Jato the Deadbolt - SCX24 Edition

[JatoTheRipper]

I thought I was over the whole micro thing. I have a bunch of them and I did that for a while before I grew tired of them. But like a lot of Americans, I am bored out of my mind after being stuck at home due to COVID-19. After watching tons of SCX24 videos I guess they won me over. Plus, they would be another indoor activity to add some excitement to my pandemic "vacation".

I think a lot of people are feeling the same way and with the slowdown of production in China, again due to the coronavirus, the SCX24 was out of stock everywhere. I couldn't decide between the C10 and the Deadbolt so I back ordered both. The Deadbolt arrived early or late depending on how you look at it. The "great" FedEx tracking said it would be delivered Thursday, but that was pushed back to Friday and then to Monday. It ended up arriving Saturday. FedEx is "good" like that.

I got red because that's the fastest color. I was surprised that the Deadbolt is much better looking in person than in photos.

[Raguvian]

Nice! Honestly the Deadbolt body has really grown on me and is my favorite of the three. I think it's because the huge tires look the most scale on that body.

I ended up going with the HP CR18 but sometimes I do wish I got the SCX24 (especially with the steel frame over the plastic).

[AK KRAWLER]

Good deal Jato, enjoy that little sucker!!!

[Natedog]

About time your tiny turck showed up Tim! Looking forward to your take on the faster of the two Deadbolts...the red one!

Is the lipo charged yet? Test run yet?

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by AK KRAWLER

Good deal Jato, enjoy that little sucker!!!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by Natedog

About time your tiny turck showed up Tim! Looking forward to your take on the faster of the two Deadbolts...the red one!

Is the lipo charged yet? Test run yet?

I don't know if that typo was on purpose, but I like the sound of a turck!

Test run? If you want more you'll have to join my Patreon. Jato is going pay only! Just kidding.


I charged the LiPo up as soon as I received the rig. I have to say it is much larger than expected. Most micros that I've owned are significantly smaller.

I really like that the power switch is accessible with the body on. But at the same time I don't feel comfortable letting the battery plugged into the ESC/RX unit. The plug is small and it's really tough to unplug the battery without pulling on the wires which is obviously not good.




I thought that I had a defective servo. Sometimes it would turn the wheels and sometimes it wouldn't. It turns out the servo saver was really loose. I tightened the screw all of the way down, but it still flexed too much.

Time for the first mod. I cut a pen spring in half.




Then I stuck this pen spring inside of the stock servo saver spring and reinstalled the servo saver. This tightened up the steering significantly. I'd still prefer a servo horn.




Steering throw is still disappointing though and there isn't too much you can do about it since the truck uses dog bones instead of CVDs or universals. That's my biggest gripe about this truck.




The center of gravity is really high and the truck flips over often especially when side hilling.

Another concern is that the ESC/receiver unit gets warm even when the truck is sitting powered on, but idle.




The LEDs are really bright - too bright for my liking. If you pick up the truck and forget about the lights you're likely to blind yourself. The same goes for when you're driving the truck towards yourself. The LEDs can be blinding.

[TheCourier]

So about the LED's being to bright. What I ended up doing is getting some of the amber turn signal repair thin plastic and putting it right in front of the led before I installed them in the buckets. It made them look as if it where a factory headlight. I did this when I moved the LED's to the proper position in the body. Just something to think about.

Sent from my Z982 using Tapatalk

[Natedog]

I'd rather have too bright than dim, they are plenty bright but not lightbar blindingly bright.

Great idea with the amber tape, I was going to suggest painting the LEDs with clear amber, yellow or smoke, works good in my 1:1 for the puddle lights, made them red like they should be.

[Topher Builds]

Nice grab Tim, they are fun little turcks. The steering definitely leaves a lot to be desired. I haven’t really looked into it much yet but I like your idea and may consider it as well.

The LED’s are pretty bright but I usually have them unplugged anyway to conserve some battery life. Amber tape or painting them is a good idear too.

[TheCourier]

Im going to be adding a light bar at some point and set it up on 3rd channel so having scale looking headlights was my goal in the beginning, then have light bar if actually running at night. I found driving the truck towards myself during the day was irritating with how bright the LED's where. Just my preference.

Sent from my Z982 using Tapatalk

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by TheCourier

So about the LED's being to bright. What I ended up doing is getting some of the amber turn signal repair thin plastic and putting it right in front of the led before I installed them in the buckets. It made them look as if it where a factory headlight. I did this when I moved the LED's to the proper position in the body. Just something to think about.

Sent from my Z982 using Tapatalk

I thought about black tape to just kill them, but I like this idea.

