What’s next from Axial?

[Curb Crawler]

3s and a 13t pinion is the way to go with these with the stock electrics

[Jay-Em]

Originally Posted by Nova's Ark

After driving four, 4S batteries and 3 different drivers, here is our first impression/ review on the Axial Ryft.




#crawlerinnovations #ayalametalworks #activatedoutlaw #axialryft

Me thinks the assumptions about the Ryft were wrong from the beginning for many people. It’s NOT a crawler!! Absolutely NOT. ‘It’s geared for dragracing’ well, yeah.. It’s a rig made for bombing up hills at ridiculous speeds. However.. There Axial made the biggest mistake: As in the video. On 4s It’s crazy powerful and wholly uncontrollable at actual speed. So the whole ‘up the hill’ becomes an exercise in frustration in trying to keep it going straight, AVC, or not. Axial could - at the least- have put in a thick swaybar in the rear. But nooo..They cheaped-out on a fairly important part..

Undergearing the axles would have made the torquetwist even worse I think, though for crawling duties it would prolly’ been far better, dunno, I’m not really a ‘crawler’. The cogging at slow speeds indéed say ‘ wrong gearing’ The Ryft dóes plow-on though, cogging or not. But it’s unnerving.

All in all, it’s a bit ill-conceived imho. Add to that a front axle with the upper links at the highest point, so the battery box ( heavy with 4s) will slam into the axle on landings, Hárd. The forces are directly transferred to the underside and weakest points on the axle. And there’s the recipe for an uncontrollable land missile that breaks axles like there’s no tomorrow when stressed.

Doesn’t mean it isn’t fun, though. I love, love lóve the Southern Buggy / Bouncer style. Once rolling it’s fairly stable, and kinda fun in loose sand, seeing it spitting large rooster tails of dirt, but don’t try accellerating too fast, or steer, because then -due to the open diffs- a little wobble will make one wheel diff-out, 1 tire goes giant pizza-cutter, it’ll become a ‘death wobble’ and it’ll endo. ( at 4s, mind You. On 3s it remains juuuust controllable, but only júst.. )

In the end, it’s also personal preference. With off RC road vehicles, ánything above 60km/h is far beyond my comfort zone. It’s fine for dragsters, or touringcars. But for buggies and such? Nope. ‘Not for me. Too old for that sh.t.

[meatmonkey]

Anyone got pics showing the clearance issues between the battery tray and upper links/axle mounts?

[lonleycreeper]

Originally Posted by meatmonkey

Anyone got pics showing the clearance issues between the battery tray and upper links/axle mounts?

Here is one... Keep in mind I added spacers to the shocks, to stop the links from hitting the battery box...



Seen here, I have between 1/8" and 1/16" clearance between the links and the battery tray. The Orange bump stops on the shocks are compressed about 3/16" (all estimated) and the spacers are about 1/4".

For handling issues I put much thicker diff fluid in the front diff only, and it settled the front down a lot! Stock diff fluid was barely there and 20 million is more like silly putty than anything. I also lowered the mounting point of the rear shocks about 1/2" allowing the chassis to sit level with a 5000 mah 3s up front.
'Also I think the avc is trying to keep up with the slop in the servo saver, thus causing the death wobble. I only see the death wobble on pavement...

I also do not have 4s batteries but 3s is ridiculous enough for me, and have no desire to go faster, lol.

[Jay-Em]

I think You could be very right about the servosaver being the culprit.

Though, I did find a harder bar for my -granted, not ideally placed- swaybar arms. Even without AVC it is suddenly quite a bit more controllable.

[Curb Crawler]

Ran mine today all stock on 3s, managed to bend a shock shaft





I’ve now given the whole truck a tear down, topped up the diffs, added a LMT servo saver and dropped down to 13t pinion

[Jay-Em]

Mwah, bending a shockshaft isn’t thát unusual. I bent the rear dampershaft in a Losi Baja Rey after a tumble, f.i. The longer the dmpers, the bigger the risk of bending them. That’s why I prefer 1/8 scale dampers for my faster rigs. They often come with a 4mm shaft.

Servo saver replacement seems a good idea, yea.

