Jato Assembles a TRX-4 Sport Unassembled Kit

[soze]

nice Jato. You must really want to win that competition with OSRC badly!

[Browneye]

I gotta hand it to ya...all I've done is open the box and look at it...order some parts.

[soze]

Originally Posted by Browneye

I gotta hand it to ya...all I've done is open the box and look at it...order some parts.

Maybe you can start on yours, and when we both finish... give it a good run at El Modena or something. Mine is going to be pretty much stock though at first though LOL.

[Browneye]

Originally Posted by soze

Maybe you can start on yours, and when we both finish... give it a good run at El Modena or something. Mine is going to be pretty much stock though at first though LOL.

Sounds good.



LARCC - club GTG at CDM rocks Sunday 9-noon. Supposed to be a gorgeous spring day at the beach this weekend. May try and take the boat out instead.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by JDM74

Did you remove the body without disturbing the chassis on the scales or did you pick it up and put back on them after you took the body off?

I got the scale out for some experimenting. I turned on the scale, ensured the shocks were free and without stiction and set it down on the scales for a baseline. No matter how I placed the truck down each corner always read within .3 grams. That's good enough accuracy for me!

Originally Posted by Pant Danza

Nice new tool Jato!

Smattering of likes to all the posts above.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by soze

nice Jato. You must really want to win that competition with OSRC badly!

It's a very friendly competition with only RCC bragging rights on the table. And neither of us brag much so it's just for fun. I would like to have one truck that performs better than his though. LOL

This corner scale system is something I've wanted for a long time. I'm just not typically a setup guy that's going to tinker to get slight performance improvements so I had no real reason to buy it. This friendly competition and already impressive truck got me wanting to do a little tinkering. I believe OSRC uses multiple scales for the same effect.

Originally Posted by magic_yeti

No 'Like' Button right now.

So a BIG LIKE as text.

Nice competion.

Gesendet von meinem Pixel 2 XL mit Tapatalk

Thank you!

Originally Posted by soze

Maybe you can start on yours, and when we both finish... give it a good run at El Modena or something. Mine is going to be pretty much stock though at first though LOL.

Yeah! Another RCC build off!

Originally Posted by Browneye

I gotta hand it to ya...all I've done is open the box and look at it...order some parts.

I don't know how you do it. I have to crack open RC kits the day I get them.

[OSRC]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

I believe OSRC uses multiple scales for the same effect.

I do, though I never measure side to side. Never even occurred to me to do it!

So.....Done yet?

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by OSRC

I do, though I never measure side to side. Never even occurred to me to do it!

So.....Done yet?

It makes sense when you think about it.

I wish! Still awaiting parts.

[dr frankenstyle]

"LIKE" Not much to add, just like where it's goin'.


jim

[JatoTheRipper]

While I await delivery of parts I decided to put this truck on a diet.

The first thing I did was to remove the rack. The rack, accessories and mounting hardware weigh a total of 6.75 ounces. That's .41 pounds! That's a lot of weight to have up high and towards the rear of the rig. That's 5.8% of the total starting weight of the truck considering it weighs 117.1 ounces / 7.32 pounds with battery according to my fancy scale system. This change, alone, should yield a significant performance improvement.




Next up I hacked the bumpers. The rear had a performance hindering hitch receiver. I don't need that here. The front had two standoffs that hung down. I'm not sure what they are for, but I didn't like them from the start. I also removed the faux winch.

Rear bumper after plastic surgery:




Front bumper sans the nubs:




After the above mods and some other instances of trimming the fat I changed wheels and tires. These have been sitting mounted, but new in a bag since I build my SCX10 II. They were supposed to go on that truck when I finished the Power Wagon body. That body is still unpainted so, luckily, these are a "free" mod per the rules since I had them lying around at home.


Stock tires on SSD wheels weigh 5.9 onces.




