What did you do to your TRX-4 today?

[toys222]

Originally Posted by mewalsh100

Your '66 is starting to come together nicely toys222. Personally, I'd bring those sliders up a bit more to where the bottom of the slider was even with the plastic runners. Lookin good though - like that color combo.

Thanks, I'm quite happy with it so far too!

As far as the sliders, yea I want them tucked close to the body too, however the rear slider mount is unfortunately in line with the body. So if I add spacers I would need to trim the body. Not sure sure I'm ready to do that so for now I'm going to let it ride. They did close up the gap and look a lot better over the stock sliders though.

[punkindrublik]

Originally Posted by toys222

I installed RC4WD sliders and a Quicrun 1080 mount (thanks again @punkindrublik for the hookup!)

Happy to help! Lookin slick

[smog]

Originally Posted by mewalsh100

Comin right along with her smog. What body ya gonna run?

The Sport body, at least for now. I am painting it up for winter runs. May yet splurge on some trax for shits 'n giggles. Gotta make the most of winter. I stared the down the Capra kit at my LHS today...but only after I priced the trax for the Sport and drooled on the TRX6

[mgputer]

Originally Posted by smog

The Sport body, at least for now. I am painting it up for winter runs. May yet splurge on some trax for shits 'n giggles. Gotta make the most of winter. I stared the down the Capra kit at my LHS today...but only after I priced the trax for the Sport and drooled on the TRX6

Trax would be cool in the winter. Thinking about a set for the mog. Has to be better than tires in the snow.

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[smog]

Originally Posted by mgputer

Trax would be cool in the winter. Thinking about a set for the mog. Has to be better than tires in the snow.

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Cool, you should do it! At the very least they should be fun and more capable in slightly deeper snow. For years I have deliberated the Kyosho snow cat, and still might jumo in on that, but I am definitely into trying these.

[mewalsh100]

Originally Posted by smog

The Sport body, at least for now. I am painting it up for winter runs. May yet splurge on some trax for shits 'n giggles. Gotta make the most of winter. I stared the down the Capra kit at my LHS today...but only after I priced the trax for the Sport and drooled on the TRX6

The Sport body definitely grew on me after some mods and trimming. It's my go-to body for the Sporto when I know the driving is going to be technical. It's relatively small, pretty light and definitely holds up to abuse!


Liking those black slots with the PB RB's smog!

[01f1502wd]

Originally Posted by toys222

Thanks, I'm quite happy with it so far too!

As far as the sliders, yea I want them tucked close to the body too, however the rear slider mount is unfortunately in line with the body. So if I add spacers I would need to trim the body. Not sure sure I'm ready to do that so for now I'm going to let it ride. They did close up the gap and look a lot better over the stock sliders though.

Sliders are super cool and they fit your style nicely. How much do they flex the plastic floor the sliders are screwed to if your parked on a rock? I've thought about getting metal sliders but I might as well just make my own and bolt them to the frame with the plastic floor screwed to the sliders.

[mewalsh100]

Lotta changes at once on the Sporto! First up was some new wheels and shoes. Went with Proline Krawler's in Predator compound. Have not tried this compound yet, so I'll be interested to see how it does. I hear good things.

Next up is a fresh "scaler" body. I know this body is some what polarizing. People seem to either love this style FJ or hate it. Being as I owned one, I'm in the prior camp. Plus, I think it'll look the bee's knees scaled up a bit! It's just resting on the chassis in this pic, so sitting a bit high. I'm using some nice little plastic plug grommets for the existing HPI holes, then I intend to do a magnetic mount.

Then, it was time for some more steering power to move the "meats" better. I did some pokin around decided to go with a 3BrosRC direct power unit. 527 ozs on 3s! It is a jewel like unit with full aluminum case and nice attention to detail. Packaging was also very nice and 2 stickers to boot!

Finally, It was time for OD up front. I've been running UD out back pretty much since I got the rig. I just wanted that little bit of extra pull up front for tech climbs and a bit tighter turning radius. What sucks here is the tiny 1.5 hardware on the spool. I may have gotten a little overzealous with the locktite back when I originally went through the whole rig prior to running. I stripped two of them out attempting to extract the OE gear. After heating, swearing, heating again, swearing more, I determined they were hopelessly stripped and just ordered another spool. So, the Sporto will be out of commission for a few days, but I've got plenty of other things to do on her in the down time.

[MaX-D]

Originally Posted by mewalsh100

Lotta changes at once on the Sporto! First up was some new wheels and shoes. Went with Proline Krawler's in Predator compound. Have not tried this compound yet, so I'll be interested to see how it does. I hear good things.