[indybama]

For all u lucky ryft owners out there lol

https://youtu.be/QquVhAn4lGQ

[meatmonkey]

So your telling me you have about 7/16" worth of external limiters on the shocks to keep the upper links out of the battery tray? That seems like a pretty major design flaw. Reminds me of the original wraith and scx where the servo horn collided with frame crossmember.

[lonleycreeper]

Originally Posted by meatmonkey

So your telling me you have about 7/16" worth of external limiters on the shocks to keep the upper links out of the battery tray? That seems like a pretty major design flaw. Reminds me of the original wraith and scx where the servo horn collided with frame crossmember.

Yes... nearly 1/2" of external limiters on the front.

I would like to move both axles forward about an inch, that would put the rear shocks on the axle, and the front axle ahead of the chassis. The only issue would be the angle of the front shocks, and loosing the double sheer front upper shock mount. A trailing arm type font arm might work, but brings up other issues...

[smog]

Originally Posted by Nova's Ark

After driving four, 4S batteries and 3 different drivers, here is our first impression/ review on the Axial Ryft.





#crawlerinnovations #ayalametalworks #activatedoutlaw #axialryft

This is excellent. Would love to see the AR60/trans swap you are considering. Would be pretty ironic to have Axial’s old tech become the mod that remedies the gearing issues on this rig

Was waiting in the kit but starting to rethink this. Depending on the outcome of this CI modification , I may just pick up a chassis and go from there.

Thanks for the review Amundo!

[Jay-Em]

Originally Posted by indybama

For all u lucky ryft owners out there lol

https://youtu.be/QquVhAn4lGQ

Niiice! Aahh.. Okay Axial, we need : Better front axle, a swaybar THAT IS ACTUALLY AVAILABLE FOR US NON-YT axial shills.. a red frame, a blue frame, a purple one ànd a neon green. I bet they got some of that left from the Grave Digger. Or is the kit one dyeable? That would be nice.

Happy I already integrated a Turnigy Sound System for lights and the Juicy sound of an open V8, no blower. It juuust fits with the speaker strapped on top of the Basher 3s.

As a note: I just got my spare front axle for The Ryft, and it áctually says “ AR14B Axle Housing Front : RBX10 REV 1.” Could it be the newer axle with the fixed plastic mix?? I wonder..

[lonleycreeper]

Originally Posted by smog

This is excellent. Would love to see the AR60/trans swap you are considering. Would be pretty ironic to have Axial’s old tech become the mod that remedies the gearing issues on this rig

Was waiting in the kit but starting to rethink this. Depending on the outcome of this CI modification , I may just pick up a chassis and go from there.

Thanks for the review Amundo!

Watching a Harley Designs live stream the other day, He spoke to the designer and it was said that the trans is locked into high gear, aka there is a low gear set for the trans which is 2 speed capable...

The two speed kit according to my manual is Ax1332005...

[MrAwesome987]

Originally Posted by lonleycreeper

Watching a Harley Designs live stream the other day, He spoke to the designer and it was said that the trans is locked into high gear, aka there is a low gear set for the trans which is 2 speed capable...

The two speed kit according to my manual is Ax1332005...

This makes sense. I noticed on Axials website on the parts list that the transmission gears are listed as "High speed". I was really hoping to avoid having to have a 2 speed trans. IMO, a 2 speed just adds unnecessary complications, and never works right. But my experience is limited to a TH 2 speed, and a GOM 2 speed + DIG.

[Jay-Em]

For those interested:

It was finally dry after days of rain and drizzle. Got out my trusty Skyrc GPS GSM-015 and did a few speed runs.


Dry road, flat, no wind, 6°C.

2s : 41 Km/h 4 passes both directions.
3s : 61 Km/h also 4 passes both directions.

Didn’t dare go 4s, it already began to show “pizza cutter tires” on the full speed passes @ 3s. MY guesstimate -considering wind resistance and all- is that it could very well do 75Km/h to a tìck under 80Km/h on 4s. Madness for this kind of vehicle.

All of it with stock Motor, stock ESC, a Traxxas 5800mah 2s, and a GensAce Basher 5000mah 3s ( which are, funny enough, EXACTLY the same size! )

Base settings : Adapted HotRacing Wraith swaybars with the hardest bar. Stock dampers with 550cpl oil. Droop setting with the help of some 1,5cm springs under the pistons, and some extra weight in the shape of a Turnigy sound & light system and a 5w speaker on top of the battery.

