Axial Wraith Spawn Itch - Scratch it?

[nightcrawler48]

Nice find. The kit version has some of the same parts as the RTR and also some up-graded parts.

The lower links should be metal and the upper links will be plastic. The upper links are reasonably sturdy and don't need to be up-graded immediately. The plastic steering links on the other hand are terrible and will drive you crazy until you up-grade to metal. If it came with the Axial stock servo, that will need to be replaced sooner than later.

The transmission will have a plastic idler and output gear. The drive gear is metal so if you can find Robinson Racing gears to replace the idler and output gear you should be good to go. I've run the Robinson gears with the Axial drive gear with no issues.

The driveshafts should be WB8 HD and are about the best stock driveshafts IMHO. I'm still running mine on my original Wraith.

The front axles should be universals rather than dog-bones and the diff will have the heavy duty locker. Not the best locker but should hold together until you feel the urge to upgrade.

If it has the stock Method beadlock wheels they are okay to start with. I used those with aftermarket metal hubs on a cheap build for a friend of mine and he is still running them. The stock tires leave a lot to be desired depending on the type of terrain you will be driving on.

Get the electronics in there and get out on the trails and rocks. And try to keep the grin off your face

[Cuiken]

Thanks. And you say geared very low, what are you talking?

I was thinking I'd want to swap pinion and spur over to 32 pitch, so maybe a 12/60 kind of set up?

Cheers

[nightcrawler48]

The Wraith Spawn kit should already have 32P spur and pinion. The spur will be 56T and the pinion will be 12T. That's probably not a bad place to start. I wouldn't go smaller than 10T on the pinion and I believe a if you use a 60T spur you can't get the gear cover on. Maybe 60T is max, can't remember off the top of my head.

[Cuiken]

Thanks, that's useful.

I'm going to try something revolutionary (for me) and not order a load of upgrade parts before the truck has even arrived

There does seem to be some ambiguity about what 'upgrades' the kit comes with though.

I'm 99% sure it doesn't have the WB8 HD drive shafts for example but it does have the metal links, Tyres and Universals. I should add, it's definitely the kit version as it comes with the kit 'box', manuals etc (or the seller has gone to extraordinary lengths to perpetrate a near pointless fraud).

Hopefully, you're right about the spur pitch. I'll give it a thorough once over when it turns up and see what is what.

Like I say, I might try running it as is before splurging insane amounts of cash on parts (though I concede that steering link will ikely be the first to go).

Cheers.

[Cuiken]

Got the kit. It was half built so I finished it off and painted the body panels. Quite pleased.







Going to call it the Miami Wraith.

Couple of observations:

1. Bouncy!

2. As advertised, it really wants that steering upgrade.

3. Not a bad kit to work on.

4. I can see how those non-HD driveshafts are going to fail so I made a set of semi-HD shafts by using female parts at both ends and making a sliding centre section.

5. Moved the ESC to the back and the battery to the front (like everyone else).

All in though, nice truck.

There is an issue though.....

I used a Hobbywing AXE550 3300kv R2 motor with a 12T pinion and 54T spur and use small 2200mah 3S batteries. It's insane. Even with the ESC programmed to be 'gentle', if I just touch the throttle it back flips. Even with this sensored motor, I can't crawl with it at all.

I'm sure 2S would be better but actually I don't think the AXE system is well suited to rock racer stuff. I previously used one in my Wendigo and it was a fail there too. AXE is good for crawling but as soon as there is any speed involved it's attempts to 'match wheel speed' become far too intrusive. The drag brake is also a bit unreliable and, for some reason, occasionally caused it to front flip when coasting to a halt (though not all the time).

I'm thinking maybe the Wraith will be best on a decent Brushed system. I'm thinking a HW1080 and a 12T crawlmaster sport sort of thing. Maybe (maybe) go for a 2 speed tramsmission.

For now I have the HW1080 and an old 5 slot 16T motor so I'll give that a try and see how I get on....

