Axial AX10 RTR Build

[DWT]

Good choice for chassis and rear axle. I run 50%+ overdrive on a couple rigs and they're line killing sumbiches. The Internet experts always cry about sidehill performance being compromised with that much OD but I have yet to have any issues with it. Learn to drive your rig and you'll be fine.

That's the chingchong chassis I run. Kicks major ass for being cheap. I put it close to my dluxfab nessie in performance.

 

['84 Bronco II]

I had to do a lot of 3D printing to get everything to work the way I wanted, including the links. I did 1/4" diameter for the uppers, and 5/16" diameter for the lowers. My front lowers are 3.850" eye-eye, front uppers are 3.800" eye-eye, rear lowers 6.500" eye-eye, rear uppers 6.125" eye-eye. Total wheelbase is now a little shorter at 12.875". The forward offset transmission/link mounting necessitated the new 129-179mm Injora steel driveshaft for the rear. I decided to cut down one of the stock AX10 driveshafts for the front since they were already shorter than the 119-159mm Injora driveshaft I was running in the rear previously.

I also printed new 1.9 and 2.2 3 piece wheels to get my outside tire width back down to something reasonable; about 10.75" now with the wider 2.2 setup vs. over 11" before.

Here are the rest of the parts I designed and printed:
Rear shock towers

Upper link riser for the Capra axle to get the geometry right to minimize pinion roll through travel

Boatsides for battery and ESC mounting

Belly plate that keeps the rod ends flush with the bottom and has a recess for the transmission to drop it as low as possible. My belly plate is 3.25" wide, which is about as narrow as I could get it and have clearance between the front upper links and the driveshaft and motor.

I moved my front shocks up on top of the front axle and mounted vertically when viewed from the side, but tipped in like a real rig when viewed from the front. This required me to mount the shocks 90º relative to how you normally see shocks mounted in RCs. This gave way more room for steering, even with the new wheels that sucked the tires in over 1/4"per side.

The lower shock mounts/electronics mounting plate to compliment the upper shock mounts. You can also see the new lower spring cups I printed for the shocks since I lost one of the original ones. These new cups allow for slightly more compression travel since they do not take up any space between the lower rod end and the shock body. I really wanted to put my ESC on this plate, but there just wasn't quite enough clearance through suspension travel, so it is only my receiver and on button for the ESC. The ESC ended up getting mounted in the driver side boat side and the battery in the passenger side boat side.

 

['84 Bronco II]

I also printed a slightly beefier servo mount and raised the upper link mounting position to help squat the chassis under power. I really wanted to mount the servo behind the front axle, but was having a tough time figuring out how to do it, so it is pretty similar to what I used to have.

An overall of the new chassis

With the forward mounted transmission and brass knuckles, I ditched the water from my 2.2 setup and put the stock foams that came with the 1.9 J-Concepts Ruptures in my Moabs since I had the Crawler innovation foams for the Ruptures now. Total weight ended up at 5.34 Lbs. (2,421g) with a 60.8% forward bias.

How the body looks now trimmed to match the angle of the belly and the boatsides

 

['84 Bronco II]

I pretty much pulled an all-nighter to finish building my rig in time for the competition, and it still wasn't fully assembled when I had to get it into tech before it closed I managed to get it finished just before the 1.9 courses started at 9:00am and literally had zero wheel time before the competition. They did the 1.9 trail class from 9:00am-12:30pm, and the 2.2 trail class from 1:00pm to 5:00pm. Each class had 5 courses open simultaneously and everyone could run them at their own pace in whatever order they wanted which was pretty cool and a good way to run everyone through pretty efficiently.

I drove it around for a minute or two before hitting my first 1.9 course, which happened to be one of the easiest of the day and was a real confidence booster. I ran the entire course clean including bonuses with the exception of one rollover I couldn't drive out of.
The second 1.9 course I ran was the hardest and got down to business in a hurry. The second gate was an off-camber 90º turn right on the edge of a 8-10' cliff. I watched the guy in front of me go off the cliff and break his rig. In hindsight, I should have just taken the gate on it since I used several reversed and ended up going off the cliff. To my surprise, none of my 3D printed parts broke and I drove it back on its wheels, but couldn't find a way to get back on course and had to take a reposition I didn't do too terribly on the rest of the course, but I was running out of time at that point and had to skip the bonuses and ended up timing out right after gate 8 or 9.
The third course I hit was probably the second easiest, but I made a couple of dumb mistakes that cost me points. I did make all the bonuses and gates though within time.
The fourth course I did, I had a really clean run until a bonus towards the end that I got totally screwed up on and in hindsight should have skipped. There was another bonus on that course I made the right call to skip that I never saw anyone make it through clean.
The final 1.9 course I did was the second hardest. I screwed up on a bonus early on in the course and wasted way too much time on it (I ran it clean later in the day). Then there was a drop off that was almost pure luck to not roll into the gate on that I hit a cone on. I think I was one of the only people to clear the 8th gate clean though which made me feel pretty good. I ended up timing out right at the 9th gate, but if I hadn't royally screwed up on that bonus early on, I could have had a pretty good run.

