Impulse buy; Axial SCX6

[XLR8]

So I brought it work to show off to my coworkers. Plug in the battery and turn on the radio and press the on button and I get nothing. Luckily we have a metric allen wrench set at work and I was able to remove the receiver cover and rebind the radio. not sure how it became unbound in just two runs

Doh! I've had that happen before - a few times actually. At least once was with the Futaba 4PLS. I re-bound it (or re-binded?) and it's been working fine.

So, as promised here are a few photos. I've sifted through the dozen or so and tried to pick the best (which aren't good at all since I'm the world's worst photographer).

Turns out, the "creek" is really more like a ditch.

Up at the far end is where the terrain gets interesting - we'll get there in a a bit.

Going the other way, I did manage to find a small rock outcrop. This is more my speed when it comes to rock crawling. Which is to say that my skills as a rock crawler haven't yet reached to level of novice.

Skipping ahead, down to the far end of the park, the "ditch" gets flatter and less interesting. It's been about 15 minutes so time to turn around.

Here's where I thought I got the truck stuck in the mud. Turns out that all I had to do was slow down and turn the wheel to the left and it crawled right out.
I was driving with my left hand and holding the camera and Sadie's leash with my right. I didn't want to leave her in the car so she came along. She was not amused - not a squirrel in sight. The look she kept giving me said "Dad, can we leave now?"
Anyway, the Tx's steering wheel is fitted with a thumb lever so driving one handed is easy.

Back up to the interesting part. It's hard to tell from the photo but that's about 12 - 15 feet or more down to the creek bed and an incline so steep you can't stand on it. Also, those rocks are the size of basket balls. Out of my league. I've only had the truck a few days and I don't want to destroy it yet (or ever).

I keep the Losi in the trunk so I brought along a couple extra charged batteries for some high speed bashing fun.

Axial recommends running in water no higher than the axles. I didn't find any axle deep water so, all things considered, it was a fun afternoon and I look forward to doing it again soon.

[matt1ptkn]

It looks like a lot of fun. I watched some videos on YouTube, and saw a guy actually sit on the body and ride the darn thing around in his driveway. He also pulled his 1:1 SUV with it, but ended up damaging a gear somewhere in it. Seems like a very capable RC! Thanks for the photos!

[XLR8]

Your are most welcome sir!

Yeah, I watched the guy riding his '6 - and cringed. Many of the highest subscriber count RC reviewers on youtube received copies about a month in advance. They were encouraged to complete their reviews but to keep the trucks out of sight by the public. Also, they weren't allowed to upload videos until launch date (10-14-21).

I guess if you're sent a free RC to test and review, you can destroy it if that attracts an audience to your channel. Kevin Talbot has built a massive subscriber base bashing his RC's to pieces. Some folks like that.
Personally, I wouldn't intentionally destroy an RC even if it was given to me. I guess that would make me a lousy youtuber.

I'm seeing some reports of broken axle gears. That very larger motor probably generates a lot of torque on its own. Add the 64:1 gear reduction from the trans and it could place a tremendous load on the ring and pinion gears if the tires aren't allowed to turn.
I hope someone will offer a replacement spur gear cover with easy access to the slipper clutch nut. ...something Axial should have done when they designed the truck.

[morrisey0]

Ultimately, is it twice as much fun as say a SCX10?

Big? Yes. Impressive? Yes. But out there driving it in the real world, can you say you are enjoying it so much more than a 1:10 equivalent to justify the price jump It is a bit bigger, so you are looking for bigger obstacles, but ultimately, is it not the same from a RC driving perspective? I ask because I did crawling for about a decade, about a decade ago, and now run a 1:10 trail rig often, so I am intrigued by a bigger trail rig, but have to wonder if getting larger in scale justifies getting larger in price. If I am just now looking for 1:6 obstacles as opposed to 1:10 obstacles, it doesn't make much sense to me.

Just playing devils advocate.

[XLR8]

No, that's a fair question and I reckon it's one that a lot of folks are asking.

I guess it very much depends on what attracts you to RCs in the first place.
I had no idea what to expect when I got the Losi but I was immediately struck at how it moves exactly like the full scale version - right out of the box. When I drive it, it feels big and heavy because it is. It's not exactly like driving a 1/10 scale truck. I'll never drive the full size rig but I think this models comes as close as I will ever get.

