THUNDER WAGON – The Simple Bolt-On Performance Trail Axial SCX10 II 4WD RTR

As tempting as it can be to just heap a bunch of expensive and custom-crafted upgrades onto your RC crawler, it’s not always what you may really need. It’s what you may want to do, but taking it easy and using some simple bolt-on parts can take your rig a long way while saving you a bunch of money. TK Wessels shows us the bolt-on performance parts he added to his trusty Axial SCX10 II. We’ll let him take it from here…

This crawler started out as an Axial SCX10 II Raw Builder’s Kit that my son and I put together as a simple rig to get onto the trails and enjoy the hobby and the outdoors. Plans for a simple rig immediately changed after the Pro-Line Racing Comp Wagon body was released. A simple, easy-to-build competitive crawler was now in reach.

THE BOLT-ONS

The previous Pro-Line SR5 Toyota body that lived on the SCX10 II chassis was swapped for the new high-clearance Comp Wagon body. The chassis was also fitted with a slew of Rock Pirates aluminum hop-ups to re-locate the shock mounting position and mount the rear portion of the cab.
For enhanced traction I used Pro-Line’s TSL Super Swamper tires in the Predator compound. These grippy tires were wrapped around 1.9” Impulse aluminum composite wheels and siped stock foams. To wrap up the build I threw on a set of Pro-Line 90mm Big Bore Scaler Shocks, and to match the look of the new body I also incorporated a few 3D-printed parts from RobskiiFab such as a front and rear high-clearance bumper set I found on Thingiverse.

THUNDER WAGON BUILD SHEET

Base Chassis: Axial SCX10 II Raw Builder’s Kit
Shocks: Pro-Line Racing 90mm Big Bore Scaler Shocks
Bumpers: RobskiiFab front and rear high-clearance 3D-printed bumper set from Thingiverse
Wheels: Pro-Line Racing 1/10 Impulse aluminum 1.9”
Tires: 1/10 Interco Super Swamper XL Predator 1.9”
Body: Pro-Line Racing Comp Wagon
Shock towers: Rock Pirates RC rear shock towers
Bed: Rock Pirates RC Hardline bed
Bumpers: RobskiiFab SCX10 II comp bumper set
Motor/ESC: Dynamite brushed crawler motor/ESC combo, 35T
Servo: Spektrum S612HV
Radio: Spektrum SR315 receiver and DX3 transmitter
Batteries: Spektrum 1300mAh 3S soft pack

FINAL THOUGHTS

The goal of this build was to have a simple, low-maintenance crawler that could be taken out to any trail and throw down with the rest. Simply throw a battery pack in and go. After a run, go home, dust the car off and put it back on the shelf. It sounds like a simple setup, because it is. This SCX10 II shows that a few key parts can turn a competent basher into a very capable competition crawler.

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Text by Thunder Wessels and RCCA Staff
Images by Thunder Wessels