My TRX-1

[spoitras]

Hello,

I've been getting back into the hobby this summer after a 20 year hiatus when my daughter spotted my box of RC cars on a shelf in my woodshop. After a couple of father/daughter afternoons spent cleaning parts and assessing wear, I put together a shopping list and we finished the TRX-1 a few weeks ago and we've been enjoying driving it around the paved school yard near our place ever since.


I was never a fan of the original body, so I went looking on eBay for an alternative. A seller was advertising this Radicator body with "TRX-1" in the listing's title. However, it is a very poor fit and I only managed to make it sort of work on my second attempt (the seller had sent me two because one of them had slight imperfections). The wing is original.


I had MCI Racing print the stickers in orange so they'd fit better with the colour scheme I was going for. The colour match isn't perfect, but I don't mind too much. I went with MCI's generic orange, but next time around I think I would try to specify given CMYK values to achieve a better match.


I installed the Bandit's caster blocks, steering blocks and axles to give myself more tire and wheel options. I've installed the Bandit's black chrome wheels and I rather like the look, but the chrome finish does not seem that resilient. I had to shave a bit of material from the front suspension arms to keep them from interfering with the wheels. Not ideal, but I preferred this alternative to replacing them with the Bandit's arms. I also had to shorten the front turnbuckles quite a bit and I changed the original flimsy rod ends while I was at it.


(Yes, even the motor is black and orange.)
I took the opportunity of this rebuild to address my biggest misgiving about the TRX-1: the slipper clutch. I used a layshaft from STRC intended to install a B4 slipper clutch on Bandit, Rustler or other Traxxas vehicles. Since there seems to have been little changes to the Traxxas transmissions over the years, I gave it a shot and I was glad to see it work on the TRX-1. While I was working on the transmission, I also rebuilt the differential and I was thankful to see these are still in production and widely available as a kit.

The car runs great, but it's too fast for my daughter! I usually gear it differently and adjust the controller as well to give her a chance of managing this beast.

[jwscab]

nice trx1! I loved running mine years ago and it's on the list for a rebuild soon.

you can fit a bunch of different bodies on it, if you don't want to go specifically traxxas. pretty much you can fit any of the rc10 or losi buggy bodies on it with some creative cutting. The radicator body is really narrow and designed for the radicator's molded narrow chassis.

[Lonestar]

I have a soft spot for TRX1's!!!

Mine started of some kind of orange die, too, I thought it was the only one!!!

[Coelacanth]

Is that wing mounted backwards?

I like the color scheme too.

[spoitras]

Is that wing mounted backwards?

I can't say... I cut that wing a while ago, but comparing with pictures of other TRX-1 cars online, it looks right. I'm not saying it's not wrong, but I guess it could be a common mistake.

For instance:



Doesn't seem too far from the box:


Thanks for having a look!

[Lonestar]

Is that wing mounted backwards?

I like the color scheme too.

wing is correct.

what made you think it wasn't, really?

[jwscab]

when I first looked at it, it appeared backwards. but after looking at it, it seems the sidewalls are cut tall, and the rear radius is pretty generous, which make it look like it wants to be mounted the other way. just a kind of optical illusion.

[Coelacanth]

Exactly. The leading edge of the sidewalls is cut straight up with a 90-degree edge, while the trailing edge has a more typical "front forward" curved edge cut. If it was cut more like the one in the last TRX-1 box picture, with the front edge cut with a ~45-degree back-sloping angle, I wouldn't have thought it was backwards.