My first Slash abd I love it! Looking for some suggestions.
04-12-2017, 06:29 PM
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My first Slash abd I love it! Looking for some suggestions.
Hi Everyone,
It has been 3 days with my Slash and I have to say I absolutely love it! I cannot believe how much fun I am having. What a fun little vehicle this thing is. When I think back to my last RC truck, the Mountain Man Blazer and think about the 8 D cell battery fun my mind boggles. Mountain Man It is unbelieve how far things have come.
I cannot believe how fast it is! It has taken practice to drive this thing, I have flipped it, cart wheeled it, hit a bunch of trees, poles, signs, and fences, hit my house and my shins twice. I love watching it streak across my yard, down the sideway, and down the street. I am using this truck as a basher for now and I find the differing terrains a lot of fun.
After struggling to with control issues, took the advice of Traxxas and moved the lower front shock mounts to the outside hole, the rears to the middle and installed the 4mm pre load clips on the fronts. This improved the handling and control significantly and made it a lot more fun to drive.
I was looking to get some information, ideas, suggestions, or opinions on a couple of issues. I am looking for some recommendations on tire choice and ways to increase the way it handles.
I am running it on various surfaces. A short bladed, patchy maintained yard, a huge rolling field of short field grass, concrete sidewalks, blacktop driveway and macadam country road. I am looking for the best combination of tires, steering, and handling.
It is two wheel drive model, stock out of the box, only the aforementioned shock adjustments. It is running 2S, 8000 mah, 100C lipo. I look forward to hearing back with your ideas. Thank you all in advance for the time. Have a great evening!
Respectfully,
George D.
It has been 3 days with my Slash and I have to say I absolutely love it! I cannot believe how much fun I am having. What a fun little vehicle this thing is. When I think back to my last RC truck, the Mountain Man Blazer and think about the 8 D cell battery fun my mind boggles. Mountain Man It is unbelieve how far things have come.
I cannot believe how fast it is! It has taken practice to drive this thing, I have flipped it, cart wheeled it, hit a bunch of trees, poles, signs, and fences, hit my house and my shins twice. I love watching it streak across my yard, down the sideway, and down the street. I am using this truck as a basher for now and I find the differing terrains a lot of fun.
After struggling to with control issues, took the advice of Traxxas and moved the lower front shock mounts to the outside hole, the rears to the middle and installed the 4mm pre load clips on the fronts. This improved the handling and control significantly and made it a lot more fun to drive.
I was looking to get some information, ideas, suggestions, or opinions on a couple of issues. I am looking for some recommendations on tire choice and ways to increase the way it handles.
I am running it on various surfaces. A short bladed, patchy maintained yard, a huge rolling field of short field grass, concrete sidewalks, blacktop driveway and macadam country road. I am looking for the best combination of tires, steering, and handling.
It is two wheel drive model, stock out of the box, only the aforementioned shock adjustments. It is running 2S, 8000 mah, 100C lipo. I look forward to hearing back with your ideas. Thank you all in advance for the time. Have a great evening!
Respectfully,
George D.
04-13-2017, 06:42 AM
#2
Greetings George, and welcome to the forum! Glad to hear you're having fun. This is a cool hobby. 😎 I take it that your Slash is the VXL model? (Since you mentioned the 100C Lipo) Can you tell me if your Slash is the lowered chassis version (LCG) or the standard one with the higher ground clearance? That right there makes a big difference. The original Slash had a high clearance chassis, which made it great for bombing around, but not so great for cornering. ProLine, the tire and accessories manufacturer, came out with a LCG chassis conversion for the Slash a few years ago, and Traxxas eventually followed suit. All racing short course trucks are of the lowered chassis type. Funny, since Traxxas created the RC SCT.
If your Slash doesn't have sway bars, add them. That'll keep the body roll in check, and improve cornering.
When it comes to tires, it's a trade off between traction and longevity. HUGE selection to choose from. Proline, AKA, JConcepts, all make tires and wheels for short course trucks. Medium, soft, and super soft compounds, clay track compounds, and enough tread styles to make your head spin. Just about anything you pick will work better than the stock tires. In general, any kind of pin-tread tire for dirt/off-road, bigger tread blocks for street running. Ah, but I do both, you say. Well, there's your dilemma. If 3/4 of your driving is NOT on asphalt, I would lean toward a gripper tread like a Hole Shot or Caliber in a Medium compound. I believe most SCT tires come with blue foam inserts these days, which is good, they last the life of the tread, unlike the white foams that come with most tires.
