First upgrades to a Traxxas TRX-4 Tactical
 

I need some suggestions for what I need to upgrade on this vehicle. TRX-4 was purchased late 2018 and I am the third owner. The TRX-4 is stock. This is also my first Traxxas.
The TRX-4 will be my wife’s vehicle and she just wants to drive. She is not hard on her vehicles. She does not want a lot of upgrades nor does she want to do any wrenching. She’s leaving that to me. Grandkids will be supervised while they drive.
I want to set it up, so it does not need a lot of work or maintenance as I have my own RCs to work on.
I will run the Traxxas 3S 5000 mAh batteries.
I am looking for suggestions on an upgrade to the steering servo and horn as I have heard this is the weakest link. I will most likely rebuild the shocks and put in 20w oil. If the stock motor and speed controller can handle the 3S then I will leave them alone for now. If not, I am open to suggestions.
We’re housesitting in Indiana right now, so I am limited in tools too. I will do a complete R&R when I get back home

Re: First upgrades to a Traxxas TRX-4 Tactical
 

I put a hobbywing axe combo and use a 25kg lewansoul 20 bucks on Amazon. I put a castle bec on instead of the bec in the hobbywing because of the light kit I use and so I can run everything high volt.

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Re: First upgrades to a Traxxas TRX-4 Tactical
 

Some people run the Titan 550 stock motor without issues. I have one still going strong on one of my TRX4's. The other bit the dust and I replaced it with a Holmes Hobbies 21t Sport motor ( only $20). Simple install and great motor upgrade. No need to upgrade factory esc with this.

That being said, most TRX4 owners are upgrading the XL5 esc to a Hobbywing 1080wp when they are dropping in a higher amp draw servo. You could upgrade the stock servo to a DS3218 and keep the stock XL5 esc without issue ( really cheap servo... gives you a little more torque and fairly reliable... just not that strong) .

But if you get into a really strong servo then for the most part you're gonna have to upgrade the esc and/ or run an external bec. The way that I got around that was to get a Holmes Hobbies shv500v2 servo that comes with a lead to run directly from the 3S. This isn't a cheap servo coming in at about $120 but it has loads of torque and because of the bypass, I can still use my stock esc.

So if you go with a high end servo you'll likely need to replace the esc ( unless you get the HH shv500v2) or just get something like a ds3218 or similar for a 'little better than stock' servo and keep the stock esc.

First upgrades to a Traxxas TRX-4 Tactical
 

I went with the DS3225 servo on my sport kit, which is supposedly a higher torque version of the DS3218(25kg instead of 20kg.) so far it has been fine but it doesn’t sound like there is much history with them on here and i only have a handful of hours on it.

I am also running a HW 1080 esc and holmes sportmaster 21T motor. Again, both only have a few hours but its a very popular combo.

Re: First upgrades to a Traxxas TRX-4 Tactical
 

I Run mine Defender Version with Stock ESC and Motor only Upgrade was the steering Servo to a powerhd 20kg waterproof (20$) over 1.5 years on 3s with no issues.
Now i have upgraded to a HV500 V2 Servo, cause with all the weights (Brass portal Covers and Portal weights) the Power HD still works but on the Limit. And lately i changed the Motor to a HH trailmaster sport 21t, need the Titan for another Project and the HH was waiting on the shelf.
So only upgrade needed is a better steering servo and you're done for the start. Make sure to set the endpoints for the steering.

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Re: First upgrades to a Traxxas TRX-4 Tactical
 

This is what I'm going to do for now myself. Not cheap, but most of the time you get what you pay for.


I'm going to stay with the stock ESC for now myself. Thanks for the reminder on the endpoints for the steering.

I didn't originally see the Thread: new2rocks Guide to the TRX-4. Have got a lot of information form this thread. I ordered the battery lowering kit and the servo bracket also. Will order the HH Servo also. I also have a metal servo horn on order.

Re: First upgrades to a Traxxas TRX-4 Tactical
 

If you are the third owner I doubt the TRX4 is completely stock since the stock steering servo has been a known weak spot and is routinely replaced early on. I have the Savox 1230SG installed in all five of my TRX4s the oldest being 2 years without a single issue all are also equipped with aluminum servo horns. I have the HW 1080 ESC and CC 10A BECs installed in four of my TRX4s one still running the stock Titan 550 21T motor after 2 years. All of my TRX4s have some form of portal weights front and rear with my favorite being the SSD portal weights.

Re: First upgrades to a Traxxas TRX-4 Tactical
 

Does anyone know if the servo horn that ships with the Holmes Hobbies shv500v2 servo will work with the steering linkage of the TRX4?

Re: First upgrades to a Traxxas TRX-4 Tactical
 

I didn't remember what horns I have on either of my TRX4's so I just looked. Neither are from the shv500v2 but whether or not there was a reason that I used different servo horns, I'm not sure. I didn't measure hole to hole but I can if you need.