Unboxing The All-New Traction Hobby 1/8 Cragsman RTR

Traction Hobby is releasing the new 1/8 Scale Cragsman RTR in early December 2017. Following our release photos and video from last week, this article has an indepth initial review, more detailed photos and an unboxing video.

Comparing to its predecessor - the 1/8 Founder Jeep, which is made out of mostly carbon fiber and aluminum, this new version is completely redesigned for better performance in mind and a lot more gadgets up its sleeve. Let's dive into what they've changed and improved.

The chassis rails have been changed to 1.2mm thick steel for strength and keeping it still lightweight. Some aluminum parts have been redesigned and changed to plastic parts to keep the weight low and the cost down so they can include more features in the kit.

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Specs

The new Cragsman uses a chassis mounted servo design (CMS) instead of axle mounted. It has a massive 83mm skid plate clearance with a wheelbase of 374mm and the axle clearance is 45mm.

Aluminum Axles

The axle housings come standard in aluminum. The front and rear axles come out of two separate molds (read on to see why). It has plastic lockouts, C-hubs and knuckles which help reduce the overall weight. The C-hub and knuckle design have a 8 degree caster and a 45 degree steering angle. The width of the new axles are lengthened to 245mm to give it a wider stance.

Open/Lock Diffs

This new version comes standard with metal front and rear independent locking diffs, giving you the flexibility to choose which one to lock just by flicking an independent switch for each diff on the transmitter. This means that there is a switch for each lockable diff, not one switch for both diffs.

Transmission Gear Box, Counter-Rotation Transfer Case

The transmission gearbox has had an overhaul. The main transmission gearbox is no longer in the middle of the chassis as it is now moved to the front of the rig with the transfer box being a separate piece. The transfer case has a great feature already built: an opposite direction output drive (or counter-rotation transfer case) to help reduce torque twist found in many RC crawlers. This means the center drivelines now spin in opposite directions. This reduces torque twist to almost non-existence levels. This is the reason for having two molds for the axles as the bevel gears are in opposite reverse positions. This is the first major production RC car that comes standard with this functionality.

2-Speed Transmission, 2WD/4WD Selection

The main gearbox features a two speed transmission for Hi or Low gear selected by turning a knob on the 6-channel transmitter (that is included). On the transfer box you can go 2WD or 4WD by turning a button on the transmitter.

Drivelines, Links and Shocks

The links are made out of 7mm stainless steel with an M5 thread for the ball ends for extra strength and durability; the lower links are high clearance links. The front drive shafts are CVDs and the front and rear drive shafts are made out of hardened steel for extra strength and durability. To help with flexing its wheels, the rig comes fitted with four 110mm aluminum adjustable big bore 2 stage coils over shocks.

Wheels & Tires

The Cragsman comes with licensed ProComp 2.2 wheels/rims that are molded plastic and are glue-ons. The ProComp wheels do not come glued to the tires which you can save for optional aftermarket beadlocks if you choose to. Comparing to most of the stock tires that come in an RTR, the rubber compound is soft and better quality than most. The tread pattern is open and quite aggressive. With the that combination, they should do well on many different terrains with good traction and performance. The size is 135mm X 56mm 2.2, with licensed Mark Ma tire.

Body & Accessories

The body is aggressive looking and the scale is superb. The body is made out of lexan and is lightweight. The bonnet power bulge gives the body the aggressive style. It includes a plastic roll cage and gives you the open top option. The wide body fenders are plastic and come with adjustable side mirrors. The body is held on by four magnetic stealth mounts and two Velcro straps to hold it down securely, so there is no need for body pins or screws to hold the pre-painted body in place. The body comes with real light buckets for the front and rear headlights and taillights. The roof lights include light buckets. They do not come with LEDs so you will need to add your own set of LED lights. Body includes a full interior panel with dash board, center console, front and rear lexan seat panel.

Radio

It comes with an all-new 6-channel radio system that controls all of the above features, including 2WD/4WD selection option, front and rear open/lock diffs, 2-Speed transmission, steering and throttle.

Price

The MSRP for 1/8 Cragsman RTR is $668 USD.

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Conclusion

It's nice to see a company leading the way and doing something different than other companies, to continue to push the envelope forward for the RC industry. Haven't you always imagine playing with a bigger scale crawler? Traction Hobby is on of the first companies to make that into a reality. I've personally taken the Cragsman predecessor 1/8 Founder Jeep out trailing including the UK Recon G6, and I loved it. Brian Parker drove the Founder Jeep and liked it too! The bigger scale makes everything more scale and realistic, the suspension movement of the rig works closer to a real 1:1 crawler than a 1/10 scale rig. With this truck there are more places you can go outside to play with. The excitement when G6ers saw that bigger crawler made me confident 1/8 scale will eventually take off. People were saying things like "it looks very scale" and "that's awesome". Having a 2.2" scale crawler creates a new category for scale trailing. Right now, we just need more people to get into it, and I put my money that other manufacturers will follow.

One of the highlights is the reverse direction gears inside the transfer case that make the center drivelines spin in opposite directions. This is done to eliminate torque twist and makes the truck drive better and more realistic. This is a feature that we appreciate, it shows the level of attention to detail and perfection Traction Hobby set out to do for this rig.

With MSRP at $668 USD, the price might seem high at the first glance. Here are a few things to consider. This is a 1/8 scale rig, a bigger sized RC car, not your typical 1/10 size. Everything in the truck is bigger. More materials being used and more heavy-duty design in mind. It comes with aluminum axles, front and rear. A set of aftermarket aluminum axle on the market can easily go for $100 to $200. You are paying for a factory built aluminum axle with precise open/lock diff function. The rig comes standard with a 6-channel radio system and five servos to control all the mechanical components such as the open/lock diffs, 2WD/4WD selection and 2-speed transmission.

The body is big, the biggest body we've seen in a mass produced crawler so far, and it comes with scale accessories like snorkel w/ real metal mesh, metal window guards, lightbuckets and rooflight racks. It has a full set of stainless steel 7mm high-clearance links. Hardened Steel CVDs and rear driveshafts are high quality parts that you don't often see in an RTR. Full set of big-bore aluminum adjustable shocks is a nice upgrade that comes standard with the 1/8 Cragsman. Electronics are higher quality than your average RTR, you get a 20kg steering servo, four 25kg mini servos to power other components, a 550 37T motor to give it enough torque. It is an upfront cost for good quality parts that you might otherwise spend afterwards for upgrades, and end up costing more.

We like the plastics that are included too, build quality is great and the finish is top notch. ATees will have the full line of replacement parts for this rig, so you won't need to worry about parts being an issue.

Testing

We drove it around the office and played around with all the switches and the first impression is this rig is a beast! It is bigger than a Traxxas TRX-4 or Axial SCX10 II (see photos below).

Stay tuned for more infomation and review on the 1/8 Cragsman as we take it out to where the real test is at!

Included: