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Thloftus' Phoenix Rising

Thloftus

Rock Crawler
Subscribed Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2015
Messages
613
Location
Longmont
This one sets a personal best for showing up late to the party.

I bought the Phoenix kit in the fall of 2021 when they first came out. I’d wanted to try a Vanquish kit for a while, but the early ones were outside my means. The Phoenix was too much to pass up given the price, VFD Twin transmission, portal axles, and so on – I’d never had a truck with portals, dig, or overdrive. Plus I’d heard so many great things about the quality for Vanquish kits overall.

You might think this means I started building right away. Guess again, lol. I instead spent the next year+ collecting parts and electronics and didn’t start building until the holidays in 2022. I finished most of the build at that time, but then didn’t come back to it until this summer, roughly 1.5 years later. It’s mostly done now, although not quite complete. I’ve certainly gotten my value from a calendar standpoint. Or maybe kits age in the same way Whiskey does and this drawn-out experience was my plan all along?

Less time may have been required to put the first Americans into orbit! I wondered at one point if the kit had actually been canceled and I’d missed the party completely.

Took me forever to start this thread also. At least I can blame Tapatalk for that – does anyone know why it doesn’t seem to connect to Rccrawler anymore and/or if there’s an alternative? Would be great to have that option again. I haven’t been able to find anything on the web.

I’m planning to post this like a build thread, assuming my memory works well enough to recall the build experience. I did take a lot of pictures, bonus for that one.

I will say this kit was a joy to build. Probably at the top for all of the kits I’ve put together so far. The fit and finish for the parts is fantastic overall. And the end result is solid, but you’ve all heard that before – maybe 3 years ago at this point

Here’s the parts I used for the build. Tekin electronics are new to me
  • Tekin RX4 ESC
  • Tekin ROC 412 3100 kV
  • Tekin Hotwire
  • FS-GT5 radio
  • Holmes Hobbies SHV500 v3 servo (steering)
  • 2x Traxxas 2075 servos (shifting, pulled from my eRevo when I upgraded). I ended up replacing these with Injora INJSO30HV, 30 kg servos. One of the Traxxas 2075s stripped the first time I shifted the transmission
  • Incision VS4-10 Phoenix light kit
  • LockedUp RTR servo winch V2
  • Castle Creations 10 A BEC (to run winch at 7.4 V and the receiver & Traxxas Servos at 6.0 V). I ended up not doing this when I switched out the shift servos.
  • Holmes Hobbies bypass adapter (to power the winch with the BEC). Also saving this for the future
  • Vanquish VFD aluminum posts, VPS10151
  • Vanquish motor plate, VPS10148
  • Vanquish VFD bearing plates, VPS10142
  • Vanquish servo horns, 2x 24 mm and 1x 20 mm
  • Gmade RSD shock collars (suggested on another thread, recommend over stock collars)
  • Team KNK stainless hardware kit, KNKVS4101
  • CCHand Phoenix snorkel, VVV-C1349
  • CCHand fuel tank cap, VVV-C1335
  • Pit Bull BDS Kronik 80mm Super Shocks. This was a splurge, but they sure are nice. I made this change last summer after completing the build
Here’s the unopened kit. Vanquish does a nice job with the box art.

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And here’s the kit with most of the extras. I still need to install the snorkel and the fuel tank cap

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This next one is the untouched seal. Can’t believe I held off for more than a year before opening it!

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Finally committed …

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Opening a kit for the first time is always a great experience.

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And wheels and tires, all 1.9’s. From the left
  • RC4WD Rock Crusher II’s on RC4WD Black Rhino Deep Dish 1.9" Wheels
  • Proline BFGoodrich Krawler T/A KX on Vanquish Method 105’s
  • Pit Bull Rock Beast on Scale Shop Stockerz
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I ended up with a few sets of wheels and tires over the last few years, so I just mounted them all. Wheels from The Scale Shop have been a favorite for a while. I think this was one of the last sets of Stockerz. I was sorry to see them stop making wheels. They look great and tires mount up easily. I have a sweet set of 2.2” Deep Dishe Hutchinson’s from them on my Bomber.

Open to votes on which ones to use on the Phoenix. I did also mount up the stock tires and wheels.

Take care until next time.
 