[SCX10 JK]

Congrats that looks really nice. I love the Paint (Miami Vice Theme)

Suggestions

Change shock oil for something that is a little bit heavier. I think I run 45 or 55 in mine.

Now as far as the motor goes wow that is a fast setup with tons of power. Have you tried just setting the power limit on the motor to 75% or even 50%?

Not knowing what kind of speed your looking for I would say that the HW1080 and the 16t might be a bit slow for what your looking for.

For a direct comparison of speed I'll use my SCX10 III as a reference because I have lots of information on this.

3300kv motor in SCX10 III on 3s is about 11.5 mph
1500kv (540 5 slot 16t) is about 5.2 mph
2300kv (550 5 slot 8t) is about 8 mph
1700kv (550 5 slot 12t) is about 5.8 mph
I would try the HW1080 and try several different motors. I use the HH 8t 550 CMS in my SCX10 II and its crazy fast on 3s but I just dialed the power back from the esc and it worked pretty well until I got a 11t pinion in.

I will say this though if you can fit the 550 size motor do it the torque difference over the 540 is crazy and to me the 5 slot are super smooth.

Beware the wraith will keep changing lol. Mine is now heavily modified and has 4 wheel steering and just keeps changing.

[Cuiken]

Thanks! I'm very pleased with how it has turned out.

On the 'bounce' I think part of the problem is over filled shocks (previous owner.) Even without springs they are very 'springy'. Good to note theydon't seem ot leak mind I'll check that first then start playing with oils.

On the motor front I was very surprised by how fast and 'punchy' it was. TBH, I accidentally started out with my DR set to about 50% and it was already a bit mad. At 100%, if I could manage to get it up to speed without back flipping it, it must have been doing over 20mph.

I was surprised by this because my Element Enduro runs the 2700KV motor at 100% power and really is not that fast (and crawls great). Stock reduction on the Enduro is 47 vs (I believe) 40 on the wraith so, even with faster motor, I was only expecting the rig to run 50% quicker. It seems way more than that and, like I say, the 'punch' is unmanagable. I'm starting to wonder if I've calibrated my Enduro ESC properly...

Unfortunately (IMHO) the ESC programming on the HW AXE is not that great. For example, if you set it to max 50% forward power, all it does is saturate at 50%. So, when you pull the trigger, the last 50% of travel does nothing. Simply dialling back the DR on the transmitter works better but the motor was still struggling to run smoothly at low speeds anyway.

I'm quite temped by a HH Crawlmaster Sport 8T but I think I'll 'get my eye in' with the 16T nd see how I think that feels. Though, I suspect you're right and it will be a bit sluggish.

TBH though. It's a top heavy, solid axle truck. Much more than 12mph is probably a bit daft

Cheers

[SCX10 JK]

I think motor quality has a lot to do with the difference. A cheap HH 27t or 35t compared to a axial or dynamite of same size is crazy the difference. The HH motors are faster smoother and have more torque. Another example of that is my Yeti XL. I have stock motor from axial and the same motor from castle creations. The castle creations is better even though the axial is a castle motor I don't think it's made to same spec.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[Cuiken]

'I'm going to try something revolutionary (for me) and not order a load of upgrade parts'

Well, since writing this I have ordered:

1. 2 speed gearbox
2. 10T 5 slot brushed motor
3. Aluminium steering linkage
4. Aluminium hubs etc
5. Stainless steel axle inserts
6. Gear head lowering kit
7. Servo for the gearbox

Ahh well.

I'll report back on how well it all works out.

Now, maybe I need to look into a shock upgrade........

[MOguy]

This mine. I have had it for a couple years. The last time I used for more than a couple minutes to chase the dogs it was in a Christmas Parade in 2019, lot of fun.

I am building it back up to a hill climb race at the end of the month and after that maybe a mudder.

It isn't my best crawler and it isn't my best basher but it its still still fun. We will see how it does on the hill climb and the mud.

It has a MambaX and a 3300 HH Trial pro, Savox 1212 Servo and it will have (for the hill climb) Pit bull XORs.

It is a bit older and I am already needing to replace things here and there when I push it.