BEHIND THE WHEEL
Prepping the Trail Honcho for action is just a matter of shooting four AAS into the transmitter and strapping in a battery with a Deans-style plug. Axial keeps things simple with an open-topped box to hold the battery and a Velcro strap to cinch it down—it’s all you need. The box is roomy to hold a variety of pack sizes, and movable spacers are provided for smaller options. With 7.4 volts onboard, the Honcho outpaced my walking speed, which is all the speed I need in a trail truck—as long as I’m not waiting for my truck to catch up on a hike, I’m good. If you do want to go faster, you can drop in a 3S pack; the speed control is rated for the extra juice. I enjoyed the Honcho’s smooth drivetrain and 50% drag-brake setting on my trek to the park, but I did find myself wishing the Tactic TTX200 transmitter’s wheel were closer to the grip so that I could thumb-steer and drive one-handed. It’s much more comfortable to hike with your arms free to swing. It’s on the wish list, but not a deal breaker. I hit my usual spot and found the Honcho to be a very capable rig from the get-go. No other truck I’ve driven carries as much weight over the front tires, and its climbing ability was mountain-goat grade. Just aim the truck and up it goes. Coming back down was drama-free, and it only occurred to me after a few minutes of driving that I had never switched the drag-brake setting to 100%. Even at 50%, the Honcho rolled slowly down steep inclines (45ish degrees) slowly if I just left the throttle at neutral. In all-around-adventure mode, the Honcho put its Falken Wildpeaks to work and navigated surprisingly challenging obstacles. I found a drainage culvert’s runoff area that was loaded with baby-heads and craggy stone slabs (and water) to really test the truck, and the Honcho’s out-of-the-box ability was impressive. Good line choice helps, of course, but even when I blasted through the culvert with no steering input and just let the truck go wherever it wanted (because I was filming a video with my steering hand), the Honcho just kept chugging over whatever it came up against. Search “Honcho” on the RC Car Action Facebook page to see the clip.
FINAL WORD
Axial really packs in the value with the Trail Honcho. It works great out of the box, sets a high bar for realistic style (even if it isn’t officially a model of a specific “real” truck), and even gets a set of bright LED lights. The places where Axial chose to save a few bucks barely register on my give-a-care meter, and the extra dough the Trail Honcho leaves in your RC budget goes a long way toward extra batteries or hop-up parts. It’s easy to point out trucks with sexier specs and more features, but hey, they cost more. Whether you’re looking for a just-go-out-and-run-it rig or the blank canvas for a serious comp build, the Trail Honcho is a smart choice.
SOURCES
Axial axialracing.com
Maxamps maxamps.com
Tactic tacticrc.com