Next up is a fresh "scaler" body. I know this body is some what polarizing. People seem to either love this style FJ or hate it. Being as I owned one, I'm in the prior camp. Plus, I think it'll look the bee's knees scaled up a bit! It's just resting on the chassis in this pic, so sitting a bit high. I'm using some nice little plastic plug grommets for the existing HPI holes, then I intend to do a magnetic mount.



Then, it was time for some more steering power to move the "meats" better. I did some pokin around decided to go with a 3BrosRC direct power unit. 527 ozs on 3s! It is a jewel like unit with full aluminum case and nice attention to detail. Packaging was also very nice and 2 stickers to boot!



Finally, It was time for OD up front. I've been running UD out back pretty much since I got the rig. I just wanted that little bit of extra pull up front for tech climbs and a bit tighter turning radius. What sucks here is the tiny 1.5 hardware on the spool. I may have gotten a little overzealous with the locktite back when I originally went through the whole rig prior to running. I stripped two of them out attempting to extract the OE gear. After heating, swearing, heating again, swearing more, I determined they were hopelessly stripped and just ordered another spool. So, the Sporto will be out of commission for a few days, but I've got plenty of other things to do on her in the down time.

Can't wait to see how this thing climbs with the OD up front and the new tires. I dig the body. That looks freakin' sweet!

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[mewalsh100]

Originally Posted by MaX-D

Can't wait to see how this thing climbs with the OD up front and the new tires. I dig the body. That looks freakin' sweet!

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Thanks MaX-D! I'll be sure to post up impressions when I get her out. I've got some additional ideas for the body as well, so she may be in the shop for a bit!

[Topher Builds]

Ah man Walsh tough break! Glad to see the Rex getting some love, I’m in the same camp as fond of the fj. Looking good.

[mewalsh100]

Originally Posted by Topher Builds

Ah man Walsh tough break! Glad to see the Rex getting some love, I’m in the same camp as fond of the fj. Looking good.

Thanks Topher! No biggie on the spool. I’ll just keep it and that pinion in a bag as a back up.

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by mewalsh100

Next up is a fresh "scaler" body. I know this body is some what polarizing. People seem to either love this style FJ or hate it. Being as I owned one, I'm in the prior camp. Plus, I think it'll look the bee's knees scaled up a bit! It's just resting on the chassis in this pic, so sitting a bit high. I'm using some nice little plastic plug grommets for the existing HPI holes, then I intend to do a magnetic mount.

Then, it was time for some more steering power to move the "meats" better. I did some pokin around decided to go with a 3BrosRC direct power unit. 527 ozs on 3s! It is a jewel like unit with full aluminum case and nice attention to detail. Packaging was also very nice and 2 stickers to boot!

Looks great walsh! I have always liked the looks of the FJ!

I too have the 3Bros G13 servo in my Sport. It has been rock solid and has taken a ton of abuse. I also had the 3Bros servo winch in the Sport too. It is the most powerful servo winch that I have ever used. It's nice that it has the winch controller built right in. I ended up taken it out of the Sport and putting it into VS4-10 PRO. I need to pick up another one now!

If you ever get the chance, Tom the owner of 3Bros puts on a comp called the Extreme Scale 4x4 Challenge (ES4C) here in Ohio. I have been to a few of them this year and they are a lot of fun. He has a page on FB.

[mewalsh100]

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

Looks great walsh! I have always liked the looks of the FJ!

I too have the 3Bros G13 servo in my Sport. It has been rock solid and has taken a ton of abuse. I also had the 3Bros servo winch in the Sport too. It is the most powerful servo winch that I have ever used. It's nice that it has the winch controller built right in. I ended up taken it out of the Sport and putting it into VS4-10 PRO. I need to pick up another one now!

If you ever get the chance, Tom the owner of 3Bros puts on a comp called the Extreme Scale 4x4 Challenge (ES4C) here in Ohio. I have been to a few of them this year and they are a lot of fun. He has a page on FB.

Thanks Brian! I'm diggin the look so far. I got the rear magnet set up done last night, gonna work on the front today. Great to hear some first hand experience with the 3Bros servo. I had read good things, and stoked to hear that your experience with it has been stellar. I'm going to look in to getting the winch servo as well.


I remember seeing your post about the Extreme Scale Challenge I believe. Do you have the dates for his next event. With my travel schedule for work, if I don't get stuff pinned early on the calendar, it can be a sh-t show! I'd definitely like to attend and it'd be great to meet up! PM me the deets if you have them. Thanks!

