Most of us spend our free time working on our car. Day or night it doesn't matter, you can usually find us in the garage. Believe it or not though, there are times when we can't work on our project. We're either waiting on parts or money or have come up with some other lame excuse. During those times we need to something to occupy our time and keep us away from real work.
To do that, we found a very cool time expenditure device, and we contacted Traxxas (www.traxxas.com) to get one of their Slash radio-controlled vehicles. We thought that getting dirty was a cool idea, so we figured that a 1/10 scale Pro 2WD Electric Short-Course Race Truck would do. Of course, we had to get the Rob MacCachren edition, which is based on Rob's TORC (The Traxxas Off-Road Challenge) racing series Dodge Ram.
Make no mistake the Slash isn't a department store toy that gets destroyed in one afternoon. This is a serious radio-controlled truck with four-wheel independent suspension. This is a hobby level vehicle. Its very nimble and agile making it able to handle jumps, most off-road environments and even some curbs. Don't ask how we found that out. Being 1/10 scale this truck has a 13-inch wheelbase and 3.5-inches of wheel clearance to it. Using the optional, and included, rear gear it can reach speeds of 30mph or more.
One of the cooler things about this level of the R/C hobby is the extensive customization available. From upgraded motors and batteries to rebuildable oil-filled shocks there are plenty of options to upgrade your truck. That's not even mentioning all the billet pieces available--hubs, spindles, steering arms as well as driveshafts.
When you get the Slash home, you'll find everything you need to go racing in the box. The truck comes fully assembled in what they call Ready-To-Race condition. All you need to do is charge the battery and give the manual a quick once over before heading out to run your local R/C track. Click here for the official Traxxas video
Ready-To-Race right out of...
Ready-To-Race right out of the box the 2WD Slash truck makes for a lot of fun when you can't work on your full-size project.
This isn't the department-store-toy...
This isn't the department-store-toy variety of radio-control. This is a hobby level R/C with full adjustability of the suspension and several upgrade options available.
The heart of this beast is...
The heart of this beast is the Titan 12T electric motor, which spins the metal gear ball bearing transmission. You can upgrade the motor to a brushless waterproof model for even higher speeds. If you're into that sort of thing.
Fully adjustable coilover...
Fully adjustable coilover shocks help provide great handling for racing. You can even rebuild the shocks and fill them with different weight oils to change the rebound characteristics.
The tie rods and camber rods...
The tie rods and camber rods allow you to adjust the toe and camber angles on the wheels. Not pictured are the adjustment positions for shock mounting. This adjustment will allow the truck to run on soft surfaces where you need more suspension travel or indoor short tracks where speed and a lower ride height are more important.
Included in the box is an...
Included in the box is an optional pinion gear and spur gear. Designed for hard surface running these will give you higher speeds of 30mph or more.
Since you might not have the...
Since you might not have the right tools for the R/C Traxxas includes three different metric allen wrenches, an antenna nut wrench, a 4-way wrench, a turnbuckle wrench and a u-joint wrench (clockwise from left.)
To help feed our addiction...
To help feed our addiction we also ordered a higher capacity battery and a 6-amp high-speed charger to shorten our downtime between runs. The charger will charge both NiMH and LiPo batteries. As well it has adapters for the different types of connectors used on a majority of Traxxas' cars.
In the past each car and transmitter...
In the past each car and transmitter used crystals to determine the frequency they communicated on. This would always lead into trouble when you were around other R/C cars as frequencies would be duplicated. That's not a problem with the TQi transmitter from Traxxas. Using the 2.4 GHz frequency spectrum you should never have a reception issue.