Of all the mods you can make to an off-roader, replacing the wheels and tires with tank treads or “tracks” is easily the wildest. If you’ve been thinking about a set for your TRX-4, good news: you can skip figuring out which universal-fit aftermarket offering will work best and just get an official Traxxas solution with the new All-Terrain Traxx set. It’s a complete set of four track units all in one box designed just for the TRX-4 models: Ford Bronco, Chevy Blazer, Tactical Unit, Land Rover Defender, and Sport. I installed the setup on my own Sport, let’s take a look.
You can read the full review of the TRX-4 Traxx set on BOOST. Click here to join!
Find this box at the hobby store and be ready to plunk down $229 (maybe a little less) for the #8880 Traxx All-Terrain Track Set.
The tracks are packed in a fitted styrofoam tray that’s meant to be reused for storing the tracks when not installed.
The Tension wheels are fixed, and as the name implies, they set the tightness of the track belt. The spacing between the forward-most pairs of wheels can be adjusted to tighten the belt if they loosen with use. The Road wheels can pivot and are suspended on a spring-loaded arm.
The track units are ruggedly built, with thick plastics and a heavy rubber tread. The front units weigh 13.2 oz. (374g) each, while the rears hit the scale at 13.7 oz.(387g) apiece. Subtract the weight of the TRX-4’s stock wheels and tires (1 lb., 4.8 oz., 462g), and the tracks represent a total weight increase of 2 lb., 5.4 oz. (1060g)
Here’s the backside of the track, revealing the socket in the stub axle for the drive hex. The stub axle spins on two sealed bearings, a huge 20x32mm bearing in the rear and a 17x26mm in front. The tension wheels and road wheels get 5×11 bronze bushings, but that’s not a skimp; Traxxas says ball bearings in this application proved susceptible to contamination in use, and required a lot of attention to keep rust at bay. The bushings are goof-proof.
Each track unit has a rotation-limiting bracket that connects to the portal housing, with a plastic-body shock providing damping so the tracks don’t clunk back and forth in use.
I colored the bracket in this installed view so you could see how it attaches to the portal housing. Without the extra color, you’d have a hard time telling the bracket wasn’t molded into the housing. Very factory.
In addition to all the benefits of basically turning your TRX-4 into a tank, the tracks also give the truck a significant chassis lift and ground-clearance boost.
Whoops, I forgot to get a beauty shot while the truck and tracks were clean. “Oh well.” Here they are, a little dirty.
So, what do we think about the TRX-4 All-Terrain Traxx? Read the full review on BOOST!
The post We Drive Traxxas’ TRX-4 All-Terrain TRAXX! [VIDEO] appeared first on RC Car Action.
