drivejumpfly's Traxxas X-Maxx

[drivejumpfly]

I figured I would create a thread because I think I am going to have a ton of fun with the X-Maxx. I was a slacker and waited to order mine so I had to hustle around trying to call Hobby stores that I heard normally received the new stuff. A really cool guy I know made a call to Field's Hobby Center in Buffalo / Cheektowaga, NY and after a day or so my order was placed on 12/4/15. They took really good care of me so I am going to buy a Traxxas Aton from them pretty soon also instead of buying from someone else. I could have had an X-Max on Christmas but the guy's kid wanted one for Christmas so I could not convince myself to have one before he did, plus it gave me some time to sell as much stuff as I could to soften the blow to my bank account! It's all good though, I caught Santa today.

I am pretty short on time so I was only able to snap a few pictures. Man oh man this truck is a beast. For any of you that have one, what did you think the first time you had to carry it through a door way?! You have to stop and think, "How am I doing to do this without scratching both sides of the door frame?!" I took one picture to compare the size of it to semi-normal household items for the people that haven't seen one in person yet. I will keep you posted on my progress. For now I want to keep it reliable and cool, temperature wise.









Of course I bought the fastest color!

[ReglarGuy]

For any of you that have one, what did you think the first time you had to carry it through a door way?

At the time I was thinking, I'm sure glad my local hobby store has a fork-lift to get this thing in the back of my truck. Then I was like...I hope the heck my truck can handle this rolling monument of manly goodness, cux it's only a three quarters ton pickup.

[gunbar223]

When I sit mine on the kitchen table my wife gets a little upset. Haha

[tysonwald]

When I sit mine on the kitchen table my wife gets a little upset. Haha

wash it off in the bath tub and see what she says

[SilveradoTX]

I hope the heck my truck can handle this rolling monument of manly goodness

A rolling monument of manly goodness.

You, sir, just won the internet for today.

[efarrell]

Loves fields hobby. Are you from the buffalo area? That is my main hobby shop I go to.

[drivejumpfly]

A rolling monument of manly goodness.

You, sir, just won the internet for today.

That was a good one!

Loves fields hobby. Are you from the buffalo area? That is my main hobby shop I go to.

I'm not from that area. I ordered from them because they were cool to deal with via the phone, they know what they are talking about, and they took care of me. I went to one of my LHS today and received the same answer about X-Maxx parts that I did when I used to ask about my XO-1 - "No, we aren't getting one in..." I can't blame them though, having a high priced vehicle on the shelf is a lot of overhead. The catch is there are a lot of people that are impulse buyers that would buy the X-Maxx if they saw it in the store. The employees were impressed with the X-Maxx when I brought it in there to see if there were any tires that would fit it.

I will admit that I liked taking my XO-1 and my old 1/16 E-Revo VXL to work. The XO-1 was more of a pain to carry, but it is NOTHING compared to the X-Maxx! The next time I bring it to work I am driving it all the way from my car into the office! The truck is heavy and it does not fit easily through doors at all! I have to plan my entrance and exit because I'll just end up getting stuck between doors and walls and look a total idiot if someone opens the door on me while I am fumbling the truck trying to grab the door handle.

On to the good stuff. I took my X-Maxx to work and people in the halls were saying, things along the lines of, "that is cool," "what is that?" while others used more colorful words and ended the phrases with "... nice truck!" Of course everyone wants to see it run, but that has to wait until I make some minor changes to it. For now I just want to keep it reliable. Hopefully I will be able to start working on it this weekend and make some videos of my small changes.

[drivejumpfly]

Busy weekend but I have another project to add to my list off things to do with my X-Maxx. If it works as planned, it will be a lot cheaper than buying another X-Maxx body. Let me know what you think.

[Mark H]

I like it. Looks good, The front wheel wells look a bit off, otherwise great idea.

[drivejumpfly]

You are right, the front wheel cutout is a little off. The only way to match it up is to cut the wheel well out some more. I still have a quite a bit of planning to do to make it fit the way I want it to. I was just glad that the body fits on it as well as it does size wise.