Here are the 1.9 Trail Class results, I got 22 out of 28 which isn't great, but not too bad considering I had zero wheel time with the new setup:
1. Christian -223
2. Nick -209
3. Eric -203
4. Garret -202
5. Zack M. -191
6. Daniel -157
7. Orlando -151
8. Thomas -133
9. Elijah -131
10. Kevin -129
11. Jackson -128
12. Zak S. -122
13. Aaron -120
14. Bacon -102
15. Ryan -101
16. Kaden -89
17. Kenny -84
18. Rona -74
19. Bethel -71
20. Andrew -52
21. Mike -50
22. Me -42
23. Marcy -39
24. Jesse -20
25. Brandon +6
26. Jason +49
27. Rich +84
28. Kailey +89

For the 2.2 competition, all I did was bolt up the Moabs in place of the Ruptures. At this point I had gained some confidence and was starting to get a feel for the rig. On the first course I ran, I watched the two guys in front of me absolutely ruin their runs on the third gate, and even suggested to one of them to take the line through it I ended up running clean, but neither of them did. I ended up running the course pretty clean, but I don't remember if there were bonuses I skipped.
The second course I did, I thought I was totally screwed on, but I ended up doing fairly well aside from the two bonuses I skipped; one was a nasty drop that had a really high chance of putting you on your lid, and the other was a really steep slab climb I couldn't make it up playing around afterwards.
The third course I ran, I did pretty clean, I just skipped one bonus that I couldn't make messing around on after my run, so a good call there.
The fourth course was one of my best runs. I did the whole thing clean except one bonus I skipped that was a real run killer. It was tricky and on the edge of a cliff, but I put tires on it, but backed off when I decided the risk wasn't worth the reward.
The fifth course I ran was really cool and I had a good run going until I screwed up on a gate that really wasn't that hard and cost myself a ton of time and points. I skipped a bonus drop that was mostly luck as to whether you stayed on your wheels or fell off a cliff. I was slaying the rest of the course, but clipped a cone that was totally avoidable trying to rush, and ended up timing out just before the last bonus and gate which I could have made.

I ended up 12th out of 26 which is awesome, and the club president even stopped to tell me that I did really well. It is definitely nice to finally be seeing some progression:
1. Nick -227
2. Ryan -212
3. Kenny -210
4. Christian -208
5. Daniel -204
6. Zack M. -193
7. Garret -191
8. Orlando -142
9. Eric -137
10. Jackson -125
11. Bethel -106
12. Me -97
13. Zak S. -95
14. Thomas -76
15. Aaron -75
16. Bacon -50
17. Kaden -41
18. Iryss -35
19. Brandon +21
20. Elijah +23
21. Mike +57
22. Andrew +59
23. Jesse +78
24. Kailey +119
25. Marcy +141
26. Jason +152

It was an awesome event, and the mad scramble to make it was totally worth it! It was a $50 fee for the whole weekend for all classes and included a T-shirt. The raffle was killer and it seemed like almost everyone won at least something. I ended up with a G-Speed Chassis and a full set of 1.9 KLR/M tires There were people I talked to that came out from Utah and Colorado which I thought was pretty crazy for an RC event. I am really happy with the improvement in performance and the fact all of the 3D printed parts held together, even after some nasty hits. The Capra rear axle and chassis were huge upgrades.

1.9 Trail Class Winners

2.2 Trail Class Winners

 

['84 Bronco II]

Good choice for chassis and rear axle. I run 50%+ overdrive on a couple rigs and they're line killing sumbiches. The Internet experts always cry about sidehill performance being compromised with that much OD but I have yet to have any issues with it. Learn to drive your rig and you'll be fine.

That's the chingchong chassis I run. Kicks major ass for being cheap. I put it close to my dluxfab nessie in performance.

