"Ultimate XJ" Axial SCX10

[Recce01]

Well guys/gals.... it is time for me to start a build thread. A few years ago I fell in love with scale 4x4 vehicles. I have been doing the best I can to build up some decent projects. Honestly...I dont feel I have near the level of skill of most of the guys on this forum. I am hesitant to post up a build, but here we go. I will say that my project will not be built to mimic any one to one vehicle, and some of the dimensions and components may not scale out to be correct. My goal is to create a scale version of a vehicle I would love to own and one day take out on the 1 to 1 trails. I have been eyeballing my second cherokee body from proline for quite some time, and decided to pull the trigger :) I did a lot of testing and experimenting with my first Cherokee, and it was a lot of fun, so I wanted to do another version with some custom hand made parts and pay a little more attention to detail. I am starting with the following platform...

New RTR Dingo

[Recce01]

I started with the floorboard from Proline. I really wanted as much protection for the electronics as possible.

[UNGLEWD]

Buddy they're going to love what you come up with ...I know it!

[Recce01]

Coming up with the proper order of operations is probably the key factor for me, I challenge myself to be efficiant, that and avoid "sleeping on the couch". You can assemble and disassemble the vehicle a hundred times during the course of a build. I was absolutely lost with where to start with this one. Adding the floor board and the interior to the equation had me all screwed up :bugeyes:.






I really like this floor board :)

[kyle_l]

looks good man, cant wait to see what you come up with for paint.

[jeenyus]

Looking good!

[Recce01]

Thanks guys! My confusion set in almost immediately. The problem I have is wiring. If I wire headlights, tail lights, maybe some roof lights, then I really need the interior to be a part of the main body shell. That means the rear body mount holes in the interior need to be huge to put it on all at once..... This is something I will come back to later. The next problem I have is fitting the interior and floor pan with the fender flares on the main body shell. I am not a huge fan of tires sticking out the side of this type of vehicle.

Here are the flares mocked up....



If you look closely, the inner fender well system will be exposed by the time I trim the excess material away from the body.....





I thought about not even running the flares, but I am in love with the Rok Lox tires from RC4WD, so I need to trim for clearance and use flares for coverage...



I started messing around with some Mojave wheels from RC4WD as well. I was awaiting the arrival of the Vanquish wheels so I mounted up this combo to see how the tire would fit with the package.

[Recce01]

I actually like the look of these Mojave wheels, I am going to have to use these in the near future :)



I had been waiting for all the parts to arrive. I dont like doing the project until I have all the parts. Here are some shots of the components I elected to go with for this build....

Spektrum Radio system and receiver..



I really like the Castle speed control, I decided to run the HPI Motiv version as it has been good to me in the past



Of course I had to get the castle link to update the firmware and software and take advantage of their 213% drag brake :)



I needed a high torque steering servo, which makes all the difference in the world!! I selected the Hot Bodies DSJ-2ST



Of course the Motiv speed control does not have enough juice to keep up with the 2ST servo, so I also selected the BEC from Castle....

[Recce01]

All of the rest of the parts I needed showed up the next day, I was like a kid in a candy store :)

From RC4WD....











From Axial....

[Recce01]

I decided to run 2 winches, 1 front and 1 rear. The problem I had was the size of the RC4WD winch. It was way too big for the plan I had for the front bumper. I ordered a 3Racing winch hoping it would communicate with the RC4WD wireless controller...



I had to call RPP hobby and get the scale WARN decal set too



The next few items absolutely blew me away. The Vanquish products are top shelf components. Everything about these goodies had me excited. The packaging was so proper, the quality of their machining and finish is something I wasnt expecting.

SX-W1 wheels



High steer knuckles



The Hurtz dig unit (I cant wait to mess around with this)



Front and Rear aluminum shock hoops