Special Project: Rock It Don’t Stop It
Chuckworksrc SCT3 X Pro-line Racing Mid-motor Slash
Competitive racing is no doubt fun but most of the time I drive, I like to get my RC wheel time by casually bashing at the park or around the neighborhood. One of my favorite vehicles to bash about is my Traxxas Slash 2WD. It’s quick, reliable and fun to drive. I’ve had it for a few months now and I decided it was time for a complete overhaul – but not because anything was wrong with it; I just can’t seem to leave anything stock for very long. As an RCCA reader, I’m sure you know the feeling.
I was cruising through the web and caught on to Chuckworksrc, a chassis maker that looks to reinvent your Traxxas RC vehicle. The company offers a wide array of chassis kits that promise to turn your Traxxas into an even better performer than it is right out the box. The key to the Chuckworksrc mantra is to turn your rear motor layout Traxxas 2WD vehicle into a well-balanced mid-motor configuration.
The reason for this is the owner, Chuck’s, experience with his own Slash 2WD. He often raced it in the backyard and was consistently getting beat by his friend. He figured that his short course truck wasn’t the best at clearing jumps and on top of that, his Slash seemed to enjoy rolling over way too easily. Part of this he figured was its high center of gravity and the other factor was that due to its rear mounted motor, it was tail heavy. To remedy this, he got on his CAD and worked on a different chassis layout. Right away Chuck envisioned a mid-motor conversion for the Slash. The rest is history.
SLICE SCT3
While Chuckworksrc offers many different chassis, some designed specifically for hard biting off road racing and others for no prep drag racing, I ultimately decided to go with the Slice SCT3, which is made for improved bashing. SCT stands for “Short Course Truck”, and this chassis is designed specifically with rough terrain in mind, as well as big jumps and lots of abuse.
The chassis is made up of a series of CNC machined plates that are reportedly made of a proprietary blend of composite materials. It is not carbon fiber, but we can report that is very rigid, strong, and lightweight. It also uses what looks like durable polymer and aluminum parts as well as steel hardware in its assembly. The chassis is designed to accept any transmission as well as just about any hop part up made for a Traxxas 2WD 1/10-scale truck. Chuck states that he created this particular chassis to perform well on the track, but the SCT3 is geared more for bashing.
With the chassis selected, I decided to upgrade a few more parts of the Slash too. As I poked around further, I decided to go all in on Proline Racing’s robust selection of Slash performance upgrade parts. We’ll get into that later on in this article.
MY SLASH
The base kit is a Traxxas Slash 2WD On Board Audio (OBA) model that comes with the OBA equipped Slash complete with a pre-painted and detailed short course truck body, a TQ 2.4 GHZ radio transmitter, Power Cell 7-cell NIHM id battery, 4-amp peak detecting DC fast charger. I decided to keep most of the electronics and motor stock but did swap the battery to a Traxxas 5800mah 7.4v 2-Cell Lipo instead for some extra power.
In case you haven’t heard, Traxxas’ OBA system is essentially a speaker system that allows the RC truck to sound like a monstrous 900 horsepower V8 short course racer.
The realistic rumbling engine sound is linked to throttle control so the OBA’S sound module produces grand amounts of engine noises that are timed to your throttle inputs. It’s great fun, especially in a basher.
CHASSIS
I began the project by disassembling the Slash down to it essential components. I didn’t need to strip it all the way down to its gears, just its major assemblies such as gearbox, arms and suspension mounts. This wasn’t a problem, as the Slash’s intuitive design makes the truck
incredibly friendly to work on.
Once all the parts were removed from the chassis, I went ahead and started assembling the Chuckworksrc chassis together. Chuck includes everything you need to put the chassis together including an instruction booklet, but I did wish that the instructions and images were a bit clearer. Half way through assembly, I found that some hardware was missing but I was able to make do with the Rcscrewz Traxxas Slash 2WD Stainless Screw Kit that I happened to have on hand. I highly recommend picking up this hardware kit if you’re upgrading your Slash.
The great thing is that when I did have any questions, Chuck was extremely quick in responding to his e-mails and he even lists his phone number on his website for you to call or text. Now that’s fantastic customer service! The chassis parts fit perfectly without any issue, which was a relief. Before I knew it, the chassis was assembled and I was ready to install the Pro-line upgrades.
