Sunfirefoot

My Feedback: (30)

Here's my review, from a real user, not an internet paid sponsor.

Dominus 10SC: Well got one just the other day and right out of the box i could see a few weak points, Pillow ball suspension, solid dog bones, and a solid drive shaft, but that's judging a book by its cover. It looks good, the body is nice, the tires are ok, a little stiff but will work for now. The motor is a 21 turn 550 size with an internal fan, looks similar to a Traxxas Titan 21 turn. The ESC is standard brushed ESC, its supposed to be water proof but never trust any electronic that says "WATERPROOF". The battery is ok, its a 7 cell 8.4 1800 Mah NIMH, good for an RTR beginner.

The first run:
Soft dirt and hard pavement- turns very well, the tires are surprisingly grippy. The steering servo is weak, as is the stock ESC and Motor, if you're used to driving faster models, don't be disappointed if you get this and its slow. I got about 25 minutes of run time off of the stock battery on a full charge and fully stock.

The Second run:
Packed dirt, jumps, and whoops (Non racing scenario)- Still stock, it turns and corners very well, these tires are pretty good. Using a 7 cell 300 MahTraxxas battery this run, wakes up the stock ESC and Motor a little but still pretty slow, even for a 21 turn. It jumps very well due to its LCG chassis but i Lost a Dog bone jumping, but i knew that would happen, being a solid dog bone they're destined to either bend or pop out. Got about 30 mins out of this battery.

BACK TO THE BENCH.......

Ok so I've had my fun with the Dominus being stock, time to change it and fix a few weak spots.

1- added a DTX/Element 3900KV system
2- Changed Shock Oil to 40 WT
3- Changed Diff Grease to a thicker Moly-Lithium grease.
4- Changed the servo to a Traxxas 2075 Digital HT servo.

Now here's how i fixed the dog bone issue:
1- get a slingshot replacement band ($4.00 at Walmart)
2. cut a peice about an inch long
3. Slip one end of the Band onto the stub axle and feed the dog bone in, Voila!!! Issue resolved.


The Third Run:
Packed Dirt, Jumps and whoops (Non Racing Scenario): Wow!!! This thing is quick and very agile after the mods, the fun factor increased by 10 LOL. Replacing the shock oil, servo and diff grease made a huge difference in t, the handling, it cuts the corners like a hot knife through butter. Still jumps quite well, no lost dog bones, my fix worked.



OVERALL THOUGHTS: The Helion Dominus 10SC is a good truck for bashing and with quite a bit of mods, it could be beginner race worthy. Will it be pro race worthy?? No, not a chance, the chassis just doesn't have the engineering it takes to win pro races, but as a beginner it will get your foot in the door for $200. Its tires held up, the chassis held up, the drive train held up after mods, and overall its worth the $200.

Sunfirefoot

My Feedback: (30)

Pictures!!!!!

thehuntingterminator

i've thought about one of these, but HobbyTown has never been a favorite of mine...

Sunfirefoot

My Feedback: (30)

I agree, hobbytown sucks, but look at it this way if they had a Slash on sale cheaper than anywhere else, I'd buy it.

someone got it already

I'm good with Hobbytown... but the Dominus? Jangs review on UltimateRC really makes it difficult for me to  want to buy one.

Sunfirefoot

My Feedback: (30)

I saw that review and he's a good pro, but seriously how biased is he? Who's paying his bills? Just gotta question all that stuff and I also read a lot of comments bashing it from people who don't even own it. I do, and my review is straight forward and no BS.

someone got it already

I'm not saying that it can't be a good truck. But when I found out that it did not come with a slipper clutch...... kinda had some aches over that one. I told my guy at hobbytown that I would like to see about a year of satisfied dominus bashers before I get one. As far as Jang goes, I've wondered if there was any bias to his review. He really did get fruit-loopy over the Jconcepts body design... that may have tainted his judgement on quality. I own 3 rc.... AE SC10 4x4, HPI Mini Recon, and ECX Circuit.. I like them all, but I regret the HPI for the same reason I don't like the Dominus yet... No slipper clutch. Now I've got a stripped ball diff after 3 runs.

Sunfirefoot

My Feedback: (30)

Oh yep I see now, yeah Jang complained that they took the idea of 2 bodies and put them together as they're own, but if he were to really analyze deeper he'd realize that all SC trucks were taken from one idea and redesigned to fit the manufacturers own criteria, looking back before all the SC hype there was the Tamiya Ford F150 Was the first SC looking truck.

Now onto the slipper issue, it's kinda not to big of a deal, I'm not sure how they'd add a slipper to be honest, but I do know the Dominus is not as bad as Jang made it out to be, I have a DTX element brushless in mine and have ran the hell out of it so far with no major issues. I have had many RC's without slippers, including my EMaxx, I took the slipper off because It got soaked and once it dried out it never worked the same, and I have yet to have issues. So is open to your own feelings on it, I'll post a few videos and let you decide.

ThunderbirdJunkie

My Feedback: (3)

You know what's funny?
Jang pointed out that the body was a "copy" (ripoff, whatever) of the JConcepts Manta, and how Helion should be lambasted for doing that.

However, on the flip side of that, the JConcepts Manta is a pretty obvious copy of an '03-07 Chevy fullsize pickup...that isn't licensed.

