B-MOW's SCX10 V3 JLU RTR Rubicon Recon Edition

[B-MOW71]

Well I put off getting the Axial SCX10.3 long enough! I've had this on my list of "must haves" for awhile now and kept putting off getting one. So last week the wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I jokingly told her what I wanted and showed her a few pics and surprisingly she said "sure if that's what you want then get it"! Wow, that was less painful than I thought it would be!

So I ordered it last week and it arrived on Thursday. The only downside was that I had to wait until today to open the big brown box that had the big lettering on the side of the box that said AXIAL! It was a little painful to see it for the last couple days on the kitchen island and not be able to open it!

Anyways, it's all good now! It's opened, unboxed and ready for me to have some fun!

I decided to get the RTR version. I was planning on getting the kit version because the kits are more enjoyable to put together, but I went with the RTR for two reasons. The first, I was curious to see if the RTR had the same obnoxious "click" that most everybody had issues with in the kit version. And the second, I really wanted to see what the new Firma ESC/receiver combo and DX3 transmitter was all about.

Normally I buy kits and build them up, but the last two rigs I bought have been RTR's. Both the Element Enduro Sendero and the Trailwalker I bought as RTR's and I immediately unboxed them and stripped them down. I'll be doing the same with this SCX10.3 RTR. I plan on first checking for the infamous "click", then it's tear down time! I also plan on upgrading parts as the rebuild process goes along. Over the past few months I've been slowly buying parts here and there that I had planned on adding to the build once I bought the kit. I'll share what I have bought and planned to add in the next coming posts.

This build won't be nothing spectacular. I don't plan to take it to any comps. It's just going to be a trail truck to go out and have fun with. Possibly in the future I may swap in my spare VS4-10 chassis kit that I bought last year. First I'll wait to see how this drives and handles before I make that decision.

So for now, here is a look at the freshly unboxed Axial SCX10.3 RTR version in gray.



More to come later!

[mikemcE]

I’ve never been privy to the legendary click. All from here kits (dealer assembled) and rtr don’t!?

Only answer is it’s past friggin hot, heat moves things easier

I will say mine has more lights than options, yes it’s a Holmes, yes it’s got 26%OD but factory dig/servo, PitBull tires. Most fun rig in my fleet.

Hang up and Drive

[Topher Builds]

Hey happy birthday Brian! Hope it was an enjoyable one. That’s a great gift ya got there. I like the gray ones a good bit myself, but I imagine yours won’t stay that way for too long?

As far as the click goes, it’s been troubleshooted (troubleshot, shat?) to seating the pins correctly in several gears. The gears have spaces on either side which fit the pins, but one side is concave and the other squared. The pins need to go in the concave side otherwise it will click. These gears are in the portals, the front gears of the transmission, and inside the transmission as well on the two speed and I think the dig so there are quite a few places that will click. Fingers crossed you don’t gotta chase it down.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on that controller as well as the overall truck. Congrats brotha!

[soze]

Congrats on the rig! I really like mine, although I haven't wheeled it much. Mostly because I'm afraid of destroying the real nicely painted body. I need to pick up a second body without the cage and interior for the rigors of CDM.

Really interested to see where you go with it!

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by mikemcE

I’ve never been privy to the legendary click. All from here kits (dealer assembled) and rtr don’t!?

Only answer is it’s past friggin hot, heat moves things easier

I will say mine has more lights than options, yes it’s a Holmes, yes it’s got 26%OD but factory dig/servo, PitBull tires. Most fun rig in my fleet.

Hang up and Drive

Yep, not a big fan of the click either! I'm hoping this RTR doesn't have it.

You have a sweet rig collection! Nice to hear it's the most fun!

Originally Posted by Topher Builds

Hey happy birthday Brian! Hope it was an enjoyable one. That’s a great gift ya got there. I like the gray ones a good bit myself, but I imagine yours won’t stay that way for too long?

As far as the click goes, it’s been troubleshooted (troubleshot, shat?) to seating the pins correctly in several gears. The gears have spaces on either side which fit the pins, but one side is concave and the other squared. The pins need to go in the concave side otherwise it will click. These gears are in the portals, the front gears of the transmission, and inside the transmission as well on the two speed and I think the dig so there are quite a few places that will click. Fingers crossed you don’t gotta chase it down.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on that controller as well as the overall truck. Congrats brotha!

