Pro Competition Crawling from Axial
By Tony Arnold
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We all know Axial kicked off the whole crawling thing with the AX10 back in 2007, but performance expectations have changes drastically since Axial’s first crawler debuted. Axial has kept pace with new exciting offers, but from a performance perspective, nothing in their regular line compares to the competition winning SWX chassis design from Axial’s own Brad Dumont (AKA Bender) and all their new competition rated upgrade parts. This month I pulled all of Axial’s newest parts together into one aggressive pro competition build with spectacular performance.
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About the SWX Chassis
Where most manufacturers are just getting out the gate with their first crawler and chassis, Bender is in his 4th revision… the assumption that he may have a little extra chassis design and tweaking experience over everyone else is correct. Bender’s previous three “SW” chassis versions have dominated competitions and for good reason, the chassis are the most long lived and most tested competition chassis ever produced. When Bender joined Axial he worked out a licensing agreement for his next generation chassis, the SWX, good for crawling, good for Bender and good for Axial.
The Axial SWX is nicely packed with all the parts and pieces to convert your existing AX10 based chassis into something special. Swap out rod link ends from the old links to the included shorter links included and bolt together and you are ready to roll… true “bolt on performance”.
[http://www.axialracing.com/ftp/press_img/chassis/bc_4link_hires.jpg]
Axial’s New Extras
In addition to some parts that have been out for a bit including driveshaft collars, CVD axles, higher strength differential lock outs, high strength aluminum hubs and carriers that significantly upgrade durability, and Bender high performance 4-link mounts. Axial has also just introduced a well thought out set of competition focus crawler shocks.
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The new Aluminum Competition 72mm-103mm shocks are spec’ed out specifically for crawlers. A couple features pros like are complete aluminum shocks for strength and less flex and fully threaded bodies for endless adjustment. The extra mile design tweaks are the fully threaded shock body for easy pre-load adjustment, machined delrin piston for silky smooth precision performance and less lateral movement, big thick 3.5mm titanium nitride coated shock shafts for more strength. A cartridge style bottom helps reduce lateral movement while providing a better seal for less leakage and a full range of shocks springs available to fine tune performance. Other nice touches are machined flats on shock shafts allow you to hang on to the shaft with pliers for maintenance without scarring the TiNi coating, bump stops, various rod end lengths, and the inclusion of dual stage shock pistons that provide fast rebound and tuned compression.
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Build Extras
We obviously couldn’t do a competition build without a dig system so we used our tried and true DNA bolt on dig unit for our Axial transmission. Pro-line’s 8-Shooter original beadlocks I liked, but their new Titus beadlocks with integrated wheel weights have to be some of the best and easiest beadlocks I have used because 12 screws hold the entire wheel together. Mounted to the Titus Beadlocks are the new Chisel tires in M3 compound featuring oddly dichotomous traits of long wear and sticky grip. Power and steering were supplied by a Tekin Crawler Combo and Hitec servo. I worked up a skull themed Pro-Line Rock Star body with some Artool Return of Skullmaster stencils… I think it turned out well.
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Performance Testing
I will save you the “ohh it crawled over every rock hit” and template statements “that it’s the best [er what are we reviewing…oh a] crawler chassis.” I will note that I have been gifted with the chance to test nearly every major competition chassis available and the Axial SWX combines just about every feature I like in a competition crawler chassis. It’s very light weight, easy to set up, features a long narrow snag free chassis with a short links design, and most of all is easy to drive well even with poor tuning. The SWX is not a magic bullet for crawling, but unlike many other aftermarket chassis it’s less sensitive to improper tuning.
I followed the advice of Bender and set belly height at 2.75” inches and assured the top links were parallel to the ground and it matched my best comp crawler’s capabilities. The years of tweaking show in this latest version of Bender’s SWX chassis and delivers easy-to-use high performance chassis that is a only a bolt on away that allows you to stop tweaking and get crawling. See you on the rocks…
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