Proline Hyrax in Predator compound on SSD bronze Assassin wheels look good and weight slightly less at 5.55 ounces. Less weight down low, but it's less rotational mass. Call it a toss up.




After installing the new wheels and tires I, again, weighed the truck. Sorry about switching between ounces and grams. I'd prefer ounces, but grams is the default setting on the scale so you see that every time you turn it on. Sadly, it doesn't remember the last setting. But I guess you can say grams will be a more accurate comparison because there are more digits.

The truck now weights 3047 grams which is 107.5 ounces or 6.72 pounds. That's a loss of .6 pounds - the overwhelming majority coming from the removal of the cage.

Weight distribution with body and battery started at 50/50 front to rear and 50/50 right to left. It is now 52/48 front to rear and 50/50 right to left. I'd call that a nice improvement with weight reduction, alone, being the only mod up to this point.




I did want to mention that RCCA said their RTR Sport had a 53/47 front to rear weight bias. They probably did not have the battery installed and it uses different electronics than mine since it is the RTR.



Source: https://www.rccaraction.com/tested-traxxas-trx-4-sport/

[JSterrett]

Seriously, Jato? This thread already helped convince me to buy a sport kit, now you got me looking at fancy scales too?! Lol

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[JatoTheRipper]

After this I took the truck outside for a quick stump test so I had to grab some photos of it with the new shoes. My bronze SSD wheels are a very faint bronze. I think the color looks pretty good with the snot green body.

Climbing performance was definitely better. It could climb a spot on the stump that it couldn't with the fully kitted out body.

The Traxxas inclinometer measured slightly better (a degree or so) in all directions except descent. It's really tough to measure with this tool while keeping suspension compression the same as well as finding the fine line between barely tipping and a rollover. It's funny that the inclinometer goes red when you roll over. I just thought that was a funny touch by Traxxas.

[Topher Builds]

Love the new wheels. Nice touch. Looking like a good turck!

I’m going to have to get the traxxas link stuff for the inclinemeter. Is it just from the regular Bluetooth link and stock rx/tx or did you need something else too?

[Inspector86]

I knew there was a good reason why I didn't want to buy the sport cage kit. Great build thread Jato!

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by JSterrett

Seriously, Jato? This thread already helped convince me to buy a sport kit, now you got me looking at fancy scales too?! Lol

Yes!!! I'm glad I can be a bad (or good?) influence.

Originally Posted by Pant Danza

Love the new wheels. Nice touch. Looking like a good turck!

I’m going to have to get the traxxas link stuff for the inclinemeter. Is it just from the regular Bluetooth link and stock rx/tx or did you need something else too?

You need the TQi radio (comes with the Bronco and Blazer - not sure about the Sport RTR) and the Bluetooth Link module and then the phone app. That's it.

Originally Posted by Inspector86

I knew there was a good reason why I didn't want to buy the sport cage kit. Great build thread Jato!

Thank you!

[Browneye]

Like

[mewalsh100]

She looks good all paired down and ready for BUSINESS!

[sickpuppy]

Lookin' good with those wheels!
What scale is that last scale with all four corners weighted?

[carpetfuzz17]

So what are your thoughts on the PM470? I didn't see any mention of it in all this fluff

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Browneye

Like

Thanks!

Originally Posted by mewalsh100

She looks good all paired down and ready for BUSINESS!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by sickpuppy

Lookin' good with those wheels!
What scale is that last scale with all four corners weighted?

Thank you!

The SkyRC corner system?

Originally Posted by carpetfuzz17

So what are your thoughts on the PM470? I didn't see any mention of it in all this fluff

Not impressed at all on 6.0V. It is slow and it struggles to move the tires. Much better can be had for the price of you're willing to put up with the Savox noise. I can upload a video.

[Inspector86]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

Not impressed at all on 6.0V. It is slow and it struggles to move the tires. Much better can be had for the price of you're willing to put up with the Savox noise. I can upload a video.

I have reached a point where I don't even notice the noisy Savox servos any more.