Thanks TB! I took the day off work so it turned out to be an awesome day! Yeah, I like the looks of the gray too! I'm planning on keeping the color, but just spice it up a bit with some paint and details.

Yeah I've watched countless videos on the "click" and it makes me wonder why Axial would put a notch in both sides of the gears with only one side that actually is the right way. They could have saved some money and just left out the squared notch! The things that make you go hmm!

Really looking forward to trying out the transmitter and ESC. I really like the looks of the transmitter and it's cool that it comes with the thumb steer. Also like the fact that the ESC/receiver take up a lot less space. I'm just hoping that it works as good as it looks!

Originally Posted by soze

Congrats on the rig! I really like mine, although I haven't wheeled it much. Mostly because I'm afraid of destroying the real nicely painted body. I need to pick up a second body without the cage and interior for the rigors of CDM.

Really interested to see where you go with it!

Thanks soze!

I hear ya on the limited run time! Your body turned so nice that I wouldn't even want to put a scratch on it! Though it would look killer out on them awesome CDM rocks!

I'll probably pick up another body too to have one for more aggressive driving!

[rowntrp]

Congratulations on the rig, I got the kit version for Father’s Day and also wanted go with the RECON edition. Everything is done except for the interior and the only reason it’s not done is that I ran out of black and all the local hobby shops are out... Anyhow, I went for a white version with mine.


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[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by rowntrp

Congratulations on the rig, I got the kit version for Father’s Day and also wanted go with the RECON edition. Everything is done except for the interior and the only reason it’s not done is that ran out of black and all the local hobby shops are out... Anyhow, I went for a white version with mine.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey thanks!

Yours looks great! That's the look I'm aiming for. I'll keep the stock gray color and add the Recon details.

I found a few pics of the Recon edition on Google with the same gray paint scheme that I'll probably try to duplicate.

[rowntrp]

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

Hey thanks!

Yours looks great! That's the look I'm aiming for. I'll keep the stock gray color and add the Recon details.

I found a few pics of the Recon edition on Google with the same gray paint scheme that I'll probably try to duplicate.

Can’t wait to see pics of yours when it’s finished!


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[B-MOW71]

After the unboxing last night, I put a battery in to do a quick trip around the workshop to see if I could hear any sign of the click. Well, first thing I had to do was solder up an IC3 to XT60 adapter. All of my batteries have either Deans or XT60 style plugs. I thought about just cutting the IC3 plug off, but I may pick up a new Spektrum smart battery in the future to try out that smart tech they talk about.

Anyways, after the short run, I slightly heard a click, but nothing to crazy.

So the tear down begins. I stripped the rig down all the way to the last bolt. I'll slowly work to rebuild it and add upgrades/improvements along the way.


First up is the axles. Started with the rear. Ring and pinion was greased well, but the portal gears was lacking grease.




And look at that! I found one of the portal gears that was installed with the pin in the square side of the gear. The other gear was installed correctly. Hopefully this is the minor click that I was hearing! I installed pin in the correct side of gear, regreased with marine grease and put it back together.




On to the front axle. Ring and pinion greased well, but portal gears were a little dry. As you can see in the pic, the pins in the portal gears were installed correctly from the factory. Regreased with marine grease and sealed it back up.






First upgrade that I do to all of my rigs. Team KNK stainless steel hardware.




Recently I saw this pop up on FB and instantly placed the order for it. I have heard quite a few people having problems with the pan hard mount on the axle breaking off. This should solve that problem! It is the Bowhouse RC SVT Panhard Reinforcement Bracket for Axial SCX10 III. Nice CNC machined alum piece that should make for a solid mount for the pan hard link. SVT! Hmm! Could this be named after our very own SVT923 here on RCC? Maybe just a coincidence!




And here is a look at the freshly rebuilt front axle with the Bowhouse RC SVT pan hard mount.




And for the hexes, I'll be adding these Samix brass 6mm hexes. These are machined with the flange in them to eliminate the factory alum spacer that goes between the outer axle bearing and the hex.