So who is really in the wrong? It's just a ripoff of something that was already ripped off.

someone got it already

@ Sunfirefoot - Today I broke 2 things on a 4x4 that cost twice as much as the Dominus. I can break anything on any RC... but it is a great relief to know that there is plenty of part support for both factory, and upgrade replacement. That is why I finally got away from spending money on my ECX circuit. I'm puting that on hold until greater options are available... and I hope there will be. The ease of part support is a critical decision element for me, and how I form an opinion. I just wanna fixem as quick as I breakem.

Sunfirefoot

My Feedback: (30)

Bam!!! +1 Thanks!!!! You Are a very wise person!!!

Sunfirefoot

My Feedback: (30)

Oh I see and understand, i can relate, unfortunately where i live the Hobbytown sucks!!!!! They never stock parts and they can order them but that takes 2-3 weeks or so they say!!! So i end up driving 40 miles to a different Hobbytown, a good Hobbytown run by amazing people and it seems as though they stock 2 of everything, never had to special order anything from them and its worth the drive because that city has an amazing track in it, as they say in the military, its a win/win situation.

Sunfirefoot

My Feedback: (30)

The stock body is cheap-o, i suggest getting a better body, i went with the Proline Chevy Silverado 1500. Also, better tires are a good idea, i went with Proline Badlands.

cummins driver

My Feedback: (31)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpEZ_x-bnIU&feature=fvst[/youtube]

He seems pretty honest on most things to me. About as un biased as a person could be anyways. I dont think anyone is completely unbiased.

cummins driver

My Feedback: (31)

double post

Sunfirefoot

My Feedback: (30)

I agree, most people are biased, but in the opening he complains about the design protocol and blah blah blah, honestly, who cares? Every model I know was formed or designed off of another but tweaked and changed a bit. As for the tuck itself, it's a damn good truck, but for those who drive or have driven other 4x4 SC's can't really compare because the Dominus is a $200 4x4 SC where as a Slash 4x4 is twice as much, and honestly I have driven a slash 4x4 and it's fun but the price tag hurts a bit, I'd prefer to spend $200 bucks, slap a decent brushless system in, and see what happens, and I haven't had a single mechanical issue with the Dominus but cosmetically the body is trashed. It's open to your own interpretation, but i took the gamble and am 100% satisfied with it.

rookieengineer

Hey guys, I've just purchased the dominus as a budget basher as I'm a college student and I've not got a lot of funds to pour into the far more popular traxxas, associated, losi, etc. models. About the weakest areas that I've seen so far from the videos I've watched and the threads I've read, the upper bumper mounts, the pivot ball joints, and the dogbones are the only real problem areas for this model as var as hard parts are concerned. I'm sure if someone did some playing around with certain mods to give them a little "beef" I'm sure this will certainly make a decent budget basher. I'm thinking of a way of using a little piece of aluminum plate to capture the mounting screws for the bumper just above where the bumper mounts up itself. I'm sure if I can tie the suspension bulkhead into the bumper, it will greatly lower the chances of bumper mount breakages. It's a poor design from the start, but with a few of the right tools and some creativity, damage can ve averted.

Sunfirefoot

My Feedback: (30)

Thats a good idea for the bumper mounts. A mod you can do to "beef" up the dog bones is buy a sling shot rubber band and slip it around the output shaft and the hub, it prevents them from falling out.

rookieengineer

Ah, okay. I've got ya now. Took a minute or two to occur to me exactly what you did, but I see now. That's a pretty clever trick and definitely on the to-do list. If I can get proper measuring tools, I'll make a prototype of the bracket I'm talking about and share the details.

rookieengineer

Hey Sunfirefoot,

     I just now got to reading through your vehicles.  I noticed that you've gone with a duratrax 3900 kV brushless system in the Dominus.  What do you have to say about the system and how the truck performs with it?  I may eventually upgrade to a brushless system; and with this truck being just a basher, I don't want to sink a ton of money into an upgrade.  Is the system waterproof by any chance?  what kind of run times do you have?  Is it 3s Capable?  I'm not looking to race, I just want something to liven it up a bit.  Preferably with performance analogous to a stock nitro peice.

Sunfirefoot

My Feedback: (30)

Sorry it took me awhile to respond, had to take a vacation. The DTX element in the Dominus makes it a whole different truck. It's extremely fast and agile, beating 4x4 Slash's left and right. I would recommend it. It's not waterproof but with a little plasti-dip it becomes waterproof, I have one in my Wraith and submerged it with no issues. The DTX element I believe is only 2S rated but that's more than enough because it puts out massive torque and it WILL round off the dog bones on the Dominus if you put too much juice in it.

rookieengineer

that's another issue.  I've finally popped the front dogbones on the truck.  Lost one, so I painted the new ones.  I've noticed that they have a habit of becoming bent.  I wonter if a person could do some measuring at the hobby shop and find a decent replacement from another model that's beefier.  I'm also thinking if I take a dremel and chamfer the hubs where the dogbones ride, they'd be less likely to bottom out and bend like they do.

Darksabre

Just got my first real 4x4 basher a week ago: the Dominus SC10, so I'll be joining this little group!

SyCo_VeNoM

if its a NiMh its prolly only charging to 2000mah lol
I had a venom 1800mah NiMh for a roto start it wouldn't charge past 900mah...
Honestly you should get around 20-30 mins on a 4000mah battery

Darksabre

They are indeed NiMH batteries, as it is still on a stock brushed motor and ESC. Surely you should be able to charge to its full capacity? the OP was able to get 25-30 minutes on his NiMH batteries.