Traxxas TRX4M BUDGET BUILD - $100 to MAXIMIZE Performance!! Upgrades, Install, Crawling & More!! 

Timestamps Our upgrades: 2:14 Baseline assessments: 8:03 Baseline course runs: 10:14 Upgrades installation: 15:45 Finished product: 18:27 Upgraded assessments: 21:25 Upgraded course runs: 24:25 Final thoughts: 30:14

I’m watching this with my 3 y/o son who owns a blue Bronco. When you were climbing the steep vertical section on your indoor course he had to cover his eyes worrying you would fall off and then cheered when you reached the top!

As a noob looking for a budget entry to crawling, and the TRX4M specifically, this video is incredibly helpful. I now have a good idea about the out of the box performance as well as what the best bang-for-buck upgrades will be. Thanks!

Quick tip: if you want scale on a Trx4M defender or bronco. First take off the sticker decal on the tire then there will be a screw and you’ll have to unscrew that. Next grab a Scx24 wheel/tire or stock Trx4M tire/wheel and screw it on. Very easy mod for a scale look.

That foam made run you have set up is spot on. Being able to compare different Crawler's on the same challenge definitely defines the most useful. What improvements have been gained etc. I knew the TRX could be better. I upgraded the LC80 similarly with vast improvements. I appreciate your content.

I’m digging the white wheels with the orange body. Brightens it up for sure. Thanks for the great content and honesty! We’re still on the fence and this really helped . I’m hopeful they bring out additional body styles soon.

I think the reason you didn’t gain much on side hill or vertical was because the tires are taller… that said you did get slight improvements along with better grip, better approach angles, and more clearance 😁

I love the out come of the budget build. It performs great. I'm digging the yellow and white combo.

The white wheels are awesome looking!

Best RC channel in my opinion and its great to have a little helper .

Besides liking the military truck look of the Defender body more than the Bronco, I also went with it because it was “the worse of the two,” with the heavier body and rear bias. My thought process was, if I start a little lower in capability, I would notice the changes I made more. So far, I’m glad I went this route. I managed to get those Injora wheels on! Super happy with my gains over the stock wheels. My scale said each wheel went from 16 grams (stock) to 34 grams with the brass rings.

I just got one because they’re so cheap. I didn’t realize how much fun it would be. And they’re so slow there’s nothing breaking. So cheap fun!!

Great timing on this video I am giving my nephew and his mom a trx4m and a trailer today he's going to be so excited

that white wheels looks great! definitely looks better than if you choose the black one

love the content, I just bought a trx4m, and this is so amazing, thanks for explaining everything so well I'm really learning here and you go straight to the point no funny things, I love the dedication and the presize vocabulary perfect mix between technic and understandable for all users. Very cool vid. Congrats

Liked this build. Just installed the Injora chassis on my defender and have the same tires. Nice to see a similar set up on your course.

We have two TRX-4m Broncos: One is mine. All chassis parts are upgraded to metal. Crawler gears and Injora wheels with 58mm tires are also installed. All the upgrades cost almost double that of the car itself. The other is my nephew's. The only upgrades are bearings and lubricated gears. Real-life difference in performance - maybe a couple of degrees better angles. Crawler gears - I don't recommend it. You will lose a lot of speed. It becomes so slow, that while my nephew goes around full track and catches me, I am still in the first third of the track (and the track is not easy, it is about 5m (a bit more than 16 feet) long, with plenty of difficult angles and obstacles for a crawler). What's even worse (for me), my nephew Bronco, after his “simple” upgrades, can crawl almost as slow and steep as mine do (“simple” because to change bearings, you still need to take apart all the car). Additional weight - unless you want to kill your servo (like I did), don't add much. Maybe brass hexes and diff covers, it (Broco) really doesn't need much more. What I am noticing, is that I am probably losing performance with all that weight added. On some obstacles, it looks like tires just get squished and start sliding. Maybe a different foam would help… 🤔 Injora tires (INJORA 1.0 RC Tyre Soft Rubber Tyre All Terrain 58 x 20 mm) lost their stickiness after about a month of use. What I recommend: If you buying it for a kid or just for fun, just add some grease and lube. It will be enough for a start. If the time comes for a little more performance, add a bearing kit. You would not believe how much difference that makes. If you want to upgrade it to the max, just like was said in the video, don’t expect huge performance boost. But don’t let that lower your mood, it will be a fight for barely noticeable improvements, but if you enjoy it, heck, you only live once 😁

The cheapest upgrade I found is zip tying a small socket to the front bumper. Gives perfect weight up front and better balance for crawling up steep hills.