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Nice Parts for this build you got there ... I have opened 2 phoenix kits and yet to build a single phoenix. They have been ripped apart and gone into different projects that are yet to be completed.... o_O 🥴 :ROFLMAO: so don't feel bad .... plus your build is going to get the GOODS ... I love the roc412 for my VFD.
 
Hilarious amounts of procrastination!

I did this same sort of thing with my Axial Bomber - here's the thread:

The "Just shut up and build it" thread...

I ended up with enough parts to build ANOTHER custom Bomber, and have not gotten around to it yet!
It's crazy how the time goes by.

I assumed I was alone in taking so long, but I do remember your Bomber thread. I read it at the time and really enjoyed it! Maybe there should be a section of the forum for those who savor builds, lol
 
Nice Parts for this build you got there ... I have opened 2 phoenix kits and yet to build a single phoenix. They have been ripped apart and gone into different projects that are yet to be completed.... o_O 🥴 :ROFLMAO: so don't feel bad .... plus your build is going to get the GOODS ... I love the roc412 for my VFD.
Thank you! It's awesome that I'm not alone in this "long game" approach to building kits. I'm looking forward to trying out the roc412 outdoors. Should only take another year or so to get that far
 
Second step down memory lane. Sort of proud of myself for getting back to this so soon. This point and beyond is where memory gaps may have an impact. Or maybe it’s the opportunity I’ve always wanted to create my own reality.

Step one is the front and rear axles in bags A and B. Having the manual is helpful. The cover art is also nicely done. Would be interesting to know why they associated this kit with something rising from the ashes.

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The instructions were nicely laid out overall. I think this was the first Vanquish kit with plastic axles. I honestly prefer this as I’m not sure I’d ever want to take the truck out if it had the metal alternatives – way to pretty to scratch up, at least for me. Maybe someday I’ll put together a shelf queen and run it around inside the house, on the yard grass, over carefully padded and non-abrasive obstacles …

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Front axle ring and pinion with the bearing carriers and third member. I like the way the gears are all together as one separable assembly.

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And all put together.

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I don’t remember why I took this one. It must have been important as there were several copies similar to this image. Getting the brass inserts to seat all the way may have been tricky somehow? They need to be flush with the inner surface for the bearings and other parts to go together correctly. I think I had to fiddle with this a few times before I was able to seat the rest of the parts.

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Front axle completely assembled. No question they are a thing of beauty. Funny how admiring axles never gets old.

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Rear axle ring and pinion assembly. The chapstick-looking stuff in the background is Loctite blue in stick form. Less mess and lasts forever.

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Assembled rear axle. The red cap is a nice touch and installs easily with the supplied tool.

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So that’s it for this one. Hope everyone is having a nice holiday!
 
Better late than never! I haven't seen many Phoenix builds, but I think I was out of RC when this truck was released. I'll be following along.
 
Nice to see another Phoenix build thread. I’ve built a few and they are always a joy to put together.

Nice parts list! Looking forward to watching the build take shape!
 
I thought for sure I’d get this post up sooner, but then … apparently not.

Round 3 is sub frame, skid plate, shock towers, chassis rails, etc

The setup for mounting the steering and winch servos is very nice. Somehow satisfying to have them go together as a separate piece and install the servos first. I haven’t used this servo winch from LockedUp before – looking forward to seeing how it performs as the cost is very reasonable and the build quality looks good.

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And with the chassis put together. It was a solid structure at this point. The Vanquish plastics and cross members eliminate the frame twist well.

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Apparently this post is a little short. Makes you wonder what took so long after the second one. Although I can still claim progress toward more rapid posting given the bar for this one is very low, lol
 
Nice to see another Phoenix build thread. I’ve built a few and they are always a joy to put together.

Nice parts list! Looking forward to watching the build take shape!
Thank you, it’s a great rig and has been a lot of fun!
 
Onto Bag D – the VFD Twin transmission!

I was pretty excited to build this transmission. I’ve never had a rig with overdrive, variable overdrive, or dig, let alone switchable options. Plus I always enjoy putting transmissions together.

First up is the bag of parts. Happy I was consistent about taking pictures of the bags before opening them up. Makes for a pseudo-pro, or at least consistent, intro. Maybe not super useful otherwise, but it is nice to see the kit bags pre-build.

