamond.

Most capable rig: probably the CFX-W.  I wish I'd had a chance to run it over some of the tougher terrain where the others struggled.  It's incredibly smooth and quiet - after a couple of hours with the BOM, the CFX-W felt like it was driving on velvet.  And very stable, too.  The extreme camber on the axles looks weird, but it seems to work for side-hilling.  There wasn't anything it couldn't do, and I didn't have to break the winch out at all.  I really have to upgrade those props to something tougher and get it out on a proper tough course at the Nats next month.

Most room for improvement: GMade BOM.  I'm not going to say it was a disappointment - it's a very capable rig, and what it does well, it does very well indeed, but it was easily the weakest in stock trim.

First problem is those rear shocks.  Dang, are they ever soft!  I don't know what terrain the GMade development drivers were driving over, but if you try to side-hill it at all, the torque twist just throws it into a barrel roll.  In fairness, I had installed the shocks with minimum preload, and after I'd wound in as much as I could (the cantilever design isn't easily accessible on the trail) it got a lot better, but it still needs more damping.  I'll try some thicker oil.  I know a lot of people ditch the cantilever setup entirely but I love the cage back look.

Second is the weight distribution.  Motor and battery are both installed up front, so it's very front heavy.  That makes it excellent at climbing - it probably climbed the best out of any of my rigs, it constantly outperformed itself and surprised the TRX-4 drivers by dancing its way up slopes they were back-flipping on.  But, as soon as I showed it a descent, it front-flipped its way to the bottom.  Adjusting the drag brake might have helped, but ultimately it's just way out of balance.  I think the solution is to relocate the battery to the floor section to centralise and lower the CoG.

Stock tyres are really, really good.  I was amazed.  The first time I drove it, I expected to give up after a few gates and go fit the Hyraxes off the CFX-W, but the tyres did everything that was asked of them.  Mud, rock, even grass, they just dug in and got to work.

Which is what I've got to do to be ready for the Nationals.  The BOM needs all that work doing, plus LEDs and a winch fitting and the fuel tank painting (there's scope for adding some lead in there to even out the weight), the CFX-W needs new propshafts and some winch hooks on the rear so I can help my trail buddies without having to turn it around on the trails, and the SCX10 needs stiffer springs on the back to deal with all the extra weight from the spare wheel.  Ideally they all need my new Arduino Winch Controller installing so I can operate front and rear winches, switch to one-handed driving mode for taking photos, and operate the lights from the transmitter, but I really don't think it's going to happen in the next few weeks.

If you enjoyed the thread and want more photos there are a few here:

http://tcphotos.net/album/RAMn

Until the Nationals - stay gripped, stay sorted, and let's off road!

[Nikko85 3454]

sounds like a great day, and excellent storytelling. I always like the way you weave a tale from your rc adventures.

[87lc2 2666]

Excellent thread, thanks for posting!  

[sosidge 624]

Interesting that you stripped the servo horn on your BOM. I was at the SST on the Sunday with my family and the exact same thing happened to my Komodo-fied GS02F! Fortunately one of the on-site sellers had an aluminium horn for a very reasonable price so the truck could carry on. Unfortunately the GMade missed out on half of the Woodland course because of the breakage.

As well as the GMade we had an Element Enduro and an HG P402. The Element was the most impressive performer despite running on small Class 1 tyres. The HG has loads of limitations as an out of the box RTR, but it got round most of the smaller obstacles eventually, and at least it didn't break.

The Komodo-fied GS02F was the biggest disappointment, despite having what I expected to be the "best" tyres, and despite having conventional rear suspension, it was still surprisingly unstable, and would roll on routes that the Element would get through easily. I have some thoughts about the causes but surprised it was so poor on the day when it had been so good until then.

Was a great selection of routes that the organisers set up. We only did three of them. I actually preferred the gentler routes, the woodland route was exhausting!

[Mad Ax 9325]

Yes, I was surprised by how poor the BOM was out the box.  I think a lot can be fixed by moving weight around and adjusting the rear shocks, but as I'd heard so many good things I expected a lot more.  In many ways I prefer it to the CFX-W but I think the MST will win me over with its smoothness and instant performance.  It's interesting to hear the GS-02F suffers the same even with conventional rear suspension.  I'd have thought the later chassis would have solved some of these issues.  I was considering getting a Buffalo later this year, as I really love the body, but maybe I'll throw the money into improving the BOM instead.  I think one of the problems is the TTS - although it helps keep the wheels from lifting when climbing, I think in some cases it might make things worse.  Maybe I'm imagining it but sometimes it literally felt like applying throttle was making the truck roll on its side if it was on any kind of side hill.  I put most of that down to the really floppy rear end.  Perhaps reducing the rear articulation might help.

As for out-the-box performance, the kit tyres that come with the CFX-W are utterly appalling, it wouldn't even climb the easiest part of my home course when I tried it out the box last year winter.  It needed a set of Proline Hyraxes to unleash its potential.  I'm really excited about putting it on some tougher courses this year.

I think the course down by the car park (which started with the old concrete staircase) was a real punisher.  It was the staircase that snapped my CFX prop, and it wasn't far after that when the BOM servo jammed and overheated.  My friend's TRX-4 Defender also overheated its servo just after the section with all the big chunks of rock, I was really surprised I managed to get over that with my SCX10 as it has the lowest ground clearance of all.  I expect that's what put a lot of servos under strain, with wheels getting jammed in crevices with all the weight of the chassis and the torque of the servo going through the steering components.  I'm almost surprised I didn't break more there.