Great job, not everyone has the money or even wants to spend tons of money upgrading these things. I have those exact tires and grey rims on order, glad to see they perform well 👍

That Crawler articulation measurement table is so useful. Definitely getting one once they are available.

Just got the Chevy high trail 4m. It has M/T tires that are impressive out of the box, soft, aggressive tread, nice size. I’m thinking the crawler gears might be all it needs to give better control in tight situations.

I just picked up my TRX-4M Defender this weekend. It's been a blast so far. I ended up spending an extra $100 on a spare battery (doesn't really need it as the battery lasts quite a while), Ball bearing kit, low range gears for the transmission, and the light kit. So far I've only install the lights, it's been a blast stock. From what I'm reading the ball bearings will smooth it out a bit at low speeds; but, I've been having such a blast tooling around with it I hadn't bothered to tear it down to swap them out. I hear greasing up the shock orings with AE "green slime" helps them seal up better; I have some in my old race toolbox and will give it a shot when I do the BB's. I'm glad I found this channel, great stuff! Also seems we're from the same neck of the woods, maybe I'll see you on the trails!

You do a really good job on your videos. Great presentation. I bought all these parts for my new trx4m black bronco. Appreciate you taking time to make this video.

I feel like the gears and wheels and tires were the best bang for the Buck.. I’ll be starting there myself. Great video!

I love that your son has a trx4m as well! Got me and my son a defender and i love every second of being out with him. Trying to save up for a second TRX or maybe an FMS so that we can go together

I'm gonna be getting one of these once I sell off my old 1/10th scale rc. Loved it while I had it but this looks like more my size and skill level and a great indoor time passer for the winter months😎

I love the videos of the 4m builds that test products in a controlled environment and your knowledge and explanation of things. Great content. Love these videos. Been helping me with my first newly acquired 4m!

Great job.Very informative.Thank you from BC in Canada.

Personally I think the CF chassis was unnecessary. Seems like the absolute must have upgrades are the gears and wheels, followed by the brass set. I’m curious what other upgrade you could replace the Chassis with that would better improve the outcome. Overall, awesome video! And super helpful. Thanks! 🎉

Honestly I think you had a good chance of making it stock with just the gear change. It was easy to see the difficulty in control with the stock gears. I'd consider that a must have mod for anyone buying it for crawling even if they're happy with the out of the box performance and it's only 5 bucks! Too bad Traxxas doesn't just include them to begin with so you have the option immediately. As someone with the full size TRX4 defender I still haven't decided if I want one of these enough to get it vs all the other things the money could go towards. 🤪

Tires and the gears seem like the way to go for bang for the buck.

I think the Trx Bronco is better outta the box then the Axial. I wish I'd bought the Trx however my Axial four door Power Wagon outta the box is pretty dang nice at 159.00 . I like the color of the body and as you say the rims kinda grow on you so they could always be painted. My opinion for 102.00 bucks which is about the limit for the average hobbyist not bad at all the tires are really standing out as are the crawler gears. Well done. From a Newbie.

Very informative video and certainly appreciate the candid opinion on all the changes you made and the value of each. Great build and an interesting indoor course you developed! THX

My favorite all around tire on the Bronco is the Proline Trenchers sofar. The Ingera 5s are awesome for climbing 50 degrees to the Moon! So sticky! Got to try them on my X-Maxx!... In 1.O lol

Love it!! I’m gonna have to get one now lol!!

Would love to see some outdoor crawling or crawling at a local course as well. Great video & budget build. 👍

I think the white wheels look good but I think your right black ones would look better IMO.. or maybe some black ones with orange beadlock rings

I added a sticky weight on top of my servo when I put a new servo in. That helps a lot

Thanks Adam for this video, you are by far the best micro crawler RU-vidr ever😂

I had my hopes high too, but I put some injora links and driveshafts and changes the game big time! Excellent video! Yellow looks good!

Amazing video! Thanks for sharing all the tests and tips.

So since you got 62mm tires, and they fit good that means that the 2.4 trx4m high trail tires should fit on my bronco right? 2.4 inches translate to 60mm. I accidentally bought those instead of the 2.2 inch bronco tires. I also have the long arm lift kit and 59mm shocks on the way. I’m also having trouble with the rear clip. I wonder if it’s another of those mistakes on traxxas side just like the front tire binding. Also, every one who’s thinking about buying this trx4m should watch this video. It was great man. ❤

I saw a full-size bronco today with the wheels painted orange like the bronco and the hardtop was painted orange it was really cool

That mini bronco is insane.

