New TRX4 Questions.
 

I picked one of these up tonight so I can go out and drive around with my brother and nephew. Its the bronco body and as far as I can tell is the same as the Land rover bodied one.


I opted for a RTR rig because I've been out of it for a while and now that I have access to the equipment, and the skills to fabricate whatever I want I don't have the time or desire to really get that far into it now.



Is there anything I need to address right away or be prepared for? They both got one of the Axial Cherokee RTR kits and I wanted something different. Plus my last go around with the original SCX10 RTR wasn't one I want to repeat. It instantly needed links and electronics, plus I always had an issue with the rear drive shaft.



So is there anything like that I'll need to worry about? Hubs, transmission, driveshafts, axles, etc? Id like to get the parts now and just have them around.

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

You picked the right rig. The only real weakness is the steering servo. Everything else is pretty much overbuilt. I replaced the servo with the Savox 1210sg. Enjoy!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

Nothing to worry about until it breaks which is rare on the TRX-4. The Defender has a longer wheelbase. You made the right choice in getting the Bronco.

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

I'm glad to hear that. I knew it existed however I've been pretty iffy on Traxxas for a while and never paid them much mind until I finally moved away from the RC world.

I figured the steering servos were suspect, they nearly always are. I've got a pile of random hitec servos laying around from some of my giant scale stuff so I should have something that is up to the task. If not I'll check out the Savox. I'm not totally sold on them after burning out a few but they seem to have a lot of recommendations. I charged the batteries and took it for a little spin in my yard but I can't get anywhere to really test it at low speed. It seems to have balls for days and will stand up at will, but does it have decent control going slow? I'm not looking for competition level control, but something I don't have to goose to get to move.

I've also noticed it has a brake/reverse lockout enabled from the factory, its not my thing. Is there a way to disable it? Supposedly it supports some bluetooth something or another but that requires a module I'm not going to buy. It doesn't seem to have a usb connection that I saw on my very brief inspection. I'm more familiar with the castle link stuff where there was a USB link on the speed control. If its a pain to disable I'll just have to get over it, but if I can easily and without buying some special adapter I'd prefer to.

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

At this point I think you'll hear recommendations to upgrade the stock esc to a Hobbywing wp1080 for more functionality/ settings as opposed to the traxxas xl5. They're pretty inexpensive too.

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

You should have reverse. Checkout the manual, below, starting at page 18 for instructions on the ESC.

https://traxxas.com/sites/default/fi...-OM-EN-R00.pdf

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

I saw it this morning when I got a chance to take it out for a little while. I completely overlooked it last night. It goes along pretty well. Not having the diffs locked 100% of the time is a pretty nice trick made getting around some of the crap in my back yard easier.



Hopefully I can get out to the park today and hit some of the hiking trails. Any ideas on how long I can expect a 3s 5000mah pack to last? I know on my axial my 3300 pack would last about 30-40 minutes but I put a 55 turn in it

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

Yeah the unlocking diffs are very fun to play with - more fun than the 2-speed transmission IMO.

I'd expect you to get more run time out of the 3300mAh pack honestly. I can get 40 minutes on a 3S 2200 pack in my Capra. The 5000mAh pack should last at least two hours depending on driving style and your conditions.

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

With a fully charged Traxxas 3s 11.1 i get a good 2 hours trailing no problem, i don't go racing around at top speed though and this applies to all of my TRX 4s.

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

I ran that thing balls to the wall a lot. Gravel hills, dirt paths and muddy hills. It didn't see much crawling because I just never could get it set up well enough to enjoy doing it with it.



At least 2 hours is good to hear. The trail I take is about a 2 hour trek so if I take 2 batteries I should have plenty and then some just in case. Sadly I didn't get out today because even though I am off work, I have to do things for everyone under the sun while they get to sit and relax.

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

Raw deal.

Do you stop along the way at any sweet spots or just run the trail straight through?

It can take me two hours to get 200 meters running an RC:ror:

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

It depends. Usually I walk it with dogs so I'm endlessly just stopped waiting for them to piss on everything known to man. I do expect to stop at a few places where it comes down close to a creek bed and runoff. The hobby shop had a sale where I got 40 bucks off of a traxxas charger and 2 5000mah 3s lipos so I've got plenty battery to get in and out. The charger seems a little dubious, but if it burns my house down, its insured.



I'm in the Cinci area so we are not exactly known for mountainous terrain but we have more creeks and dry beds than we know what to do with. Most of the running I'll be doing isn't going to be super low and slow so I may find I use quite a bit of juice being pinned on the throttle quite a bit.



It has been good fun chasing the dogs around the house with it. My little one really loves it. If you get the throttle right and you get the motor whine he will howl along with it.

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

It's a tough go being a dog. Not allowed to bite, not allowed to lick, not allowed to jump on people but generally allowed to piss at will. I would likely piss on everything as well in those circumstances.

I lack rock in my immediate surroundings as well. Have to drive an hour or more to get that. Kind of a pain, but usually worth the effort.

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

The world is my urinal. If I got to go and there are not people near by, I'm going on it.



Back in the day when I was super active in it the local club had some really good spots all over. The hangover crawl in Louisville at the dam was really good but a long drive. Most of us wound up spending most of the time with the scale trucks though as they fit the terrain better.



Well, hopefully rain holds off tomorrow and I've got some time to get out and drive. The waterways are down so I should have some good creek access.

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

Well I got some time out today. Where I wanted to go the creek was up more than I expected so I went elsewhere. Here are some of my observations.

