Call me Mr. Late to the party
 

So a few months back I came across a video on youtube of an XR10 doing some cool crawling. I was like damn, I have to get me one of those. Then I find they were discontinued. I saw the newer Axial products and ended up with the scx10. Well, it is fun and all and pretty cool looking but I think what I was really looking for is something like your comp crawlers.

It looks like the hobby has gone mostly scale. I start reading cool threads only to find that they were started in 2009 and only have a couple recent posts. To each his own but I want something like that XR10 or the older ax10? I see the newer ax10 but it looks like they switched to an all plastic frame? Not knowing much about them, I am trying to figure out what, if any, new crawlers can I purchase or maby try to get something used? Build one? I dont care if it looks scale or even has a body, I just want it to stick to the rocks.

I'm sure my SCX10 could be upgraded with a ton of stuff to make it crawl awesome. I see people swapping out what seems like most of their truck for aftermarket parts. If I'm going to swap everything out, why not just start with something that is closer to what I want to begin with.

So I guess after that long winded intro, my question is is the new AX10 a good platform to build on? Is an older AX10 going to be better for what I want? Team Losi crawler? What would you all suggest?

Re: Call me Mr. Late to the party
 

For general purpose crawling, AX10 axles are great. Unless I missed something along the way, old ax10, new ax10, and scx10 (all varieties) all share the same axles.

If you really want to get into more of a comp crawler (XR10 style), I'd suggest browsing the Berg section and checking out some of Dlux's offerings.

Re: Call me Mr. Late to the party
 

I am in the same boat. Leaning more towards the supers. Nothing comes RTR in that category. I ended up ordering an Exceed Mad Torque. It's 1/8 scale and there are several build threads on them. Even though it's pretty impressive out of the box, some people on here have done some incredible things to them. As mentioned Dlux has a nice line of products for super builds.

Call me Mr. Late to the party
 

Welcome to the forum. You are right that the hobby has moved much more toward the scale end rather than the comp-style crawlers. But there's still hope for you. Among the Axial platforms, the Wraith is probably your best bet. It has the same axles as the AX10 (which are much wider than SCX-10 axles), is designed to run 2.2s, has tons (did I mention tons?) of aftermarket support, and can be set up to perform as more of a crawler, more of a rock racer, or anywhere in between. You can easily add dig and 4WS to up the crawling performance level. Cost to build a good one will be in the same neighborhood as an XR10 (figure $800-1500 to get a really strong setup depending on how far you go), but with much better parts support given its still-high popularity. Harley's guides (stickies in the Wraith section) give a very thorough overview of the options.

The AX10 would also give you more of a crawler-type feel vs the SCX-10 due to wider axles and 2.2 wheels. Keep in mind that it's an older platform that has already lost quite a bit of popularity to the Wraith and SCX-10 and has less parts/aftermarket support than those platforms.

The other option you have would be to build yourself a full-on custom comp crawler. You'd be able to get XR10 capabilities and then some. The downsides would be having to do a fair bit of research and trial/error, cost, and difficulty reselling if you don't end up liking it after all.

If it were me, I'd start with a Wraith set up as a crawler and see how you like it. If it turns out not to be your thing, they're pretty easy to resell, and you can move on to something else. I hope that helps. Good luck!


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Re: Call me Mr. Late to the party
 

I would also encourage you not to give up on your SCX-10 just yet. One of my running mates has a Dingo not too far from stock (aluminum links, a Tekin 35T motor and Losi Night Crawler shocks are the biggest changes), and it crawls beautifully. I think he's even running the stock Treps siped. You can see it vs my CR-01 in this video:

http://youtu.be/eRSzQFoVJdw


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Re: Call me Mr. Late to the party
 

You could always buy a star and start perusing the For Sale section. Still a lot of comp style rigs out there used in both MOA and Shafty. The redcats are good entry level rigs. I started there but went the scale direction.

Re: Call me Mr. Late to the party
 

Losi still makes the nightcrawler. It is geared more towards comp crawling, but again it is an aging platform. You could, buy a chassis from the vendors on here, buy a set of wraith axles and make your own. Probably easiest way of getting how you want it.

Read up on the ax10 scorpion and changing to a newer chassis. I got an old ax10 scorpion from the classifieds for 100 bucks waited a few weeks and picked up an upgraded chassis for 15. I got a dig for 20. I added electronics and I'm under 200 and it proforms very well. I don't /haven't been to any comps yet. I got it just to crawl to places my scx10 won't.

Re: Call me Mr. Late to the party
 

The "new" AX10 (Ridgecrest and Deadbolt) should be even better than a Wraith for a 2.2S, since they share many parts but the AX10 has a useful chassis from the start.
(A stock Wraith is illegal in 2.2S since it doesn't have a one piece body.)

Re: Call me Mr. Late to the party
 

Wow, thanks for all your replies! I didn't think my post was going to work because it took so long to show up in the forum. I guess it was because it was my first post.

I've been looking on ebay for an XR10 but man, they go for a lot and are few and far between. I was looking for a "for sale" forum on this site but can't find one. Snapon Boy, where is the classifieds? I'd be open to buying used. If not, the Losi nightcrawler seems close to what I want but I really like the MOA. I guess when it gets down to it, I want an XR10 but if I can't find one I'd like to get "the next best thing". I'm not sure what to expect in prices to build a car from parts. I'm confident that I could do it but not sure what parts go with what chasis.

Re: Call me Mr. Late to the party
 

I just found the forun rules and see what buy a star meens. I guess you need that to participate in the sales part of the forum.