The woodland section was hard, but the soft ground helps a lot to absorb the impacts and reduce the damage.

Will you be at the Scaler Nats, @sosidge ?

[sosidge 624]

No I don't think I'll be at the Scaler Nationals, quite a long journey/commitment.

Interesting that you mention the TTS,  maybe it does put some unusual forces through the truck on the side hills. 

I've tried everything you can do with the BOM rear end and I think the standard parts with the stiffest anti-roll bar are best, but it is still "floppy" at the limit, The Komodo is much more controlled.

[87lc2 2666]

Is tis the event you attended - https://www.bigsquidrc.com/2021-southern-scale-trail-event-breaks-records-in-the-uk/

Didn't realize it was that big, pretty cool. 

[Grumpy pants 4485]

Brilliant thread, lots of information, feedback and photos 👍

Thank you 

[Mad Ax 9325]

On 9/24/2021 at 7:48 PM, 87lc2 said:

Is tis the event you attended - https://www.bigsquidrc.com/2021-southern-scale-trail-event-breaks-records-in-the-uk/

Didn't realize it was that big, pretty cool. 

yes, that's the one!  I have to admit, it didn't feel like there were 600 people there.  I think the Revival has around half that number and that feels busier, but then again circuit racing in a single field always feels busier than crawling in an open space.

The trails were long enough that I suppose you could lose a few hundred people spread across the site, plus there were a lot of people who just did Sat or Sun and not both (myself included), so I doubt there were actually 600 people on site at one time.  Still, it was a spectacular event, very well organised and thought-out and fantastic to have something like that on my doorstep.

As for the "largest RC event in the UK this year" - I don't know if that covers all RC or just land surface, I expect some of the RC air shows get big crowds but due to the organisational cost a lot of them probably cancelled this year due to uncertainty about restrictions.  I'm not sure what other events would likely get more than 500 people and still be termed an RC event.  Circuit racing is limited by the number of heats you can get through in a single day.

It's just over 2 weeks until the UK Scaler Nationals, which could be just as big, although parking is a problem there if the weather is bad.  Got my hotels booked and paid for already so fingers crossed our domestic fuel fiasco sorts itself out (gonna get through around £150 in fuel and if all the stations are shut I won't be able to get home) and we don't get any last-minute pandemic restrictions (our domestic media is now solely reporting on the fuel panic and the gas price crisis, so we have no idea what's going on with all the other stuff that was so important just a few weeks ago.  Pandemic shmandemic, I suppose).

[87lc2 2666]

That's pretty cool, there's nothing like that in my area unfortunately.  I still get out at on the trails at least once a weekend and we have some great trails here, but would be nice to meet up with some others from time to time.  I usually just go out with my dad which is great, 68 and still loves to get out with the crawlers/scalers.  

Good luck with the Nationals, sounds like a good time.  I've heard a bit about the fuel issues over the UK.  Funny how once focus shifts it seems like other issues just fall by the wayside...Hope it all works out for you.  Be sure to post some photos when you get back, really enjoyed this thread.  We have a local monster truck race at the end of October.  If I remember to take good photos I'll make a thread, should be a good time.  

[toyolien 4681]

1 hour ago, 87lc2 said:

That's pretty cool, there's nothing like that in my area unfortunately.  I still get out at on the trails at least once a weekend and we have some great trails here, but would be nice to meet up with some others from time to time.  I usually just go out with my dad which is great, 68 and still loves to get out with the crawlers/scalers.  

Good luck with the Nationals, sounds like a good time.  I've heard a bit about the fuel issues over the UK.  Funny how once focus shifts it seems like other issues just fall by the wayside...Hope it all works out for you.  Be sure to post some photos when you get back, really enjoyed this thread.  We have a local monster truck race at the end of October.  If I remember to take good photos I'll make a thread, should be a good time.  

Where abouts in the UK are you?

[87lc2 2666]

34 minutes ago, toyolien said:

Where abouts in the UK are you?

I'm in the US...

[toyolien 4681]

3 minutes ago, 87lc2 said:

I'm in the US...

Aah. Bit far for me to travel😬

[87lc2 2666]

Yea, too bad.  I do wish I was closer to some members of the board, would be nice to get out with you guys. 

[Mad Ax 9325]

On 9/30/2021 at 3:06 PM, 87lc2 said:

We have a local monster truck race at the end of October.  If I remember to take good photos I'll make a thread, should be a good time.  

Now that's one thing I wish we had over here - literally nobody races monster trucks.  OK, we have "truck racing" at some outdoor tracks but it's just stadium trucks.  I love watching Trigger Kings videos, it would be good to have stuff like that over here.  I keep telling myself I'll try to get some interest in social media, hire a field and put on a one-off event, but I don't know I'll ever find the time for it with all these other projects :/ 

[OldSchoolRC1 984]

Excellent write up and pictures (as always!)  I've been reading a few stories from this event, sounds like a great time! 

We have the Recon G6 come around here in PA, US and it's very similar. Hundreds of gates and people with tiny trucks rolling around everywhere. We get to drive through a Bronco though..

[Mad Ax 9325]

17 hours ago, OldSchoolRC1 said:

We have the Recon G6 come around here in PA, US and it's very similar. Hundreds of gates and people with tiny trucks rolling around everywhere.

We get the G6 over here too, organised by the same guy I think (he comes over from the US and runs them in a few other countries).  It's at the same venue as the Scaler Nats, usually around May time, although we haven't had one for the last two years, obviously.  Not sure if we'll get another on 2022, I guess it depends how international travel works out.