SVT's TRX4 - A tale of tiny trucking

[Mountainsofbeer]

This is beginning to be the one of best threads in the TRX4 forum lmao.. its stupidly funny yet there is some good modding and info in there. I'm going to give you a great Yelp review

 

[svt923]

Awesome build. Quick question, do those style of winches have issues with getting tangled on the spool. I'm just curious since its enclosed inside the body and must be hard to baby sit.

I just picked up the BowHouse battery box and rear crossmember, its my first experience with 3D parts and I'm pretty impressed.

The Locked Up spool has really deep sides and the line doesn't have much room to move sideways once it gets inside the body, I am fairly confident it isn't going to jump the spool.

The Bowhouse battery tray really does a great job of getting the battery lower, you will like it.

This is beginning to be the one of best threads in the TRX4 forum lmao.. its stupidly funny yet there is some good modding and info in there. I'm going to give you a great Yelp review

If you think this thread is good, you should try my chicken with peanut sauce. Its delicious.

How much do I have to pay Yelp for that review?

 

[meatmonkey]

Keep up the tomfoolery. I like hearing about it. In a mostly picture related way. The writings not bad either.

Will you do a overall turning diameter test with the different diff locks to answer if it turns tighter with only the front, or only the rear diff locked? Inquiring minds must know.

 

[svt923]

Keep up the tomfoolery. I like hearing about it. In a mostly picture related way. The writings not bad either.

Will you do a overall turning diameter test with the different diff locks to answer if it turns tighter with only the front, or only the rear diff locked? Inquiring minds must know.

Not bad is what I strive for, thanks for noticing.

I did a very unscientific turning radius test when I first got the truck and found the open diffs cut about a foot off the turning radius on pavement. I will have to carry out another test with the various different configurations now possible. Maybe I'll even venture into the realm of video production for that.

 

[Teng]

Go svt923. Great thread as always. LIKE,LIKE,LIKE"thumbsup""thumbsup""thumbsup"

 

[svt923]

Hi, its me again.

If you haven't noticed by now, updates to this thread can take a while. Such reasons include:

- I have a wife and 2 young children that keep me busy
- I am a highly important executive that keeps things at a large company operating effectively
- I have another 8-9 trucks I am currently working on including 3 that have potential to be run at the GCM Adventure Series even in a month
- I fight crime as a masked vigilante at night using my vast resources of high tech equipment

One of those reasons is not true, I'll let you decide which one.

Anyway, I finally got in some parts that I have been waiting a long time for:

GPM brass portal covers.

You may be asking "what's with the stock photo?", I say "give me a freakin' minute".

When I say I have been waiting a long time, I mean that in the literal sense. They probably had to mine the copper ore, make the brass, ship the brass to GPM, machine the covers, then ship them to me. If that process didn't start with digging in a mine, then I don't know what the hell took so long.

Now, about that picture. It is necessary to give you a "before" image. Get it?

The brass portal covers are all about adding nonrotating weight as low and as far out as possible, that doesn't mean I enjoy the super shiny gold color. I was born and raised in NJ so I have seen enough tacky gold to last me a lifetime. Something had to be done so I turned to science.

Thanks to the underpaid and overworked staff at Amazon, a bottle of Birchwood Casey brass black was delivered to my house. This chemically reacts with the brass to darken it and was chosen over paint because creates a finish that won't scratch off, doesn't change any tolerances, and I never pass up the opportunity to use potentially dangerous chemicals.

After several applications and rinses, I ended up with:

You can see the end result isn't quite black but it is much better than GOLD.

A few observations about the brass black:

-If you get a super dark black, you probably didn't rinse the part enough and it will rub off easily.
-If you do not rinse the parts enough, the black will get all over your hands every time you touch them.
-Excess residue will continue to rub off even after the part is dry.
-A coat of oil or wax is necessary after the brass black has fully cured. I used good, old Rem Oil for this.

In the end, I think they look like a part that has been on the truck for a while and they won't be too noticeable once installed. 200 grams of stealthy knuckle weight is mine.

Installed pictures will come tomorrow or next month, who knows?

 

[Levi]

This is a great thread to read. Really like the servo winch. Life is definitely busy with family, work and other stuff. It leaves us with with little time to upgrade our trucks. I feel the same way, I'm building a trailfinder that's taking forever.

