Hilux Update and Bed Questions
 

I’ve been wanting to convert my main trx4 into a pickup for a while now and with the help of a wine night and some partially aware late night shopping I had the body and some other goodies delivered yesterday.

Here are some pics of the mock up and the current state. I was able to originally have the cab sitting fairly low on the chassis but the bed is another story. After crudely cutting holes for the shock towers I was able to get it seated to the point where I was okay driving it but still want to get it lower. As pictured I had to lift the cab up a little higher to keep it in line with the bed.

If anyone has any tips or ideas here please share.

https://i.imgur.com/3MOT71B_d.jpg?maxwidth=640
https://i.imgur.com/BviJjGY_d.jpg?maxwidth=640

Aside from the hilux body, I’ve made a few other changes:
- replaced shock towers and removed the rear fender wells
- removed the battery center battery tray
- installed spools in front and rear and removed locker servos
- Underdrive gears in rear
- Overdrive gears in front
- steel alloy axle housings from xtra speed
- 4.3” tall proline super swampers
- hot racing brass diff cover up front

I installed the under drive gears a few weeks ago and could tell there was a healthy difference. When I locked up the diffs I wanted to maintain some type of decent turning radius so I did the overdrive up front. The truck is “faster” and doesn’t seem to drag the back end around too bad. Turning radius is acceptable.

The steel alloy axle housings from xtra speed added good weight but there are flaws in the finish and some of the tolerances were very tight and took some finangling to get the bearings situated and the rod ends in place. They were cheap, less than $40 for the pair shipped from China if I remember right, but I can’t reccomend them due to the fit and finish issues and the prospect of returning a defective item to China isn’t anything I’d want to go through. See attached pictures (better quality than Imgur) for examples of the finishing flaws and a couple pictures from the completed rear axle build before I added the spool.

https://i.imgur.com/8yfgNrI_d.jpg?maxwidth=640

I installed a significantly shorter tire, was running rock beast XLs previously, as I was looking to lower the overall CG. There is a huge difference in size between the original proline super swampers and the rbxl and it’s obvious when driving. The truck is less prone to rolling in my little field test, and seemed to get over rocks just fine, but will see if I get hung up anywhere on the trail. Thinking that with the portals I should be fine with a shorter tire.

Here’s a picture of the tire comparison as well as a side by side with my mostly stock bronco chassis to visualize how much was removed. The wheelbase hasn’t changed but the angle and tire size difference makes it look like it was.

https://i.imgur.com/SRtsP8Q_d.jpg?maxwidth=640
https://i.imgur.com/rJAKK8E_d.jpg?maxwidth=640

That’s about it for now. If anyone has any tips for getting that bed lower please share. I’m also considering going truggy with it so if you have suggestions or recommendations for whomever does custom truggy cages please share as well.

Re: Hilux Update and Bed Questions
 

Truck looks great and I love the 4.3” Pro-Line Super Swampers! Tonneau cover to get bed lower or Ascender or SCX10 rear cage. :)

Re: Hilux Update and Bed Questions
 

Thanks Nate!

I thought about going to a hobby lobby or something similar to see if I could fashion together a tonneau cover, does anyone make a scale version that looks decent?

Re: Hilux Update and Bed Questions
 

Nothin' like a nice glass of wine and one click shopping lol.

Really cool truck you've got and nice to have some new information on the steel axles. How do you like the brushless system btw?

I've attached a few pictures of my trx4 in its current form setup for the comanche body. I used the Traxxas X0-1 rear body mounts they fit well but will need some customizing. After mounting them up in stock trim they still weren't low enough with the included "ring," that attaches to the mount.

The round piece that supports the plastic c-clip acts as a nice guide for drilling a new mounting hole. Brought it over to the drill press, put them in a vice and went for it then shaved off any material left over. Kind of tough to explain but hopefully it makes sense.

Re: Hilux Update and Bed Questions
 

The brushless set up has been great so far, no complaints. Now that I have more space in the receiver box I need to get the aux cable hooked up so I can adjust the drag brake on the fly.

I used the x-01 mounts too, thank you for the info! I ordered the new proline cage so I’m looking forward to getting that on there and seeing how it fits.

The truck crawls much better with this latest update. I’m really happy with the smaller tires, it goes vertical more confidently and I didn’t have any real clearance issues.

Re: Hilux Update and Bed Questions
 

I am converting my bronco to hilux and had to cut out the drop bed to get the bed as low as I wanted

https://s26.postimg.cc/hpv8pah89/20180712_120304.jpg

Re: Hilux Update and Bed Questions
 

Cantilever rear shock mounts or an angled shock mount might get you some extra clearance

Re: Hilux Update and Bed Questions
 

I ditched the bed and installed the new proline cage. I like it so far, I don’t like the spare tire weight but will probably just keep that on there for show and take it off on the rocks.

Added some scale bits and a werty made stinger bumper as well.

Re: Hilux Update and Bed Questions
 

Looks really good "thumbsup"

Re: Hilux Update and Bed Questions
 

Looks great bro! I really dig the truggy look. When I decide to do a new body I'll be doing a truggy. Will be building a custom cage tho. Keep up the great work!

Re: Hilux Update and Bed Questions
 

I really like the proline cage That fuel cell and spare tire location are awesome.

Re: Hilux Update and Bed Questions
 

Staying busy with the TRX4. Most recently added the super shafty mip driveshafts, these are great. Smoother power transfer and they are much quieter.

I also added the traxxas orange springs up front and switched to a 20w shock oil. I rebuilt each shock as they were still sticky. After removing the O ring and adding a little oil to it and bleeding them again they were working great.

I also added mirrors and wipers, but the mirrors didn’t make it past the first quarter mile of the trail.

I’m pretty happy with it at this point. I’m looking to get my hands on a promodeler 470 and if proline comes out with 4.3” swampers in the predator compound I’ll be all over them but other than that it’s time to just drive. Matching spare is on the way.

Here’s some pics and a couple videos I shot. The second one I used some wheel speed, the under and overdrive gears help keep it from pushing itself over.

https://splice.gopro.com/v?id=9GAZKy

https://splice.gopro.com/v?id=gy3DWY

And some pics!

Re: Hilux Update and Bed Questions
 

What kind of front bumper are you using?


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Re: Hilux Update and Bed Questions
 

Re: Hilux Update and Bed Questions
 

I ended up going back to the bed, I liked the cage but it was a little more weight than I wanted with a matching spare tire.

Took the trx4 out today while the vp rig is waiting for new rails, had a great crawl and it did really well again. I put 5mm spacers in the shocks before this run. Need to get a foam with more sidewall support for the little super swampers.


The defender body looks great, if you did switch to a Hilux you’d notice a significant difference without all that weight up top. The hilux is a 12.3” wheelbase though whereas the defender is 12.8”, in case you weren’t aware.