The overdrive and clearance afforded by the Capra axle were game changing for me. With the forward weight bias from the chassis, I was able to ditch the water in the tires, which combined with the more positive wheel offset really helped the steering out. Definitely a solid chassis for about $25

 

[DWT]

The overdrive and clearance afforded by the Capra axle were game changing for me. With the forward weight bias from the chassis, I was able to ditch the water in the tires, which combined with the more positive wheel offset really helped the steering out. Definitely a solid chassis for about $25

You're getting there slowly. Losing the water in the tires is definitely a step in the right direction, now get tires made in the last decade with good foams and you'll really be getting there.

 

['84 Bronco II]

I finally got around to printing up some angle rear links to take full advantage of the angle skid and Capra rear axle. I just did a set quick and dirty for this comp, and while the gain in clearance is massive, I think I need to go back to the drawing board and re-do them.

I gave them a 30° angle and transitioned them from 5/16" (same as the straight links I was previously running) to 1/2" at the bend (still 5/16" wide, so a rounded rectangular cross-section) and printed them solid. Even so, they are not as stiff as the straight links and I think the are giving me more axle hop. I don't think the angled rod ends I reused from the straight links are doing me any favors either. I also bent one or both of the axle side rod ends which rolled my rear axle up a bit and effectively shortened my wheelbase and let the rear tires get into the body a bit. Some longer set screws, perhaps upgrading to 4mm and straight rod ends should help, but I also need to get them at least as stiff as the straight 5/16" printed links I was running previously.

The comp this weekend was the season opener at a local park called "Supper Rock" and we ran one course for each class (Pro, Sporty, 2.2 Trail, and 1.9 Trail) and did some grilling. It was a cold day and it was still right around freezing when we started at 9:00am and the rocks were cold and shaded for the most part. The rock is also partially decompsed granite which is basically like driving on marbles sometimes and can make it really frustrating to get up on top of the rocks.

We ran 1.9 first which was a pretty straight-forward course with some good flow. The first three gates were pretty simple, but right after gate 3 was a ~8' steep slab drop off. Only 2-3 guys had clean, controlled decents, but most people, myself included, had to drop down as far as they could and smash the throttle when they were about to go over and hope for the best. I ended up upside down at the bottom and couldn't drive back on my wheels so I had to take a roll over. Gate 4 didn't really give anyone issues, but gate 5 gave some folks greif. It was a ~5" undercut ledge with a sharp break over, but with my Capra rear and angled links, I went up it no problem. There was a bonus gate immediately afterward that required a hard left and then a U-turn on an angled slab. The bonus gate itself was easy, but trying to make the U-turn without a reverse was risky since ther was a high probability of falling off the edge of the slab and getting wedged in a crack. I chose to be conservative and use a reverse to clear it clean. Gate 6 was easy, followed by an easy bonus that required you to make a really tight U-turn. From this bonus on was the part of the course that made or broke peoples runs. People were so focused on making the U-turn after the bonus without backing up that they got completly wedged and ruined their approach for gate 7. I ended up getting greedy myself and trying to do it without using a reverse, but ultimately fell back to my original plan of dropping back through the bonus gate and ended up using two reverses in the process instead of just one if I had stuck to my original plan I cleared the drop on the approach to gate 7 cleaner than pretty much everyone, but gates 7 and 8 were really steep side slopes on decomposing granite that required you to line up, send it, and hope for the best. I ended up clipping gates on at least one if not both of them. There was one last bonus there that was giving people grief and would have taken time and probably a reverse or two to set up properly, but I was short on time so I skipped it and cleaned gates 9 and 10 no problem. I ended up with a midpack finish which I am happy with considering the caliber of drivers and rigs that were out there.

1. Christian -50
2. Garret -47
3. Aaron -40
4. Chris -38
5. Rob -25
6. ME -21
7. Thomas -18
8. Kevin -13
9. Andrew +26
10. Rona +26
11. Stephen +28

The 2.2 course was pretty brutal and only one person finished the course. Me and two other guys couldn't get past gate 4, and everyone else besides the guy who finished got stuck at gate 5 or 6. With the cold weather and this granite, it was amazing how much worse the traction was with the Moabs vs the Ruptures. I know the Moabs are old and outdated, but I have never noticed such a disparity in performance. Ultimately traction is what held me back from progressing gate 4. The chassis was settled and stable enough, I just could not get it to hook. In hindsight, I should have just given it a hard bump and taken out the gate, but I don't think I would have made it through gate 5 or 6 in competition. I screwed around a while on course after my run and took me a while to find a line through those points with multiple attempts.