[rag6]

That fits right between the bumpers. The front wheel wells look kind of like the way a 2wd stampede is when the ft suspension is at full extension.

[jeteffect]

Interesting idea!

[drivejumpfly]

The truck still has not been driven yet... I wanted to reinforce the body today, but decided to test the suspension out instead. Here is a quick video of the suspension travel with the out of the box preload settings:

[drivejumpfly]

I am halfway finished reinforcing the body. The first steps of using Fibatape and Shoe Goo are complete. The next reinforcement steps will happen sometime next week, hopefully. I will have to find another body shell that some already performed this process on in the future! When I looked at my other car's body I thought it was a cool idea, but did not realize how much time was spent doing it. Here are some pictures of the progress. I made a video of quite a few of the steps it took to do this so I will upload it when everything is finished.

[drivejumpfly]

Regarding the Velineon VXL-6s Electronic Speed Control Recall, I received my fusible link using the serial number on my X-Maxx instead of pulling my ESC out to find it. Hopefully this video saves some of you a headache:

[drivejumpfly]

Moderators - Please remove my previous post if possible. The updated video is in this post.


Regarding the Velineon VXL-6s Electronic Speed Control Recall, I received my fusible link using the serial number on my X-Maxx instead of pulling my ESC out to find it. Hopefully this video saves some of you a headache:

[drivejumpfly]

I actually drove the truck for about five minutes to make sure that it worked after replacing the bridge wire on the ESC. Man this thing has some power on 5000 MAH batteries! I have the Traxxas Link Wireless Module so I installed two sets of updates before running the truck. I also changed the ESC from the default ET-3s to the VXL-6s. I also noticed the Braking % was set to 100% and the Throttle Sensitivity and Trim were set to 0% so I changed those settings. If you have any questions about these settings let me know. I did not have the body on the truck so I brought the truck in after five minutes so I would not get any dirt inside of the open receiver box or flip it and damage something.

Almost finished reinforcing the body with Shoe Goo, Fibatape, Plasti Dip, and Moving Sliders. I like the coverage of the roof slider, but it is not aerodynamic at all but it is perfect for a camera mount. I am still deciding what to do with them. Let me know what your thoughts are on the sliders.

[SHIFTT IX MR]

3/4 ton. Are you sure that thing can handle the X Maxx?

At the time I was thinking, I'm sure glad my local hobby store has a fork-lift to get this thing in the back of my truck. Then I was like...I hope the heck my truck can handle this rolling monument of manly goodness, cux it's only a three quarters ton pickup.

[drivejumpfly]

The body reinforcement is 95% complete. Going to pick up some smaller washers to make the screw on the top more flush and a shorter screw for mounting the roof slider so there is not as much extra screw inside of the truck. I plan to run the truck this weekend without any other sliders on it to see how it holds up. I used removable mounting putty because I do not want to attach anything permanently until I test the slider out on a few flips. Weight wise the body without the roll cage weighed 1 pound 9.2 ounces. With the roll cage it weighs 2 pounds .8 ounces. I do not know what the original weight of the body was though because I forgot to weigh it. The weights in the picture show how I get the mounting putty to stick.

[slashcrazy]

Busy weekend but I have another project to add to my list off things to do with my X-Maxx. If it works as planned, it will be a lot cheaper than buying another X-Maxx body. Let me know what you think.

I think that looks great. But it would be cool if you could get it to sit a little lower ;-)

[drivejumpfly]

FINALLY took the X-Maxx to the BMX track! FUN FUN FUN!!!!!! Too tired to type more than what is referenced in the description of the video!

[SLW-SVT]

great video!

[drivejumpfly]

Thank you. I will make a video with more of the footage when I have some time. The more I think about it, it had to be more than 30 feet of ground from the bank to the landings.

Here is a piece of the aftermath from that last landing:

[drivejumpfly]

Traxxas is extremely cool. Talked to them about my driving experience with the X-Maxx, admitted that I bashed the car and broke some stuff, and they went above and beyond to make sure I knew what I needed to order and do to get my truck back on the road. Hopefully I will fix my truck sooner than later, unless flying the Aton consumes all of my spare time.