UPGRADES
Using Pro-line parts, I revamped the truck’s suspension as well as steering components. As great as the stock Traxxas parts are, Pro-line’s upgrade parts do help beef up high stress
“The Pre-built Pro-series includes a 32p 56-tooth spur gear that makes stripping gears a thing of the past.”
parts and help bump up overall performance as well. Pro-line’s Pro Spec aluminum shocks were installed, as were Protrac shock towers. These units give the already smooth riding Slash even more dynamic dampening characteristics. Further strengthening the suspension and steering are a set of front and rear PRO-ARMS and aluminum caster blocks.
Another major upgrade was done to the transmission. A Pro-line Pro-series 32P Transmission was swapped in place for the stock unit. The Pre-built Pro-series includes a 32P 56-tooth spur gear that makes stripping gears a thing of the past. All the internal gears inside the transmission are made from hardened steel to handle upgraded power. The transmission also features an updated case for enhanced strength and an aluminum motor mount with clear gear cover. A Robinson Racing 32P 15T pinion gear completes the new transmission set up.
The SCT3 chassis requires you to mount the gearbox and motor assembly backwards, with the motor on the right side instead of the left. It also repositions it forward of the rear shock towers, which shifts its heaviest weight forward of the rear axles. This mid-motor repositioning should help the balance of the truck as it shifts its weight in turns and jumps. The chassis did require a little bit of sanding for the Pro-line gearbox to fit the chassis.
One cannot go with a Pro-line build without also mounting a set of its popular wheels and tires. I chose a set of Pro-line’s pre-mounted Bfgoodrich Baja T/A KR2 SC, which is designed for short course truck
applications. The tires come in Pro-line’s popular M2 compound and come premounted to Raid Black 6x30 removable hex wheels.
I wanted to keep the OBA control unit and speakers but the SCT3 isn’t made to accommodate it. As you can see, I was able to find spaces for both speakers and the control unit on the chassis anyway. Both speakers were double stick taped to the chassis.
A NEW LOOK
Now that the SCT3 was set up how I wanted it, I turned my attention to its looks. I decided to forego the stock body and go with a 1/10-scale Ford F-150 Raptor body by Pro-line instead. The 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor is part of Pro-line’s True Scale Clear Body for Short Course Trucks series of bodies and includes plenty of scale details formed into the body as well as a sticker sheet for even more scale details.
I took the time to paint it so that it is a mix of gloss and matte finishes to further push for a realistic look. The body and windows remain gloss while the grille, front and rear bumpers, fender flares and bed are all covered with a coat of clear matte paint on the outside of the body to tone down the Lexan’s inherent shininess. It’s a pain to do but it’s well worth the effort in my opinion. For even
“With its
OBA blaring at full blast, the Raptor really snapped some necks.”
more detail, I also added a few scale decals from RC decal maker, Mr. Hop-up.
IN ACTION
With the Pro-line Racing beefed up Chuckworksrc SCT3 complete, I headed to a local park to see what it could do. With its OBA blaring at full blast, the Raptor really snapped some necks. Sounding like a 900 horsepower Baja racer, the SCT3 tore up gravel and jumped over blacktop pavement with plenty of speed and control.
The Chuckworksrc chassis is slung much lower than the stock version, which gives it way lower center of gravity. This translated to a much more stable drive, especially when taking corners at speed. The chassis’ mid-motor layout also helped the truck zigzags much quicker in a slalom and gave the upgraded Slash a much smoother, more confident jump along with graceful landing characteristics. On top of all of that, the Pro-line suspension upgrades also helped smooth out the ride and its bulletproof transmission really gives you the confidence to take on any terrain it comes across.
FINAL WORD
It looks like the
SCT3 did do what Chuck originally set out to do when he developed the idea for his chassis line. I found the truck to be very stable and well balanced. As fun as this modified Slash already is, there’s still more that can be done to it. Let’s take a look at power upgrades next time. I hope to swap out the stock brushed motor and ESC combo with a brushless system. Until then, this midmotor Raptor still is a blast to zip around the neighborhood.