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Here's Shawn Roche's review...

We took the trucks out for the first time last weekend, and both of us coming from a crawler background I would be a liar if I said I was expecting greatness in their off-road abilities. But once we adjusted our driving style to a more realistic style and stopped comparing them to crawlers I was surprised that the top heavy little monsters can actually climb some pretty amazing angles and are just a blast to drive.

At first the front articulation seemed a bit excessive and I was wondering if I would need to limit it, but after running them around a bit it was soon evident that the extreme articulation was intentionally designed into it and was not an oversight. The conclusion I came up with is that by allowing the front to flex so much and the rear being more rigid it allowed the weight transfer to move easier on to the front axle and not just "slosh" the weight around on the rear axle and become unstable.

Steering - these things turn so sharp that it is unbelievable, but surely not unwelcome. 

After approximately 2-2.5 miles of running them around in the mountains we had no failures, they are built well and it was refreshing to buy an R/C vehicle assemble it and run it and not have a list of upgrades needed just to make it reliable.

I can’t say anything bad about them they are a blast to drive and because of the detail and scale accuracy they get a ton off attention everywhere they go.

 

Here are my thoughts on this build so far:

 

Shipping

1. Amazing is all I can say, I paid a little more for faster shipping (not that much in my opinion) and it got to my house in Gilbert,  Arizona from Hong Kong in 3 days! I don't even know how that is possible it is like a billion miles away or something.
2. everything packaged perfectly and no damage on anything

 

Chassis and bumper

Boom Racing 1/10 Defender D90 Roller Assembled Car ARTR Chassis Part #: BRQD90V2

Team Raffee Co. TRC Defender D90 Extended Chassis Rail & Bumper Set  Part #: TRC/302225

(The items BRQD90V2 and TRC/302225 have to both be used to run the Team Raffee D90 body Part #: TRC/302223  )

Rear Ladder and Tire Holder for Defender D90/D110 Wagon by Team Raffee Co. Part #: TRC/302217

RC4WD TOUGH ARMOR SIDE STEEL SLIDERS FOR TRAIL FINDER 2 Part #: Z-S0056

Pro-Line 6063-00 Power Stroke Shocks Part #:6063-00

PowerStroke SC Universal Shock Mounting Hardware Kit Part #:6063-05

Team Associated 50 Weight Silicone Shock Oil  Part #:5435

Let me start by saying I have an RC4WD TF2 and it was refreshing to see Boom Racing actually listened to the market and improved on the design.

1. Including all metal drive shafts in the kit is a welcome change from the junk ones usually included in kits
2. The instructions say to check everything and make sure all bolts/screws are tight. I personally found no loose screws (maybe a couple over tightened ones) but I did remove all screws and use blue 242 thread locker on all screws.
3. The grease in the gears was very thin and reminded me of petroleum jelly I cleaned it all out and used mystik Jt-6 #2 High Temperature Grease
4. The shocks were of very good quality and I added oil to them and they moved smooth and offered good rebound dampening. I eventually decided to go with Pro-Line shocks for no other reason than I have them on all my r/c stuff and have become quite a fan of them over the years.
5. Having 2 locations for the upper shock mounting is nice
6. The chassis is like a CNC master piece, I found no flaws in the machining or anodizing ---- it is just so damn pretty.
7. The rear bumper is just cool, but the spinner on it that tightens it in place contacts the light lens when turned, personally I don’t care since the rear door isn’t going to be a highly used thing, I think this might only be a concern when using the Team Raffee Body.
8. The RC4WD rock slides are ones I had purchased for my TF2 a while back and with the addition of some metal spacers from the local hardware store they went right on, the chassis even has the holes in it to accept the slides.

 

Tires and wheels

Boom Racing Sandstorm KRAIT™ 1.9 Aluminum Beadlock Wheels with 8mm Wideners (4) Black  Part #: BRW780901BK

Boom Racing Sandstorm KRAIT™ 1.9 Aluminum Beadlock Wheel 1 Piece Spare Black Part #: BRW780901-1BK

MST KM Crawler Tire 30X90-1.9 (2) Part #: MST/101034

Rock Monster Tire inserts

1. When I first opened the package and looked at the krait wheels I was stunned by the sheer beauty of the workmanship, and mounting the tires on the wheels could not have been easier
2. I did use the wheel spacers that came in the chassis kit but the ones that come with the wheels are very nice and have the set screw to hold it on the axle.
3. The wheels come with extra little screws for the fake beadlocks and I would STRONGLY suggest going over the screws on them to ensure they are tight.
4. The tires - well they just look good and the size is what I needed for the "driven on the street every day" look I was wanting.

 

Body and interior

*Let me start by saying that by no means am I a model builder, I come from a scale crawler background and this is a new genre of r/c for me. I feel that any problems I encountered with the body might be nothing for a person more experienced in building models than I am. Now that being said I had very little problem with this body kit.*

Team Raffee Co. Defender D90 1/10 Hard Body Kit Part #: TRC/302223

Team Raffee Co. Front Kahn Light and Grille Assembly Set for TRC D90/D110 Defender Part #: TRC/302228F

Team Raffee Co. Metal Roll Cage Rack w/ Luggage Tray for Team Raffee Co. Defender D90 Part #: TRC/302224B

 Fender Kit and Body Panel for TRC D90 Defender TRC/302223 and TRC/302224  PART #: TRC/302229B

RC4WD INNER FENDER SET FOR DEFENDER D90 BODY PART #: Z-S1194

1. The body is just nice and there are details in it that no one will ever notice once it is assembled but they will make you smile knowing they are there.
2. The rear door had to be shaved a bit to fit in the opening.
3. The magnets in the doors (side and rear) offered very little in the ways of keeping the doors closed and I was afraid of them popping open in a roll over and getting damaged. I came up with a fix for this by putting magnets from home depot in the door panels and another attached under the floor pan under the seat, now from 1-1.5" out it sucks the door closed.
4. BUY a hole reamer!!!!
5. The RC4WD inner fenders fit the front almost exact a but 1 screw doesn't line up but this might just be when using the longer frame rails, in the rear it required a bit of trimming to make the interior clear it but with patience it can be trimmed to fit under the body (see pictures below) and 1 screw didn’t line up perfect but it worked out.

 

Electronics

 Hobbywing Crawler-Brushed ESC Waterproof 80A for 1/10 & 1/8 Crawler with LED Program Box PART #: HW/30112750

RC4WD 540 Crawler Brushed Motor 35T  PART #: Z-E0005

DX4R Pro 4CH DSMR Racing System PART #: SPM4100

SR415 DSMR 4 Ch Sport Rec PART #: SPMSR415

XPERT RC WR-7701 WATERPROOF "MEGA TORQUE" HIGH VOLTAGE BRUSHLESS SERVO PART #: WR-7701

I will add a review of the ESC and Servo once I get some run time on the truck

1. I sealed the receiver in a balloon to keep the water out of it.
2. first impression of the ESC is the setup and features are amazing for the price, I usually run Tekin FXR ESC's and Tekin 35T motors  in my crawlers and decided to go with the advice of people and try the Hobbywing ESC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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