I guess I sorta fall into two camps. I love to drive off road RC buggies because I enjoy the challenges of keeping the vehicle running straight and on all fours, fighting for traction through the corners, etc. and constantly trying to improve my lap times. I enjoy tuning them for peak performance. It really has nothing to do with scale accuracy. When it comes to RC trail trucks however, I'm all about scale accuracy. I really want my trucks to resemble the 1:1 version as much as possible and to move and articulate like them as well. The larger the truck (and greater the mass) the easier it is to tune it to move like a 1:1. Again, I'll never own a full size JLU and wheel it up a steep incline or over a pile of rocks so I'm looking for something that approximates that experience.

1/10 is where surface RC thrives and I don't think that will never change. ...and that's fine. Other scales (larger and smaller) will only ever be a niche market. This truck will never become a big seller for Horizon but I believe it makes me happy and who doesn't like to be happy? It's unfortunate that the price isn't more in line with 1/10 vehicles so more folks could afford to try it out. Perhaps wait a few months for when the lower priced used and "roller" trucks start hitting ebay. Since this isn't a high speed basher, finding a good clean used example shouldn't be too difficult.

Clearly, the SCX6 isn't for everyone. There are countless 1/10 scale vehicles of all varieties available to make anyone happy. My goal here is to share my experiences, ask questions, listen to feedback, and hopefully to inform others so they don't make a purchase they will regret.

I hope that comes close to answering the question but let's keep the conversation going?

[XLR8]

Ultimately, is it twice as much fun as say a SCX10?

Big? Yes. Impressive? Yes. But out there driving it in the real world, can you say you are enjoying it so much more than a 1:10 equivalent to justify the price jump It is a bit bigger, so you are looking for bigger obstacles, but ultimately, is it not the same from a RC driving perspective? I ask because I did crawling for about a decade, about a decade ago, and now run a 1:10 trail rig often, so I am intrigued by a bigger trail rig, but have to wonder if getting larger in scale justifies getting larger in price. If I am just now looking for 1:6 obstacles as opposed to 1:10 obstacles, it doesn't make much sense to me.

Just playing devils advocate.

Perfect timing - a video just uploaded this morning that tries to answer this very question.



I really can't disagree with anything Troy is saying. There's a lot of wisdom contained in this 16 minute video.

[XLR8]

The ESC programming box arrived yesterday so this afternoon I had some time to tinker with those settings:

RPM/Throttle Matching: low (default is medium)
Max. Reverse Force: 50% (default is 100%) This limits top speed in reverse
Drag Brake: 50% (the lowest setting, default is 80%)
Drag Brake Rate: level 2 (default is level 4) There's an "auto" setting as well which adjusts the rate depending on how fast the truck is moving - clever.
Start Mode (Punch): level 3 (default is level 5)

I won't be able to fully test these settings until I get out on the trials (especially Throttle Match and Drag brake settings). It's raining here again today but by running the truck around in the house I could tell the lower punch and brake settings makes the throttle action smoother and less abrupt. I could set punch to level 2 or 1 to make throttle action even more smooth.

"Smooth" is my word for today.

[morrisey0]

Thank you Doug for you honest response and link to vs. video! I completely see where you are coming from.

[XLR8]

I'm starting to see a lot new videos posted where the owners have painted the roof matte black. I like this a lot -- makes the vehicle look a bit less like a mall crawler/Chelsey tractor and more like a truck. I've seen at least one example where the roof was removed completely leaving only the tops of the doors and windshield surround intact. Not sure I'm will to go that far.

This King Kong themed custom paint job looks pretty interesting...

[Steve71]

I guess if you're sent a free RC to test and review, you can destroy it if that attracts an audience to your channel. Kevin Talbot has built a massive subscriber base bashing his RC's to pieces. Some folks like that.
Personally, I wouldn't intentionally destroy an RC even if it was given to me. I guess that would make me a lousy youtuber.

Finally someone else that feels the way I do lol, I was starting to think it was just me. I use to watch him a lot because he's so popular, but after watching his stuff for about a month, I pretty much stopped watching because it seems like he has zero respect for his gear. Just doesn't appeal to me to see someone destroy equipment on purpose. Really sends a bad message to younger guys just getting into the hobby imo.

I'm starting to see a lot new videos posted where the owners have painted the roof matte black. I like this a lot -- makes the vehicle look a bit less like a mall crawler/Chelsey tractor and more like a truck.

Wow that gives it a really new/scale look. You should definitely do that, that looks great like that

[XLR8]

I guess if you're sent a free RC to test and review, you can destroy it if that attracts an audience to your channel. Kevin Talbot has built a massive subscriber base bashing his RC's to pieces. Some folks like that.
Personally, I wouldn't intentionally destroy an RC even if it was given to me. I guess that would make me a lousy youtuber.

