OS's IFS Enduro

[B-MOW71]

Man, that looks great! I like the idea of fading the silver and gunmetal!

The VP bumpers look great on there! They seem to go with just about every body style. I have purchased a few sets of them and plan on swapping them out on my rigs.

[JatoTheRipper]

Cool looking rig. I can't see any fade at all in the photos, but I'm sure it looks cool in person. I'm anxious to see how it performs out on the rocks.

[OSRC]

Finally got this one out to play... Could feel right away that it would handle somewhat off - the front and rear were not in sync at all, with the rear flexing much easier than the front. But I wanted to get it out there and get a feel for how it handled. In a word - pretty good!

First thing is I swapped over to some more Toyota-esque wheels... I also used some .225 hubs to narrow the track a bit as well.


First run was a bit iffy - the gearing was way off and it was super slow. The front bumper mounts were interfering with the steering making it super notchy. And during any climb, it wanted to roll over on the right rear tire. Lot's of potential here though...



Came in and did some tuning. Ground down the front bumper mounts so they didn't affect the steering, and bumped up to a much bigger pinion. Easy stuff.

I know most guys have been putting a rear swaybar on the back, but this is a somewhat light truck and I think a swaybar might hinder more than help. So I decided to go a different route and lighten up the front springs a bit so I had a little more active front suspension. I rummaged around until I found some softer springs for the front...they are a little big diameter-wise, but they seem to fit. I found some old Redcat springs...true progressive in that they start soft and harden up as then compress. I think these will do well - they feel right between the kit springs and the IFS supplied springs.


Back out there, it was much more balanced suspension-wise. Those springs feel great! It's much more active, but as soon as they compress to a certain point, they stiffen up significantly and keep the front from bottoming out. This is why you never though anything away!


This rock is a super hard climb as it is steep and slippery, and the Enduro got up there. That's interesting, most of my rigs just won't do it.


I've had these TSL's since the OG SCX10 was released - more years than I want to count. I'm wondering if they are starting to harden up. They definitely feel suspect. Lots of places I thought TSL's would grip, but they left me wanting. Might eventually have to swap them over or replace them, not sure yet.

Oh, and the Holmes Crawlmaster/WP1080 combo may just be my new favorite. Loads of power even on 2S and super smooth resolution. Once I got the gearing sorted, it was flat awesome to drive.

Still waiting on some body goodies and then it's trail run time.

[rkj__]

Originally Posted by OSRC

Could feel right away that it would handle somewhat off - the front and rear were not in sync at all, with the rear flexing much easier than the front.

That exactly describes what it was like off roading in my old GMC Canyon (1:1) with IFS and solid rear axle.

[OSRC]

Finally got this build out on the rocks. I ran for a few hours with my TRX6, then swapped rigs and headed back out on the same loop. Felt like I took off a hiking boot and put on a running shoe! At first I was thinking "this rig sucks"....but after hours of running with gobs of clearance and 6 contact patches, it just took a while to get into the groove and re-adjust my lines. Once I did, this truck really surprised me. It was far more capable than I thought it was going to be. I thought the IFS would be more of a hindrance performance-wise, but it turns out it wheeled great. Well sorta, I need to make some adjustments but I ended up doing some pretty impressive lines.

First stop - huge test rock... the rear suspension is way, way too soft. I figured it would be, I test drove a buddies Enduro when he first got it and the suspension struck me as way too plush to the point of being sloppy. Turns out not much has changed. I changed around some preload which helped, but for sure I need to do some tweaking back here. Not quite going the swaybar route just yet, got a few ideas. It wasn't as bad as this rock suggests, I'm kind of in a rut here but I thought it made a good pic.



Front suspension was great. Springs were perfect for the weight of the truck and I got plenty of flex, decent ride height, and it was trouble free all day. Steering wasn't great, but not terrible. I think I'm just spoiled with anything less than 50d.


What's interesting is how well this truck "hooks." Basically, if I got the front wheels up on ledge on a tough climb, it pulled the rear up and over just about anything with pretty much no wheelspin. Interesting... not sure if it's the IFS or what, but I definitely noticed a difference compared to my solid axle rigs. The front suspension really sets the chassis, the rear just follows along.


Once I got the hang of driving it, it proved to be super capable, even with the floppy rear end. The 4.2 tires were a nice change after wheeling such a big rig previously - I ran totally different lines than I did last time out.



Scratched up this rock with the X6's bumper...no scratching this time, plenty of approach angle with the VP bumpers. Plus, they slide nice as well!


Spring is springing!


I've had these tires forever...I ordered them when the OG Honcho first came out. Initially, seemed like they had no bite - I was thinking they were getting hard over the years. However, apparently after I burned off a layer of rubber, they woke up and started biting much harder. Eventually, I had the stellar grip I've come to expect from Proline TSL's. Amazing how these old tires came back to life. This line gives my TRX4's absolute fits, it's almost 60 degrees...the Enduro tap danced right up it, got to the top, spit, and and had a cigarette.


Love wheeling here...great scenery though I cannot stand the damn graffiti!


Very hard, technical crawling though here... somehow I found a line though the boulders and kept it on all 4 wheels.



Thought there was hard ground underneath....nope. Came down of the rock and totally stuffed the nose! It just disappeared into the leaves.


Next on the list: need to gear up a bit. The Holmes Crawlmaster is awesome, though I'm still down a few teeth on the pinion. Definitely need to address thosw shocks out back also. And I'm not a super scale guy, but it's just too airy in the cabin, I have an interior here that I think will fit.

[Topher Builds]

Great pics and happy to hear you had a successful run with the IFS. I agree that it surprised me a bit too.

Felt the same way about the soft rear, I ordered some of the element blue springs and it felt a good bit better.

[OSRC]

Thank you sir!

I've got a few ideas...a swaybar is the most obvious, but it wheeled really well so I'm just going to work with the shocks/springs for now. Don't want to mess it up too much.