Axial SWX Crawler reviewed in RRCi - CML Distribution

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BItE My shINy DElRIN skIDPlAtE! Brad’s notoriety and the respect he’s garnered from enthusiasts worldwide all stems from his own product line that started with him competing in the 2.2" class in Colorado and Moab. These competitions evolved into him developing products such as the SW2, which Brad manufactured to sell to the general public under the name ‘Bender Customs’. The SW3 was the next chassis he designed which was essentially a no frills competition specification which went on to win the 2007 RCCRawler. com ‘Peoples Choice Award’ for ‘Best Chassis’. After a short break from manufacturing chassis, he designed the SWX chassis for Axial Racing’s AX10 kit. A culmination of four years of R&D, it’s by far the most compact and capable chassis he’s designed to date. ‘MAD’ PEtE INtERVIEWs BRAD Here’s my interview with the man himself, his thoughts and ideas on what makes a good competition rig perform and his views on the ever-growing crawler scene: Mad Pete: Where does the Bender in Bender Customs come from then? I’m thinking Futurama, am I on the right track? Brad: You are correct, the name mainly comes from Futurama. That show cracks me up, and Bender is the best character on it in my opinion So how long have you been into R/C rock crawling? I’ve been R/C rock crawling since 2000, but became heavily involved with it when I stumbled upon RCCrawler. com in 2004. I won the 2006 USRCCA nationals with a rig I designed and built. Been competing all over the US for the last couple years. My first chassis design for the public was the SW2, which was designed to be a chassis that could be built with any axles out there. The next chassis was my SW3, which was designed to be strictly a 2.2 comp chassis. Then I designed the SWX hIs MAIN POINts ON BuIlDING A GOOD COMP RIG ARE As fOllOWs: • For a 4-linked chassis, link set-up, ride height and shock angle play the biggest role in how a rig performs • Have the upper and lower links double triangulated • Ride height has to be set so the rig has a decent ‘break over’ angle (ground clearance), but still set low enough to climb steep vertical faces • Driving style, as well as terrain, can play a big role too. Some people prefer wheel speed and some prefer a lot of torque, one set-up may not work for both situations. Experiment to see what’s good for you! around Axial’s AX10, which they decided to buy the rights too. I interviewed with them shortly after that for a job as a product designer/R&D tester, which is now where I currently work in California. So where do you see rock crawling going in the future? For the future of R/C crawling I’d like to see the Super Class evolve more. I’m hoping more companies will start to support this class. Right now there isn’t much support for it as far as aftermarket parts go. I think that’s the biggest reason that the attendance numbers for comps are down in that class. The 2.2 class seems to be getting all the attention lately, which is great to see but the Super Class is what really kicked this aspect of R/C off, and now it seems to have taken a back seat to the other classes. I also think that the scale trucks are going to receive a lot of attention over the next year. I can see more and more competitions popping up for them. Especially now that Axial is releasing the new SCX10 ‘scaler’. The toughest part about competing with the scale trucks is having a set of rules/ guidelines that keeps the playing field level, but still allows for all the creative ideas that people are coming up with. The wheelbases vary greatly too, and RRCi fEAtuRE that is a big factor on how capable a rig is. The wheelbase rule for the 2.2 class is what keeps it very competitive. To dig or not to dig..? That is the question I don’t see dig going away in the US. It has really taken the capability of the 2.2 class to a whole new level. There are so many situations where it is beneficial, and it allows us to run more technical/ difficult courses then ever before. The USRCCA has also recently added a 1.9 class to the rules. I believe this class will grow very fast, because they are not allowing dig. This will let more new people that are on tight budgets to come in with relatively simple rigs and be competitive. So what are you working on at the moment? Is there an essential hop-up or must have Axial add-on? Axial is working on a bunch of new products for the 2009 season, but that’s about all I can say at this point without giving up any top-secret info. Right now I think the hottest hop-ups we have are the aluminium knuckles, aluminium axle C’s, the CVD’s. The SWX chassis also seems to be a pretty popular hop-up right now too, which is nice to see. • If you get a lot of torque twist in a shaft driven rig, add a stronger spring and oil to the offending rear shock, then try it again. If you still get twist move the upper link mounting points on the chassis down closer to the lower mounting points, and see if that helps • The best 4-link set-up is one that can flex with little change in the wheelbase 02/09 WWW.RADIORACECAR.COM 63
