Page 2: Upgrades!
The model comes with this simple faux winch which looks acceptable
from a distance. But why not have a real winch? The primary
answer to that question is that the Traxxas winch is exhorbitantly
expensive. This is the first time I've tried it, and I'm forced to
admit that it is a good product. It plugs easily into the ESC for
power, mounts easily, has a free spooling function, has plenty of
power, and uses a key fob remote so no extra channel is needed on the
radio.
Speaking of expensive, let's install the Traxxas Pro Scale lighting
kit. This is a fully functional kit with turn signals, halo
lights, reverse lights, lo-hi beams, etc. Like all Traxxas
products, the design is integrated into the chassis so it is easy to
install and looks seamless. Sadly, I could never get the tail
lights to work properly. The brake lights work, but the tail
lights will not come on at normal brightness. I even got Traxxas
to send me a new set of rear lights under warranty but it didn't make
any difference.
This shows the way the lights are installed. On the chassis
side, the lighting module mounts just behind the shift servo on the same
side as the ESC. There are a set of wires which must connect to
motor power. I assume these are so the unit can tell the
difference between braking and reverse. I also installed the rock
lights which can be seen on the inner fenders. There are also two
wires which connects to the receiver. One sends the steering
signal and the other is used to control the whole light system from the
Bluetooth module on the transmitter. On the right you can see the
body side of the installation. A control box connects to the side
of the body with a bracket, and a nice sturdy tether connects the body
to the chassis. This is durable enough to survive the body being
removed even if you forget to unplug the wires first. Note that if
you don't like the look of turn signals on the trails, you can disable
them. Also note, however, that the turn signals only activate if
you turn while stopped so they rarely activate on the trails anyway.
These pictures show the front lights. As soon as you plug in
the battery the halo lights come on as shown. This seems odd to me
since it seems like they should only come on once the ESC is powered
up. The picture on the right shows both the high and lo beams also
illuminated. When the headlights come on, the halo lights go to a
dimmer setting. The horizontal stripe that runs through the halo
is also used for turn signals and hazards as shown.
These pictures show you how much effort Traxxas put into the tail
lights. Each light has 4 parts. The red part is for tail
lights and brakes, the clear part is for turn signals and hazards, and
the open rectangle in the center is for reverse lights. The black
parts separates all the sections so no light from one segment bleeds
into the others.
Here you can see all 3 sections illuminated at the same time.
The picture washes out the color, but in real life the brake light is
very distinctly red and the turn signal amber. The picture on the
right shows the rock lights which are illuminated any time the
headlights are on.