Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

Ok all, It's my first post here and hopefully not my last. Here is my question. I am new to the RC world and a buddy of mine at work gave me a Duratrax Axis 1/8th scale buggy. I am curious how hard it would be to upgrade from the .21 motor which is stock to a .26. I am also curious what rims would work. I know that the Axis has one heck of a big hub so where to get them interests me. I am looking for something along the lines of what would be on a Truck more than buggy tires. Nothing MONSTROUS just similar if you get my drift. And if anyone knows of any other places to get some Upgrades or Hop-Ups for the Axis I would appreciate the help. Thanks.

RE: Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

Ok, first off, to upgrade and engine, you either have to buy a new one, change the pipe, change carb, or do port or polish. Since the duratrax stock engine is a piece of junk, I would trow it away and get another good .21 engine. I wouldn't get a .26 because they are not made for buggy and they have a lot of trque but usually die at higher rpms. Changing and engine is the easiest thing to do. Today I changed the engine on my Swift and it took me about 10 minutes lock tighting everything. An engine that I will highly recommed to you is the ofna .21 8 port engine. You can get these on ebay minus pipe for about 100 (new). The stock engine in that Axis has about 1.7-1.9 hp, if not less, and an 8 port has 2.45 hp, so it will make a drastic change.

But if you are really thinking about .26, then you can get some nice ofna Picco .26 for about 135 minus pipe in ebay also new, which has 2.7 hp, that will probably be too much for you, since you are learning to drive.

If you really need upgrades for the kit itself, just go to www.towerhobbies.com and search for them

On last thing, if you really want to get serious about this hobby, throw your Axis aways and get something like a Mayhem, kyosho sports, Swift or something like that. Good luck

RE: Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

I guess I was a little misleading I am new to the Gas or Fuel Powered RC. I have had several electric's and I can't really complain about the Axis as it was free. I went to the local hobby shop and already purchased a new motor as the old one the case was screwed. I will definately look into the Picco though thanks. After I get some hours with the gas powered realm of RC I think I'm going to look into the LST.

RE: Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

Ggripfreak89 is partially correct. I own an Axis and I have a big list of hop-ups. First off, the AXIS is a FANTASTIC starter buggy into Nitro RC for one reason: it will teach you the good and bad of nitro RC. Lets put it this way; if my first buggy was a Kyosho Inferno or some other $800+ buggy, I'd be flat broke allready repairing the thing and would never reach the buggies potential with my experience for a LONG time. The Axis was never produced to be a competition racer, more like a weekend basher (even though that never works out either). I'm about 75% happy with my Axis. I've hopped-up mine so much that other people at the LHS ask me what kind of buggy it is.

The hubs are 19mm. Big problem for options on wheels. Go to Tower online and get the Ofna 17mm hubs and nuts, they swap out with the Axis 19mm easily. Now you have a huge range of wheel possibilities. You'll notice off the bat though 2 things: 1. the Torq .21 engine does suck a bit and 2. the baseplate for the car is flat vs. the one found on an Ofna which cradles the guts of the buggy, so it tends to get pretty dirty.

Now back to your inital question: Hop-ups. Heres what I've upgraded--->
front and back adjustable Ofna shocks
Ofna White springs all around
Ofna 17mm hub swap
Kyosho gunmetal wheels
Proline Badlands tires (bashers dream tires)
Futaba metal gear servos
3 shoe allum, racing clutch
tuned polished pipe
longer fuel lines
purple cooling head (to look purdy)
custom painted Ofna Violator lexan body (the Axis body is hideous) by yours truely
Ofna Shaftstarter system with Ofna 5011 backplate (fits perfectly)
custom CNC front shock tower (no real diffence than stock)

I think thats it...

What irritates me the most is that people dog on the Axis so much, and from their reputation, they deserve it. I love it when I whoop up on an Ofna buggy at the track and the guy is like *** is that thing??? But with many things in life, if its upgradeable, keep it, untill your skilled enough to go bigtime and spend $400+ for a better buggy. Things will break and the engine will piss you off, but you'll learn alot from it, as you would with any other buggy, but for its cost and its potential, an Axis is a great buggy for starters. I myself will be buying a new buggy soon and it will be something raceable, but from my experience from the Axis, I know what to look for. Feel free to PM me whenever you have a question on yours that I may be able to help you with.

P.S. sorry for the lengthy reply...:D

RE: Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

Thankx for the reply Stalefish. Don't worry about the long reply because you basically just answered every question that I had. Thank you very much and I will be pm'ing you in the future because I will probably base my upgrade list off what you have since it evidentally works.

RE: Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

NO PROBLEM BROTHER. tHIS SITE HAS TAUGHT ME MORE THAN ANY MAGAZINE EVER HAS.

RE: Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

Buy a new buggy.................not a good idea to waste money upgrading the axis............run it as is if it will run
then get a new buggy when you are ready

RE: Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

waste money? Unless you drop $150+ for a new engine, small upgrades like suspention and tires is no big deal, and if $$$ is an issue for you, this is NOT a hobby for you. He doesn't want to get a new one, he asked what he can hop-up to his Axis. Simple question I thought....

RE: Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

Funny thing is, if I go ask the question " I have a Hyper PCR and I want to do some hop-ups" I'll get a friggin list a mile long from everyone, and do you think ANYONE is going to post anything other than a list of hop-ups? No. Just because his FREE car in your opinion is a piece of junk, doesn't entitle you to dampen his spirits in tha thread asking for hop-up options. If I read it right, he never posted I got a free Axis, is it WORTH upgrading???

