What is the best 1/10th size brand or model to get? (Quality)

[Kenworth]

I know this is an incredibly broad question to ask, I guess I'm looking for suggestions to compare, and input from those that are already familiar with the crawlers available...

So suppose I don't care about 4 wheel drive, that I could go either way... that I'm looking to drive around the custom bodies I paint... what chassis is of the better quality with a nice amount of popularity? In the past I've tried to keep them all the same once I found one that I liked, so the bodies would swap easily and parts would interchange.

I started with Traxxas Rustlers, kind of by accident. Then over time I discovered that the 4X4 VXL Slash's were about the same 1/10 scale but much better quality and drivability. I got to the point where I kept making and mounting my bodies to the VXL's, since the chassis is able to be stretched and shortened a little with a lot of work.

Now after more time has passed, I've discovered Crawlers, and this forum, which seems to be GOBS better than the others I was poking around on... plus, Crawlers seem to have more realistic- looking chassis, and after so much time with the Traxxas stuff, I'm ready to explore chassis from the Crawler variety.

So suppose 4X4 drive is not important to me (i can take it or leave it- I would be driving slow on grass or flat ground) but wheel options, aftermarket stuff, and a 1/10 size (ish) are what I prefer, ( chassis that are able to be lengthened or shortened a little would be awesome) is the SCX10 really the standard (I see them mentioned a lot when I read about crawlers) or is there a brand, model, or something else I should look into that is a better quality or has more aftermarket options like wheels and so on...?

Any suggestions on what to look into would be appreciated, thanks! Money isn't a huge concern, it's more about the options to stretch the wheel base and find wheel options.

[norco kid]

Wheels are pretty universal for trail/scale trucks. I would suggest maybe a Vaterra Ascender. It has the adjustable chassis length that you want and from what I've read comes better equipped stock than the SCX10. It's also a pretty nice quality rig.

Vaterra 1/10 1986 Chevrolet K-5 Blazer Ascender 4WD RC Rock Crawler Kit | Horizon Hobby

[dirtman71]

Well I am thinking you will like scale. I think you should look into the RC4WD Trail Finder 2. You could make something look really good under that chassis

Read up on it here
Scale Rigs Brand Specific Tech - RC4WD Trail Finder 2 at RCCrawler.com

[Jeepiac]

So many to choose from. TF2 and Sawback have leaf springs and more realistic looking axles imo. Unfortunately the Sawback has a chrome chassis and you don't see many full sized rigs with chrome frames. SCX10, Ascender and Komodo all have linked suspension (Komodo is a Sawback with 4 link suspension) The SCX10 is the most popular and common crawler and the aftermarket support is amazing. Ascender does have an adjustable wheelbase where the SCX10 and Komodo can be adjusted buy making/buying new suspension links. Out of the box they all have plusses and minuses. The Sawback in stock form has mediocre steering and very weak drive shafts. TF2 has weaker diffs than some of the others and sometimes parts are not as easy to obtain as they are for the other big brands, but it's the most scale imo and are just downright cool. The Ascender's I've seen in stock form suffer from pretty bad torque twist, but have great steering and some neat features the others don't. The SCX10 is really nothing fancy in stock form, but it's tried and true. You can completely build a SCX10 out of aftermarket parts and parts are a plenty. Any flaws or dislikes with any crawler can be fixed. The guy's on here have done it all, so no matter what you end up going with there will be people on here willing to help with any problem you have.