R1 or AX-10 or Creeper?

[MikeSSS]

I'm looking for a new crawler/trail driver. Present vehicle is a crawler built from a WK, it does pretty well, 65T, locked diffs, battery on front links, etc but it bottoms out on the chassis and pumpkins.

The R1, AX-10 and Creeper all should have less chassis bottoming and the R1 should have less axle bottoming. That's how it looks to me.

Is this correct and how do these rigs compare?

Durability and high run time are very important.

Gear will probably be: PM-X radio, Torquemaster esc, 55T or 65T brush motor, metal gear servo. The R1 and AX-10 look like they will need a second front axle or F axle parts to have 4 wheel steering, the vehicle will also have Dig eventually. Battery will be 6 sub-C NiMh or 2S LiPo, run time is very important since this build will see a lot of trail driving. I walk for 1.5 to 2.5 hours typically and some of that will be steep climbing and descending. I walk at 1 mph but need about 3 to 4 mph to get off the trail fast when a bike appears suddenly. The WK runs over 1.5 hrs on a 3300 mah NiMh, this is the kind of run time needed.

This crawler will never be used in a comp.

What would you choose for this use? Why would you choose it?

(The Night Crawler is out because of the worm drive noise, I like to see the deer when driving.)

Thanks and happy trails ( and crawling ).

[tomik]

I've had R1, AX-10 and Creeper.

To sum it up:
- R1 for rock bashing (I'd never ever use R1 for serious crawling) with a nice brushless motor
- AX10 for crawling
- Creeper for "something else" (never really liked the truck and never could get it to work well and maybe nobody else either if you look at the price of the kit...?)

For trail running I'd choose Axial SCX10 or Tamiya CR-01 (I'm running Tamiya myself for trailing and just love it), but to choose one of those for trail running... I'd lean towards AX10 because you can get parts to it just about everywhere and it's a very capable truck. Also great selection of hopup parts.

I also strongly suggest going with LiPos instead of NiMH.

[MikeSSS]

Thanks Tomik, that's exatly the kind of information I need to decide. The CR-01 with the FJ-40 body looks great, that body or a Proline Bushwacker body on an AX-10 is probably the way to go. Axial's RTC is probably the one to get, after the radio and esc are upgraded the Axial radio and esc could be used in something else.

For toys, these are the good old days. Have fun and thanks again.

Mike S

[Norcal_GIT_r]

For the trail I'd go with a SCX10 but an R1 is still a great choice.
With a few tweaks the R1 DOES rock crawl VERY well. It's not that great out of the box, but niether is the AX10. My R1 put's my AX10 to shame. It's not going to out do a MOA at a comp but on the rocks it's great.
I get over an hour of run time from both my R1 and SCX10 with a 3600 nimh. I use a 45t on the R1 and the stock 27t on the SCX both are using 12t pinions.
I wish I had video camera to show how capable the R1 really is.

[Oso787]

Hey Mike, I'll let you try my R1 to see if you like it! I own 2 AX10's and I really like the R1 better.

[oldhippie]

I really like the r1 as a trail/basher/fun rig! With a nice sensored brushless it would be awesome! But it is a little pricey, parts aren't plentiful and upgrades are nearly non-existent. Plus if you're gonna put a body on it that would kill the deal for me. The axial is proven, parts are everywhere and a body is kool. Those are the reasons I don't have a r1 and bash my axial tuber which I'm thinking of putting a summit trans and brushless in!

[MikeSSS]

Progress: got a much modified AX-10 used, it wears Rover whites. This AX is very capable, I don't use the dig much yet but did use it today to prevent the rear wheels from pushing. It turns out the AX's lower center of gravity gives it a big advantage over the WK based machine.

Yesterday I took my "new" used R1 out and it also did very well. The Sedonas on the R1 appear to have more grip than the Rovers but the Sedonas are older and maybe softer. The R1 just drove real slow through lines the WK has to scramble on, little drama, it just works.

Today I took the AX out and it too drove those same lines but occasionally had a tiny bit of wheel slip.

One other thing, the tall WK chasis has a lot of torque lean, the AX and R1 don't have much at all.

Comparison crawling is a lot of fun.

Now....MOA... Berg or XR-10 or Bully based??

[bubbaskyjacker]

im kinda a noob but there is nothing better than going to the hobby store and getting the parts you need ax10 all the way. the creeper looks kinda good though

[strawb]

i have an XR-10 and still have not found any reason to sell my R1 ....

the R-1 is just simply plain fun to drive .... the axles don't need upgrades to crawl and get bashed and still hold up