1. Christian -32
2. Garret +22
3. Aaron +24
4. Andrew +24
5. Chris +34
6. ME +34
7. Stephen +34

I rolled my car pretty hard several times, both on course and screwing around off course and broke my front shock tower at some point, but didn't realize it until I was home. It has taken some rough hits and it was cold which makes plastic brittle, but I probably should beef it up since it broke after two comps.

 

['84 Bronco II]

I am thinking about stepping up to a Furitek Python X ESC or Holmes Crawlmaster Mini V3 and a Holmes snub nose outrunner along with a DLux NOD2 or Portal trans (If I go to a portal front axle) to shave about .4 Lbs out of the chassis and narrow up the spacing between my chassis rails.

The Furitek seems to be better than the Holmes ESC on paper, but none of the local comp guys really have any experience with Furitek and they are all running Holmes ESCs. Does anyone have good or bad experience with the Furitek Python X? All I can find online is Youtube influencers who probably got them for free raving about them.

 

['84 Bronco II]

There was supposed to be a competition this weekend, but it ended up getting pushed a week due to the snow we got. I just printed out another front shock tower to replace the one I broke last time, and redesigned my rear lower links to use 4mm x 30mm studs (3mm x 20mm previously) at the axle end with some SSD 5347 knock-off rod ends that have Axial width balls. I also moved where the bend was in the link to optimize ground clearce and reduced the bend to 25° from 30° in an effort to get it a little stiffer.

Bent 3mm stud from the last comp:

The new hardware:

Much more engagement into the lower link now:

Showing the difference with the slightly revised lower link design:

 

['84 Bronco II]

The truck held up well to the competition last weekend.
I only ended up finishing one of the three 1.9 courses. Nerves got my on the first course and I hit several gates and pointed out on the 9th gate. The second course was giving everyone hell and I pointed out on the 7th gate. I think only one or two people completed it. The third course was much easier and I did it pretty clean aside from a couple of reverses and a bonus I skipped that I don't know if anyone made.

1.9 Scores:

Christian -105
William -38
Thomas -13 (time)
Scot -13
Mike -1
Me +13
Orlando +23
Steve +41
Zac +89
Rich +92


The first 2.2 course was the hardest of the competition. I ended up pointing/timing out at gate 6 or 7, and only one person was able to complete the course. I did pretty well on the second course, but I was too conservative and skipped all of the bonuses. I could have made one of them no problem after messing around on it afterwards. The third course was easy and I cleaned it and all of the bonuses minus a couple of reverses.

2.2 Scores:

Christian -138
Thomas -55
Mike -37
Orlando -31
Me -15
Steve +14
Jesse +64

I am the one representing with the Irate 4x4 hoodie.

I think I am going to leave this truck more or less alone for now, and start building a new rig I will use for the 2.2 trail class and use this one just for 1.9 when it's done.

 

['84 Bronco II]

Had a BLIZZARD comp today, and I was the only one to clear the one course we ran before we called it quits Now I know what No way puts up with

We met up in Rio Rancho and it was snow free, but as soon as we started heading out to the comp spot the snow started coming down. It snowed about 3" in the 30 minutes it took everyone to run the one course. We had to sweep the gates so we could see where they were between runs and have a chance of making it through the course. I am not sure if it was my tires or what, but no one else could make it through gate 7, but I completed the entire course with twenty something points. It would have been a super easy course on a dry day. Unfortunately no pictures of my truck.

 

[00nissanguy]

The snow comp looks fun for 15 minutes

 

['84 Bronco II]

After some more runs, I noticed that the M3 set screw on my original front drive shaft was chewing up the original D-style front output on my on my transmission and was getting close to stripping out. Upon disassembly, I found out that the output screws had come loose on the spur gear inside the transmission and it was a good thing I caught everything when I did. I updated the transmission with the later through pin style Axial outputs (AXIC0435) and made sure to use red Loctite when putting it all back together.

The newer style outputs didn't have a provision for the plastic centering bushing the original outputs had for the spur gear, so I left it out and just did my best to get everything centered before tightening it up. So far so good.

I decided to weigh the tranny with the Team Brood motor for shits and grins:

Did a test run to make sure all was good.

