Project Go Anywhere: Part 1

I have had this truck for about 9 months now. It has been a fun truck with many mods made for improvement. So get ready to read about exactly what I did with my 1/16 Traxxas Summit. Here is a pic of when I first got it.

First, a small review of the truck and my opinions of it in bone stock form. All ran with the stock electronics and battery.

When I first bought the truck I thought it was pretty much going to be a 1/16 revo with larger tires and really not capable of “trail cruising and mild crawling”… Is it? To a point, yes. It’s a great go anywhere type of truck stock. Not amazingly good at any one task but does them all pretty well. The question was, could the truck be made to work better? Of course, but out of the box it performed well enough to make me happy for a bit…

How does it do stock you ask? (rating system 5 stars = extremely well, 1 star = not so great)

General Bashing and Jumping: 4 stars

With its plush suspension and long travel rockers it jumps rather well. I am using just the stock 1200mah nimh pack and the power that it supplies is probably right around perfect for this truck. With a lipo it will probably be too much to drive but I’m sure it would be fun. The truck turns well but when there is too much grip and coupled with its high center of gravity it sometimes results with the mini summit on its lid. I am sure this would be intensified with a lipo.

Trail Running:  2.75 stars

Here is where I thought the truck was going to start showing its limitations. With the truck coming stock with a brushless motor and ESC I thought it wouldn’t do to well at very low speeds. Unlike a brushed motor the stock VXL motor lacks the low speed torque and being non-sensord, low speed drivabilty. With that said, as long as the terrain isn’t to gnarly and you got it going a decent speed the truck does well, better then I thought it would. Driving at very low speeds you will have to goose the throttle to get over objects but that extra wheel speed does help in other situations. The tires are soft and have good traction and the suspension is tuned well for conforming to most rough terrain. I would of liked to seen a thicker diff fluid used as you “diff out” too easily with the supplied 30k. Iam sure the thicker fluid will help getting over some obstacles but you will loose some high speed handling.

Rock Crawling: 1.25 stars

OK this truck isn’t a crawler or designed to be one but it doesn’t mean it won’t hit the rocks. The truck from the factory just isn’t set up for crawling. The diffs need to be locked or use a very heavy diff oil and the tires need to be softer or even just a better tire in general. The suspension would probably work ok but its not a solid axle truck. It’s not balanced correctly and the power plant isn’t crawler friendly. I can see it being a type of rock racer though ……hmmmmm

Durabilty: 4.75 stars

This would have been a 5 star rating but I have an ongoing situation that alot of other people are having. The ESC likes to lock up the motor for a split second. It’s not a cogging issue as the truck will be going fine and suddenly lurch to a stop. You have to get off the throttle completely to get it to move again (more about this later).

For the first 10 or so packs I had no broken parts and everything was still fairly tight (My 1/16 revo got sloppy in the links and pillow balls fast). The shocks showed a very slight amount of oil leakage. Nothing to really call a problem at the time. With the exo cage, the body held up great.

Overall: I would highly recommend this truck to anyone that wants a vehicle that will go almost anywhere and do alot of things other “specific” vehicle cannot do.

That was stock, now its time for some changes!

In this article you will see its transformation from stock truck to “PROJECT GO ANYWHERE”.

This project was and is geared at making the summit more of an all purpose truck. Something I can go fast with, “play” with on a track, go out on the trails, and do some minor crawling with. I want it so I can go from one place to another with out switching parts to make it better for one place or the other. It will be a “GO ANYWHERE” truck.

This project isn’t intended to make the Summit an over-the-top pricey build but instead just to refine it a bit, make it better for what I need. Find the weak points and try to find a solution to them. This project will be an always evolving one. I will be running the truck as the project grows. I have to test it right? All the mods I have done and the little tricks I have learned will be listed here as well as the pros and cons of each.

So with all that said, let project “GO ANYWHERE” begin !

Stay tuned for part 2.