Originally Posted by Natedog

I'd rather have too bright than dim, they are plenty bright but not lightbar blindingly bright.

Great idea with the amber tape, I was going to suggest painting the LEDs with clear amber, yellow or smoke, works good in my 1:1 for the puddle lights, made them red like they should be.

I don't feel the need for lights, but it is a cool feature. I do have some Tamiya translucent paint here - both red and orange I believe. So I could make it even faster by making the lights red!

Originally Posted by Topher Builds

Nice grab Tim, they are fun little turcks. The steering definitely leaves a lot to be desired. I haven’t really looked into it much yet but I like your idea and may consider it as well.

The LED’s are pretty bright but I usually have them unplugged anyway to conserve some battery life. Amber tape or painting them is a good idear too.

Thank!

I never thought to unplug them honestly. I do like the lights just not when they're blinding me.

I wonder if the heat in the ESC/RX is caused by the small draw of the LED's. It shouldn't just be generating heat while at idle.

Are you guys experiencing warm ESC/RX units?

Originally Posted by TheCourier

Im going to be adding a light bar at some point and set it up on 3rd channel so having scale looking headlights was my goal in the beginning, then have light bar if actually running at night. I found driving the truck towards myself during the day was irritating with how bright the LED's where. Just my preference.

Sent from my Z982 using Tapatalk

That's a good point. I wonder why they didn't wire the lights to the 3rd channel. I'll have to look into that.

[TheCourier]

I have a full light module and running the headlights all off the esc. No heating issues that I've noticed

Sent from my Z982 using Tapatalk

[JatoTheRipper]

^^^ Yeah that's a lot of wiring for a micro. Mine didn't get obnoxiously hot, but it got warm much faster than I feel it should have especially when it was just sitting idle.

I really like the built-in body clip holder that Axial designed on the Deadbolt body in the form of the grab handle. It's so "handy".




I decided to dig out some retro micro in the form of my Losi Micro Rock Crawler (MiRC). This is what micros used to be back in the day, kids. It's a 1/32 scale beast. The SCX24 is much larger in length, width and height. Even the tires are much smaller on the MiRC. Performance is not as different as I expected given that the SCX24 has a much larger track width and wheelbase. To be fair the MiRC does have trimmed shock springs, lead weights up front and an aftermarket battery moved to the rear axle so it's not stock.

[B-MOW71]

Congrats on buying the mine turck!

Red is much faster and looks cool too! Nice servo saver mod!

I bought the white Jeep CRC SCX24 a few months back and it has been fun to run indoors. I noticed right after I took it out of the box that the steering was way to sloppy. I ended up getting the steering linkage set by Mod19RC on Shapeways. Great improvement over the stock. All slop is gone and you get two sets of linkages with the order.

I haven't noticed that if my ESC is getting warm. I'll have to check it the next time I get the battery charged.

Speaking of battery, the charger that came with mine took a crap after 3 charges. Sounds like that is a common issue with these. Today I made an adapter plug so that I could charge it on my LiPo charger. Once it's charged I'll run it and let you know about ESC heat.

[tjohanne]

Sweet! Do you recommend it all in all, for a general Axial/SCX10 fanboy? I've been drooling over one myself. Not that I need it or can afford it now, but it's a thrilling idea

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[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

Congrats on buying the mine turck!

Red is much faster and looks cool too! Nice servo saver mod!

I bought the white Jeep CRC SCX24 a few months back and it has been fun to run indoors. I noticed right after I took it out of the box that the steering was way to sloppy. I ended up getting the steering linkage set by Mod19RC on Shapeways. Great improvement over the stock. All slop is gone and you get two sets of linkages with the order.

I haven't noticed that if my ESC is getting warm. I'll have to check it the next time I get the battery charged.

Speaking of battery, the charger that came with mine took a crap after 3 charges. Sounds like that is a common issue with these. Today I made an adapter plug so that I could charge it on my LiPo charger. Once it's charged I'll run it and let you know about ESC heat.

Thank you!

I'll have to look into those links.

Well my ESC/RX got really, really warm. More on that shortly.

I did see that a lot of chargers are failing. It's pretty irresponsible of Axial to make an unsafe charger. They're asking for a fire and a lawsuit.

I think I have the required connectors here to make a charging lead for my Hitec charger. I've been meaning to look into that and I keep forgetting.

Originally Posted by tjohanne

Sweet! Do you recommend it all in all, for a general Axial/SCX10 fanboy? I've been drooling over one myself. Not that I need it or can afford it now, but it's a thrilling idea

Well if you want one you're going to have to find one. They are out of stock everywhere and the preorders sell out. Tons of demand and not much supply right now. So if and when you decide you want one for sure, place a preorder ASAP.

