Continuing the VS4-10 build, week two brings us a nearly completed chassis! The VFD Twin is now fully built and installed, shocks are built, links are assembled, drive shafts ready and the whole roller can finally come together.
VFD TWIN TRANSMISSION
The Twin is complete, in all of it’s multi-shift glory. We already covered what it offered, so lets just admire the photos.
SC8E SHOCKS
I am pleasantly surprised to see a new shock on the Phoenix. These are 80mm, shorter to account for the portal axle height and have an 8mm bore. The bore means more oil, which means more dampening, which is a good thing! The bodies are aluminum and the lower cartridges are already installed, so that saves a few setups in assembly. I am stoked to see a bleeder screw in the shock cap, that means these are insanely easy to fill and bleed properly! The SC8E’s are set up for a single spring, but there is a spring retainer that allows a helper spring setup as well. I’m betting those springs will come some time in the future!
ISD10 DRIVE SHAFTS
The ISD10s are plastic, but don’t let that fool you. This style of shaft is actually very tough, in fact it holds up to pushing my 18lb Dakar truck around on 4S brushless power. True, those are Axial shafts but these are a similar design and should prove to be plenty tough. One nice feature I noticed were the phase marks on the shaft halves. These let you align the pins in both CV joints properly, so the shafts don’t bind or wobble. Nice!
SUSPENSION LINKS
Stainless, large diameter, M4 threaded rod ends and stainless pivot balls. These are your meat and potatoes links and they work awesome. Honestly I see no reason to change them out.
AXLE INSTALL & SHIFT SERVOS
Bringing the chassis together is a great part of any build. Once you hang the axles and get the shocks mounted up, the finish line is in sight and it’s getting closer to wheel time!
The T-120 servos I am using for shifting both have 24mm Vanquish servo arms installed. They need this length to properly shift and clear other components on the chassis. They are not included in the kit, so don’t forget them! Also check out those inner fenders; molded plastic, scale appearance and a mounting location for rock lights!
PARTS USED
Tekin
RX4 Element Proof ESC
ROC412 3100KV EP Motor
T-440 Steering Servo
T-120 Shift Servos
3S 4200mAh POWER CELL LiHV
Vanquish Products
VS4-10 Phoenix Portal 1:10 Scale Truck Kit
20mm Servo Arm
2x 24mm Servo Arm
Incision LED Lighting Kit
Incision 1.9 Method MR307 Black
Incision #4 Hubs
Axial Racing
1.9 Nitto Trail Grappler 4.75″ Tires R35
Crawler Innovations
Lil Nova 4.5 Comp Cut Inner / Soft Outer
Lil Nova 4.5 Comp Cut Inner / Med Outer