Question on axial/vaterra kits

[Jus]

The Twin Hammers is a great little rig.. I foolishly sold my RTR and later bought a Yeti kit. Biggest mistake I ever made. I now own neither and have thoughts of picking up a TH kit someday.

[AngelowDoom]

I have build maybe 15-20 scx10, 5 or more wraith, 4 Ascender and 3 twin hammers.

And the scx10 is very simple. But probably that's why it is so popular. It's a fun rig, but after so many builds I cant drive them stock anymore, they are lacking in so many areas.
When I build them I usually replace links with home made, the Ackerman and caster issue have to be addressed, alongside with CVDs and brass beef tubes. And the idlegear and often the final gear also need replacing. The driveshafts is okayish if it is the new wildboar hd. But the old need replacing or reinforcing. Also change to beadlocks, and usually put in New diff gears also, to o/u gear, but that is a personal preference.
But with that said, since it is a simple rig, and there is some extra parts in the bag, it is my favorite for kit mix builds / mashups.

The Ascender does take a bit more time to build, but is performing much better straight out of the box. Does not really need so much more than beadlocks. Maybe a different body and bumpers for the steepest climbs and better approach angle, since the K5 has much overhang in front and back.

The wraith is much like the scx easy build and require much the same attention, except for it got extremely good steering. But for me, the rig is to wide for most of my trails, it gets stuck on narrow paths, and get hung up on vegetation around the trails, and the heavy cage and interior make it top heavy.

The Twin Hammers got great parts, especially notice to descent beadlocks and not at least dual stage foams that performs very well, a bit hard tires but foams is hundred times better than axial.
And also all metall gears in transmission, sway bars and other goodies.

But the build itself I will categorize as a bit tedious. It's a bit more fiddly to assemble, and all the small screws quite simply sucks. So if I was to get another one, I would just get the rtr version 2, and get locker, sway bars and different tires and foams. Maybe steelgears, but the plastic gears I got on my other rtr is holding up quite good.

To sum up, my favorite rig of these is the twin hammers, but I love the others to, they all have a quality of there own. But axial rigs, tends to get more expensive builds.

[Dustinf]

Thanks for the input.

I agree that the TH build was a bit tedious, and I didn't even use the front sway bar and locker.

But, I'm addicted to the build.. I wish it lasted longer. I extended it by getting gcm plate, gmade piggyback front/rear and I'm building a full interior out of styrene for the first time. I'll post pictures when it's done.

[meatmonkey]

I will agree the Twin Hammers takes more time to assemble, but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Maybe I look to closely into it, but every step of the way I was marveled at the engineering as it was laid out. There was even some points the armchair-engineer in me was starting to question the strength of the cage in certain areas, but those paranoid fears have proven false in every case. Apparently the real engineers know what their doing with the small chassis tubes/hardware/plastic formula.

I was amazed at how well everything fit together. Absolutely no sanding/filing/shimming required anywhere on the chassis or drivetrain. Made me feel like I was assembling a full-race Team Losi truck.

[Dustinf]

Originally Posted by meatmonkey

I will agree the Twin Hammers takes more time to assemble, but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Maybe I look to closely into it, but every step of the way I was marveled at the engineering as it was laid out. There was even some points the armchair-engineer in me was starting to question the strength of the cage in certain areas, but those paranoid fears have proven false in every case. Apparently the real engineers know what their doing with the small chassis tubes/hardware/plastic formula.

I was amazed at how well everything fit together. Absolutely no sanding/filing/shimming required anywhere on the chassis or drivetrain. Made me feel like I was assembling a full-race Team Losi truck.

I totally agree with this. Since making this thread I've build a twin hammers, custom GCM skeleton chassis jeep and an ascender.

I did notice that the twin hammers kit was MUCH better put together than the ascender.

It's odd, but you can see the difference the second you open the box. Look at the TH manual next to the ascender... night and day.