My AX-10 Arrives!!

[eemmaaxxxx]

As you can see I'm new to this forum and new to crawling. Today I received my first ever crawler, an AX10 RTR! Soon as it arrived, I unpacked it and did a quick indoor test and checked all the vital screws and nuts. Then I headed up to the local woods where I take my Maxx's a lot. It's a brilliant place for bashing because it's got lots and lots of steep climbs and out crops of rock everywhere. The rock is granite so it's quite jagged, but awesome fun.

First thing I noticed about the AX10 is how small and light it is. It's a lot less work to carry it for 40 mins up the hill compared to a Maxx. Second was how sticky the tyres were, and soft too. The whole truck just looks amazing. Since I was on my own, I couldn't take action pics really. Anyway here's a few.






















I took a lot more photo's but those are just the ones I've uploaded. For that first outing I left the front diff unlocked (stock) and immediately used my Traxxas TQ, rather than the stock transmitter. The only two things that let the performance down were the unlocked front diff and the shell rubbing on the rear wheels, but other than that it was just awesome. I set off with six 6cell NiMH packs, but by the end of the third 3300 pack I had nearly three hours of fun and my hands were freezing. By the end the rear tyres were a bit clogged up with leaf mulch and mud so they didn't grip quite so good. Also I saw how tough it is. I nose dived off a ten foot drop and nothing broke. I also managed to send it tumbling down a 30-40 foot hill with no damage!! Amazing. The only thing I did was lost a body clip and lost the battery cover off the TQ which means I'll have to go back at the weekend and find it (taking the Axial to help). What a shame

Anyway tonight I swapped out the front diff for the locker and saw just how nicely the truck is made. I shall test it again on Sunday and see how it fairs with locked 4WD. Can't wait. Crawling is awesome!! Thanks for all the brilliant posts and threads that convinced me to buy a crawler.

[theslowguy]

Thats a really nice spot I wish i could crawl outside but the current temp in appleton wisconsin is -15F without the windchill and I only see a 5 or 6 foot tall snowbank in my front yard:-(. Oh well back to crawlin over a pile of shoes, my cat, and whatever else i have laying arround my house

[DeweyCJ5]

that is just a sweet place to crawl welcome to the addiction

[discgolferlee]

welcome to crawling and the forums. a few easy free and/or real cheap mods to increase performance are
remove tires and drill vent holes in rims
add stick on weights to rims.
also not too exspensive is get a saddle pack battery pack and make some mounts on your front axle and put battery there.

well glad you enjoyed it out of the box but it only gets better from here man welcome to the addiction.

[kikcaffine]

Throw a 55t motor in there and watch your run times go through the roof!

[robsdak]

Originally Posted by kikcaffine

Throw a 55t motor in there and watch your run times go through the roof!

x2...

[eemmaaxxxx]

Thanks for the kind words guys. It is an awesome place to go. The best bit being that I probably walked 1/10 of the wood and didn't try half the rocks. I can see many many days of fun up there. I also have two country parks nearby, one of them has loads of crawling spots

In terms of hop-ups, the one thing I did notice was that the battery pack mounted up above the motor made it very easy to tip over when side hilling. So I would like a Saddle pack if possible. I had a look at Maxamps, but they only do a 1600 or a 4700 saddle pack. Are there any really good places to find crawler saddle packs, or is it a case of build your own?? I will vent the wheels, but while I'm at it, should I cut the foams? I've read lots of people saying leave the foams as standard. I'll have a look at the 55t motors and just see how much they are.

Overall though I'm quite happy with the AX10 as it comes out of the box. I guess it's just a case of trying to lower the CG, and getting some more weight on the front axle.

[The Madhatter]

Hey there,welcome as the others said to the addiction(dont know why they call it that I can quit anytime I want) If you cant find the batterys you need you could try cheapbatterypack.com also if you look into a Integy lathe motor you will only have to spend about $30(us curency). Great motor for bashing and ok for comps. If you can get some I deffinately recomend putting some wheel weights in at least your front wheels. Also another cheap mod is to place a piece of fuel tubing on your shock shafts on the inside. This will help lower your CG. I recomend no more than maybe 3/8 in. Anymore and it makes your shocks kinda stiff(thats just my opinion,others run more and may disagree with me)Also as you go along you may want to look into the bent lower links at least for the rear,some run them all around. But most of all,the most important thing......Have fun and run the dog piss out of it . Cause the more you throw at it the more the truck likes it.