AxIAl sWx 2.2" ROCk CRAWlER ChAssIs Left: Hardened diff lockers take anything you throw at them Above: CDV’s give tighter turning circle without binding at full lock Right: The SWX chassis kit in all its dark glory has taken Brad 4 years to develop Left: RC4WD axle housings in super slippery Delrin, note rear requires no lockouts Right: Sub assemblies and ‘Punisher’ drive shafts built to take abuse With all these points in mind, and a new SWX Bender chassis in my hands, I started to collect all the components required to make a serious competition rig for the 2009 nationals and local competitions. My first stop was CML Distribution who had also supplied me the chassis to review. I first upgraded the standard Axial diff lockers to the comp spec Axial hardened items. Next I swapped the standard front axle internals for Axial CVDs, allowing a better steering angle without any binding in the driveline, and I added hardened spool and pinion gears to each diff. I wanted a black on black look for the rig to match the chassis so chose the new Pro-Line Spider crawler shell and plain black Fastrax paint. Adding to the stealth look, I chose black Pro-Line Eight Shooter 2.2 beadlock wheels, Pro-Line memory foam inserts and the M3 soft compound Pro-Line Badlands 2.2 crawler tyres. I kept the slipper clutch assembly but replaced the slipper pads and spur gear that has lasted a year of crawling, as I wanted to start fresh! I lastly added a Novak Rooster Crawler Edition ESC and the new Venom 50T Crawler Spec motor, giving me slightly more wheel speed than a 55 or 60 turn motor and the amazing drag brakes that have made this ESC my favourite choice for any crawler build. I then travelled north to visit King Cobra to see their new range of RC4WD Axial hop ups. I wanted to make this rig as bullet proof as possible across the whole drive-line so I chose a new aluminium transmission case and hardened steel internal gears, clock-able aluminium ‘C’ hubs and steering knuckles. I also used the RC4WD ‘Punisher’ steel driveshafts especially made to fit the Axial. I also added the new Delrin axle housings for a smooth and slippery surface to help avoid hanging up on rocks. My final addition was a set of the Losi 2.2 100 mm crawler spec shocks. These have fast become the shock of choice in serious competition and are ideal for the SWX. With a threaded cartridge design, they are easy to assemble, fill and bleed. With Titanium Nitride 64 WWW.RADIORACECAR.COM 02/09 coated shafts, they are perfect for crawling and smooth in operation using the supplied soft white springs. These have been used by Brad himself in his own SWX builds, though he designed the chassis to also use the standard 120 mm Axial shocks mounted in different holes or indeed your own shocks of choice. That’s the great thing about a comp build, you choose everything that you want to bolt on and build to whatever spec, you want. ClEANED, luBED, AND READy tO AssEMBlE The donor parts from the original rig were the bearings, the diff spools and rear drive shafts. I thoroughly cleaned and lubed the bearings by leaving them soaking overnight in oil. I also replaced all bolts, washers and nylock nuts on everything except the transmission case, as a year of wear and tear had taken its toll on the original rig’s hardware with some bolt heads almost worn half away! When rebuilding the diffs with hardened gears and lockers, I made sure the cases were packed with quality LM grease. This also goes for the new transmission cases and hardened gears; I want longevity from this build with the usual RRCi philosophy of ‘Fit and Forget’. Once built correctly these sub assemblies should last a season or two and still be ready for more. My original Axial items have performed perfectly, and show minimal wear internally, but the lower plastic diff casings have taken a real beating so I thought it was time to give the Delrin RC4WD items ‘a day in court’. When both axles were finished I connected each built sub assembly to a cordless drill using a flexible extension and turned them slowly to check everything ran smoothly and bed the ring gear to the pinion. The RC4WD Delrin cases do not need ‘lock outs’ on the rear assembly, as they are a straight moulding that captures the bearings for the output shafts internally. This will not allow you to fit 4WS as you can with the original Axial items, but as current 2.2 comp rules do not allow 4WS, it didn’t bother me.
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Axial SWX Crawler reviewed in RRCi - CML Distribution

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