Axial Scorpion AX10

For the last five years I’ve had one of the MaxBashing regulars harping on about how great rock crawlers are. In fact he’s so enthused by them that for the majority of these years he’s raced his converted Clod Buster “Clodworx” in the monster truck class where he sometimes managed not to finish last!

I can’t say I shared his enthusiasm for crawlers, not because they do about 5mph, nor because they look a lot different to other ‘trucks’. No it was the fact that if I wanted a rock crawler, I had to buy a donor Clod Buster (or at least its axles) then spend a huge amount of time and money on the web looking for parts to build it.

All that shopping around and ordering from abroad really isn’t my cup of tea so when news reached us that CML Distribution are now stocking the world’s first dedicated rock crawler that comes as a complete kit, I started to look at these machines in a whole new light.

The Scorpion

If you feel the need to categorise this truck as something other than a rock crawler, then you could say it’s a tenth scale electric truck like the Traxxas Stampede. It is tenth scale after all and uses the standard 2.2” wheels and mountings, but that’s where the similarities end as you really need to start accepting that this is a full on RC rock crawler and nothing else.

There’re several key features to the Scorpion that make it stand apart from a normal RC truck, including;

• Three link suspension
• Full time locked four wheel drive
• Solid axle suspension
• Dedicated locked diffs
• Adjustable gear ratio from 15:1 to 74:1
• Beadlock wheels
• Crawling “Rock Lizard” tyres

The build

So now we’ve established that this is a dedicated rock crawling kit, it’s about time I started to build it up. I’ll admit I was a bit dubious about this prospect and half expected the instructions to be a load of photocopied sheets. However I was pleasantly surprised to see a professionally designed and printed instruction manual included with the kit which not only talked you through the build process step-by-step with CAD illustrated drawings, but was also very easy to follow. Add to this the fact that all the components for each stage are sealed up in separate bags and suddenly the idea of building the Scorpion didn’t seem like quite such a daunting task.

The first thing to tackle are the diffs and axle; the front and rear are exactly the same with both including a green anodised aluminium diff locker. This stops all diff action and ensures the same amount of power goes to both wheels, regardless of whether one is off the ground or taking a different line. This is essential for crawling as you don’t want a diff to unload all the power to a wheel up in the air, when it’s needed at the other side to pull you out of a rut or up a cliff face!

The completed diff is then packaged into the solid axles along the drive shafts with a few of the metal bearings that are used throughout this kit. With the front and rear being the same, there are pivoting knuckles on both ends (for the steering at the front). The stock set-up sees the rear ones locked into place with some ball end turnbuckles but these parts can be replaced to give the Scorpion four wheel steering.