[hende]

if you cut you foams cut them in as in narrowing them that is what i did i heard that the star patter is not good and it made huge improvment narrowing my foams

[hende]

also if if your shocks leak or i guess i should say when the start to leak flip them over

[milk]

Yep, you will soon find you like working on them as much as wheeling them.

[eemmaaxxxx]

Last night I finished venting all the wheels and re-fitted the tyres. The whole job took ages, but it was well worth it. Then this morning I went back up to the woods to try it out with the locked front diff and venting.

I did go back to the same spot to start with, but then headed over to the other side of the wood to see if there was anything crawlable. To be honest there wasn't much. Last nights rain had turned most of the paths into rivers and mud, which was fun, but I didn't want to fill the tyres with water. I ended up for the most part just driving up and down the paths which are rocky and rooty and quite steep.

First off I took some pics of the massive rock face. I did some crawling at the top of it, but stayed well away from the edge! I don't think there's an RC on the planet that could survive that drop.




























That's the lot from today. I would definately like to try fitting some Traxxas Big Bore shocks, and see what it does to the ride height. They are a little shorter so I think it would lower it. I would also like to have a play around with the suspension and link adjustments. Another thing is the shell. I like the green and white design and it looks cool, but I think the more realistic shells look nicer. I have a Maxx Hummer painted up but that wouldn't fit without vertical body posts.

[See65]

Welcome to the addiction.

[Benzbuildr]

Nice rig and crawl spot. Now it will not be long before the upgrades to begin. I started with a Ax10 in august . now it's a GC-2 chassis with traxxes big bores and the list goes on.

[eemmaaxxxx]

Originally Posted by Benzbuildr

Nice rig and crawl spot. Now it will not be long before the upgrades to begin. I started with a Ax10 in august . now it's a GC-2 chassis with traxxes big bores and the list goes on.

Funny you should mention Big Bores. I had a go at fitting them last night along with some other shocks, and with the stock chassis I can't get Big Bores to work. Do you need an after market chassis in order to run BB's???


As for other upgrades, I'm planning on adding some wheel weights very soon, and also moving the battery down. A question about wheel weights: Would you add an equal amount of weight to all the wheels and then add extra to the front axle as required, or would you make the front wheels heavier?? If so, what ratio (front and rear) would you want the weight 60/40 etc?

Last night I also installed the optional Pinion that comes with the truck, so I guess now it is a rock crawler rather than a racer

[Ax10CrawlNH]

Most people run 7 ounces in front and 3 to 3.5 in rear!

[bigflex]

I noticed in the first few pics that your front diff. is still open. If you install the supplied locker you will notice a major gain in performance.

[eemmaaxxxx]

Originally Posted by Ax10CrawlNH

Most people run 7 ounces in front and 3 to 3.5 in rear!

Thanks that's really useful. I will try and add that weight. I'm assuming that is 7 ounces PER WHEEL in the front??

Originally Posted by bigflex

I noticed in the first few pics that your front diff. is still open. If you install the supplied locker you will notice a major gain in performance.

Thanks. For the second run (second lot of pics) I had installed the diff locker and also vented the wheels. Now I have also installed the optional pinion, and I will add some wheel weight very soon.

[wildcardco1998]

Weighting the wheels makes a huge difference, I have about 8 Oz. in the fronts and nothing in the rears, But I am also running aluminum wheels which are quite a bit heavier than the axial plastic wheels. Nice crawl spot you have there, I wish I had rocks like that close to my house.

[eemmaaxxxx]

Well in the last couple of days, the UK has seen it's heaviest snow fall in 18 years. Of course the few inches we got ground the whole country to a halt (typical). To those of you further north, this is just a pathetic dusting, but I couldn't help but take the AX out to see how it coped. Not real crawling, just messing around in the garden. Couldn't resist taking some pics though.

Ice was plenty thick enough to play on. Had a bit of difficulty getting out of the pond, but just made it.









Just too steep :-(




























Thats the lot! I thought the rig coped really well. Although there wasn't a massive amount of snow, it was upto and above the diffs in some points. As you can see it's still fairly stock, but I've got a few hopups planned. New tyres, links, springs, shell and some shiney hardware. Most of it is coming from America so it will take a few days to get here but I can't wait!!!!