As you already know, I am a hard core Jeep guy. I have an XJ, a YJ, and the latest has been a JK. My wardrobe is 90% Jeep shirts, hats, and this last Christmas my parents even found me a wallet. The house and office, yep Jeep. Even my 1/10 scale rc rig is a Jeep.
When I picked up our new Axial SCX 10 and had the choice between a JK Wrangler or a Honcho, I selected the Honcho against all my history with the greatest American vehicle ever made. I even lean towards Nissan and not Toyota, which the Honcho is clearly a Tundra.
The latest edition to the 1/10 garage fills several gaps. First, it is a seed truck. We want to recruit others into the hobby and thought having a demo rig would be a great way to do that. Second, going to events in other states and having your rig break or simply decide to not work is a joy killer. We had this happen to Abby at the G6 in Bend, Oregon and I had to pull parts off of her rig and place them on. 1/2 finished build we happen to have with us. Even on our local outings, I had a truck misbehave and wound up walking with Melissa and Abby on what has to be one of the greatest trail drives we have found to date.
The SCX 10 is a well proven platform. Driving the truck right out of the box without all the extra mods and accessories was pure fun. I took it out to an area we call “Mini-Moab” to do some testing with it. Just out of the box, no ladders, winch, Pull Pal, wheel weights…literally out of the box.
The 27t motor provides enough speed to make driving interesting, yet it doesn’t over-power the rig. It also provides some torque when needed for climbs. Since it is a brushed motor, I don’t have to worry about water proofing. On this rig the battery is already moved forward and it is stock with driving lights, yep…trail ready.
I have heard allot of drivers complain about the servo. First, it is not water proof. Second, it is said to be week. To date, the servo set ups in both Abby and Melissa’s rigs has done well and they both abuse them quite a bit.
The radio controller is great for out of the box. It is a 2.4 Ghz set up, so cross-communication with another rig is a very low risk. If feels great in the hand and feathering the trigger is easy to do with it. The main feature I like, it has a notch for using a lanyard. I hate setting my radio down in the mud, and since this truck will be used for newbies, the lanyard is a must to help keep it protected.
Again, driving the basic rig was a blast. One of the problems with this hobby is the elitist mind set of having to super-build a rig when starting out. Most seasoned drivers have forgotten what it was like to be new to the hobby. This rig can have you on the trails right away. All you really need is two solid rc batteries (which I will cover in a later blog and podcast), a decent charging station, 4 AA batteries for the radio, and a trail to go play on.
If you are in Idaho, this next year we will be doing adventure and expedition runs. These are not comps. These are fun get togethers to go run around on trails or other interesting areas to drive.
Be sure to check out the web site and facebook page, I will post some links over there. Remember if you purchase anything through our Amazon site, you support our survival training.
Adventure IQ 