Other than possibly adding a better bumper set like a T-Bone Racing set for better crash protection that's about it. RPM makes lots of upgrade replacement parts for the Slash.
What did you pay for that 8000mah 100C LiPo? What brand? And what charger are you using? I'm gonna guess you paid a bundle for that Lipo. A bit overkill on the C-rating. You could have gotten by with a slightly cheaper 60C. Also, check the pack to see if it's a 2S1P, or a 2S2P. Lemme know. I have a story for you.
If your Slash doesn't have sway bars, add them. That'll keep the body roll in check, and improve cornering.
When it comes to tires, it's a trade off between traction and longevity. HUGE selection to choose from. Proline, AKA, JConcepts, all make tires and wheels for short course trucks. Medium, soft, and super soft compounds, clay track compounds, and enough tread styles to make your head spin. Just about anything you pick will work better than the stock tires. In general, any kind of pin-tread tire for dirt/off-road, bigger tread blocks for street running. Ah, but I do both, you say. Well, there's your dilemma. If 3/4 of your driving is NOT on asphalt, I would lean toward a gripper tread like a Hole Shot or Caliber in a Medium compound. I believe most SCT tires come with blue foam inserts these days, which is good, they last the life of the tread, unlike the white foams that come with most tires.
Other than possibly adding a better bumper set like a T-Bone Racing set for better crash protection that's about it. RPM makes lots of upgrade replacement parts for the Slash.
What did you pay for that 8000mah 100C LiPo? What brand? And what charger are you using? I'm gonna guess you paid a bundle for that Lipo. A bit overkill on the C-rating. You could have gotten by with a slightly cheaper 60C. Also, check the pack to see if it's a 2S1P, or a 2S2P. Lemme know. I have a story for you.
Last edited by EXT2Rob; 04-13-2017 at 07:04 AM.
04-14-2017, 01:20 PM
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Ext rob is quite right on all he said especially on the lcg chassis, its a must if you want more control. The tires that i love for my 2wd slash is the proline badlands for all things dirt and bashing and the proline street fighters for speed runs on the pavement and for going to the skate park. Getting them pre-mounted with rims makes it much easier and quick to switch out for whatever you are doing (they run about $25 for a set of two with rims so not super cheap but very worth it). You will eventually destroy the shocks so when you do invest in a set of "Big Bore" shocks, once you get those it will be tough to break them. I would recommend picking up a couple of extra slipper gears as they wear out regularly and nothing sucks worse than having the day cut short over a $3 part, DO NOT GET A METAL ONE they do more harm than good. Another thing for the future is when you break the axles, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 These are the ones i have had for over half a year without issues as long as they are taken care of (clean and grease regularly). One thing that can improve handling aside from the sway bars is going for metal shock towers, having a lack of flex here is good for keeping control over rough terrain and hard turns as the plastic ones will flex giving you inconsistency when turning. Do not buy anything from integy (pot metal for the most part, easily broken). I like strc for shock towers but make sure you lock tight at the very least (i use a through bolt and lock nuts to be safe) Going metal on the shock towers is the only metal structural component that i would recommend aluminum on. A lot of guys get aluminum "A arms" but those, like the metal spur, do more harm than good. Like ext rob said " go for rpm!" they are the toughest plastic i have found yet and are way better than the metal parts out there (you need flex on any part that will encounter excessive bending or shearing forces to avoid breaks). The main weakness of the slash is the plastic gear servo. I have seen the stock servo last for months and other minutes so you can either pick up a few rebuild kits ($4 i think) or just get a metal gear servo from someone like savox ($35). I know its a lot to consider but what i recommend is replacing as you break things to avoid spending all your money at once. I would break something every couple of trips out and have to spend an average of $50 for upgraded replacement parts. So far my slash is around the $550 mark lol but in all fairness it almost never breaks anything anymore and when it does i'm very surprised. Lesson of the day is keep a handful of the cheap parts on hand along with basic tools.