I will give you some advice. If you want to survive landing a jump on one tire, stiffen up your suspension or the wheel is going to lose some of its character.

Edit: I posted in the wrong thread of mine. The landing at the end of this video is what I was referring to:

[drivejumpfly]

I am not sure how I missed the memo on the Traxxas 2938 adapter for connecting Traxxas iD batteries to chargers with separate balance ports or voltage checkers. Here it is in use:

[drivejumpfly]

This is what I did before I ran my X-Maxx for the first time. The clips of the Traxxas Link app were taken recently to show the sensors work.

[drivejumpfly]

I was trying to figure out what to do next with my X-Maxx to make it stronger for bashing and the best idea I could come up with was to find someone locally with a 3D printer so I can make stronger parts. Found a local guy with a printer so now I just need to learn how to create the designs and then have them printed. For now I will start with some existing designs. The first one I have printed will probably be this:




http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1360920

[Vetfeva2]

When I sit mine on the kitchen table my wife gets a little upset. Haha

Lol, mine too.

[classicchevy]

This is what I did before I ran my X-Maxx for the first time. The clips of the Traxxas Link app were taken recently to show the sensors work.

So I have a question about your sensor video. how did you get your phone app to read motor temp and esc temp independently? I cannot manage to get my phone to do the same as yours.

[drivejumpfly]

You have to turn the radio on, turn the X-Maxx on, and let them link to your phone. Then go to Telemetry Setup and look for the sensors that you installed, name the sensors, and then go back to the Dashboard and add the gauges to the dashboard and configure them.

[classicchevy]

You have to turn the radio on, turn the X-Maxx on, and let them link to your phone. Then go to Telemetry Setup and look for the sensors that you installed, name the sensors, and then go back to the Dashboard and add the gauges to the dashboard and configure them.

Well I tried all that you suggested and still no better. My app will not let me name the sensors or readings. uuuugggh

[drivejumpfly]

Check your private messages

[drivejumpfly]

This is what I did before I ran my X-Maxx for the first time. The clips of the Traxxas Link app were taken recently to show the sensors work.

I had to make a change to the steps in this video today. Please look at the description of the video to see how you need to connect the Voltage Tap to the receiver. The initial directions should have been a lot clearer for this part. I added notations to get people on the right track but I will probably upload a revised version in the future so it flows correctly. Sorry for confusing any of you.

[boostd2valve]

Nice video. Thanks for sharing.

[drivejumpfly]

Here is the updated version. Let me know if you have any questions.

[drivejumpfly]

Took the truck out today to discharge the batteries that were charged. This is the best truck. It's fun each time I take it out bashing.

I am going to work on installing the fan soon. Has anyone used the Castle Dual Blower fan with a stand alone battery? I want to avoid draining my batteries for the fan.

[ReglarGuy]

Castles' cooling fans pull very little current, so you don't need to worry about them needing their own battery.

[drivejumpfly]

Here is the updated version. Let me know if you have any questions.

Someone asked so I am going to post this response so everyone can see. The temp sensor placement for the ESC can be found in the video above.

The settings that I had to change for my X-Maxx in the Traxxas Link App initially were in the Garage > Model Setup where I made sure the ESC and Motor were selected correctly. The app is probably up to date now though so hopefully the defaults for the X-Maxx are correct. You will see in the video that I added a gauge for the ESC temperature sensor to the dashboard also.

Castles' cooling fans pull very little current, so you don't need to worry about them needing their own battery.

That's good to know. Thanks.

[drivejumpfly]

It's raw and it's painful but people have asked about how much abuse the mostly stock truck can take and how long it takes the motor to get hot so here it is:

[drivejumpfly]

The shock shaft and a few other parts gave way after I tried some bigger jumps after the 15 minute test video. I have not figured out what the full damage was, but it has been almost two months since I have had to repair the truck so it is about time. I also broke the front skidplate for the first time.