OS's TRX4 Sport Kit

[OSRC]

Thanks! Weather permitting, first real trail run coming up on Sunday.... I'm thinking it should do very well.

[OSRC]

Got about 3 hours of running in before mother nature put a stop to things. Surprise! More rain!

Sport did pretty good. Battery size really makes a difference in these trucks due to where it is located. Initially I was running a fairly light 2200 pack and it was a beast. Went to all my test rocks and gave 'em hell. Great traction, balance was good, it was very capable. Not quite in my Bom's league, but very good.




After playtime in the rocks was over, we went on a trail run through some pretty rough terrain. Switched over to a 4000mah pack and the difference was night and day. Definitely had a much higher COG and was quite a bit more tippy. In fact, I think my Bronco wheels better with the same pack. The extra weight seems to keep it planted better than the Sport. At least for my style of driving.


Was out running with a friend's Defender. He's made a few mods, but as expected, the Sport ran circles around it. Needed some help here and there. Ignore my knee, I was in the process of losing my balance as I took the pic...



We're blessed with some awesome terrain nearby...this section of the trail was pretty extreme. My more scale rigs would never make it. It's not so much a trail as it is a giant pile of rocks. Finding lines through here was somewhat tricky, but a ton of fun! Had no issue beating on the sport and it took it in stride.



Love this pic...


At the end of the run I took off the front bumper and gave it to my friend. Rear wasn't so bad, but for the kind of terrain we were running in, the front bumper finally became an anchor. Think I'm going to change around the body a bit and experiment some more with bumpers, wheels and tires..

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by OSRC

Was out running with a friend's Defender. He's made a few mods, but as expected, the Sport ran circles around it. Needed some help here and there. Ignore my knee, I was in the process of losing my balance as I took the pic...

Did he make it to the top of this rock with that Defender starting from the bottom where that root is?

[OSRC]

Yes he did. I gave him my old set of axial beadlocks that were weighted, and it made all the difference in keeping the front down.

[AnimalHippie]

Rig looks great brother! One day I'll make it up that way to run in your neck of the woods.

[OSRC]

Come on up AnimalHippie! We'll show you some great terrain up here. Our neck is pretty rocky.

Did a little more work to the Sport. Last run it was a bit more tippy than I liked, and finally noticed the bumpers were really causing some hangups. Nothing a little fine tuning can't fix!

Wanted to experiment with some tires...not because the old ones were bad, but because I have a wheel/tire addiction. Been wanted to try out some Duratrax tires for a while, so picked up a set of Deep Woods. Price was certainly right.. stuffed with PL foams and mounted on some cheap beadlocks with Beef Patties. They feel great, time will tell how they do. Plus the redneck in me loves the white lettering. These tires are HUGE. I had to trim the hell out of the fenders for everything to clear.



It was a tight fit with the SSD knuckles - had to use some wider hexes to space things out a bit. Drilled out some Stampede hexes and now everything clears. Slightly wider track is good for sidehill, but I'm not enthused about the scrub radius on the front My servo won't be too happy about it either...We'll see how it does.



Little more weight and width on the corners, now onto those bumpers. I used a front bumper mount and flipped it for the rear bumper. Tucks it up higher, but not too high that it looks goofy imo. Pushed it in a set of holes and trimmed the body to match.



Tried a few bumpers in the front, and finally settled on a BOM bumper. Since mine is down awaiting a transmission replacement, won't be needing its front bumper anytime soon...ordered a new one and put the old one on the Sport. Fits the lines on the body almost perfectly! Just trimmed along the bottom of the body a bit, and drilled 2 new holes in the bumper so I could tuck it in as far as possible. Trimmed off a little too much on the body, got a little cut happy with the scissors...I can live with it though.


Serious improvement in approach angle! I like it!



Found out my 2.2 packs fit on the sliders almost perfect. Clearanced a bit so I could run some velcro and boom. Dropped right in. Nice and secure. It's slightly lover overall and more forward than the Bowhouse mount. Win/Win in my book.


Removed the Bowhouse mount and re-arranged the electronics. Put the electronics over on the motor side, and put the battery on the opposite side. According to my scales, it's well balanced - just a touch heavier on the battery side.


Oh, and I didn't like that fact that the rear of the chassis is kinda airy out back, so I took a leftover steering servo mount and mounted it out back as a crossmember. Stiffens up the chassis nicely...plus if you run a rear winch, it's a handy little mount. I don't have any winches here, but nice to know one can be easily added.


Ready for the next trail run....

[OSRC]

Quick change before hitting the trails this weekend. Was not happy with the brass weights in the wheels - just added too much offset. Since I removed the portals from my Defender, I had some extra SSD weights laying around. Also had a steel rear axle I wasn't using... So swapped over the housing and bolted on the weights.



Scrub angle is much better - closer to stock. I can live with this, and the Sport now has plenty of weight down low. That's enough, I don't want this rig to be a tank. Plan on heading out this weekend and seeing how it does.

[alexleblanc]

looking good - any idea what your sport weighs now?

Mine is 6.5lbs instead of the 9.6lbs that my defender weighs!

[OSRC]

Clocks in 6.7lbs without the battery. About 55% on the front wheels. Pretty much perfect, don't have any plans to add more weight unless it spends a lot of time on it's roof. Somewhat heavy is the name of the game with portal axles since the COG is so high.

