KillerBlackbirds Wraith build...

[KillerBlackbird]

A few weeks ago I bit the bullet and ordered an Axial Wraith Kit. Originally I planned on buying a RTR Honcho after driving a friends, but since they were out of stock everywhere at the time, I looked at the Wraith more and the more I looked at it - the more I liked it.

Last time I used an RC was about 20 years ago (Radio Shack truck I got for Christmas when I was a kid, haha) and I never was really interested in "racing" RC's, I just happened to stumble on a few scale crawling videos on YouTube and found it interesting. Slow and technical, cheaper than wheeling a 1:1 and easier to repair, not to mention if something breaks I can carry the Wraith out of the woods lol.

So anyway, the reason I bought the kit is for a winter project. Something to do in the basement when the snow is too deep outside. My goal is to have it running by April - just in time for the snow to melt.

I plan to make this more of a crawler, some parts I'll run as kit parts and replace as they break and others I will replace from the start.


As of now this is what I am running for parts:


Suspension/Axles:

-Vanquish Lockers (front and rear)
-Vanquish Knuckles in Gray
-Vanquish C-Hubs in Gray
-Vanquish Rear Lockouts in Gray
-Vanquish VVD Heavy Duty Axle (front)
-Vanquish Titanium Upper Link Arms
-Vanquish Titanium Lower Link Arms
-Vanquish Titanium Tie Rod
-Vanquish Titanium Drag Link
-Vanquish Axles (front and rear) in Gray
-Vanquish Smooth Differential Cover in Gray
-Vanquish Axle Trusses in Gray
-Vanquish Bearing Caps in Red
-Vanquish Shock Link Mounts in Gray
-Vanquish Panhard Kit
-Vanquish Chassis Mounted Servo
-RC4WD 110mm King Off Road shocks (no oil)


Wheels & Tires:

-Vanquish OMF 2.2 Beadlock Wheels (Silver beadlock ring/Gray front ring/Gray rear ring)
-Vanquish 475 SLW Wheel Hubs
-RC4WD 2.2 Super Swamper Irok tires
-2.2 Ripsaw foams in the Super Swampers


Transmission:

-SuperShafty Bomb Proof (Vanquish black aluminum housing, Hot Racing hardened steel gears, Hot Racing 5mm out-puts, SuperShafty "BEEFY" top shaft, SuperShafty "ULTIMATE" motor mount plate, Robinson Racing 56T/32P steel slipper clutch)
-12T/32P Robinson Racing hardened steel pinion
-RC4WD titanium screws (to mount transmission to skid plate)


Electronics:

-Holmes Hobbies BRXL ESC
-Holmes Hobbies Torque Master Pro 35T brushed motor
-Castle 10A BEC (set to 6V for servo)
-HiTec HS-7950TH servo
-Futaba 4PL 2.4ghz (4-channel) radio
-Micro cooling fan mounted in front
-All electronics and battery under front hood mounted on a custom aluminum plate


Lighting:

-Mad Dog RC double 4" Exo LED light bar mounted in a modified Exo roof light cage
-Mad Dog RC 2" LED light bar
-Mad Dog RC 1" Wraith rock light kit
-Radio Shack switches for each light bar group (3-switches)
-All powered directly off 3S LiPo


Body:

-DinkyRC Wraith Drop Box (black)
-Axial Exo Griffin radiator
-Freq-E-Skins custom RedBull outer skins
-Krawler Konceptz custom inside metallic RedBull skins
-Custom black plastic inner front fenders
-Hinged front hood









I started building some of the kit; here is what I have done so far:


All of my Vanquish Parts spread out:




Assembling my axles:










I also assembled my wheels and tires, I'm quite pleased with how they look. I vented each wheel like the Axial Rocksters are vented. Wheel face and lip is gray and the headlock ring is raw.













I'll run the R35 Ripsaws with full foam for now. I may change tires and/or I may trim the foam depending how I like the tires and sidewall flex. I also assembled the Axial shocks today and I built them with the softest setting. If they leak and are garbage I'll replace them, which I'll probably have to.

I'd like to do a brushed 35T motor but Im undecided if I should get a Tekin with the FXR ESC or a Holmes Hobbies.