Are they worth it? Sure. $110 for a complete, RTR micro isn't bad. I think you'd enjoy it especially if you are an Axial fanboy. If you've never owned a micro crawler before then you should definitely get one to try and this one is a good starting place.

The SCX24 is made to a price point and it's low quality like most micros. Only the Mini-Z has been a higher quality micro, but the price on those is much, much higher. I mean everything is plastic on the SCX24 and everything is loose or sloppy. And if you've run one micro crawler you've run them all. I feel that way even after running the SCX24. The SCX24 may be more capable than most, but I think the size has a lot to do with the arguably better performance.

[Natedog]

My charger is still working, but I bought the plugs with leads that B-MOW71 recommended in his thread, made adapter for my Hitec X2 etc. battery balance charged in about 15 minutes. My ESC and motor have remained cool to touch even after 40 minutes crawling.

[Raguvian]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

Well if you want one you're going to have to find one. They are out of stock everywhere and the preorders sell out. Tons of demand and not much supply right now. So if and when you decide you want one for sure, place a preorder ASAP.

Are they worth it? Sure. $110 for a complete, RTR micro isn't bad. I think you'd enjoy it especially if you are an Axial fanboy. If you've never owned a micro crawler before then you should definitely get one to try and this one is a good starting place.

The SCX24 is made to a price point and it's low quality like most micros. Only the Mini-Z has been a higher quality micro, but the price on those is much, much higher. I mean everything is plastic on the SCX24 and everything is loose or sloppy. And if you've run one micro crawler you've run them all. I feel that way even after running the SCX24. The SCX24 may be more capable than most, but I think the size has a lot to do with the arguably better performance.

Thanks for the honest feedback (I know it wasn't directed to me, but still). I kind of wanted to get an SCX24 and was regretting my HP CR18 purchase, but it's nice to know they're all pretty much the same, I guess. My CR18 is so sloppy that the servo tries to jump out of its mounts.

That said, your SCX24 and the closeup pics of the cage really make me want one...

[B-MOW71]

Hey Jato, I ran my mini for about a 1/2 an hour and the ESC was just slightly warm to the touch. I ran it in the 3 different speed settings on and off and still just warm to the touch. I also had the lights plugged in.

I gotta say, charging the tiny battery with a "real" charger is nice and a heck of a lot safer!

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Raguvian

Thanks for the honest feedback (I know it wasn't directed to me, but still). I kind of wanted to get an SCX24 and was regretting my HP CR18 purchase, but it's nice to know they're all pretty much the same, I guess. My CR18 is so sloppy that the servo tries to jump out of its mounts.

That said, your SCX24 and the closeup pics of the cage really make me want one...

I've only owned micros from the big brand names - Losi, Kyosho and now Axial. I have never owned any of the smaller brands. The SCX24 definitely isn't so sloppy that the servo is going to fall out of the mounts! I think the SCX24 will be an upgrade for you in terms of quality. I'm not sure about the performance.

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

Hey Jato, I ran my mini for about a 1/2 an hour and the ESC was just slightly warm to the touch. I ran it in the 3 different speed settings on and off and still just warm to the touch. I also had the lights plugged in.

I gotta say, charging the tiny battery with a "real" charger is nice and a heck of a lot safer!

That makes sense. Mine gets warm just sitting there with the lights on which doesn't make sense to me.

I'm sure. That's what I plan to do.

You mentioned the speed switch on the transmitter. That's a pretty cool feature. I'm curious as to their methodology to make that happen. I don't ever remember seeing that on any hobby grade RC before. I have to say that I feel like the slow setting definitely doesn't have as much torque as the mid and high speeds. Do you feel the same way?

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

You mentioned the speed switch on the transmitter. That's a pretty cool feature. I'm curious as to their methodology to make that happen. I don't ever remember seeing that on any hobby grade RC before. I have to say that I feel like the slow setting definitely doesn't have as much torque as the mid and high speeds. Do you feel the same way?

Yeah, the speed selector is cool! I mainly stay in the medium setting. I agree on the low speed. It doesn't have enough oomph to pull itself over anything.

I noticed on IG that you mentioned that you put grease in your shocks. I tried putting marine grease in mine and I had one hell of a mess. Most of the grease just oozed out the bottom. I ended up getting the Hot Racing shocks. They seem to be nice and I have had no problems with them so far. And they come with two different sets of springs.




Also, the HR aluminum servo mount is a nice piece to have too. I have zero slop in the steering now.