TRX-4 Defender vs. SCX-10 III Wrangler vs. Element Enduro Ecto: Crawler Canyon Shootout 

Lol, thats what got me into crawlers. 6s bashers are great if you want to turn your garage into a parts warehouse. Now i spend a lot more building crawlers but atleast they rarely ever break 😂

Check out one of the more recent uploads, the Big Body Battle-- the Defender and 10 III are both in it, and significantly improved since this video. The Ecto... well, that thing wins every "comp" I put it in now.

The only brass on the TRX-4 is the caster blocks, which were take-offs from another truck. The weight added is negligible, they just work better than the stock pieces, which were always a bit sticky and sometimes stopped the steering from centering. Admittedly, the steelie wheels on the TRX-4 help a whole lot-- the Sport is really a different beast than the Defender, whose body alone weighs almost 2 pounds. The TRX-4 run without the body would have run circles around the Ecto in stock configuration. I agree with one of the other comments, the foams that came with the Ecto are waaaayyyy too stiff for a truck so light. I wouldn't consider the Ecto for trailing with the stock gear because it's just really slow, and the included radio really doesn't offer the best throttle control.

@@CrawlerCanyon Are you running 2S or 3s? Mine is faster than I walk on 3S?

@@RoadsideRC all of my trucks are on 3S. Sure, the Ecto will do better than a walking pace, but it’s not really competitive against two-speeds. Tops out around 5.5mph with the stock 14-turn, while the other two easily get into double digits. For me at least, trailing isn’t “crawling at WOT on flat ground.”

Outstanding comparison. Are the tires on the axial stock? I really like the defender but I do plan on doing crawling with more of a bias towards trailing.

All three were on stock tires at the time, if memory serves. It has been a while, though.

This ancient artifact was essentially a battle of 3 trail trucks, and of the three, the Ecto is way out in front. Up against more capable competition, the trailing arms will always be the Ecto's stumbling block.

Yep, that's all my backyard. And in terms of my crawler videos, that one is pretty old-- the course is MUCH larger now.

@@CrawlerCanyon Do you have any videos of building it? I would love to see an overhead view. You have land scaping talent for sure.

Just this one: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3vuyxyKETj4.html Most of it is pretty mundane, moving dirt and rocks with a shovel and wheelbarrow. It takes hours without dealing with cameras. As I've mentioned in a number of videos-- I'm a terrible documentarian.

@@CrawlerCanyon I would say you do enough, your narration is above par imo.

@@CrawlerCanyon Just watched the video. It was exactly what I was hoping for. Check out my very amature rc videos from a few years back. For me the costs of camera equipment plus RC's got to be too much for the budget. No more Gopros now just my cell phone (Android). Just click on my name. If life rewards my finances in the future, I may start back videoing again. But for time going forward your videos will do just fine for my RC needs. My preference though is for all Holmes Hobbies and Castle Creations. Not into Hobbywing, wasted too much money back in the day with RTR's and then their HW replacements direct from China. All but one e-waste now. But everyone has their choice as to what to spend their money on. I did buy Carisma, I am very happy with the platform but the electronics are junk. I would still buy the kits thou when trade doesn't take 3 months and cost an arm and a leg, lol. Thanks for reading my rant. I look forward to your future videos.

That's a really to one to call. Out of the box, I would say that the Defender is the most fun, and genuinely needs the least work to get it workable. Fast forward all the months since this video to today, and the 10 III and Ecto bear no resemblance to what they were, while that Defender looks almost exactly the same. A stock defender with knuckle weights is extremely capable-- make it a not-Defender (that body weighs 28oz) and it's startlingly good. I mean, there's no way I could pick. Can't have just one. Element axles are probably my favorites-- easy to convert to SOA, they're super SUPER smooth, and they're borderline affordable. Everything on a TRX-4 seems like it came off of a tank, I've still never broken any part of any kind on any TRX-4. The 10 III takes the most work to make it NOT a trail truck, but in that way it's pretty rewarding when you finally get it to behave. I don't think you could go wrong with any of them... ...that said, if you really want an Ecto, don't buy the RTR. Buy a Gatekeeper Kit or an Element Builders Kit 2 and throw an Ecto body on it. You spend less time and money than I did to get it where you want it.

@@CrawlerCanyon ty for the info! Give me some things to consider.

There's a video on here of a TRX-4 with a Castle Mamba-powered outrunner in it, and it is easily the loudest rock crawler I've ever heard. See how long you can last: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-T54l-2Pj6r8.html

The XL-5 from the Defender is long dead and a better ESC has been put in, so the motor is a whole lot quieter now.

@@CrawlerCanyon Thank you. I think I might be happier starting with the Traxxas, and upgrading it as I break it. I'll need a Toyota body for it though. ;)

At least I’m my experience…. not really? The 2075X is not a great servo (weak and slow) but it does work. The micro servos can be hit-and-miss. Two Defenders here, so 6 Traxxas micros, and only one of them has died. The other five are still chugging along. Now the regular 2075s that come in all the other Traxxas? Terrible.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QTIM0AvPqnQ.html

If you've driven it AT ALL on those plastics, the metal wheels will be a world of difference. When you get rid of the Grabbers, the sky is the limit. They're a thoroughly mediocre tire.

Nope TRX4 is better. There are a couple videos where they swap tires and it still out crawls the element.

@@nickmann5822 i have 2 trx4 and element ecto ecto wins

@@jimlayhey1965 I have both as well My TRX crawls way better.

Yeah, they're definitely not great. I mean, most OE tires are pretty bad, but I've lately been testing out the OE tires from the 10III (Axial Nitto Trail Grapplers) and they're actually pretty good. As far as a "trail tire" goes they're superb. I still put they Canyon Trails as "best" stock tire (after some tuning) but no amount of tuning could save the OE Ecto tires. They can't keep up with the truck when it's bone-stock.

Unlike many Traxxas vehicles "out of the box," the TRX-4 is an absolute tank. I have yet to break a TRX-4 drivetrain part. I've turned bumper mounts and bumpers into confetti, but that's mostly on me.