Transmitter : Absima CR6p 6-channel with SVC ( i.e. AVC) and ABS off.

That’s it, guys. So, yeah. It’s FAST! Unnervingly so for its design. I think I’ll go down to a 13t pinion. That’ll be more than enough off-road imho.

[MrAwesome987]

Originally Posted by Jay-Em

For those interested:

It was finally dry after days of rain and drizzle. Got out my trusty Skyrc GPS GSM-015 and did a few speed runs.


Dry road, flat, no wind, 6°C.

2s : 41 Km/h 4 passes both directions.
3s : 61 Km/h also 4 passes both directions.

Didn’t dare go 4s, it already began to show “pizza cutter tires” on the full speed passes @ 3s. MY guesstimate -considering wind resistance and all- is that it could very well do 75Km/h to a tìck under 80Km/h on 4s. Madness for this kind of vehicle.

All of it with stock Motor, stock ESC, a Traxxas 5800mah 2s, and a GensAce Basher 5000mah 3s ( which are, funny enough, EXACTLY the same size! )

Base settings : Adapted HotRacing Wraith swaybars with the hardest bar. Stock dampers with 550cpl oil. Droop setting with the help of some 1,5cm springs under the pistons, and some extra weight in the shape of a Turnigy sound & light system and a 5w speaker on top of the battery.

Transmitter : Absima CR6p 6-channel with SVC ( i.e. AVC) and ABS off.

That’s it, guys. So, yeah. It’s FAST! Unnervingly so for its design. I think I’ll go down to a 13t pinion. That’ll be more than enough off-road imho.

I can't figure out why they geared it the way they did. This this is just stupid fast for the chassis design...

[Jay-Em]

Indeed. Even just a smaller pinion would have been better. Would make the cogging better too. I got me a pack of Losi steel pinions. I’ll start with 13t, but may even go as low as 10, or 11. I’m way more interested in accelleration and torque under duresse than top speed. For that I have a Traxxas Funny car.

Added to all of this, speeds like this on solid axles, néed sways front & back and belted tires. Otherwise it is exactly what the Ryft is : a somewhat hard to control, rather expensive landmissile. Don’t get me wrong. I do not hate the thing. Far from it, but it’s a bit of an odd beastie. Fun, but a bit hard to classify and understand the reasoning behind it.

[MrAwesome987]

Originally Posted by Jay-Em

Indeed. Even just a smaller pinion would have been better. Would make the cogging better too. I got me a pack of Losi steel pinions. I’ll start with 13t, but may even go as low as 10, or 11. I’m way more interested in accelleration and torque under duresse than top speed. For that I have a Traxxas Funny car.

Added to all of this, speeds like this on solid axles, néed sways front & back and belted tires. Otherwise it is exactly what the Ryft is : a somewhat hard to control, rather expensive landmissile. Don’t get me wrong. I do not hate the thing. Far from it, but it’s a bit of an odd beastie. Fun, but a bit hard to classify and understand the reasoning behind it.

I put a 13t in mine when I put the HW FOC System in (and now its getting replaced cause its junk) and noticed that 13t may be as low as you can go on the pinion size. Looks like you can only run a 13t-18t.

See this photo:

[Brake Weight]

Originally Posted by MrAwesome987

I put a 13t in mine when I put the HW FOC System in (and now its getting replaced cause its junk) and noticed that 13t may be as low as you can go on the pinion size. Looks like you can only run a 13t-18t.

See this photo:

Maybe someone with some engineering computer smarts can extrapolate the possible spur/pinion combinations if the center to center points are known.

[MrAwesome987]

Originally Posted by Brake Weight

Maybe someone with some engineering computer smarts can extrapolate the possible spur/pinion combinations if the center to center points are known.

Yeah we need something. I just finished installing a ROC412HD in mine with a 13t pinion, and it still kinda sucks. The gearing in this thing is just stupid. I guess I'll be pretty much shelving it until they come out with the low speed gear set or whatever. I shouldn't be disappointed, however, they did advertise it as a rock bouncer lol.