Sorry for the rant. I get so pissed when people post like that. ESPECIALLY to members with 1-5 posts....

RE: Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

I would honestly say that I have to agree with Stalefish. I want to upgrade the Axis. Whether you like it or not is your opinion. I like it. And honestly with enough upgrades I don't care what you have I would be able to keep pace, plain and simple. I look at a hobby like this the way that I look at restoring a car, you don't buy a brand new Mach 1 to restore do you? No you buy an old POS and fix it up and brag to your friends about all the stuff it has. When we're at the track and my POS is kickin your arse what are you gonna have to say about an axis then? It's all about how much work you want to put into it. Me, I want to make my own custom parts and upgrades for parts of the buggy. Can you do that with an LST or a REVO and make it any better? I doubt it.

RE: Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

He is just saying that it's better to save the money that to spend it on an Axis, and I agree.
Think of this, probably when you buy all your upgrades possible for the Axis, it will cost you about 440-490 (fully upgraded from nose to wing) and still it wouldn't be as fast and reliable as an RTR of thta price, like a Mayhem, Swift, Kyosho Sports, X-terminator. SO i'm not saying that you should throw away the car (well I probably said that before) I'm saying spend your money in better stuff for the same price. Now, if you got it free, that's different.

RE: Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

Afterburn has a great point. If I had $40,000 to spend on a car I would go find an old Hemi Cuda and spend the rest of the cash on new parts than to go buy a brand new Dodge Ram Hemi. At the end of the day, it boils down to what YOU want to do with YOUR money. I will say that if you go anywhere near $440 - $490 on fixing up an Axis, you need to have your head checked LOL

RE: Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

I dont know why the Axis has such a bad reputation but if your not actually racing. The Axis is the buggy of choise. Its bullet proof. Most guys running race buggies pay for their engines what an RTR Axis costs. Check out Radio Control Zones board. Its funny but the Axis is bashed to death on this board. On RCZ`s board people love it. Go figure[:-]

My suggestions for upgrades are:
-Ofna 17mm wheel hex`s like allready mentioned. That will get you rolling on just about any wheel set you want instead of just duratrax rims. Ofna part number 30050 for gold ones. 17mm Blue 17mm ones are part number: 30051.
-Torsen diff in the center! Tons more traction!
-If you have the bucks, go for a second torsen in the front.
-I put a Novarossi engine in mine with an SG crank. It takes some work but its worth it. I would upgrade the stock engine after having fun with it and it dies or breaks. Theres alot of good deals on Ebay for engines. An OS RG is a GREAT .21 for the Axis and cheap too. To get an SG crank engine in the Axis you will need: Ofna clutch shim kit 10099 and the Ofna clutch nut 17015 (sells on Tower)
-Starter box. Pull cords are for lawn mowers.
-Blue loctite all metal screws! Engine mounts, drive cups, wheels and adapters, anything that goes into metal.
-I havent had any problems with the stock shocks yet but Ofna buggy shocks fit and are cheap on Ebay.
-If the wing breaks, Kyosho wings fit and are more durable.

Have fun with your Axis. I havent been able to break mine yet and its been through the grinder pretty bad. I got pictures of my Axis online. Click my homepage link via my profile on this board.

RE: Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

Dr, I went to your site, VERY NICE!! I like what you did to your shell. Other than the blue shocks and the suspention, I couldn't tell it was an AXIS. Very cool!!

RE: Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

I too thought that body was nice. That has got to be the FIRST buggy body that I've liked. I was looking at modding something else to fit.

RE: Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

Ok, I understand that everyone will probably think that I am nuts but here is the deal. I am sure that my little opinion of the Axis does not matter, however, I got the car free, I bought a brand new .21 motor and spent about another 15 on an air cleaner. For a grand total of 150 bucks flat. Now after I broke the motor in I had a buddy of mine from the local pd come and clock me. I was running down the middle of the street doing 45. Now that has got to be pretty good for having invested 150 bux. The other end of the spectrum, been slammin' into curbs, jumpin stuff, and pretty much just beating the crap out of the machine. The only thing that I ran into problems with was I lost 1 screw. All in all I think the people that have a bad opinion of the axis probably did not have as good an experience as I have but I am 100% satsfied with the machine. The next upgrade I'm looking into is diff's front, rear, and center. And upgrading to the .26 Picco. Most people will probably say that I am insane but I feel comfortable dumping money into this buggy due to the fact that it is a friggin tank and I know I will get my money's worth. Anyway, just wanted to toss my opinion out to the masses. Pz

RE: Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

Afterburn, Go for the center diff first. Then the front diff. The rear can actually be left alone. Its up to you. The center one will make the biggest difference. I just ordered a Sway bar for mine. I will post back how it affects the cornering abbilities. Its a cheap upgrade I just had to try.

Thanks for the compliments on my body. Not mine. I mean my buggies! I hated the Duratrax decals. I redecaled it up with left over decals I had lying around. Lots of Ofna and HPI stuff. It ended up comming out good. Thanks.

RE: Duratrax Axis Upgrades?
 

Definately let me know how the sway bar works. I was thinking of getting that after the first day of running lol. It really does not like to stay in the corner when the speed is built up.