 

[Tossedman]

"I am a highly important executive that keeps things at a large company operating effectively" sounds fishy. The other three though are pretty reasonable.

 

[calcagno45]

I call BS there too...

O, nice covers too.

 

[mikemcE]

"I am a highly important executive that keeps things at a large company operating effectively" sounds fishy. The other three though are pretty reasonable.

No that is standard corporate bs.....

It's got to be the 8or 9 trucks he claims...... He also said married(how many trucks dear ?)



Hang up and Drive

 

[svt923]

Did everyone have fun playing "what takes SVT so damn long to post things"?

Who wants to know the answer?

All 11 of you that have been following along can calm down, I will tell you:

I have a wife and 2 young children that keep me busy

True, marriage records and DNA samples can be obtained to provide proof.

I fight crime as a masked vigilante at night using my vast resources of high tech equipment

(Disclaimer from high price legal team) I can neither confirm of deny this statement that Mr. SVT has made.

I have another 8-9 trucks I am currently working on including 3 that have potential to be run at the GCM Adventure Series even in a month

Definitely true, these are just the ones assembled enough to look like actual vehicles.

I commend my photography skills for making my garage not look like the disaster area it actually is.

I am a highly important executive that keeps things at a large company operating effectively

If you guessed this one, you win!

I'm not actually important, they just pay me like it.

Congratulations to the winners, your prizes are in the mail.

(Second disclaimer from legal team) The term prizes in the aforementioned context refers to any satisfaction or gratification gained through a correct response, no physical goods or monetary consideration will be provided.

As for everyone else, here are pictures of the new portal covers installed as a consolation prize:

There you have it, the GPM covers are not too bulky for providing 50g of weight each and the darkened brass color blends in nicely. The extra weight is immediately noticeable when you pick up the truck. I look forward to getting this out for some quality wheel time sometime soon. Maybe I will even write about it and post pictures in a reasonable time frame.

Maybe.

 

[svt923]

Its Monday.

You could start your week with a productive morning of accomplishing things or or you could roam the internet to check for pictures of tiny truck action from this past weekend. I encourage the latter.

As you may recall from my last post (see approximately 1/2 - 4 inches above this line depending on the screen size of the device being used to avoid work), I said that I may drive and take pictures in a reasonable time. Well, that happened.

Wanna hear about it? No? Well this is my tiny corner of the internet so .

We packed, we drove, we arrived, blah, blah, blah.

Driving commenced

This must be what its like driving on the moon or Utah (they are both strange, far away places with lots of cool rocks). Today was a day of straight up rock crawling in some gnarly terrain. The diffs and shifting servos didn't get a lot of work as they were essentially left locked and in low all day. The Power HD servo again showed several times it couldn't always point the tires in the desired direction, it's days in this truck are likely coming to a close. At least it is better than the stock servo. Have I ever mentioned that the stock servo is terrible?

This particular trail runs along a river so depending on the water level, you get a mix of grippy, high traction rocks that stay out of the water and smooth, polished rocks that are normally under the water. Today, the river was low so there was a lot more lines accessible and much more slippery rock.

If you take a peek in the background, there is some awesome terrain there. That is an island in the middle of the river. Much effort was put in to find a path for crossing the river and making it to that island. Unfortunately, waders or a bathing suit and towel are not part of my normal RC support gear.

So I said there was slippery rocks and water right? I tried very hard to not slip and end up with a broken ankle or wet socks (those are equally bad, right?) but know who didn't care at all about this terrain? The TRX4.

The Proline KXs are quickly becoming my favorite tall 1.9 tire, the traction is always there. Wet, dry, sandy, smooth, rough, all or the above: doesn't matter because these tires are getting serious traction.

Hot take alert: If you think the TRX4 is unstable, its probably because you suck at driving! Cue the ESPN style talking head shouting match!

In all seriousness (which isn't much for me), the GPM portal covers are either the greatest performance upgrade ever or I'm the greatest driver ever. The answer is probably both but I'll give credit to the extra knuckle weight. My TRX4 was pulling crazy climbs and sidehills all day, many of the "how did you not roll over on that" type variety. If the angle of this decent translated into pictures then you would be even more impressed.