I don't know how long this 5000mah battery will last, but I put a solid 1h45m on it and it didn't show any signs of slowing down. It is kind of top heavy, but not more than I would have expected for an average scale truck I'm familiar with. The extra height from the portals and smaller pumpkins than I'm used to was really nice and allowed me to roll over things that in my SCX10 I would have had to kind of run and hop over. I'm 50/50 on the tires. One minute they are doing well and even with the diffs open they all grip well and pull through, the next minute on the same obstacle its like they are on ice. The biggest thing I struggled on was loose dirt. They cleared around a bunch of the paved trail and I really struggled going up the sides. If I could get a root or small rock it was a breeze.

I also observed that the ticks are out like crazy right now, and that is the biggest bummer. Hopefully I don't wind up with one attached.

Here are some pictures of where I was at. Sorry about the super jumbo photos.

This is where they cleared around the paved trail. Its all really loose dirt along that edge there and it was a simple but reasonably challenging spot because of all the short little stick stumps from the weeds and the loose dirt. I spent way too much time along this.
https://i.imgur.com/qr4hbzG.jpg

This is one of the trails down the valley. I don't know how to portray the steepness of it through a picture but its a good spot because they laid some flat rocks in there to almost act as steps. The descent was pretty easy and the drag brake worked pretty good. Its just steep enough the drag brake cant stop the truck so it makes it an easy to control trip.
https://i.imgur.com/mO3PDf0.jpg

This is at the bottom of the previous picture and around the bend a little further down heading back up. Luckily people have been out on it to move some of the leaves out of the way so you have a better idea of what the trail looked like. This is about the time I realized that my choice of chucks for footwear was the incorrect choice for the day.
https://i.imgur.com/68mSaIF.jpg

This rock was the bane to my existence. I tried to take the picture as level as possible to try and give a feel for the rise of the trail.
https://i.imgur.com/rj6z6B0.jpg

This is one of the flat sections that run next to the paved areas. There are several trees that lay across the path there and it made for a fun little adventure trying to figure out a way across them without hand of god style intervention. I also ran this entire section with open diffs because I wasn't paying attention. Didn't even notice until toward the end.
https://i.imgur.com/140Zby4.jpg

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

Probably gonna need to build a Monster truck for that terrain man LOL. Axial just came out with a raw builders monster truck kit lol

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

Please resize your pics per forum guidelines before posting them!

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

Yeah, I tried. I'm not really the computer guy I once was. I thought I did, but it doesn't seem it worked right. I just removed the img tags.



I REALLY underestimated the runtime on the batteries. I went back up there for an hour plus at the fill site and its still got juice. So that puts me well over 2.5 hours, possibly 3.

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

I know this is a really personal preference question, but what tires are you guys running? I've got a set of RC4wd IROKs stock TRX4 wheel set and a weighted set of stock SCX10 wheels and tires. They all preform alright on the rocks we have I believe its shale. However in dirt or mud they just dig holes and don't really pull forward much. Its pretty sticky clayish type dirt and mud. When its wet its tacky and when its dry its hard and dusty.

Considering the weight would adding some stiffer foams help more than changing the tires? They all seem to be clearing the mud and dirt out well, they just don't pull the rig.

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

That terrain is very similar to where I run. Checkout Proline Hyrax or TSL Super Swampers in Predator compound. Rock Beasts in Alien Kompound are great, but they are way more expensive and not worth the extra cost IMO.

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

I'll hunt the TSL's down. I had a set of TSL's once for my Jeep. I'll give them a go on a scaleish truck. Do they fit the RC4wd beadlocks pretty well? I know back in the past some of the proline tires had a thin bead and not all proline tires held well in them.

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

Sorry for the double post, but they do not fit the RC4WD beadlocks that I have. Its nearly impossible to clamp the beadlock, and if you do get it clamped the tire pulls right out. So I'm back off to the hobby shop to see what else they may have in stock. They had a set of vanquish I may pick up.

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

Which RC4WD beadlocks?

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

I've had my TRX4 about 5 months, and I certainly am NOT an expert about any of this. But your 3S batt comes to my mind...

I've noticed that loose dirt seems usually the most difficult to deal with on an incline - that and 3+ inches deep of leaves. I've also noticed a world of difference between 1st gear and 2nd gear in the loose stuff, and (as you'd expect) a world of difference between locked and unlocked diffs. I'm running a 2S batt and I was amazed at the traction difference between 1st gear vs. 2nd gear at a dead stop to barely moving... even though I squeezed as light as I could, 1st gear would allow truck to move in many places where 2nd gear always spun tires.

I've not yet tried a 3S but I'm told it's basically faster. So maybe running a 3S is like giving up lower 1st gear because you just can't squeeze gently enough for the increased 'horsepower'?

Re: New TRX4 Questions.
 

I've had them for quite a few years now. Nothing they have on their website now are exactly like it. On mine the rings clam via thru bolts to the actual wheel.



I picked up some of the vanquish ones that worked better. I wish they didn't have 1000 screws, but they work.



Gearing takes leverage away from the motor and adding power keeps the motors mechanical advantage but, adds umph. I don't think the added power is the problem, its likely more in the weight area. However, I don't know that dropping to a 2s battery would be enough to make a notable difference.



I'm going to go out and check out a new ESC or external bec and servo today. I've got a hitec 7980 floating around with some 7955s from my giant scale stuff but I don't think the traxxas built in BEC is going to have the balls. I hate soldering but I'm going to go look at the castle bec or a hobby wing esc. Would the 3 amp bec be enough for the truck, or should I really get the 10 amp and solder it all in.