Jim's Jeep Rubicon

[JimInMiami]

Hey folks, so I'm spending time in Toronto to aid in the care of a sick family member and built this thing during mandatory 14 day quarantine. IMHO Axial really stepped-up their game with this kit. The quality of the materials, is top-notch and the scale details of the body are impressive.



My son and I took it out for a test run on some nearby park trails yesterday and I was a little disappointed by its performance. There's nothing wrong with the chassis itself, it's just that the beautiful scale body adds a lot of weight in all the wrong places.



OK, so it's not an apples-to-apples comparison cause the old BOM has been upgraded and is quite dialed-in, but no way could the stock rig keep up with the BOM. The main issue seems to be a too high center of gravity causing the rig to roll over often. I had the rear spring set to maximum pre-load and the fronts to about half.



QUESTION for ya'll: do you think removing the interior and roll cage would help, or am I looking to just get a aftermarket body for better performance??

Oh, for those that are wondering the color is brushed on Cadmium Red Light Hue (looks orange me).

[Damion10]

Ive read on here that removing the roll cage will make a difference in the top weight. I thought it was like 20% or so, I could be wrong.

Im not a professional by any means but:

Id let some of your preload out of your shocks, I just finished my 10.3 kit and have my preload about 3/8" in the rear and about 1/4" in the front. Basically just enough so the rig will support its own weight ( Battery, body etc ) without fully drooping the suspension. Im running a 3300mah 3s battery across the back as well. it'll have about 3/16" of sag on its own weight .

My 10.2 is fairly dialed in running wise and my 10.3 will go in places the 10.2 will just roll on its side. Let the suspension do its work and flex over things.

[JimInMiami]

Originally Posted by Damion10

Ive read on here that removing the roll cage will make a difference in the top weight. I thought it was like 20% or so, I could be wrong.

Im not a professional by any means but:

Id let some of your preload out of your shocks, I just finished my 10.3 kit and have my preload about 3/8" in the rear and about 1/4" in the front. Basically just enough so the rig will support its own weight ( Battery, body etc ) without fully drooping the suspension. Im running a 3300mah 3s battery across the back as well. it'll have about 3/16" of sag on its own weight .

My 10.2 is fairly dialed in running wise and my 10.3 will go in places the 10.2 will just roll on its side. Let the suspension do its work and flex over things.

Thanks for the suggestions!! I think I'm going to remove the whole interior, as it can barely be discerned thru the window tint anyway and will reduce some of the shock pre-load.

[1beatjeep]

This was made for trail driving.With a few upgrades you wouldnt have to change body....

There other kind of rig for comping....

[johnrennainc]

Lower the center of gravity by adding some weight at the wheels to help.

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[RCBrutus]

Curious if removing the interior and roll cage makes a big difference. I never installed mine to do a comparison.

Very satisfied with the performance of mine, and it is still box stock.

[hezzdown]

I will say at first I was somewhat unimpressed as well with the stock rig. Then I added 100mm RC4WD shocks and a Reefs rear sway bar. It was a game changer. I've got a bit of weight on the rig with scale accessories and it still performs very well.

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[JimInMiami]

Originally Posted by RCBrutus

Curious if removing the interior and roll cage makes a big difference. I never installed mine to do a comparison.

Very satisfied with the performance of mine, and it is still box stock.

Happy you're satisfied with yours and don't get me wrong I think it's a great scale rig, maybe I just have to adjust my expectations . Anyhow, I removed the interior and softened the spring preload somewhat and will take the rig out on the same trails tomorrow. We'll see how she does...

[JimInMiami]

So, I hit the trails again today. I removed the interior, added some stick on weights to the chassis side trays, reduced the shock pre-load to about half what I had before and stole the alu beadlocks and Hyrax clone tires from my Capra.



Happy to report that performance both climbing and side-hilling is MUCH better, I'd say on par with my other rigs. Truth be told it probably wasn't fair to compare the stock rig to one that's been dialed-in quite a bit.