4th Round of Upgrades

Time for another round of upgrades to the JPH Traxxas 4x4 slash!

Although this is not a high mileage vehicle by any means (yet), I just enjoy tinkering and working on this truck. The overall design that Traxxas gave this vehicle is amazing (when you compare it to a lot of rigs out there right now) and it really makes it a joy to wrench on.

This go-round, I'm installing some goodies for speed, others for durability, and others for the cool factor.

All these installs are super straight forward and what I would call "easy bolt on upgrades". The modular design of the 4x4 makes these upgrades even easier. 4 bolts and the rear end of the truck is in one hand and the main chassis is in the other. There were no modifications needed to any parts, or the vehicle, for these installs.

There's no surprises with this round. Just plain out the order of the installs and get cracking on it. Total time, was a little over an hour and that was waiting on customers during that time. It will take some time to read through the ESC programming features and test them all. But, the initial ESC set up was simple and took 30 seconds.

Novak 4.5 550 Ballistic Motor and Havoc Pro system: Although the Traxxas VXL system works well, I've got some future things in mind and I wanted a system that runs fantastic on 2 cell Lipos. Something that runs cool, offers tunability, and has a coolness factor of 10. That "something" is offered from Team Novak and has words like "Ballistic" and "Havoc" in it's name, how cool is that? The ESC offers timing advance tuning for great top speed, the 550 motor offers super torque, esc programing options are there ... It seemed like this system will fit nicely with the JPH 4x4 project.

The Novak system comes with pre installed Traxxas connectors on the battery leads and has bullet connectors on the motor and ESC. Also included is a very cool G-10 mounting plate for the ESC that bolts right into the chassis. It's very slick and shows the amount of thought Novak is giving to their system installs.

Robinson Racing Steel Spur with Gen3 Slipper: I'm going to be running in sand and need a spur and pinion that will hold up to this abuse. Plain and simple, steel beats nylon in this battle. Down side? Well, it's a little noisy and offers more rotational mass than the stock spur and pinion. But, changing a spur, while at the beach, is a pain I don't plan on having to deal with thanks to this RRP upgrade!

Traxxas machined Motor Plate: Cool factor here folks! Yes, it's made from a better grade of aluminum and it's machined so it will help dissipate motor heat.

STRC Motor Mount and Drive Shaft: The aluminum Motor Plate houses an important bearing, one that does fail from time to time. Replacing the stock nylon part with an aluminum one has me hoping for the bearing area to run cooler and be held in straighter when things get warm. The Drive Shaft? Ok, there's no need for an upgrade here, but the Motor Plate is RED, so I in stalled a RED Drive Shaft to match! Very cool looking!

Spektrum Heat Sensor: Added this to the radio system (Spektrum DX3R Pro and SR3300T RX) so I can monitor external motor temps by looking at my transmitter! A super easy install, with super cool results ... In the initial runs, my Novak Ballistic motor only hit 95 degrees. Sweet!

Pro-Line Battery Mount Kit: The stock parts work just fine, but I wanted to give this a try cause it's new. I like the fact there's nothing to drop or loose when changing the battery, as all the parts are no fixed to the chassis. The battery strap is hinged in the back and uses a thumb screw in the front. The strap is a little on the flexy side, but I doubt the battery will work it's way past it in a crash.

Thunder Power 5300Mah, 7.4Volt, 65C: Ok, no these babies are the juice behind the motor and esc. These batteries a simple AWESOME. Gobs of run time and instant acceleration, they are noticeably faster (punch and top speed) than any other 2 cell lipo I've run. Period.

That's it for this round. Very happy with the JPH 4x4 project and it just keeps getting better! I can't say this enough, it's just a great design that's fun to work on. Thank for reading along!

Photos Show:

Stock Traxxas VXL Set-up.

Goodies ready to be installed.

Havoc Box.

Novak ESC and Motor.

Traxxas VXL Motor size vs. Novak 4.5 550 Ballistic size.

ESC size comparison and cool Novak G-10 ESC mounting plate.

Pro-Line Battery strap all mounted up.

RRP steel spur and slipper set-up parts and stock Traxxas assembly.

RRP parts all assembled and ready to bolt in.

New parts installed.

Swapped out the Novak sensor wire for a shorter version.