Possibly new wraith spawn owner few questions

[stingeragent]

Ok, so I'm not a r/c noob. Have had stampede's, emaxx's, various nitro cars and trucks. I currently have a stampede 4x4 vxl which is great but over the last few months I've been wanting something that could do some crawling/trail running for camping trips, etc. I think I've narrowed it down to the wraith. The scx10 is nice, but I like the little bit bigger stature it has. Now I'm kinda torn between the versions. It seems like the wraith spawn is the best bet as it has the upgraded HD drive shafts, and also the water proof misc stuff which the original wraith didn't have. I also like the ESC can do 3s without adding a bec even if it is a hobbyking rebranding. It seems the original wraith is more expensive which I attribute to the castle branded esc I presume? The only thing I don't like much about the spawn is the body. Can that be easily switched out for the original one? Other question I had was how is the max speed stock on 2s, 3s? I'm not a huge speed freak, but just trying to get a ball park if I decide to do some bashing. Last question is, it seems they updated the tranny to where the spur/pinion is completely different from the original. Is that good or bad? It seems fairly hard to find specific info on the spawn vs the original as far as parts compatibility, must have upgrades, etc. I had also kinda debated a yeti, but it seems like the only thing that will have over my current stampede is solid rear axle, but I can't see that making a huge difference in climbing stuff cause I could always just lock the diffs on the pede so I think the yeti is out. Thanks for any input.

[Eric0424]

The body is easily replaceable, the Wrath kit and RtR panels will fit. You'll just need a few more screws to attach the panels. The upgraded spur, pinion and dual pad slipper clutch on the Spawn are batter/stronger than the single pad slipper and 48 pitch gears the others have.

Almost all the Wraith upgrades will fit the Spawn, some exceptions are the spur and pinion gears, slipper components and top shaft in the transmission. There may be a few other items, I just can't think of any more at the moment. One thing you'll probably want to upgrade out of the box are the tires and the shocks. The Ripsaw tires are okay, but the RtR compound is too hard and they don't have a lot of traction. The same tire in the R35 compound work much better. The plastic bodied shocks barely qualify as shocks, they're not smooth and they like to leak, but some Axial aluminum bodies would help them tremendously.

[Sevastra]

Immediate upgrades would be a good set of steering links. Shortly afterwards you'll probably want a better servo, motor, & tires. Plenty of free mods you can do to the chassis and etc to keep you busy for awhile, and make it perform better.

What part of Texas you in?

[stingeragent]

Thanks for the replies. Am in Lockhart, about 20 miles south of austin. What's a good place to get tires? The spawn has beadlocks which I honestly have no clue about. I assume they aren't glued? Most of my other trucks I've had, I've gotten proline tires but looking at their site I'm not real sure what's compatible with beadlock wheels. I'm really not a big fan of brushed motor's. I think I will try out the brushed version but will most likely be upgrading to a sensored BL as soon as the first motor dies.

[Cammmo]

I got a RTR spawn in January because of the reasons you list plus the 32 pitch gears & the bead locks are a great upgrade vs glueing. Some have said the beadlocks don't hold but I have had no problem with them (I run brushed). I am also pretty sure mine came with the R35 tires, they seem very sticky and to grip really well but this is my first crawler so I have nothing to compare them to. I've read that they do not come with foams and that adding them helps a lot. I did not like the spawn body either & replaced with the green rock racer panels. They fit fine. The ESC is actually said to be a negative compared to the AE2.

[stingeragent]

Good to know the other body fits. I do like the original. I know they ESC is knocked but I haven't seen an actual reason why, and I've been doing hours of searching on the differences. I know the original is made by name brand castle, and the one on the spawn is supposedly a hobbywing rebrand, so I'm assuming thats why it's knocked. I have a lot of experience with scratch built planes and non name brand motor's, esc, servos from hobbyking and numerous other spots and yes some of them are indeed garbage. There are also many that are highly underrated. Castle itself had a huge problem with its ESC on the trex600 helicopter with them catching on fire and what not and they not too long after renamed the brand. Even the big names can have problems.

