Test driven the new TRX-4? Post your thoughts here.

[soze]

Just thought it might be nice to have initial first hand impressions all in one place if possible.

If you've had a chance to drive the TRX-4, please share your thoughts!

[Nova's Ark]

Nice and smooth

[SCREAMER]

I liked it a lot. Like NA mentioned, it's smooth. It's also very quiet and a bit top heavy due to the heavy body. This thing will do really great with minimal mods and better foams from CI Everything functions perfectly and smoothly. Diffs Locked and unlocked quickly, two speed actually feels useful, the stock tires had good grip but the foams held them back. All in all great out of the box truck. The ground clearance is immediately noticeable. I was trying to hit rocks on the diffs and it just floated right over everything. I need to get my preorder so I can start wrenching.

[rag6]

Solid. Ya might get some serious miles on it before anything breaks. That is assuming that the complexity of the vehicle does not breed dependability issues. Great price for a truck with so many options out of the box. Steering angle as good as my ascender, and turning radius is sweet with 5he diffs unlocked. Maybe 10 mph on 2s in top gear, the new xl5 is sweet and smooth and 3s ready. Really impressed driving for 2 min at hobby town. Did I mention great price?

[CoolRunning]

A guy on YT tested it and got 7mph on 2S in top and 11mph running 3S.

[chipgibbs]

On the rocky trail yesterday for the first time, I found a couple items that will need attention. First is the servo, it works fine while moving however, it doesn't work well in the rocks. You can hear it straining.
Second is the rear bumper departure angle. The bumper hangs a bit too low. Unfortunately, raising it affects the spare tire location, the body pins into the bumper, etc.

Otherwise, this is a great truck! Love the lockers and transmission shifting. Tires are nice but, glue on? What?

[youthmanrcer]

I got mine and took it out to the local crawl spot yesterday. It is a really capable rig but extremely top heavy. I love the looks of the defender body but it will probably have to go for serious crawling.

[BRICK57]

Great vehicle. Replaced servo and horn with Savox 1230g and axial alum horn. Im looking for a crawler body that is shorter, lighter and not as tall for my serious crawling. The bumpers extend to far from the tires so ill have to get some after market bumpers. Stock tires are adequate and the motor performs well. I have a Holmes Hobbies crawlmaster pro as a spare for my wraiths I will probably install. The locking diffs and 2 speed perform well and if they hold up like my Summits they should not be a problem. Over all I would give it a thumbs up. I was going to get a SCX10 II but waited for this, and I'm glad I did.

[svt923]

I put some driving time on my TRX4 this weekend and it is quite good.

Pros:
- The diff locks work flawlessly and I like them much more than I ever thought I would. It feels like cheating locking the diffs to climb over an obstacle then unlocking them to make a tight turn and setting up the next line.
- The clearance the portals provide do wonders going over rocks and through the mud.
-Speaking of mud, the inner fenders and floor boards do a great job of keeping the chassis clean. After some mud bogging, sand throwing, and river crossing, the chassis didn't look much dirtier than it did fresh out of the box.
- It is remarkably stable for having such a heavy body. Many of my trucks are hard body scalers so I'm used to the heavy body driving style, if you live in the lexan world then your opinion may differ. I ran several off camber lines that I was sure would tip the TRX4 over but it made it through.
- With the diffs unlocked, it handles at speed pretty well (what we are all looking for out of a crawler ). I was making nearly full throttle turns in high gear without flipping.
- The stock tires are about the best you will get in a RTR. They get pretty good grip but the foam isn't firm enough for adequate sidewall support. Others I drove with liked the tires but I'm just not sold on them as a legitimately good tire.

Cons:
- The steering servo is way underpowered; it can't turn the wheels once met by a light bind. It has to go sooner than later.
- The battery tray is good if you run really big batteries or really small batteries but not so much for those in between. Most of my trucks run on packs that are around 100 mm long (typical 2200mah 3S), which a lot of other people run as well. These packs are too long to fit in the smaller, lower portion of the tray and too small to lay across the smaller portion of the tray. There should have been some more though put into non-Traxxas sized packs when designing the tray.

Other notes:
- The gearing in the 2 speed is too wide to be that useful. Low gear is really low and high gear is really fast. If the ratio on the high gear was brought closer to low gear then probably would have used that feature more. Most of the time I left it in low gear.
- While I really like the locking diffs, I only really used the all locked or all unlocked settings. The locked/open setting doesn't seem that useful so a 2 position switch with a Y-harness would have been fine for most people.
- The ESC comes out of the box set to "trail mode" which means it has drag brake and double tab reverse. Most people will want to set it to "crawler mode" with drag brake and instant reverse.
- There are 4 holes in the bar of the exo-cage above the windshield, these are perfect for holding the body clips.
- I tried the cruise control feature; it felt pointless and lazy to use but at least it was easy to set.

