The Once Over…Traxxas Slash 4×4

Short Course trucks have been one of the success stories in the RC scene recently, coupling scale looks with good off-road performance. All the major players have short course racers now with Traxxas being one of the early ones on the bandwagon. Their early offering was two wheel drive but here we have the four wheel drive version of the Slash, complete with Mike Jenkins signature bodyshell.

The first thing that strikes you about the Slash 4×4 is that it is an attractive and purposeful looking piece of kit. The best is yet to come though as taking off the nicely finished body reveals a high spec chassis complete with brushless power and a 7-cell NiMh battery pack.

The chassis is a light grey moulded plastic part onto which front and rear gearboxes are attached. These form the mounting points for the lower wishbone on the suspension too. The blue aluminium propshaft for the four wheel drive system runs down the centre of the chassis and is protected from dirt binding it up by a clear lexan cover.

A look at the suspension reveals chunky lower wishbones and upper camber links. The movement is controlled by threaded body, oil filled shocks allowing infinite ride height changes. The driveshafts on the Slash 4×4 are moulded plastic slider type shafts, big in proportion and looking well up to transmitting the power on offer.

Brushless power is what is used in the Slash 4×4 in the form of Traxxas’ own Velineon 3s motor and speed controller package. Combined with the stock 7-cell NiMh battery, the system is nowhere near it’s capacity although Traxxas claim that this combination will hit 40mph! The electrics package is capable of handling a 3s LiPo taking the top speed up to 60mph…

The radio system is again Traxxas’ own and uses a 2.4GHz pistol grip radio combined with a servo and receiver that are claimed to be waterproof. The radio itself has the usual trim functions but also adds exponential too which some drivers may find useful for taming the throttle.

But it’s the looks where the Traxxas steals a march on some of its rivals. The beadlock style wheels look cool and the tyre sidewall lettering sets these off nicely. The body shape is also cool, capturing all the aggressive looks of a short course racer perfectly while the pre-printed colour scheme has bold, vivid colours. All in all, before you run it, you feel that you have a high class package with the Slash 4×4.

Time To Give The Slash A Thrash…

The Slash needs very little in the way of prep between cracking the truck out of the box and hitting the dirt. All we did was charge the battery in the truck and sling 4AA size batteries in the transmitter and we were good to go. For a while we pondered where the on-off switch on the truck was….we didn’t read the comprehensive manual that comes with the Slash…but poking and prodding soon found that the button was on the speed controller.

Punching the throttle on the dirt for the first time spun up big rooster tails and revealed two things; the Slash 4×4 is seriously quick out of the box and has a shedload of bottom end power. As far as electric RTR’s go, the Slash 4×4 is one of the quickest for sure, the Traxxas brushless power packing a real punch, putting quite a few nitro RTR’s to shame.

The Slash 4×4 rides the bumps very well, the high ground clearance to the centre of the chassis and the softly sprung shocks giving plenty of travel. The rear gearbox did sometimes deck out and flip the rear of the truck up in the air over the bumpy stuff though as it is lower than the main chassis which in our view added to the fun, buck-a-rooo style!

Some RTR cars and trucks are let down by a budget radio system. However our Slash 4×4 was perfectly setup from the box and the 2.4GHz transmitter, although feeling strangely different to most pistol grip radios, was soon got used to and performed faultlessly. Traxxas have also specced a decent servo in the truck too, plenty of holding torque sees the front wheels go exactly where you want them to, holding the truck in sideways slides easily which, with the power on offer, it the way the Slash 4×4 is most of the time!

The airbourne antics of the Slash 4×4 reveal that it flies straight and level, the soft suspension and perfectly weighted damping landing the truck easily, it is as good in the air as it is on the dirt.

The Slash 4×4 is a polished package for sure. If you are looking to join in the short course fun then this truck shouldn’t be overlooked in any way, in fact it should be close to the top of the list. Traxxas make it so easy to get going, it really is Ready-To-Run, just charge the batteries and add AA’s to the transmitter. Performance is massive from the box and there is the potential for plenty more….time to crack out the 3s LiPo!

Traxxas products are available in the UK from Logic RC, check out their website at www.logic-rc.com or visit www.traxxas.com for more info on the Slash 4×4 and others in the Traxxas range.

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