Hope this helps and welcome to the forum!
Alex
Hope this helps and welcome to the forum!
Alex
04-17-2017, 12:59 PM
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Greetings George, and welcome to the forum! Glad to hear you're having fun. This is a cool hobby. I take it that your Slash is the VXL model? (Since you mentioned the 100C Lipo) Can you tell me if your Slash is the lowered chassis version (LCG) or the standard one with the higher ground clearance? That right there makes a big difference. The original Slash had a high clearance chassis, which made it great for bombing around, but not so great for cornering. ProLine, the tire and accessories manufacturer, came out with a LCG chassis conversion for the Slash a few years ago, and Traxxas eventually followed suit. All racing short course trucks are of the lowered chassis type. Funny, since Traxxas created the RC SCT.
If your Slash doesn't have sway bars, add them. That'll keep the body roll in check, and improve cornering.
When it comes to tires, it's a trade off between traction and longevity. HUGE selection to choose from. Proline, AKA, JConcepts, all make tires and wheels for short course trucks. Medium, soft, and super soft compounds, clay track compounds, and enough tread styles to make your head spin. Just about anything you pick will work better than the stock tires. In general, any kind of pin-tread tire for dirt/off-road, bigger tread blocks for street running. Ah, but I do both, you say. Well, there's your dilemma. If 3/4 of your driving is NOT on asphalt, I would lean toward a gripper tread like a Hole Shot or Caliber in a Medium compound. I believe most SCT tires come with blue foam inserts these days, which is good, they last the life of the tread, unlike the white foams that come with most tires.
Other than possibly adding a better bumper set like a T-Bone Racing set for better crash protection that's about it. RPM makes lots of upgrade replacement parts for the Slash.
What did you pay for that 8000mah 100C LiPo? What brand? And what charger are you using? I'm gonna guess you paid a bundle for that Lipo. A bit overkill on the C-rating. You could have gotten by with a slightly cheaper 60C. Also, check the pack to see if it's a 2S1P, or a 2S2P. Lemme know. I have a story for you.
If your Slash doesn't have sway bars, add them. That'll keep the body roll in check, and improve cornering.
When it comes to tires, it's a trade off between traction and longevity. HUGE selection to choose from. Proline, AKA, JConcepts, all make tires and wheels for short course trucks. Medium, soft, and super soft compounds, clay track compounds, and enough tread styles to make your head spin. Just about anything you pick will work better than the stock tires. In general, any kind of pin-tread tire for dirt/off-road, bigger tread blocks for street running. Ah, but I do both, you say. Well, there's your dilemma. If 3/4 of your driving is NOT on asphalt, I would lean toward a gripper tread like a Hole Shot or Caliber in a Medium compound. I believe most SCT tires come with blue foam inserts these days, which is good, they last the life of the tread, unlike the white foams that come with most tires.
Other than possibly adding a better bumper set like a T-Bone Racing set for better crash protection that's about it. RPM makes lots of upgrade replacement parts for the Slash.
What did you pay for that 8000mah 100C LiPo? What brand? And what charger are you using? I'm gonna guess you paid a bundle for that Lipo. A bit overkill on the C-rating. You could have gotten by with a slightly cheaper 60C. Also, check the pack to see if it's a 2S1P, or a 2S2P. Lemme know. I have a story for you.
Hi Rob!
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I don’t know what happened by my response somehow didn’t get posted. My Slash is the brushed, 2 wheel drive, high center of gravity chassis. Is there a difference between the ProLine and Traxxas LCG kits? Is one better than the other?
Interesting suggestion about the sway bars; I had no idea they made them for the Slash. I definitely want to check that out. Thank you for the recommendation on the tires. There are enough tire options to make my head spin! I have heard mentions of gluing the tires. Could you explain that to me? I have been checking out the ProLine Trenchers. I saw a video on YouTube of a monster slash conversion with the Trenchers and it looks so awesome! Would that totally negate the advantage of the LCG kit?
I really like the idea of upgraded bumpers. I have hit my house, 5 trees, 2 street signs, and my ankle twice! I could use some extra protection!