Overall, the good far outweighs the bad and there are opportunities for improvement like on any truck. The TRX4 is the best experience I have had with a RTR crawler out of the box. Now that I have driven the bone stock truck, I'm going to take the opportunity to do an normal RTR teardown (check gear mesh, threadlock screws, grease gears, etc) and swap in some better electronics for the next shakedown run.

[OldNTired]

Nice write up svt923. Lots of good info. I've been hearing that the servo was lackluster. Any issues on your spur/pinion mesh? Been seeing a lot of folks complaining about the spur only engaging half the pinion gear. Not sure if that's the cause of the smoked motor complaints I've seen.

[svt923]

Originally Posted by OldNTired

Nice write up svt923. Lots of good info. I've been hearing that the servo was lackluster. Any issues on your spur/pinion mesh? Been seeing a lot of folks complaining about the spur only engaging half the pinion gear. Not sure if that's the cause of the smoked motor complaints I've seen.

I haven't opened anything up yet but I am aware of the gear mesh issues. My goal was to run it straight out of the box long enough to get a good idea of the performance and if anything failed in that time, my findings would be reported accordingly.

The motor did heat up faster than I though it should so I wouldn't be surprised if the gear mesh was too tight on my truck like some of the others I heard about. All that will be figured out in the tear down phase.

[binaryterror]

IT'S NOT A GEAR MESH ISSUE! The issue is the placement, not MESH. Mine was 80% or better, but its 3 screws and a set screw, no major ordeal unless its hitting the case or the set screw is hitting the spur (you'd notice this much more)

[Natedog]

Svt923, nice review thanks!

Very planted feeling, crawls nicely, steering servo 'works' for trailing, but it's on my replace list. Locking and unlocking diffs is a nice option for tighter steering, two speed is useful for climbing steep walls where you need wheel speed to make the top, fun for giggle inducing wheelies. Tires work pretty well, foams are good all around, but better foams will help.

Edit, yes my 2200mah 3S packs won't fit down in the lower part of the tray without some cutting n modding.

Originally Posted by svt923

Cons:
- The battery tray is good if you run really big batteries or really small batteries but not so much for those in between. Most of my trucks run on packs that are around 100 mm long (typical 2200mah 3S), which a lot of other people run as well. These packs are too long to fit in the smaller, lower portion of the tray and too small to lay across the smaller portion of the tray. There should have been some more though put into non-Traxxas sized packs when designing the tray.

[bilinvic]

Any leaky shocks?

[Natedog]

No leaky shocks on the one I drove and it's been crawled and bashed decent.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by bilinvic

Any leaky shocks?

Good question. I'd be surprised if the shocks were junk. Traxxas makes great shocks.

[binaryterror]

I have one shock that seems underfilled (air movement sound), but no seepage or leaks or even wetness. Likely just not perfectly filled/built. Which is fine and normal for an RTR and not something I'd whine about like the RTR whiners typically do. I just keep driving it because its so much fun and performs better than expected.

I'll get to refilling it eventually.

[goobs]

i share similar thoughts/issues with other that have posted so i say something different.

1. i checked my gear mesh/pinion placement, and it needed to be moved for my comfort no big deal. my true complaint is in the motor mounting/gear mesh setup, an "infinitely" adjustable solid mount would've been much better imo.
2. the big flat belly skid and flat link angles hurt on severe breakovers.
3. the rear links have some play in them and tightening up the screws didnt help, its not a huge deal, just more play (side to side) than id like.
4. this is more personal, but i dont like that you have to download the manual, i like to hold stuff in my hand lol.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by goobs

i share similar thoughts/issues with other that have posted so i say something different.

1. i checked my gear mesh/pinion placement, and it needed to be moved for my comfort no big deal. my true complaint is in the motor mounting/gear mesh setup, an "infinitely" adjustable solid mount would've been much better imo.
2. the big flat belly skid and flat link angles hurt on severe breakovers.
3. the rear links have some play in them and tightening up the screws didnt help, its not a huge deal, just more play (side to side) than id like.
4. this is more personal, but i dont like that you have to download the manual, i like to hold stuff in my hand lol.

2. It has a long wheelbase. Breakover angle is going to be compromised. I don't see how flatter links hinder breakover though.
3. Shims.
4. They don't include a manual??? If so that's a bummer. Traxxas made really nice manuals and printed them on quality paper. I often use PDF manuals on my phone or tablet while working on my RCs, but I want a paper manual as well.

[binaryterror]

Originally Posted by goobs

4. this is more personal, but i dont like that you have to download the manual, i like to hold stuff in my hand lol.

I too feel the same. The quick start they give you is enough, but to miss out on the in hand manual is unusual for Traxxas of all companies.