Team Associated SC10 reviewed in RRCi - CML Distribution

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Electric Truckrrci featureAbove: Geared diff internals. Extra shims may be neededto get a good meshat the rear, and the front is held in place by two ‘T-clamps’, which takejust a quarter turn to lock the retainer onto the cells. So no more fiddlingaround with clips or thumb screws.STEERING/FRONT SUSPENSIONFirst thing up in the build is the steering assembly. And already this iswhere my first problem would arise. The majority of the assembly wenttogether OK, but I had big problems getting the servo saver adjustingbolt to fit on straight and true. It took a few attempts and I found itdifficult to do. So in the end I fitted the long steering bolt in first andused this as a guide to get the bolt to screw in straight. This workedfine and I don’t know why I didn’t try this method earlier.The steering pivots on bushes, but I feel bearings would have been anice touch, so remember not to tighten the steering bolts up too much orthe steering won’t do its job properly. It is the same steering set up that ison the B4 and T4 and can bind if over tightened.All this sits on the front bulkhead that holds the wishbones in place.The long wishbones are the ones used on the T4, and the SC10 also usesthe GT2 nitro truck’s front caster blocks, which are 25 degrees and holdthe trailing steering block via a steel kingpin, which is held in place with aretaining screw. Retaining screws also hold the pivot pins in place in theinner wishbone mount and the wishbones fitted brilliantly, dropping undertheir own weight without any modification at all. The front hinge pin braceis plastic, but can be upgraded to an aluminium version which I wouldrecommend, as it strengthens the front end and stops the bulkhead frombreaking in the event of an impact.BUMP IT UP!The front shock mountsare really tall, and aretopped off by a ‘crossbrace’to mount thebodyshell. In front of theshock mount is the frontbumper assembly, whichtotally overpowers the front endand it’s at this point you reallyget a feel for how large this kitis going to be. The bumpers aremade of a really soft plastic to helpabsorbthose moments when you are ‘rubbing’ with the other SC10’s on thetrack! Being soft plastic it makes them really easy to build and getting thescrews into them was a piece of cake. Supporting the front bumper is apretty large kicked up skid plate, so the SC10 looks like it will take someextreme angles when landing off of big jumps. The same plastic usedon the bumper is used for the ‘nerf bars’ that attach to the side of thechassis, which help support the sides of the bodyshell.GEARBOXSurprisingly for an electric truck the SC10 uses a nitro style geareddiff, while the ball diff from the B4 is an optional extra. The diffscontain two large sun gears and four smaller planetary gears.There are four shims, two for outside the diff that fit over thediff out drive and two that fit inside to space the gears correctly.After building the diff, I found it to be very notchy and generallyfeeling a bit rough. I re-built it 3-4 times and it still had the samefeeling. I decided to do some research and found out that the diffs haveindeed been a problem on some models and need two extra shims to helpspace the gears properly. CML have reassured us that future kits willinclude the shims and that they will provideshims for anyone if problemsoccur, assuring us that this isnot something that hashappened to all kitsand lots have gonetrouble free.Above: The extended SC10 chassis looks familiar, but islonger than the B4 and T4 it is based onThe rest of the gearbox is a work of art, proving through many yearsof top level competition to be a robust unit that you can just build andleave, it is just so reliable. To top the transmission off there is the slipperclutch to save the gearbox from the punishment of a rough track andlarge throttle inputs. The instructions give you a very clear tip on how toset the slipper up, and I found this to be spot on to start with. Included aretwo spur gears, an 87t spur for modified and brushed and a 75t, which isrecommended for brushless stock motors.Left: Familiar steeringand front end, but nowswamped by that bumper!10/09 WWW.RADIORACECAR.COM 59
Associated SC10 Kit, 1/10th 2WD Short CourseAbove: Adjustable slipper clutch and two spur gears suppliedSHOCKSThe blue alloy shocks use preload spacer clips to alter the rideheight, and filled with 30wt oil they are another trademark Associatedcomponent that provide great performance with minimal maintenance.They go together very well and Associated provide a very useful toolto help fit all of the washers and O-rings into the bottom of the shockbodies. Make sure you don’t lose any of the e-clips though as Associatedonly provide the correct amount needed to complete the kit. One thing Idid find difficult to assemble on the shocks were the ball joint/eyelet onthe bottom of the shock shaft, so it may be worth pre-threading the balljoints with an M3 bolt before you assemble them onto the shock shafts.REAR SUSPENSIONAgain the rear suspension, like the front, has extra long wishbones fromthe T4 along with dog bone driveshafts. The rear hubs are taken from theB4 and are ball raced just like the main transmission and front wheels. Inthe instructions for the turnbuckle construction, it recommends that youset the turnbuckle at 71 mm from ball-cup to ball-cup but this gave therear wheel a ridiculous amount of camber and I ended up setting it to 85mm which looked OK until I put the bodyshell on, when it was obvious thatit needed even more length, so this will be adjusted when the truck is fullyAbove: Despite the extrabumpers and body mounts,there are just three extrascrews to remove, to get at thegearbox for maintenanceAbove: Gearbox contains the world renowned ‘Stealth’ gearboxAbove: The rubber mudflaps,possibly the coolest part on an R/C car…evercomplete. All of the rear suspension parts (including the gearbox) attachto the lower rear chassis plate and brace.The rear shock tower is another tried and trusted component from theT4 truck, but instead of the rear body mounts fixing directly, it now hasanother huge bumper and brace which totally dominates the whole rearend. At first I thought that it would be a nightmare to access the reardrive-train because of this large assembly, but I tried it out when I hadto get to the diff to fit the extra shims andI’m pleased to say that it only requires theremoval of three more screws than normal,amazing! The rear bumper has one ofthe coolest parts I’ve seen in an R/C kitfor years…the rear mudflaps! I’m easilypleased, sure, but they do look very muchthe part. They are the same rubber itemsfound on the SC8 version, but don’t look outof place at all, and just add that extra bitof realism to this kit.WHEELY GOODWhen I first saw these trucks I thought thatone of the good things about them was thehigh profile tyres for a good sense of realism. While theouter profile of the tyre is indeed high, the inner profile ismuch more like a normal buggy tyre and is quite low profileto reduce tyre squirm and improve the drivability. Other thanthat, they do look good from the outside although the silverfinish might end up with a coat of black paint like most of the realSC trucks. The tyres are a ‘block’ pattern suited to loose dirt andfine gravel, which is where these trucks really belong.60 WWW.RADIORACECAR.COM 10/09
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Team Associated SC10 reviewed in RRCi - CML Distribution

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