Finally someone else that feels the way I do lol, I was starting to think it was just me. I use to watch him a lot because he's so popular, but after watching his stuff for about a month, I pretty much stopped watching because it seems like he has zero respect for his gear. Just doesn't appeal to me to see someone destroy equipment on purpose. Really sends a bad message to younger guys just getting into the hobby imo.

I'm starting to see a lot new videos posted where the owners have painted the roof matte black. I like this a lot -- makes the vehicle look a bit less like a mall crawler/Chelsey tractor and more like a truck.

Wow that gives it a really new/scale look. You should definitely do that, that looks great like that

I think there are a few of us out there Steve. I was raised to believe that if you work hard to earn money to buy things, you will appreciate them. My dad always said "If you take care of your possessions, you'll only need to buy them once." I hate the thought of spending money to replace something that failed due to my negligence. Yeah, that's really "old fashioned" but it's how I was raised.

I definitely plan to paint the top but I wanna do it right and disassemble the body first. Also while it's apart, I want to mod those fender brackets to make the body easier to install and do some paint detailing on the driver figure and tail light lenses (the supplied decals don't prevent light bleed) and paint the light buckets chrome silver. The problem is that this will take me a lot of time and right now I just want to drive the truck. I really need another week of rainy days like we had last week to git-r-done.

So the truck runs fine but I'd prefer a little more top speed in high gear. Low gear is extremely slow - it's probably geared lower than is necessary with its low kV sensored motor. Initially, I'd planned to run 4s but I'm not seeing anything positive posted on the web from guys who are running this truck on 4s. Everything from the extra power just isn't necessary to it makes the truck less smooth and a bit nervous to drive. The supplied motor pinion is 14t but it's possible to fit a 17t so that's my plan now - the new gear arrived this morning. This will change high gear from roughly 35:1 fdr to 29:1 - that could yield about a 21% increase in top speed. I really don't expect the gear change to affect low gear drivability. It's 64:1 fdr in low with the standard pinion - a real stump-puller. We used to call it "granny low".

[Steve71]

You will have to post a video of it at top speed once you do the gear change. Because from the vids I saw, for a crawler it looked pretty fast. Would like to see how fast it is after a gear swap

[XLR8]

Well, that gear swap yielded a virtually imperceptible increase in speed. Apparently, with so much gear reduction in the trans and axles, one could fit just about any size pinion and it wouldn’t significantly affect overall performance. I reckon the truck is plenty fast so I’ll move onto other mods – when the weather changes, that is.

Everyone who drives a ‘6 seems to agree that one area that it's seriously lacking is steering and that’s not entirely attributable to a weak servo. In this video, the guy demonstrates how much the pan-hard bar mounts can flex and affectively decrease steering rate. Adding a simple brace and an additional screw seems like an easy fix. That’s as far as I willing to go for now; don’t want to tinker with a BEC or get into the electronics too much as I’m sure it would void the warranty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKTXlO_wKnw&t=22s

Ultimately, there’s only so much one can do with the steering. Combine the truck’s large size, soft grippy tires and spools in both axles and this rig will likely never have a super tight turn radius. In a hard turn, the front tires tend to roll under and lose grip so I find myself repeatedly backing up to adjust my approach more than with any 1/10 scale rig. It’s like trying to crawl a limousine.



So, the to-do list for mods seems to grow with each passing day but the weather here has been nothing short of awesome and I’d rather spend precious free time driving the truck rather than working on it. It seems odd to say but what I need is about a week of steady rain so I can get some work done.

[Steve71]

I saw the video of Exocaged last night where he removed the top completely, probably the one you saw and were mentioning. I'm surprised how good it looked with the top completely removed.
I need to stop watching video of this thing or else I'm gonna be tempted to buy one myself

[XLR8]

Yeah, I saw that one as well Steve. To be honest, to me it looked a bit like a hack job and not very scale with the tops of the doors chopped off. The doors are removable on the 1:1. Still, it's an interesting departure from the standard boring JLU.
The top removal mod would be more appealing if it was reversible. I reckon one could use the score and snap method to carefully cut the top and maybe attach magnets to the cage to snap it back on.

Another option would be to move the rear glass portion of the top forward to behind the rear doors giving it a small pickup bed similar to the Gladiator. I've found a cad model of the JLU that I want to tinker with.

Anyway, to each his own. I will simply paint mine and call it good.

I still believe new bodies will be made available at some point. The truck has only been on the market for two weeks and perhaps aftermarket manufacturers are still gaging sales before they commit dollars to r&d and tooling for new bodies. If you buy a '6 Steve, you are helping our cause.