I'm sure I'll have a few questions on things as I get deeper into it, I'll keep this thread updated with my progress.

[theloudone]

holy crap this is gonna be awesome

[OhioSuperSport]

This looks to be another awesome build, keep us posted.

[Case182]

Holy Vanquish! Look around $900 of just parts sitting there. This is gonna be good!

[rc crawler boy]

HOlY CRAP!!!!! Keep up the good work bud. After your finished you could possibly be on Vanquishs website cause you bough out there whole warehouse.

[Kitty]

love the wheels very much.keep up the good work,and don't let me wait for the pictures!!!

[KillerBlackbird]

Thanks everyone! I'll be sure to keep this thread updated with progress.

I did a little more work last night. I got my VP links and axial shocks mounted to the front and rear ends. I also had to partially disassemble the front end for a third time because I remembered I needed to mount my panhard bar bracket lol.

I need to figure out what I want for a motor, ESC, and radio. I'm leaning towards the Tekin 35T and FXR still. I like the idea of the Holmes Hobbies hand wound custom motor but I may stay somewhat simple and easy for starters. I know I'm going to upgrade transmission gears from the start to all metal in ratios that Harley recommends for the Wraith in this section.

Any recommendations for radio systems? Should I get a 3 or 4 channel in case I decide to add in a dig or 4WS down the road?




Here's another shot, I decided to attach everything to the skid plate:

[FRENCHBLUE72]

That's some nice equipment there..

[snelson]

looking really good, in for updates.

[RKSTAR]

Nice, cant wait to see some scratches on it!

[Jus]

You are off to an expensive and super high quality start.

I wouldn't bother with a Tekin fxr... IMHO the Holmes BRXL is the king of brushed esc's. I have two and will never buy any other. You don't havvve to go with one of their expensive motors unless you want to, though they are certainly worth it.. A good compromise would be their *expert* machine wound motors.. I have the 35T version and it's served me well.. Lasted me about a year and a half mostly in my Wraith on 3s.. It now simply needs a $10 rebuild.

I see you're in VT, what area are you in/near? I'd love to see all that VP goodness in person next spring.

[KillerBlackbird]

Originally Posted by Jus

You are off to an expensive and super high quality start.

I wouldn't bother with a Tekin fxr... IMHO the Holmes BRXL is the king of brushed esc's. I have two and will never buy any other. You don't havvve to go with one of their expensive motors unless you want to, though they are certainly worth it.. A good compromise would be their *expert* machine wound motors.. I have the 35T version and it's served me well.. Lasted me about a year and a half mostly in my Wraith on 3s.. It now simply needs a $10 rebuild.

I see you're in VT, what area are you in/near? I'd love to see all that VP goodness in person next spring.

That's what I was getting out of reading other threads, Holmes seems to be the way to go. Maybe I'll research that more and see what I can figure out. The Tekin is nice because its so small but since I plan on putting the battery up front that may free up some space out back or somewhere else.

Does your 35T still give you decent wheel speed?

I'm hoping my driveshafts and shocks hold out long enough for Vanquish to come out with something to replace them with. I see they're doing research on them. I'd rather buy a $100 quality part once than a $60 part 3 times because it keeps failing haha.

I'm in Rutland County. Not much for activity around here, one of my friends bought an SCX10 and he's been into RCs for quite a while.

[Jus]

I think the small footprint is about the only advantage the fxr has anymore. But trust me, the Wraith has plenty of real estate.. No problem at all getting a BRXL in there.

The 35T was usually plenty for me, I'm more into slow methodical crawling. I do on occasion try to climb things I shouldn't and it was just slightly lacking.. At least if the dirt was loose at all. But if that's your game then you will want something a little faster. I have since replaced it with a torque master pro 27T geared nice and low and it's perfect. That's an expensive motor but I can tell I'll have a hard time ever going with anything less from this point on.

The drive shafts are decent to get you started. Look up the trick of filling the hollow center of the male shaft with threaded rod or a dowel or something like that to keep it from collapsing and twisting and they hold up pretty decent. After my rear started to twist I went ahead with the new Wraith specific MIP shafts though and love them. They have an excellent reputation for strength and now use the thru-pin design for the attaching to the truck so no more messing with grub screws. The $60 was totally worth the peace of mind they provide.