I paid $69.99 for the battery off of Amazon. It is a HobbyStar which I researched and had pretty good reviews. I know the C rating was really high but I figured it would be better to go that route if I wanted to go brushless later on than having to get another battery. I do not see any indication on the battery whether it is 2S1P or 2S2P. I have not seem those terms before.
I purchased a SKYRC iMAX B6AC V2 charger, also off Amazon. Prime is a beautiful thing!
Thanks so much for the time and the information, Rob! It is greatly appreciated!
04-17-2017, 01:05 PM
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Ext rob is quite right on all he said especially on the lcg chassis, its a must if you want more control. The tires that i love for my 2wd slash is the proline badlands for all things dirt and bashing and the proline street fighters for speed runs on the pavement and for going to the skate park. Getting them pre-mounted with rims makes it much easier and quick to switch out for whatever you are doing (they run about $25 for a set of two with rims so not super cheap but very worth it). You will eventually destroy the shocks so when you do invest in a set of "Big Bore" shocks, once you get those it will be tough to break them. I would recommend picking up a couple of extra slipper gears as they wear out regularly and nothing sucks worse than having the day cut short over a $3 part, DO NOT GET A METAL ONE they do more harm than good. Another thing for the future is when you break the axles, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 These are the ones i have had for over half a year without issues as long as they are taken care of (clean and grease regularly). One thing that can improve handling aside from the sway bars is going for metal shock towers, having a lack of flex here is good for keeping control over rough terrain and hard turns as the plastic ones will flex giving you inconsistency when turning. Do not buy anything from integy (pot metal for the most part, easily broken). I like strc for shock towers but make sure you lock tight at the very least (i use a through bolt and lock nuts to be safe) Going metal on the shock towers is the only metal structural component that i would recommend aluminum on. A lot of guys get aluminum "A arms" but those, like the metal spur, do more harm than good. Like ext rob said " go for rpm!" they are the toughest plastic i have found yet and are way better than the metal parts out there (you need flex on any part that will encounter excessive bending or shearing forces to avoid breaks). The main weakness of the slash is the plastic gear servo. I have seen the stock servo last for months and other minutes so you can either pick up a few rebuild kits ($4 i think) or just get a metal gear servo from someone like savox ($35). I know its a lot to consider but what i recommend is replacing as you break things to avoid spending all your money at once. I would break something every couple of trips out and have to spend an average of $50 for upgraded replacement parts. So far my slash is around the $550 mark lol but in all fairness it almost never breaks anything anymore and when it does i'm very surprised. Lesson of the day is keep a handful of the cheap parts on hand along with basic tools.
Hope this helps and welcome to the forum!
Alex
Hope this helps and welcome to the forum!
Alex
Thanks so much for the input! I have heard a lot regarding the big bore shocks. Is that a Traxxas part or are they offered by other manufacturers as well? In regard to upgrading the steering servo, what is the benefit? Is it just a better quality than the stock servo? Can you recommend a supplier for the metal shock towers and sway bars?
One additional question. The Traxxas controller seems very cheap feeling. This is my first hobby grade RC so I don't have anything else to compare it to. Is there any advantages to upgrading to an aftermarket controller? Are they more sensitive or responsive in any way?
Thank you for the time, Alex and for the welcome!
04-24-2017, 11:04 AM
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The big bore shocks are a traxxas part if i'm remembering properly. The shock towers are by a company called STRC. The stock steering servo uses very flimsy plastic gears so if you clip something with the front wheels they strip making the car unable to turn until you fix it. The disadvantage of a metal gear servo is the weight and often times the speed in which it turns the wheels back and forth. If you are bashing then a basic savox metal gear servo is the best option to keep you up and running without hassle (have had a savox on mine for a few months and have yet to break it were as the stock one would break every couple of outings and would need a new gear set). The Stock remote will work fine so it really comes down to preference. I have a pretty nice controller but that's because i have a few trucks all linked to that one but with a single truck the $200 for a good one isn't really worth it (it comes down to preference of feel). As far as advantages a nice upgraded one will give you much more in the way of tuning options but if you aren't racing then that's not that important. Not sure what people are using for sway bars on the slash as i don't currently have a set for mine which is weird being that just about every other rc that i have has got them lol.
Hope this helps!
Alex
Hope this helps!
Alex
