Build Complete: Another Traxxas Telluride
02-04-2016, 05:14 AM
#1
Build Complete: Another Traxxas Telluride
It was about a year ago that I put my first Telluride into service.
That one is still running great; in fact, it was such a good loaner truck for little kids that it ran pretty much continuously all weekend last Memorial Day. However, at one point I made the mistake of loaning my Wraith to a kid who wanted to run a truck alongside the Telluride, and, well, the motor in the Wraith didn't appreciate the full-throttle/full-brake/full-throttle driving the kid was doing. So this year I bought an insurance policy:
This Telluride doesn't stray from the formula I used for the first one: On the outside it has Pro-Line Badlands SC tires on ProTrac-offset wheels, Traxxas factory-option lights in the front, an RPM 4Slash bumper and wheelie-bar wheels in the back, RPM debris guards for the shocks, stock springs, and the front shocks are mounted to the front A-arms in extra holes I drilled 7mm inboard of the stock holes to get more suspension travel.
On the inside it's also nearly the identical to the first Telluride: An Axial AE-5 ESC set to 50% drag brake (so kids don't have to remember to slow down), a homemade Lexan ESC-mounting plate, a Dynamite 15-turn 550-size disposable motor, a Spektrum 2-channel receiver, 12/47 diff gears from the brushed 4Pede, the rear diff is filled with OFNA diff-lock "putty" which is basically extra-sticky 500k silicone oil, 9/56 32-pitch pinion and spur gears, a Tekno Big Bone center driveshaft, and a Tactic TSX45 metal-gear analog servo (they only cost $15 on eBay). Nothing fancy, but it works well.
There *are* a few differences, though. The axles are stock plastic instead of MIP X-CVDs, the front diff is semi-locked with silly putty instead of fully-locked with JB Weld to keep from over-torquing the front axles if a front tire gets jammed, the tires are premounts with stock closed-cell foams instead of beadlock-mounted with HPI Blitz soft open-cell foams, the steering is the stock plastic unit with the servo-saver still enabled instead of the Hot Racing aluminum unit with the servo-saver locked, and the shocks are stock plastic instead of STRC threaded aluminum. Also, I haven't painted the fenders on the new Telluride's body with truck bedliner yet; the stock black decals will look awful after a few scrapes, but I'm going to let that happen before going through the trouble to mask the entire body so I can spray-on the bedliner. Also also, I haven't bothered to build a custom wiring harness to add lights to the rear bumper; it's just running the 4 lights that come with the Traxxas front light buckets.
The reason for these changes was partly to save money, partly to see how well the stock parts actually work since I replaced them all immediately on the first Telluride, and partly because I already have a "nice" Telluride so I didn't have any motivation to splurge on the second one, since it's purely a loaner.
I still really like the first Telluride I built. With a few mods it's quite a capable trail-truck and light crawler, and it's a perfect truck to loan to kids Now that I have two of them, they can have twice as much fun.
That one is still running great; in fact, it was such a good loaner truck for little kids that it ran pretty much continuously all weekend last Memorial Day. However, at one point I made the mistake of loaning my Wraith to a kid who wanted to run a truck alongside the Telluride, and, well, the motor in the Wraith didn't appreciate the full-throttle/full-brake/full-throttle driving the kid was doing. So this year I bought an insurance policy:
This Telluride doesn't stray from the formula I used for the first one: On the outside it has Pro-Line Badlands SC tires on ProTrac-offset wheels, Traxxas factory-option lights in the front, an RPM 4Slash bumper and wheelie-bar wheels in the back, RPM debris guards for the shocks, stock springs, and the front shocks are mounted to the front A-arms in extra holes I drilled 7mm inboard of the stock holes to get more suspension travel.
On the inside it's also nearly the identical to the first Telluride: An Axial AE-5 ESC set to 50% drag brake (so kids don't have to remember to slow down), a homemade Lexan ESC-mounting plate, a Dynamite 15-turn 550-size disposable motor, a Spektrum 2-channel receiver, 12/47 diff gears from the brushed 4Pede, the rear diff is filled with OFNA diff-lock "putty" which is basically extra-sticky 500k silicone oil, 9/56 32-pitch pinion and spur gears, a Tekno Big Bone center driveshaft, and a Tactic TSX45 metal-gear analog servo (they only cost $15 on eBay). Nothing fancy, but it works well.
There *are* a few differences, though. The axles are stock plastic instead of MIP X-CVDs, the front diff is semi-locked with silly putty instead of fully-locked with JB Weld to keep from over-torquing the front axles if a front tire gets jammed, the tires are premounts with stock closed-cell foams instead of beadlock-mounted with HPI Blitz soft open-cell foams, the steering is the stock plastic unit with the servo-saver still enabled instead of the Hot Racing aluminum unit with the servo-saver locked, and the shocks are stock plastic instead of STRC threaded aluminum. Also, I haven't painted the fenders on the new Telluride's body with truck bedliner yet; the stock black decals will look awful after a few scrapes, but I'm going to let that happen before going through the trouble to mask the entire body so I can spray-on the bedliner. Also also, I haven't bothered to build a custom wiring harness to add lights to the rear bumper; it's just running the 4 lights that come with the Traxxas front light buckets.
The reason for these changes was partly to save money, partly to see how well the stock parts actually work since I replaced them all immediately on the first Telluride, and partly because I already have a "nice" Telluride so I didn't have any motivation to splurge on the second one, since it's purely a loaner.
I still really like the first Telluride I built. With a few mods it's quite a capable trail-truck and light crawler, and it's a perfect truck to loan to kids Now that I have two of them, they can have twice as much fun.
Last edited by fyrstormer; 11-24-2017 at 04:47 PM.
02-04-2016, 12:01 PM
#3
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Looks good to me. They are pretty bullet proof and make a great all around truck to run. The kids should love running it as much as the adults.
02-04-2016, 07:57 PM
#4
I think you are selling me on these for my kids!
03-25-2016, 11:37 PM
#6
Tech Rookie
Very cool truck!
04-22-2016, 11:43 AM
#7
Tech Rookie
Pretty rad to see traxxas contributing in this department, wanted to trail my slash but I got a different off-roader but this would have likely been sufficient at the time lol..
11-24-2017, 04:48 PM
#8
Fixed all pictures in this thread.
Also, I see that Traxxas has quietly and unceremoniously discontinued the Telluride since they have the TRX-4 solid-axle scaler available now. That's too bad, because the Telluride is definitely more kid-friendly than the TRX-4 is. Granted, you can put narrower A-arms and short-course tires on a 4Pede to get the same chassis layout, but good luck finding a Telluride-like body that will fit.
Also, I see that Traxxas has quietly and unceremoniously discontinued the Telluride since they have the TRX-4 solid-axle scaler available now. That's too bad, because the Telluride is definitely more kid-friendly than the TRX-4 is. Granted, you can put narrower A-arms and short-course tires on a 4Pede to get the same chassis layout, but good luck finding a Telluride-like body that will fit.
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