I hate the stock shocks.. I was very careful building them and they still leaked like crazy in a short amount of time.. I swapped them out for an extra set of Traxxas big bores. They are butter smooth and just flat out don't leak.

[KillerBlackbird]

Originally Posted by RKSTAR

Nice, cant wait to see some scratches on it!

Once I get by the first good scrape, I'll feel better lol.

Originally Posted by Jus

I think the small footprint is about the only advantage the fxr has anymore. But trust me, the Wraith has plenty of real estate.. No problem at all getting a BRXL in there.

The 35T was usually plenty for me, I'm more into slow methodical crawling. I do on occasion try to climb things I shouldn't and it was just slightly lacking.. At least if the dirt was loose at all. But if that's your game then you will want something a little faster. I have since replaced it with a torque master pro 27T geared nice and low and it's perfect. That's an expensive motor but I can tell I'll have a hard time ever going with anything less from this point on.

The drive shafts are decent to get you started. Look up the trick of filling the hollow center of the male shaft with threaded rod or a dowel or something like that to keep it from collapsing and twisting and they hold up pretty decent. After my rear started to twist I went ahead with the new Wraith specific MIP shafts though and love them. They have an excellent reputation for strength and now use the thru-pin design for the attaching to the truck so no more messing with grub screws. The $60 was totally worth the peace of mind they provide.

I hate the stock shocks.. I was very careful building them and they still leaked like crazy in a short amount of time.. I swapped them out for an extra set of Traxxas big bores. They are butter smooth and just flat out don't leak.

I'll probably stick with the 35T motor then. Seems like a good compromise between crawling and decent wheel speed. I'm building this more towards crawling anyway.

I'll have to check out that driveshaft mod too, I think I remember reading about it somewhere on here.

[RKSTAR]

Hh brxl and 35t pro on 3 cell lipo, best combo.

I have it in 2 of mine and love it

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2

[Madkiki]

Make sure the screws are tight on those Vanquish wheels, they will come off if you don't. I lost a few on mine, but lucky me them came with spare screws.

[monkeymagic9]

Awesome build! I love the eye candy.

Originally Posted by Jus

I think the small footprint is about the only advantage the fxr has anymore. But trust me, the Wraith has plenty of real estate.. No problem at all getting a BRXL in there.

The 35T was usually plenty for me, I'm more into slow methodical crawling. I do on occasion try to climb things I shouldn't and it was just slightly lacking.. At least if the dirt was loose at all. But if that's your game then you will want something a little faster. I have since replaced it with a torque master pro 27T geared nice and low and it's perfect. That's an expensive motor but I can tell I'll have a hard time ever going with anything less from this point on.

The drive shafts are decent to get you started. Look up the trick of filling the hollow center of the male shaft with threaded rod or a dowel or something like that to keep it from collapsing and twisting and they hold up pretty decent. After my rear started to twist I went ahead with the new Wraith specific MIP shafts though and love them. They have an excellent reputation for strength and now use the thru-pin design for the attaching to the truck so no more messing with grub screws. The $60 was totally worth the peace of mind they provide.

I hate the stock shocks.. I was very careful building them and they still leaked like crazy in a short amount of time.. I swapped them out for an extra set of Traxxas big bores. They are butter smooth and just flat out don't leak.

Excellent, helpful post

[KillerBlackbird]

Originally Posted by Madkiki

Make sure the screws are tight on those Vanquish wheels, they will come off if you don't. I lost a few on mine, but lucky me them came with spare screws.

I was wondering if they'd loosen up. I'll give them another check before I mount them on the rig. I had a few extra in mine too.

[KillerBlackbird]

I'd like to upgrade my transmission gears and spur and pinion gears to metal before I build the transmission. Anyone have any thoughts? I'd like to do a 32P gear. Does anyone sell a package set of replacement gears for the transmission?

[Jus]

I run Hot Racing steel gears in all my Axial transmissions. I like all 3 gears to be a matched set.

Can't help you with the spur.. I'm using a Robinson racing 48p 87t plastic spur and 14t steel pinion. Pretty quiet and has been reliable but I don't thrash my trucks too hard.