More later!

[svt923]

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

SVT! Hmm! Could this be named after our very own SVT923 here on RCC? Maybe just a coincidence!

I'll never tell!

But yes.

[Topher Builds]

That svt pan hard upgrade looks nice and tough! Solid work there sir.

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by svt923

I'll never tell!

But yes.

I thought so! Now the secret is out!

Man it fits like a glove! Perfectly designed!

[cubalz]

I went on the Bowhouse fb page and could not find that super cool panhard reinforcement bracket anywhere.

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by cubalz

I went on the Bowhouse fb page and could not find that super cool panhard reinforcement bracket anywhere.

It's on their website bowhouserc.com

[B-MOW71]

I tore down the transmission last night. Inspected the gears to make sure that they were installed correctly. Looks like the Axial builders did a great job at building this trans. I found that all gears were installed properly and it was greased very well.

I went ahead and cleaned out all of the factory grease and added marine grease to all gears and pins making sure everything that rub, slide or rotate had a good coat of grease. I also made sure that the DIG plates and fork had grease on them to help slide better and to help calm down the chatter that I've heard of some people having heard in theirs.

I put the trans back together and spun it by hand. It sounded fairly quiet and seemed to spin really good. The DIG shifted well and didn't seem to catch when being engaged. I also left the 2-speed shifter locked in low gear. Since I heard that there was not much of difference in speed between low and high gear, I figured I would just leave it in low and that is just one less micro servo that I have to worry about.

Since all the gears and pins were installed correctly from the factory, I'm guessing that slight click that I heard was probably coming from that single portal gear that I found installed the wrong way in the rear portal axle. I guess I'll find out when I get it out on the trail for it's first run.

The one thing that I don't like about the trans is the slipper clutch and I believe my Capra was set-up the same way. I'm not a fan of the black spacer that is used in place of the spring that is used in some of my other rigs. I tried to crank down the lock nut as tight as I could, but think that a spring would grip a little better. I haven't seen one yet, but I'm hoping somebody comes up with some type of slipper eliminator for this trans. I never use the slipper in my other rigs and always crank them down tight so that there is no slip. Anybody know of a slipper eliminator for this trans????


So for the motor I ditched the stock 35T motor and I decided to go with the Reedy Radon 5-Slot 12T motor. I put one of these in my Marlin and really liked how smooth these motors run. Hopefully it will run just as smooth with this new Spektrum Firma 40A Smart ESC.

[smog]

Happy Belated B! Enjoying the thread content and shall be lurking along, thanks for posting it up.

[rowntrp]

I hear you on the slipper clutch... first run after building I could hear the slipper clutch slipping with the slightest of resistance of an obstacle the Jeep should have easily managed. Tore the tranny apart and tried to tighten even more, but haven’t run since the tightening...


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[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by smog

Happy Belated B! Enjoying the thread content and shall be lurking along, thanks for posting it up.

Thanks smog!

And thanks for following along!

Originally Posted by rowntrp

I hear you on the slipper clutch... first run after building I could hear the slipper clutch slipping with the slightest of resistance of an obstacle the Jeep should have easily managed. Tore the tranny apart and tried to tighten even more, but haven’t run since the tightening...

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That is exactly what I was afraid of! I tried to crank it down as hard as I could but won't know if it's locked down until I run it.

The bad thing about the design is that it is not so easy to get to the slipper clutch to tighten it down once the trans is installed in the truck.

[soze]

First, Happy belated birthday!

Next... that panhard mount looks nice! I'll have to keep that in mind. Admittedly, I haven't run SCX10III in a while because I've been wanting to get a second "bashable" body for it to drive at CDM.

Can't wait to see where your 10.3 goes!

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by soze

First, Happy belated birthday!

Next... that panhard mount looks nice! I'll have to keep that in mind. Admittedly, I haven't run SCX10III in a while because I've been wanting to get a second "bashable" body for it to drive at CDM.

Can't wait to see where your 10.3 goes!

Hey thanks soze!

Yeah, that panhard mount is a must have! It fits great and should keep the panhard mount from breaking off!

Don't blame you for keeping your 10.3 in the garage! Looking forward to seeing it at CDM once you get a another body for it!