SSD 2 speed SCX10.1 gearbox

[CoolRunning]

I ordered an SSD 2 speed a while ago and it finally arrived.

I opened it up and had a good look inside and firstly I have to say this: Axial charge (in AUD) about $75 for their 'locked up' SCX10.1 gearbox with plastic gears and plastic housing and another $75 for their steel gears; add another $50 for an aftermarket CNC housing plus shipping fees. This gearbox has a CNC case, all steel gears, two speed and servo mount for about $140AUD delivered to my door. It is an fantastic product and amazing for the money. High quality machining and snug bearing fit. Excellent build quality. For reference I bought a Yeti 2 speed 'upgrade' on sale for $135 down from $170 (shipping on top)...now consider what I got from SSD for $140 delivered...

It's big compared to the stock trans (a lot longer) so getting it to fit in an SCX10 involves a bit of work.

I have a set of LWB MIPs and the front MIP had zero hope of fitting (rear fits perfectly). I could shorten it but to compound the problem, the angle for the driveshaft is just too severe so I'm falling back on the stock WB8 driveshaft for the moment for testing.

The WB8 comes with a short length piece so I screwed on the smallest I had (or you could cut the existing one) and whilst it fits fine, the pinion angle is even too tight for the WB8 which I have found is more tolerant than the MIPs.

I need to add longer top links to angle the front diff housing forwards to get a better pinion angle else it judders and clicks and jumps around binding.

Once I get it all 'perfectly' setup, I'll cut the front MIP and hopefully see it fits with the new diff pinion angle as they are very smooth and should last a LOAD longer than a WB8.

You 'could' move the gearbox 3/4 of an inch backwards on the skid mount to help though then I'll may have to muck around with two driveshafts rather than just one but I'll see. I did not need to spin the skid 180 degrees but if you did, you would have more room for the RX box which doesn't fit with the long servo mount. I didn't want this though as I would have had a lot of extra weight hanging rearward which isn't the best for a crawler.

So, I moved the RX box to the side of the frame (drilled and screwed into the frame rail) where the rock slider is (between the slider rails) and also moved the lipo plate to the other rock slider.

I know guys mount it at the front over the servo but with my 4 link and extended wheelbase my servo comes up quite high through the frame rails and it will mean limited suspension travel as it really quickly bottoms out (I had to remove the chassis brace that severely limited servo travel as the horn hit it and it had terrible suspension travel this way - I used addition rubber bump stops for the shocks to limit it eventually).

So not being able to mount the battery between the front tower, I didn't wish to mount in where the RX box went either as it would be very very close to the 2 speed servo mount which could puncture the lipo in a bad prang (if it came loose or simply moved).

So there was a fair bit of work to get it all setup before I was even able get to setting end points and testing it.

I used an affordable full sized waterproof savox (about 208oz/inch) and didn't use a servo saver as I didn't need it on my Bomber 2 speed. You have to listen carefully for any buzzing when setting end points which takes a few goes but once set, it seemed happy. I've shifted it a couple of hundred times back and forth and it should free up nicely soon. It seems pretty smooth though does catch on occasion but it's new and the gearbox seemed to have nice tight tolerances.

I'm intrigued to get it all finalised and see what the end gearing is. Slow seems nice and slow now (like a super low geared rock crawler even on 3S) but it still seems to have good wheel speed in the top gear.

Anyway, it wasn't in any way hard to install but it's clearly far more involved than the Bomber or Yeti 2 speed setup.

Looking forward to running it!

Kudos to SSD for such a high quality yet affordable part!

[MattySlimz1987]

Thanks for the info. Do you think this is a better option than the HR 2 speed AX10 trans that also comprises metal gears and aluminum housing for $120?
I hate to compare HR to SSD but the compairison is real.

[CoolRunning]

I've just tested it with 26/80 gearing and the crawling speed is very slow. On 3S it's kind of slow to turn around and does maybe about 6-7km/h I'd say flat out.

On high it goes like a scalded cat. It actually looks about 2S 3150kv Yeti fast with a 21T 550 Titan on 3S! Lol

For $99 it's amazing value. I picked the SSD over the SCX10.2 gearbox and the older 2 speed for the AX10 (RC4WD?) as SSD designed both and said this was an improved version.

No issues with gear changes, everything ran cool and I ran the truck on the same obstacles I ran my TRX-4 on and it actually did them quicker and with far less fuss even with the lower diff/axles vs the portals. I even used the same tyres and wheels from the Traxxas.

Very happy so far.

[SSD]

Originally Posted by MattySlimz1987

Thanks for the info. Do you think this is a better option than the HR 2 speed AX10 trans that also comprises metal gears and aluminum housing for $120?
I hate to compare HR to SSD but the compairison is real.

The HR gearing is not even close to my design.

[CoolRunning]

I just wanted to note that the low ratio is perfect for crawling on 3S; when I said it's slow, it's in no way a criticism, rather even with that high gearing, it's seriously slow on 3S. I'm stoked. Zooming around madly and proper slow rock crawling with cool electronics. It's exactly what I wanted for this truck.

[MattySlimz1987]

Originally Posted by SSD

The HR gearing is not even close to my design.

Sounds good!! As @CoolRunning noted its going to be awesome to use my BL sensored Holmes motor with your low gearing. Thanks for chiming in.

[caleb.cole]

I bought one of these also and I absolutely love it! WAY stronger than the original and easy to install/setup. Also the lower gear ratio is perfect for crawling and it has tons of torque, and the higher gear ratio allows the truck (stock motor/ESC on 3s) to even do small jumps at the speeds that it goes. I did have a few pictures in my build thread but photobucket F*cked it.
My SCX10 Honcho Build Thread