[OSRC]

Great day of crawling yesterday, though it was 95 degrees with 75% humidity....we made it 4 hours before calling it quits. Was excited to see how the new tires and battery position worked out, along with the extra weight down low.....

in a word....GREAT!! Much more stable all around, and proved to be super capable. There was a new Enduro with us running a few mods, and it couldn't keep up, which I totally didn't expect.

Before the carnage...still shiny, no mud!


The BOM bumper made all the difference in front approach angle. Was hanging up here before, now its got tons of clearance.


Posing with the Enduro on top of our test rock. The owner dropped it off to me to do some tweaks before running. Swapped over his wheels, changed the overdrive, and made some changes with the bumpers. I like the truck, though the box suspension was way, way too light imo. Torque twisted all over the place. We cranked on the shock collars to get it somewhat level. but it was still rocking all over the place.


Tight squeeze!


Jumped in the water here to cool down.


Group shot, 4 rigs running today. Old SCX10JK still killing it! Did great out on the trail, though the tires held it back a bit.


Random trail shots...



Taking a break. The Duratrax tires had just started breaking in by this point. Very impressed, they are pretty grippy and did well in the PA mud and sand. Cleared out right away on the rocks as well. Wasn't sure what to expect for the price, but so far very happy.


The "mushroom rock" in the background. Popular hippie hangout. One day that suckers going to fall off, and I don't want to be anywhere near it!


Lots of roots here, this is where the portals really shine. Gobs of clearance under the axles means the sport just walked through here where the Enduro mostly bounced over.


All in all, I'm finally happy with the Sports performance. Didn't expect it to take so much fiddling to get it where it is, but that's part of the fun imo. Only mod left on the list is to put some UD gears in the rear axle. It still wanted to pull up the front on really steep climbs - I think adding some UD out back will have it dialed.

[soze]

Sport is looking nice! I like the BOM bumper on there. I actually just used it for my Enduro as well since I got a BOM rear cage for it.

I need to work on my Sport some more... oddly enough I've got the opposite experience from you where the Sport performs worse than the Enduro. Then again, mine is mostly stock, and I haven't done anything about the bumpers yet (or remove the rear cage). I guess I'll need to put some time into getting that truck up to par.

[Gadgetman001]

Hi, I love the paint job you did. I have just brought my first Sport, What colours did you use on your body please?
Many thanks
Ian

[OSRC]

Originally Posted by Gadgetman001

Hi, I love the paint job you did. I have just brought my first Sport, What colours did you use on your body please?
Many thanks
Ian

Parma fascolor, fasblue and faskrome.

[OSRC]

Originally Posted by soze

Sport is looking nice! I like the BOM bumper on there. I actually just used it for my Enduro as well since I got a BOM rear cage for it.

I need to work on my Sport some more... oddly enough I've got the opposite experience from you where the Sport performs worse than the Enduro.

Thanks Soze - the BOM bumper did wonders for front approach angle - and looks good too!

A buddy of mine bought the Enduro and when he ran it it had tons of torque twist. Worst I've ever seen! Make the Ascender seem like a bastion of stability. I thought it was kind of odd since I hadn't seen any complaints about it. Later he send me a text and showed me one of the front wheels (swapped to Axial 8 holes before the run) was rubbing hard, wore away part of the steering link on the knuckle. Whoops! Kind of explains it... We're going out again tomorrow, we'll see how it does now that the wheels actually rotate freely.

[Exalted85]

Can you PM me how you got the hw 1080 to fit across like that? I couldn't get it to reach the reciever box for some reason..it seemed pretty short!

[OSRC]

Just ran the wire over the top of the transmission. No special voodoo required.

[B-MOW71]

I too like the looks of the BOM bumper. It fits the body perfectly. It looks like it has a way better approach angle than the stock bumper. I may give that a try on my Sport. I don't see a spot for a fairlead, so I may have to fab one up.

Great idea on using the front servo mount in the rear. I have thought about adding a rear winch on my Sport, but I couldn't find a good spot for it. Problem solved!

Nice pics out on the rocks. Them Deepwoods tires look good on there. I've always wondered how good those tires were. It looks like we both have similar terrain, so I may have to try a set of them.

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

Them Deepwoods tires look good on there. I've always wondered how good those tires were. It looks like we both have similar terrain, so I may have to try a set of them.

IME the lugs fold over way too easily and the rubber was kinda shredded away much quicker than Pro-Line or Vaterra Swampers.

[OSRC]

I was wondering how the lugs would hold up since the compound is so soft, but so far they seem fine. Didn't notice any folding yet...though as they continue to wear in, who knows!

Proline foams are a perfect match for these tires - they support the tread very well. Time will tell!

[Ncrooks89]

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

I too like the looks of the BOM bumper. It fits the body perfectly. It looks like it has a way better approach angle than the stock bumper. I may give that a try on my Sport. I don't see a spot for a fairlead, so I may have to fab one up.

Great idea on using the front servo mount in the rear. I have thought about adding a rear winch on my Sport, but I couldn't find a good spot for it. Problem solved!

Nice pics out on the rocks. Them Deepwoods tires look good on there. I've always wondered how good those tires were. It looks like we both have similar terrain, so I may have to try a set of them.

Could you post a link for the front bumper? I can't seem to find that exact one anywhere.