Phildirt’s Element Enduro Trailwalker

[Phildirt]

Starting a thread on this bad boy so I can document various things. Got the RTR version on sale for $249 (Horizon via Amazon). Here’s the gratuitous bone stock photo because I’m sure you all have forgotten what one looks like.

Plans: slowly upgrade following the trail of breadcrumbs others have left for me with a few cosmetic twists of my own. No IFS plans because not an IFS fan lol. Just the usual motors/gearing/links/steering/weight/tires and wheels crap. Anywho:

[Phildirt]

Swapped the battery tray for the bigger unit. Mounting these Chyrax 1.9s on Proline bead locks as a placeholder...will buy new bead locks and 1.9 Proline TSLs for scale/performance. These are a little on the Huge side but I figured it will give me a template for cutting. I’m getting good at that so should be able to modify the fenders without them looking hacked.

[Phildirt]

Stuffed...I had daydreams about running the 1.9 boggers but that just isn’t happening, this body was definitely intended for 1.55s. I plan on lopping off the turn down in front of the tires by the bumper and then cutting along the existing fender radius, just above it...then whacking the lower rear quarter like everyone else.

[Phildirt]

I plan on keeping the rest of the body intact, but painting the bed and grille flat black. Then a light weathering. Not going apeshit with scale on this thing since it...doesn’t look scale at all from the sliders up lol.

I kicked around the 12.8 rear links idea to center up the rear wheels a little better but we will see. No plans for high clearance links just yet...will wheel it as is whilst I prepare to drag it through the SSD catalogue. Will see how it does on 2s, I’m hoping it’s good so I can focus on other things.

[Phildirt]

Oh yeah: the Axial c10 body doesn’t fit without ridonkulous bumper bracket stretching, massive over hang, and just general hackery so that won’t be happening either. Pretty sure I could make it work but feel like I shouldn’t.

[Phildirt]

Hang in there I change my mind a lot. A moment or 10 of reflection told me that’s the wrong move. Why plan for tires that are too big. I will wheel on the stockers until I get new ones, who knows I may like the tiny tire thing. Gotta get over the whole ‘RC truck must be jacked up’ thing. I did blast them with some flat black because the silver looked like a toy. Will do the same to the mirrors, door knobs, and sorry excuse for a grill maybe tomorrow. Not feeling well and it feels like it could be a kidney stone :(

Anyways back to 1.55s, here’s a photo for people like me that have no imagination:

[Phildirt]

So much more proportional than the chinesium hyrax units. Charging a 2s for if I feel better tomorrow.

[Phildirt]

Side note: not an optical illusion, pretty much all of the decals are crooked. Hopefully they took more time setting up the tranny than they did slapping stickers on it.

[B-MOW71]

Congrats on becoming a Trailwalker owner!

It’s a great rig for the price! The Enduro’s have become my favorites to wheel and are great performers for being such a simple yet great design!

Glad to see you switched back to the 1.55’s. I know most people, me included (until recently), don’t like the smaller tire size, but they are a lot of fun and I have grown to like them! And with how this body is designed, I think, IMO, the smaller tires just look better.

Can’t wait to see what you have planned for it! Following along!


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[MaX-D]

I just dig this truck! Love the tiny tires. This may be my next purchase instead of a Gatekeeper.

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[ScaleLifeNewbie]

Wow, that’s crazy how horrible those stickers are. I wonder how hard they would be to pull off? I pulled mine off of the TRX4 Bronco easy.

Hope you feel better soon!


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[Kage]

Looking forward to what you come up with.

[Phildirt]

Really the funny part is “tiny tires” aren’t even tiny- these scale to 35s which would be typical for a daily driven 4x4 or weekend warrior. I think we’re just so used to seeing 40+ that they seem small. The 1.9 Proline Boggers scale to around 55” lol. But with that Axial c10 body they look like 44s because it’s so big. I can fit the Trailwalker body inside the c10 body with room to spare.

[Phildirt]

UPDATE: it rubs like crazy even with 1.55s. This body is very constricting to put it mildly. I am going to hack it up either way, cannot stand the sound of lugs grabbing plastic. Will probably start snooping around for a plan B body, maybe a power wagon or something. Unless I can get this one looking decent with some surgery.

I'm not kidding, I have a 'benchmark' object that I crawl to test approach angle/tire size/skid height after tweaks (basket ball goal base) and it was like a lexan grinding festival LOL. Took the body off and launched right up it.

[ScaleLifeNewbie]

Originally Posted by Phildirt

UPDATE: it rubs like crazy even with 1.55s. This body is very constricting to put it mildly. I am going to hack it up either way, cannot stand the sound of lugs grabbing plastic. Will probably start snooping around for a plan B body, maybe a power wagon or something. Unless I can get this one looking decent with some surgery.

I'm not kidding, I have a 'benchmark' object that I crawl to test approach angle/tire size/skid height after tweaks (basket ball goal base) and it was like a lexan grinding festival LOL. Took the body off and launched right up it.

I always thought even with 1.55s that the wheel wells are way to small looks wise. That’s crazy it rubs that bad right out of the box.


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[twade984]

Glad to see another one on here! I’ve been driving and enjoying mine a lot more than I expected, tiny tires and all. Although the stock Esc and motor lasted about 30 minutes before it got a 1080 and crawlmaster sport.

I’ve been pretty impressed with the tires once I trimmed the body to stop the rubbing.

Looking forward to see what you do with it.

[Phildirt]

I cut the crap out of the body but it looks decent. I did some decal removal and painting tonight (hint: flat black) and will post some pics tomorrow after I reinstall the grill. Anywho it clears big 1.9s now if I was so inclined. I think what I will do is find a smallish 1.9 that has a nice scale tread pattern, something smaller than these but bigger than the training wheels...

These fenders were a score/snap with a dremel cleanup. This body is thick so it is easy to massage with the dremel.

[lonleycreeper]

Check out Prolines 4.3 Tsl's...

[Phildirt]

And yes the stock electronics are not awesome...I see an upgrade in the near future but for what I paid it will be nice to have these as backups. I plan on swapping the tranny gearing to the bigger underdrive so I will wait until then to do the motor. Honestly I’m waiting until right after Christmas to do any heavy tinkering. We are close to paying off the house so that takes priority but I usually get play money at Christmas time...plus I am catering an office party (used to be a personal chef, still dabble in it when I need to). When that happens my plans are:

1.9 bead locks
TSLs
All of the SSD brass bits
Links with metal inserts or keep these and upgrade. Will be last mod
Holmes Crawlmaster 27t ish
1080
Front bumper with light bar of some sort (or light bar on the roll bar)
Winch - open to suggestions here, no clue what I need, not sure why I need it lol
Rear bumper, probably an Axial unit tucked in close

I think that’s it for now. Don’t want to go overboard on a budget rig.

[Phildirt]

Kind of looks like a Comanche now. Been looking for a grille, may have to build one with styrene. These bodies look more Jeep or Russian than Chevy to me.