The JOYS of TOYS

When Mike Phillpot sent us an image of his RC proudly displaying one of our Mud Life stickers, we had to know more, and here’s what he told us...

With a teenage daughter and two boys under 4, I am currently unable to justify a full-size truck - however I wanted to pick up a hobby that I can share with the boys as they grow up, but that still had 4 wheels and mud!

So I give you, RC Trialing and Rock Crawling.

Early into the hobby for me, but after going out with a friend, who has been in to RCs for years, and a couple of his trucks, I was hooked!

By the following weekend, I had sought out and purchased a second hand Traxxas TRX4 Sport that had seen little use, and set about making some light modifications to it by first of all flipping the bumper mounts front to back, as this allows the bumpers to be mounted higher to improve approach and descent angles. I then trimmed the shell to accommodate larger tyres and opened the arches out up front.

I also fitted some MUD LIFE Stickers. (get them here - https://ko-fi.com/mudlifemag/shop)

Next was to fit some brass steering weights on all four corners and a metal steering horn on the standard servo (the stock one is plastic and gets ground-out by the spindle on the servo if the wheels get snagged up any).

I then took it to Spring Woods RC (https:// www.facebook.com/ groups/412153970231207) and spent the day there. It performed well, only let down only by operator error and the fact that I neglected to thread-lock the servo horn bolt! It fell out towards then end of the day, which worked out well as Paul at Spring Woods has built (and since improved) a drift track and he was showing it off.

I have since sorted the servo horn bolt and fitted some skid plates on the ‘diff’ (the Sport has spools not unlockable diffs), transfer casings, and under the front bumper, as well as some inner fenders to keep the crud out. The latter also allows the fitment of a smaller battery in front of the front axle if needed/when I upgrade to LiPo)

I need to fit the +5mm stub axles and +5mm hex – should increase width of the truck as it rolls a fair bit!

Looking forward to getting out again soon, so feel free to follow my antics on Instagram - mikeinthemud (or scan the QR code below)