 

['84 Bronco II]

I decided to finally take the plunge and upgrade to an out runner brushless setup and some of the long travel traxxas GTS shocks. I considered the Holmes Mini V3 and Furitek Python X ESCs as well as the Holmes Snubnose Revolver, Team Brood Riot SS, and Furitek Komodo Ten motors, but I ended up going with the Rhino 40A ESC and 2340kV S12 motor which only cost $90 and some change direct from China The Rhino 40A ESC looks literally identical to the Holmes Mini V3 and uses the same AM32 software for tuning, and is made by DYS who is probably making the ESCs for Holmes as well. The S12 motor is nearly as light as the Holmes team spec Snubnose but the combo was literally half the price. The slow speed crawl has been greatly improved from my HW1080 G1 and 5 slot Team Brood 11T motor and the top end wheel speed is just as good if not a little better; not to mention I have lost a LOT of weight with this new setup. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures prior to installing in the truck. The new ESC was small enough to mount it to my front axle plate under the upper links. I took this opportunity to redesign my belly plate to mount the transmission ~.1" lower, and raise and narrow the frame rails to give me more clearance over the front axle for shocks and relocating the receiver to make room for the ESC on the axle.

One piece belly plate with integrated boatsides (1st draft, final piece dropped the transmission and motor ~.1" and has walls to help secure the battery)

Motor after grinding it on some debris that got stuck in the belly plate. You can see the recess in the belly plate for the lowered motor/trans combo in the second picture.

The Rhino ESC and its mounting location. Yes the lower link is bent and it's time to upgrade the front links to M4 studs as well

Relocated receiver:

The long travel Traxxas GTS shocks are very close to the same extended length and travel of the original AX10 shocks I had been running, but have aluminum bodies, threaded preload adjusters, and metal rod ends with much more misalignment than the slopped-out plastic ones in the Axial shocks. I bought these as take-offs with a .92 Lbs/in springs which were way too stiff for my application, but fortunately I had some of the spring options I had bought from Acxess Spring for my AX10 shocks that fit the GTS shocks well. I also took off the hard plastic "bump stops" that ate up a considerable amount of travel.

Unfortunately the oil that came in these shocks is thick as molasses and is really messing up the performance of the suspension. I have since ordered a Team Losi shock oil variety pack, but I think the shocks were really hindering my peformance in my last competition. The compression and rebound were so stiff, the truck didn't really want to flex or settle at ride height, and they were really slow to drop out when I was hung on my belly.

With the raised and narrowed frame rails I updated my shock and body mounts.

Front:

Rear:

New ready to run weight is 2,333.3g or 5.14 Lbs with my 2.2 setup and 2,125.1g or 4.69 Lbs with my 1.9 setup and right at 60% forward bias still.

 

['84 Bronco II]

So after the last round of mods, I took the truck to a competition on Cinco De Mayo and the truck was noticeably more stable on side hills. As I mentioned earlier, my suspension was really killing me with how stiff the shocks were, but overall I was happy with the performance of the truck. Definitely the hardest I have beaten on it to date. Plenty of power on tap with the little outrunner.

The first 1.9 course went very well for me. Aside from tagging one gate, I ran the course clean aside from a few reverses and got all three bonuses. Not a super hard course, but it got the better of quite a few drivers. The second course I really screwed myself on the first gate. The gate itself wasn't too hard, but the approach was tricky and I wasted way too much time trying to get on the right line and had to rush through the rest of the course and skip a bonus I probably could have made, but I literally finished the tenth gate at the last second. The same thing pretty much happened to me on the third course. Again I wasted too much time on the first gate and was racing to get through the tenth gate with seconds to spare, but I at least had time to grab a bonus line. I was a bit anxious and off my game the whole competition, but I am happy to have finished in the top half of the 1.9 field.

1.9 trail class
Garret -109 (4:49 left)
Christian -109 (3:32 left)
Orlando -67
Chris -59
Me -30
Gary +15
Kevin +22
Rona +50
Scot +61
Rich +92
Ed +136

For the 2.2 courses my best run was probably the first course even though I took a reposition on the first gate after falling of a ledge I couldn't get back up and only made it to the 8th gate before timing out. As bad as that sounds, I did it the third best The second course I did alright on but ended up timing out on the 9th gate. I really need to work on my time management; 6 minutes seems to fly by when you're the one driving. I was on track for good finish on the third course, but got wrapped up in a grassy bush after dropping through the 8th gate and ended up poping the original plastic front drive shaft apart trying to break free. I definitely could have done better on the 2.2 courses.

2.2 trail class
Garret -96
Christian -54
Orlando +41
Greg +43
Chris +67
Me +70
Scot +94

One of the other guys out there shared some good pictures with me actually in them.

This one is me running and driving at full throttle to make the last gate on the second 1.9 course

The driveshaft after I popped it back together at home. it is permanently twisted, but still useable as a spare I suppose. I picked up a metal 68-86mm Injora driveshaft to match my rear drive shaft. Hopefully I don't find the next failure point.