This picture is just cool, no witty banter needed.

As I finished up my trek, the rocks expressed their gratitude and admiration.

Thus ends my voyage.

The more I drive my TRX4, the more I'm impressed. Yeah, the body is heavy, the front bumper gets caught on stuff, the wheelbase is a mile long, and the rear drags ass on every steep climb; wanna know how many times those things actually stopped me? There was about 3 lines in 3.5 hours of driving the TRX4 couldn't make while following Wraith with nearly unlimited approach and departure angles running 5.5 inch white dot Rovers. That is pretty damn good for a RTR truck that just has one significant modification and a quality set of tires.

Whole lot of tiny truck awesomeness is coming up in September, I need to prepare. You guys should probably get back to working, walking the dog, powering through that hangover, or whatever you do on Monday morning as well.

 

[AggressorBLUE]

great read as always SVT!

I take it the Castle power plant has been holding strong? It's omission from the above post tells me it's fulfilling it's mission of deliver stock-like power with more efficiency and less heat. I presume it also handled the water ok?

glad to hear the prolines are serving you well too. You get a chance to run those through mud at all? My own driving site has a mix of mud, murky puddles, washed out revines, and long dusty and/or loamy dirt hills filled with rocks. A lot to ask from one tire, and my pitbulls have done admirably, but mud seems to consistently get the better of them with such a heavy truck. Might have to give the prolines a shot.

 

[svt923]

I take it the Castle power plant has been holding strong? It's omission from the above post tells me it's fulfilling it's mission of deliver stock-like power with more efficiency and less heat. I presume it also handled the water ok?

The Castle system has been completely trouble free since going in, I only really check on it at the end of the run out of curiosity. 3.5 hours of running on 3s doesn't cause it to get more than warm. Don't know how wet it actually got on the last run but any water definitely didn't effect anything. The effeciency is very good too, the runtime on my 4000mah 3s pack has to be close to 4 hours because 3-3.5 hours doesn't get close to hitting the voltage cutoff.

glad to hear the prolines are serving you well too. You get a chance to run those through mud at all?

Don't do too much mud driving because the mud down here usually requires a chisel to clean off and I'm lazy. Don't see why they wouldn't be good for that purpose though. "thumbsup"

 

[geauxktm]

So I guess I have to start this post out with a confession (since someone totally narced on me).

My wheels and tires are not stock. Enjoy this picture while the shock sinks in:

Multiple people have tried to convince me the stock tires are legitimately good tires since they are soft, relatively sticky, fairly aggressively treaded, and the foams are close to being good. I remain defiant in saying they are good RTR tires and nothing more. The more I drove with them, the more I felt they slid off lines and hopped while looking for traction on climbs. So, yes they are probably the best tires you can get on a RTR truck (for reasons previously presented to me) but I don't see people actively choosing to run these over other established tires.

In addition to my well reasoned points above, who wants to run stock tires? Lame. Enter the Proline BFG Krawlers with Proline 2 stage foams. They look good and, in the words of Kyle from UCFab, provide all the traction of Hyraxs (Hyraxes? Hyraxen? Hyraxi? I'll Google it later) in a licensed tire. It is everything I could have ever wanted. Proline's 2 stage foams are my new favorite for Proline tires: the fit, sidewall support, and tread compliance are all perfect on the Krawlers. Who knew a company that has been making RC tires for 30+ years could make a foam that works so well with their own tires?

Stock wheels are also lame. Gear Head wheels are not lame, they are shiny and wonderful. These 12 pack EZ locks were the result of receiving some money for Father's Day and RPP having a Father's Day sale at the same time. Like the scale lugs? They are Locked Up M2 acorn nuts and M2x10 set screws since the Gear Head wheels are too thick to use the standard Locked Up M2 wheel studs. SSD hubs are also a recent addition but they will be staying.

Confession #2: I didn't buy pre-dirtied tires, I drove my TRX4.

Let me set scene: it was early Sunday summer morning but you could tell the day was going to be a hot one (since they all are in North Carolina). Two intrepid explorers set off into the empty woods lining the Haw River in search of tiny truck adventures.

Got it? Moving on.

I brought along my new and improved TRX4 while my fellow explorer brought along his Wraith (mostly because he can't stop breaking his other trucks). I threw in a freshly charged 4000mah 3S pack and we were off.