[CarlC]

Today, I decided I should put lights on my TRX-4 Sport Kit. I had looked at the Traxxas light kit but was horrified at the price, especially as the Sport Kit comes with all the light buckets. However, I wanted working brake light and the ability to turn off the headlights. So I had a dig about in my Arduino bits box and pulled out an Arduino Pro Mini, some LEDs and some wire. The result is working headlights and side lights, rear lights and brake lights.

Basicly, I have hooked channel 3 (direct) and channel 2 (with a Y cable) on my FS-GT3C up to the Arduino. The Arduino reads the pulse width on the channels and the code turns on the lights when Channel 3 is activated. It also monitors the Channel 2 and puts on the brake lights (increases the intensity of the LEDs used for the rear lights) when the pulse width is between 1450us and 1550us.

All in all I am pretty happy.

[mewalsh100]

Lights look good Carl! The more the Sport bodies get scaled out, the better they start to look.

[mewalsh100]

Finished up the magnetic mounts this morning. Any doubts I may have had about them holding securely enough were quickly dispelled! I did have to trim back the front inner fenders a bit to get the front of the FJ to sit cleanly. This was kind of a problem with the Commanche body as well, but I just chose to trim that body versus the fenders. Now, both bodies will drop right on.

The plastic plug grommets I filled the OE HPI Venture holes with look pretty sano as well imho. The ones in back I could pop right in after drilling out for their OD. The fronts were a bit trickier because the magnets actually overlapped in to the HPI holes. So, with an exacto knife and some files, I was able to create a reveal on the plug grommets up front that allowed them to slip past the magnets, yet retain the clips on the underside of them.

I also Satin blacked the hood because, well, that's kinda my jam. It worked out super well up front because the plug grommets all but disappear. I thought about painting the ones on the back white to blend, but the more I look at them, the less they bother me.

Next up, I'll be masking the body again and shooting the fender flares and rockers with bed-liner.

[smog]

Originally Posted by mewalsh100

Finished up the magnetic mounts this morning. Any doubts I may have had about them holding securely enough were quickly dispelled! I did have to trim back the front inner fenders a bit to get the front of the FJ to sit cleanly. This was kind of a problem with the Commanche body as well, but I just chose to trim that body versus the fenders. Now, both bodies will drop right on.

The plastic plug grommets I filled the OE HPI Venture holes with look pretty sano as well imho. The ones in back I could pop right in after drilling out for their OD. The fronts were a bit trickier because the magnets actually overlapped in to the HPI holes. So, with an exacto knife and some files, I was able to create a reveal on the plug grommets up front that allowed them to slip past the magnets, yet retain the clips on the underside of them.

I also Satin blacked the hood because, well, that's kinda my jam. It worked out super well up front because the plug grommets all but disappear. I thought about painting the ones on the back white to blend, but the more I look at them, the less they bother me.

Next up, I'll be masking the body again and shooting the fender flares and rockers with bed-liner.

I think the FJ body is killer mewalsh. I am surprised I haven’t come across it more on this site. Strong servo and some really good gearing, it really is a big update. Cool stuff man, that is gonna be fun to take out.

This thread has me completely stoked on my TRX

[mewalsh100]

Originally Posted by smog

I think the FJ body is killer mewalsh. I am surprised I haven’t come across it more on this site. Strong servo and some really good gearing, it really is a big update. Cool stuff man, that is gonna be fun to take out.

This thread has me completely stoked on my TRX

Thanks smog! You will love your TRX. Just so damn capable. I've got a ways to go before I get everything the way I want it, but I'm pretty stoked at how it's turning out so far.

[mewalsh100]

I got my crawl on with "Dirty Steve" on my backyard course between coats of bed-liner, so all in all it's been a damn fine day!

The bed-liner is sprayed and I had virtually zero bleed through, so that makes me happy as well. It's a subtle difference since everything I shot with bed-liner was already black, but something about the actual bed-liner just oozes 1:1. Not to mention, it holds up super well. I also shot the inner fender area and inner body sides. Once it was dry, I slipped the body back on to get a looksee. Lovin it. (The magnet mounts are just freak'n awesome as well. You just get the body over the chassis and it snaps right in to place. I can't believe this is the first body I've done this on. Definitely will not be the last!)

Up front, I didn't care for the gap from the underside of the grill to the topside of the bumper. I kicked around a few ideas and ended up trimming up and making a small valence piece as a filler out of ABS I had laying around. I then used some 1.5mm cap heads to secure it to the body. Liking it much better now. Honestly, I could probably even bring it a bit lower, but don't want to get too crazy until I get a winch mounted up there and can check all my clearances.