Is there a future for solid axle monster trucks?

Is there a future for solid axle monster trucks?

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I am a big time fan of solid axle monster trucks and can remember seeing a lot of them in the pages of RC Car Action back in the day. Most of them were based on the Tamiya Clodbuster and they showed up in many different configurations. The race trucks were always my favorite and I’ve built a lot of them through the years. Unlike other types of racing vehicles, it seems like solid axle monster trucks haven’t gone very far design wise. Racing Clods were and still seem to be the most popular trucks to build. It just seems like everyone is just making minor tweaks here and there when a new chassis kit is released. The last time we saw a bit of a change up in solid axle design was when Kyosho released their Mad Force line of trucks and that was years ago. The Mad Force trucks do have good performance when you compare them to other solid axle trucks but I still think there’s major room for improvement. I would love to see some of the big companies take a stab at making a solid axle truck with modern plastics and design. Softer tires would do a lot to improve the handling of these trucks, especially the mod Clods. There are still a lot of clubs out there that run side by side monster truck races with Clods and they have a strict rule on the tires that you can use on these trucks. Why? I’ve been told that they want the trucks to look like real monster trucks. Have you ever looked at modified Clodbuster? Does it look like a real monster truck? The tires that you are able to use on those trucks don’t offer up much grip and the rubber compound is wicked hard. When running with these tires, you’re struggling to keep the truck in the lanes (which are very narrow) and the hard compound rubber causes the truck to bounce around a lot more than they would if a softer compound was used. RC4WD released a realistic looking racing tire that meets the specifications listed in the rule books and is a step in the right direction. Electric power is growing and so are electric powered vehicles; we’re seeing new designs popping up all the time. Will we ever see someone come out with a new solid axle truck design? I sure hope so. If you design it, they will come.

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Updated: July 20, 2015 — 4:43 PM
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