We trekked through rugged terrain,

over mountains,

forded the rivers and streams,

squeezed through tight spots,

and over some dangerous ones.

We returned to camp 3 hours later; tired, dirty, and hungry. So we ended our journey the way all great adventures should: at Bojangles (look it up if you're not from the south, this post is long enough as it is).

The time of reflection is at hand.

First, the Castle 2280kv motor and Mamba X does every good thing about the stock brushed setup as well or better. Low speed control, drag brake, top end wheelspeed, all just as good as brushed. The big difference is heat or lack there of. In 3 hours of constant running mixing low gear, high gear, crawling, climbing, high speed passes, and general tomfoolery, the motor and ESC were barely above ambient temperature (which was in the 90s by the end). The stock setup would have reached that level in 15-20 minutes. 4 servos didn't even tax the Mamba X's internal BEC. It was a very impressive debut for the new motor and ESC.

Independent diff control is just fantastic, the flexibility it provides adds another level to the driving experience. Unlocking the front as you come off an obstacle so make a tight turn setting up the next line or unlocking the rear to let it slip and prevent a backflip are just some of the benefits I encountered. Besides, this is America! The answer is always everything. When someone asks "chicken or burgers?" we say "YES!" When someone asks "front or rear diff lock controls?", we say "YES!" to that too.

The Proline Krawlers are lovely upgrade. They get traction everywhere; dirt, rocks, mud, wet, dry, sand, gravel, baby oil coated glass (I assume). You get the idea. More importantly, they consistantly hold the line you want to take and exhibit little wheel hop when searching for traction. They look cool too, that is as good as reason as any to change something on a scale truck.

Now for the steering servo. The Power HD 23KG servo is much better than stock so it has that going for it. Otherwise it is loud, whines as it constantly looks for center, and probably has less torque than it is rated for. I was able to completely stall it out on a few occasions that I didn't think would give it so much trouble. At least its not dead so there is that.

The stock suspension is on point for a heavy body rig. A lot of people will run for a bottle of lighter shock oil because they think they should based on their other lexan body trucks. When you have a heavy, top heavy body, controlled suspension movement is what you want, that means heavy dampening to slow the suspension's reaction to the shifting body weight. Traxxas pretty much nailed it out of the box.

Nothing has broke, nothing looks worn, nothing feels loose, the body is still perfectly in tact. All in all, life is good. There is now nothing this truck needs. Good thing that has never stopped me before.

I agree on them nailing it on the shocks. They feel very different compared to what I'm used to and even what works on my axial stuff but different is perfect for this very cool truck that now out crawls my fully built 10.2 while being able to transform into a wheelie machine that does Donuts and some lifted short course activity

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[Inspector86]

Glad to hear the MX and 2280 combo works so well since that is exactly the combo I have on back order from Castle. That said I have not seen any heat issues on the stock ESC and motor using 2s batteries which I seem to prefer over the 3s. May revisit the 3s once the MX and 2280 get installed.

 

[svt923]

Glad to hear the MX and 2280 combo works so well since that is exactly the combo I have on back order from Castle. That said I have not seen any heat issues on the stock ESC and motor using 2s batteries which I seem to prefer over the 3s. May revisit the 3s once the MX and 2280 get installed.

You seem confused.

3S > 2S therefore more better.

3S = Power for real men
4S = Power for manly men
6S = Power for manlier manly men

I will be hooking my truck directly up to a nuclear reactor once I figure out how to not die from radiation poisoning because I'm even manlier than those men who are manlier than manly men.

In actuality, I find a motor (brushed or brushless) in the 2200-2500kv range on 3S at 40-50:1 gearing is perfect for nearly any type of driving I do with a scale truck.

 

[clm]

Radiation poisoning? Pfft. Come on.. Man up! :mrgreen:

 

[svt923]

Radiation poisoning? Pfft. Come on.. Man up! :mrgreen:

If I die from radiation, that will prevent me from dying from a much more manly death like a failed attempt at jumping a motorcycle over the world's largest tire fire or fighting a polar bear with my bare hands.

 

[mikemcE]

Real men wrestle gators and rattlesnakes here....


Hang up and Drive