[Gonzo80]

I just purchased a spawn a month ago for my son. The tire compund is soft and sticky. Feels like the R35 compound but I had heard the stories about the rims not holding the bead so I pulled them off and sold them for $60 with the rims and hubs. I put the money toward some Axial beadlocks and proline chisels. Great tire by the way.

I already had an esc so I sold the stock one for $35. I've seen someone run my local crawler course that I've dubbed the motor killer with the stock ESC and do great with it. If you want the ae2 though, you can get it on ebay for around $40 new. It almost works out to be a straight trade. I've never had a problem with the few I've had. All of them have been waterproofed and still run great. Either way you go I think you'll be happy.

the stock servo I sold for $15. It's not a lot to put toward a new servo but it's a start. I've personally seen someone strip the stock servo within 5 mins of putting the car on the ground. It's crap. Drop the $60-$80 for a quality servo and don't look back.

Hope this helps some. Here are some shots of his Spawn as it sits now. He chose the vinyl wrap on it by the way. lol.

[stingeragent]

Looks good. I thought the spawn came with beadlock wheels? I've been doing some research on servo upgrades and think I'll get that from the get-go. Think for now I'm looking at the spawn rtr, SSD metal steering upgrade, tower hobbies 300oz servo, 2s 4000mah (I have some 3s packs I use with my pede that will also work, but think I wanna stick with 2s until I go BL). I've also been looking over other upgrades and some of them just seem ridiculously overpriced.

[Sevastra]

300 oz is fair, but when crawling the more the better. Try and aim for around 400 oz if it's in your budget, you won't regret it.

[Cammmo]

It does come with beadlocks. Gonzo80 just got better ones. THe stock ones are not axials, they're Method IFDs. Like I said, they work fine so far for me on brushed motor & 6 cell NIMH batteries, which may explain why!

[stingeragent]

Ah ok. Well I got everything ordered. The spawn RTR, 2s lipo, the servo I got is actually 333oz, although I'm probably gonna have to throw a bec on as the stock spawn esc only puts out 5v. I've got several laying around that I used from airplane builds that I will try out. Also got the SSD metal steering upgrade, and a metal servo horn. I think that will at least get me started. Gonna have to get to work on a rock course in the backyard. I was gonna get some more upgrades ordered but think I'm gonna wait to get it in and see what needs replacing before I buy a whole crap ton of parts I don't need. I almost bought a winch but was having a hard time deciding between one of the premade ones that look nice and doing a servo winch.

[Sevastra]

Run it and tune it to your liking. Eventually (Sooner if you run any sort of power through it) you'll need to upgrade the lockers inside the differentials. The stock one just doesn't last. However it'll be fine for awhile.

A good servo winch will out perform and out last one of the scale looking ones any day.

Good call on waiting before dumping a bunch of upgrades into it. We'll help you with advice on getting the best performance out of it, but cosmetic wise it's all up to you.

[stingeragent]

Ok, so got everything in a few days ago. Been doing some running today and so far its great. I went with a 4000kv x-car motor/ and 60a x-car esc from HK (sensored). I left gearing stock and am running on 2s. Has plenty of wheelspeed. Is fairly easy to roll it if your driving full throttle. Don't have a rock course setup yet so have been running over some logs and stuff like that. Seems one thing I want to change is to get some high clearance lower links. I seemed to get hung up on the rear ones on numerous occasions. Maybe what I was trying to go over was just too big for the truck, i'm not sure. After running about 20 mins climbing logs, running through thick grass the motor barely got warm so I'm excited about that. I turned the drag brake up the max which is 30%, and got the initial accleration setting on low and it seems to be a good match.

[stingeragent]

Posted a review video. Gonna have to do an update on the x-car issues I've been having.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s34aOwImQyQ