You’ll need to trim that body up a ton to fit those injura tires. Update: I saw you got yours to fit perfectly, that’s awesome! I’m guessing it’s the chassis that made a difference. On the stock chassis, the tires were rubbing super hard for me, quick tremble job and I was back on the trail!

I never really cared for this scene in R/C or crawlers in general. In fact, when I was younger I thought they were dumb. I just didn't understand what I was looking at; at the time and was fixated on fast cars. Now that I'm older and have a proper understanding for their purpose, I actually think they're pretty cool! And seeing that you made a mini course in your basement is dope! Reminded me of the diorama train sets my gramps used to create and build in the rec room. Ahhh, the joys you find in life while maturing. I don't think I'll dive into this scene anytime soon but *you* definitely have peaked my interest in watching. After I get my typical cars and trucks all up and running this year I'll look into buying/building my first crawler. Any recommendations for a newbie in this scene or mainly what to stay away from? I like to tinker a lot so I think I'll actually enjoy these a lot more than I initially thought. I can see myself setting challenges and just bringing them along when I go out to trails and parks. Would match the setting a lot better than my on-road cars that would struggle with the terrain or my stupid fast monster trucks that wouldn't make proper use of their power band.

I just went to my local hobby shop and they sold me a brand new high trail for 155 bucks. Sweet deal imo, almost close to the regular trx4m

Thank you for this video. Love the budget build series and this is exactly what i was looking for!

The 57/22mm are à good size scale for tires, they work very well. Very great vidéo, thanks dude 👍🏽 I have the black bronco, but the orange is so beautiful.

I know that this would be a bit more work, but I think if you added a money spent text on the top of the screen viewers would be able to see how much each part was, I think it would add to your videos! love the vids, keep it up!

If you put a defender body on it, it would somehow leak oil, catch fire from an electical problem and only work for 10 days out of each month... Real life, creeping into RC. The LR dealer let us take a defender for the weekend while we decided on buying one. It left on a flatbed and they put a cover on it with a Ford emblem on the cover so people wouldnt know it broke down. It was dead from an electrical issue (smoke came out from the dash while trying to start it) I bought a Bronco ($10k more expensive than the defender) the next day.

Keep it up with the great content and love the addition of time stamps. It’s too bad that nor’easter didn’t pan out in Eastern MA. I was looking forward to running the trucks in some snow one last time this year!

I stumbled into a few extra bucks last August and ended up spending a grand on my TRX4M Bronco in Cyber Orange over the past 6 months. Never had an R/C car before. Didn't know a thing about "Crawlers". I've done "ALL the mods" to mine I thought. After all... I spent an extra $850 on upgrades for a $150 "toy"! *^*^* But no....... now I absolutely have to upgrade to the carbon fiber frame rails with the built-in optional shock mounts and of course.... new colored 2-piece wheels! Ha! Is it obvious I'm hooked? Love your video! Confirms my belief that I got into the hobby with the right vehicle. And your indoor course? WOW! My basement NEEDS that crawler skills test course. Very cool! Thanks for sharing this video. You started my year off right.

The white wagon wheels look great. And a good fit for a New England four wheeler. Always enjoy the Traxxas content. Like button energized.

Excellent video and some great ideas you used to improve its capabilities. The sticker, softer tires and extra clearance really seemed to pay off big. I know you had high expectations, but that's still an impressive transformation. Now, could you help me turn my Arrma Senton into an SCX10 III JLU Jeep for $100? 🙃

It seems like the point of the comment you mentioned at the beginning of the was to save $100 and get the traxxas, leaving it stock and you would have a comparable Bronco to the supped up Axial 1/24. The point is, there is no need to upgrade the Traxxas to get a great RC. Just my thoughts. Great upgrades though!

Really happy you did this video. I've been eyeing that Injora LCG carbon fiber chassis but everywhere I look it says for the defender only. Great to see it actually works with the bronco. You are right about the crawler gears though. My bronco is currently 780g and there's no way the stock gears could hold the vehicle at an angle.

Yeah I just got a set of those all terrain A/T’s Ain’t got a mounted up yet I will be using CCXRC pine tree inserts they’re awesome because they’re not directional,

I love the white wagon wheels and the maxis trepadors killer!

I am a fan of the white wheels. Great video, thanks.