And so behold the bag in all it’s untouched glory

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This next one is with the motor and the partially assembled motor plate, including the top shaft and spur gear. Seems like I should have taken this picture before starting assembly, but apparently not. I realized later that two of the electrical pins on the motor were bent toward each other, close enough that I was worried about shorting them together when installing the motor wires. Later in this case means more than 1.5 years later when I finally got to soldering on the motor wires. I reached out to Tekin at that point with pictures and they replaced the motor. Really impressive, honestly to do that when I’d had the motor for so long. Without question a pleasant experience. I guess it was clear that I hadn’t done much more than remove the motor from the packaging, but they certainly could have told me tough luck. Pretty awesome company to approach my issue with “couldn’t ask for more.”

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After installing the motor and shrouds, the base of the gear case, and the first two gears. This portion is ‘behind’ the motor. As I found out later, it’s easy to swap the motor with the transmission fully assembled.

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And with the back half of the gear case installed, followed by the metal bearing plate and bearings. At this point, I had the simple version of the inspection case installed. I later replaced it with the version that has scale shifters. I would recommend the metal bearing plate. The Vanquish plastics are good, but definitely better to have metal referencing for the bearings.

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Slide dogs and idler and drive gears. There’s something appealing about the gears themselves and lining them up like this, lol. It all went together easily.

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With the gears installed

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And with the second bearing plate and the back of the transfer case installed. This part also goes together fairly early, especially if you take your time.

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At this point, the transmission is mostly done. I’ll take it as a break point for this post.

Take care until the next one!
 
You’d think that after all this time I’d be more disciplined about catching up, but apparently not. In a relative sense these posts are coming more often. Maybe that counts?

Like others, I was concerned about dirt getting into the transmission around the shifter arms. I used neoprene gloves to make extra booties. They were easy to make and almost hidden once installed. I honestly don’t know if the dirt concern turned out to be real. Probably data for that now. But then it can’t hurt to have a backup.

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And with the transmission installed in the chassis. As with other parts of the kit, this goes together well and without issue. Was also easy to remove later even once the lit was fully built.

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Starting to get real at this point …

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Take care until the next one!
 

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So after all this slacking, maybe I’ll set a new personal best for posting again right away. And so behold, on to the shocks!

I built the shocks at this point, but didn’t fill them with oil due to stories at the time about leaks. I never actually filled them so I don’t know if my set had the same issues. Ended up swapping in a set of Pit Bulls before getting that far. More on those later.

I don’t remember why I took this first picture except that it looks cool and shows the shocks come partially assembled. The shock bodies look nice. I used the Gmade shock collars to get around the issue some reported for the stock collars.

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I used an e-clip tool from Dynamite to reduce the swearing during those steps. It works great and is inexpensive, certainly worth it even if you don’t install e-clips very often. There’s a tub of green slime in the background. Presumably I put this on the o-rings, but I can’t remember for sure.

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After building the pistons, with all the e-clips in place - hooray!

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The shocks look great assembled. They’re 80 mm length, so need to be mindful when looking at aftermarket options. I was excited to see the Optic uses 90 mm shocks, which opens up the possibilities.

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I only took one picture for the driveshafts so I’ll include it here. Not much to say, they went together well with no issues.

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Take care until next time!
 
This posting more often is starting to look like a trend, or at least something that’s lasting a couple days. Not sure it will continue as it’s breaking a serious slacker streak for this build.

Next up is the links. These went together like most links. I used a 3D printed tool that are fairly common these days but were less so when this set of links were assembled. Makes the process much easier as pointed out by others.

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And with the axles, links, and shocks installed on the chassis. No issues here either.

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The shift servos / links came next. At this point I was using Traxxas 2075 servos I swapped out of my eRevo. I thought they’d be perfect for this purpose. One of them unfortunately stripped almost immediately when I set up the electronics despite being careful with end points. I not sure if this was user error or maybe the servo was weakened already. Regardless metal gear servos are probably a better choice.

Here’s the first one

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And the second. The layout for the Phoenix is really nice, making all this fit without having exposed links everywhere. Clear there was a lot of thought and put into the design, with attention to having a clean setup while maintaining functionality.

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That’s it for this one. Take care until next time!
 
I'm glad to see a Phoenix. You're ahead of me at the moment...I have the chassis put together and that's about it. Oh...and the wheels lol. I did buy paint at lowes today, I guess that counts as progress.
 
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