SnailPowered

I have had my Slash for about a month and a half now and apparently I am REALLY hard on my RC cars because I have broken multiple parts. Not that they broke easily, I definitely have done TONS of things that SHOULD have broken parts and didn't. It doesn't help that I am running the Velineon VXL kit, but it makes it WAY more fun! Since I didn't want to buy new plastic parts repeatedly I wanted to get some stronger parts, so I looked to aluminum.

So far I have bought STRC bearing carriers (F/R), STRC caster blocks, STRC front and rear shock towers, and most recently a Hot Racing rear shock tower. My buddy had an STRC rear shock tower and the cheap stainless screws that it came with to hold the base to the actual tower snapped off. There are two screws and so when I put mine on I got hardened steel screws. After a day of bashing I had broken the head off one and the other pulled the threads out of the aluminum. That is when I decided to buy the Hot Racing. The Hot Racing rear shock tower has three screws in the bottom and more adjustability. After running the slash for less than a battery pack I noticed that the cheap stainless screws had loosened up. I had one hard steel replacement so I put that in.

The rear bearing carriers are awesome and probably the best aluminum part I have bought! The front shock tower is great as well as long as you don't use the crappy stainless screws. The caster blocks look really cool and I replaced a broken plastic one and haven't broken the aluminum yet. The rear shock tower is the one that has been giving me crazy headaches and STRC said that it would be too expensive to machine a one piece a shock tower.

To make a longer story short, I am wondering if anyone has seen a one piece rear shock tower for a Slash. The other recommendation that I have is to keep the stock plastic body mounts for bashing because if you flip the truck like me you can bend the CRAP out of aluminum. I will post pictures later.

I also wanted everyone to share their stories on the aluminum parts that they have used on their Slashes and perhaps save some of us a couple bucks by not buying sub-standard parts. Thank you for anyone that posts and may everyone have a grand time BASHING!

budha24

I have a traxxas rustler and tmaxx and I really am not a big fan of aluminum. For my maxx I do have aluminum bulkheads only because their is no chance of those bending. On my rustler though I have everything RPM and I swear by that stuff in fact everything else on my maxx is RPM as well. I believe that they are starting to carry slash and slayer stuff on the website now. I would look into that stuff first not to mention cheaper than aluminum. If you really want to finish it off right I would also get a lunsford titanium turnbucle and pin kit have one for my rustler best $50 I have spent in RC.

Lilredmachine

Those STRC bearing carrriers are brilliant, which is good because the RPM ones are awful. I've got the bellcranks, shock caps, carriers and the tempered hingepin kit. Pretty good.

SnailPowered

I definitely think that the bearing should be held in a strong. unmoving carrier. I wanted to get the RPM rear A-arms but the LHS didn't have them in stock so I just stuck with stock. Did you notice any better steering with those bell cranks? Thanks for your posts!

mercerbeef

snail- did you locktite the screws in the alum. parts? i did it on mine and their still holding.

mercerbeef

snail- did you locktite the screws in the alum. parts? i did it on mine and their still holding.

fusebmx13

Here is a list of the aluminum parts that I think you need and what I have found to be the best.
Traxxas bellcrank (havent tried the STRC one but there aluminum is good)
traxxas casters, flm casters, or STRC casters. I recommed the traxxas ones though because they are threaded.
bearing carriers (your choice, all good besides integy)
and maybe a bulkhead if you break them often. Other than that you don't need tons of aluminum. RPM arms are great, but not their carriers or casters. I just got their skids for my slash and they are SWEET.

Jeremy Z

Think about how you want your truck to be durable.

There are certain things you want to be durable by being more rigid, and others that you want to be more flexible. Think about that before you start going to all aluminum.

Aluminum is the upgrade material of the 80s and 90s. Plastics are the future.

traxxaspede

RPM shock towers!

SnailPowered

I try not to loctite because I tend to get carried away and the STRC rear shock tower on my buddies truck WAS loctited but the screws snapped. One of the hardened steel screws that I had snapped the head off and I was able to get it out because I didn't loctite it. But the other pulled the threads out of the aluminum so it was trash anyway. I think the 2 screws just weren't enough. My Hot Racing has three and I have been beating the crud out of it and it is still holding. I will post pictures soon I have just been too lazy/busy.

I know what you mean about knowing WHERE to put aluminum and where to put plastic. I just didn't like the look and feel of shock towers that are going to flex. Maybe I am completely wrong and that is a good thing I just didn't like it.

My STRC casters are threaded. My buddy got a set that wasn't but mine are. I think when they started making them that say Slash on the package they are threaded. If you look you should be able to see the difference though.

Thanks again for all of your posts. If anyone has found some defective designed parts I would like to know about them too. I don't want anyone to waste money like I did. Thank you!