Love the budget build! I think the orange body and white wheels look great together. Not a criticism, but I would have kept the stock chassis and went with a set of brass suspension links instead for even more weight down low.

Just picked up the same kit, total score.

Awesome video as always! I am looking forward to your defender content , that’s the one I am looking at cuz already got the SCX 24 bronco . Can’t wait for more !

Another great video good sir!! Thank you so much for that shoutout!! Limiting chain kit is for the scx24. Haven’t had a need for one on my 4m but maybe I should look into it lol. Hope the family is well and keep up the great content.

Love the video, I opted for a slightly different route initially before the menus and injora lcg came out. Now mine is a brushless hardline scaler. If you guys are building a bronco pick up some associated green slime and a small pack of shock oil. It’s not a question of if the shocks will leak but when.

Also the white wheels are sick

Yeah love my 1/24 scale set up table, I also won 1/10 scale set up the table from scale builders guide So I bought the 1/24 scale set up table

Excellent video thanks so much. I'm planning on incorporating most of those upgrades except for the chassis. By the way I liked those white wheels as soon as you put them on lol. I think it's a sweet look and sets it apart from the norm. Love your content. Keep up the great work.

Very informative video. I like the wheels and the stance you gained. Building mine now.

Your chassis replacement shortened the wheel base. Since you didn't gain any increase in angles maybe you should try going back to the stock chassis. Seems like the gears, weight and tires were the decisive mods.

So i did buy the brass kit, after installing gained good amount of weight but lost some of steering angle. It harder to turn on some tight corners, maneuverability decreases. Im taking them off and im going to look for a better one. I think the only way to fix that is to modify the c-hubs or the blocks.

Really want to get this for me and my kid but where i live i will need go fork out touchat another 100 bucks… customs and VAT is a bummer 😂 Looks absolutely stunning though!

Soo much fun and value for the money!

I really like your channel man please keep making these detailed videos!

White wheels look good with the orange.

The white wheels look epic

Gotta trim the body up front under the cowl. Removing the plastic between the screw mounts. Then the body will clip a little easier

Love this look. I have the defender. Now I want an orange bronco with white wheels. =)

Literally watching this to see how to do the upgrades. The only part you sped up is what I came here to watch.

I like the TRX4m but they need more options. The Defender/Bronco doesn’t really fit my style. I know there are aftermarket options, but I want more OE options

We need a full review of those Injora All-Terrain tires!!🙏🏼

I noticed you have no tire deformation while running the course. Having softer tires or tires that deform while crawling over rocks will greatly improve performance. When I run my 1:1 I drop my pressure to 10-15psi. I did the same on my 1:24 kyoshu and it greatly improved performance without any other mods

nice upgrade 👍 nice run👌😎😁

For me i have both trx4m‘s and i think the bronco have better stockperformance as the Defender

Great upgrade video Adam 👍, I think the wheels look good. Keep up the amazing content bro

Idk man you said u think it’s a lot more capable out the box the the Scx24 but it’s also noticeably larger with more clearance and I do remember a little red deadbolt getting up all those spots before the upgrade when the bronco didn’t make it up the last one

white wheels bring it together very well

it reminds me of an orange dreamsicle, i like it.

Love the chassis upgrade, but injora released the new “flaps” for the travel on the shocks. Love to see those on an review!

I’ll skip an energy drink for a day lol I like the way you think my friend, sounds like me every time I know I shouldn’t buy something and find a way to convince myself to buy it anyway

Adam, If you don't have a SkyRC corner weight scale, you should invest in one. My favorite tool to help adjust performance. Nice Video!

was waiting for this video!!! awesome!

Those crawler park ramp gauges are great I want (need) that.

I like the build with the exception of the tires, they are catching on each lug on the back fender/ bumper when articulating. Great video , body rub is just a pet peeve of mine but if it doesn't bother you then more power to you.

Put some smaller diameter Injora tires on those same wheels and you’ll be much happier I think. I have a blue Bronco with those same white wheels. It looks great. But I tried the 62mm tire first and it rubbed too much so I switched to a 56mm and it’s way better. Great video

I’m going to order those injora hub extenders right now. And the crawler gears.

Black wheels for sure!!!!

I love the budget build videos. But a lot of us aren’t going to do the chassis kit. Can you do a different video not including chassis kit for both trx4m and scx24

Great Video and great product placement! That's a lot of work behind the scenes! May I ask if that's enough to cover your living or just to cover the hobby?

This one just shows that with very minimal mods you can out climb or keep up with the most modded