Steel and aluminum axle housings?
 

Has anyone noticed the metal TRX4 axle housings for sale on ebay for $25? The ad says they weigh 120g each. I see they have both front and rear housings available. Anyone tried them and what are your thoughts. I also see aluminum axle housings and I'm wondering what people think of those as well. Has anyone upgraded to steel or aluminum axle housings yet?

Re: Steel and aluminum axle housings?
 

Steel axle housings sound nice, heavy and slide pretty well over rock. Aluminum is heavier than plastic, but not as heavy as steel and slides poorly over rock, avoid aluminum axle housings.

Edit: just went and searched, Xstraspeed steel housings in black or silber $28.90shipped, I'd try that, but are they really steel or pot-metal? Steel would be much better, but good pot-metal should be ok.

Re: Steel and aluminum axle housings?
 

There's no way that the housings are machined steel. CNC time costs money, and we already know how much a similar machined aluminum housing costs...

Besides that a decently hard steel would be very costly to precision machine at this size and level of detail...

Re: Steel and aluminum axle housings?
 

Castings of course either way, they seem to be doing mostly well under SCX10ii, however nothing is un-breakable. There are several threads on those. :)

Re: Steel and aluminum axle housings?
 

One of the manufacturer in China [emoji630] ( RCRUN )told me their axles were made by Cast zinc.


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Re: Steel and aluminum axle housings?
 

Cast zink is basically another name for pot metal. That would make sense, at that price point you sure would not get high quality machined steel. The question I would want to know is if the metal they use is stronger or less brittle than the factory plastic.

Re: Steel and aluminum axle housings?
 

Enroute Berg, for those who comp crawled the entire axle tubes and gear case halves were pot metal cast aluminum. I'm still on my very first set of gear cases, never broken even after grinding them down for clearance and such.

Done right a zinc casting can be fine. If they laser scanned a TRX4 housing and made that exactly in pot zinc its going to be plenty thick. and following a molded plastic part the casting should be very good. The real question is more just the material being used than the design or casting process.

I am buying a front housing only for my Comp built TRX4 just incase I need some weight beyond the SSD portal boxes.

Re: Steel and aluminum axle housings?
 

I got the aluminium axle housings from TFL on my trx-4.
I primary bought them because of the looks, I'm no competitive crawler. When it comes to the weight of them a buddy of mine did take some pictures while putting them on a scale:
Here they are in the box:
https://i.imgur.com/DqjefMw.jpg
The weight of the original plastic front-housing
https://i.imgur.com/qu8xCyL.jpg
And the aluminium front-housing
https://i.imgur.com/db6fHg0.jpg
The rear original housing
https://i.imgur.com/ZejTY4x.jpg
And the TFL housing for the rear axle
https://i.imgur.com/ZF8akQK.jpg

And here they're mounted on the trx, I really love them so far! :)
https://i.imgur.com/hOzYzh2.jpg