New to me AE pro4 sc10

[islandlife]

Just purchased a used, basically stock, team associated pro4 sc10 brushless off ebay.

I've been wanting to pick up a second sct style truck ever since i converted my arrma granite to a senton 3s. Really enjoy ripping this style of truck, have got a small dirt track going in my yard (clay/grass/dirt mix).

Wanted to get something a little more performance oriented than the arrma, ideally was looking for something even higher performance than this sc10 (teckno, tenacity, etc), but the price was right for this unit, and new truck budget is tight haha.

Immediate plan for the truck is to run it on 2s with the stock reedy electronics, using my flysky gt5 and br6 reveiver with avc. Run it for a bit and see what i think might benefit from an upgrade. Eventually would like to put in a castle system geared towards 2s use, and most likely at least upgrade the stock plastic shocks to something more durable.

If anyone has any familiarity with these trucks and wants to share any info they’ve learned, I'm all ears!

 

[Lumikko]

I have posted a couple of how-tos in that section of the forum: how to support the steering pillars to reduce flex in the steering, and how to correct the pro-squat orientation of the rear arms into anti-squat that we all use on other off-road vehicles. Both of these are easy to do, reversible, and cost nothing.

It’s a good idea to go thru the truck if you’re familiar with building kits or rebuilding RTRs. My sway bar links were all assembled to different lengths, and the turnbuckles for adjusting front and rear cambers and steering toe-out weren’t quite where I like them. The spring collars were not set the same left to right.

After the anti-squat mod, you can run softer springs in the back. If you go a lot lower, consider softening the front as well. I bought old SC10 13 mm springs from a clearance sale and they are a direct fit. I have 3.1 lbs / Yellow in the rear and 3.5 lbs / Green in the front. Parts 91080 and 91073.

Other things to note about the truck: the steering is asymmetric, one side locks up but the other has room to turn in its direction. I think this could be compensated by adjusting the servo link and steering push rod lengths, but I haven’t gotten into it.

The stock transmitter feels stiffer to turn left than right. Dunno if the others are like this. Upgrading the radio will help your driving before replacing the stock esc and motor. If your Flysky doesn’t, get one with EPA for left and right to get an easy fix for the steering.

Put at least a heatsink and maybe a fan on the motor to make it run cooler.

The stock setup has short camber links and the truck may surprise you on uneven traction. If you prefer easier driving, extending the camber links and mounting them to the outer hole at the hub is worth trying.

Many people advise to stiffen up all diffs. Mine were stiff enough out of the box. Don’t go crazy stiff unless you have lots of traction available.

 

[islandlife]

@Lumikko, awesome info, thanks!
Definitely going to do a tear down/rebuild on the truck when it shows up, Best way to get familiar with a new rig!
I saw the thread with the rear suspension changes and steering mod, will be trying those out for sure.

Interesting what your saying about the camber links. Are you saying that stock its setup with a lot of neg camber? I was under the impression that more neg camber is a good thing if the terrain is rough (my little track is not very smooth).

 

[Lumikko]

@Lumikko, awesome info, thanks!
Definitely going to do a tear down/rebuild on the truck when it shows up, Best way to get familiar with a new rig!
I saw the thread with the rear suspension changes and steering mod, will be trying those out for sure.

Interesting what your saying about the camber links. Are you saying that stock its setup with a lot of neg camber? I was under the impression that more neg camber is a good thing if the terrain is rough (my little track is not very smooth).

Negative camber helps clear bumps, you are correct. I meant something else:

When you choose another mounting hole for either end of the link, you extend or shorten the link with the turnbuckle to compensate. So your static camber remains the same, just the link length, height, or angle is changed. This affects camber gain and how the roll center shifts when the body rolls.

 

[LosiFan143]

My dad has one of these brand new. The battery that came with it died after a few charges. We tried the nickel metal hydride charge setting but the voltage was still too low. Maybe reedy has some quality control issues?

 

[islandlife]

Negative camber helps clear bumps, you are correct. I meant something else:

When you choose another mounting hole for either end of the link, you extend or shorten the link with the turnbuckle to compensate. So your static camber remains the same, just the link length, height, or angle is changed. This affects camber gain and how the roll center shifts when the body rolls.

I'm picking up what your putting down. Not sure if my new-guy skills are honed enough to feel these changes, but i am a tinkerer by nature, so once I've put some laps in with this truck, ill see if i can notice these changes!
Thanks again for the info.

As far as reedy QC, i have no idea, never run reedy stuff before. The truck i purchased has no rx/tx or battery, so no worries there.
Interested to see how the stock 60a esc holds up, seems small for a 4wd SC truck.

Truck also has original reedy rtr servo, which I'm sure will be nothing to write home about. And a Absima servo, which i have never heard of. Seems absima is more of a thing in europe.
If neither servo is super great, id love some suggestions on a decent servo for this truck in the $50-80 range. I've only got experience with servos for crawling and cheapo’s for bashing. Seems something faster and lighter would be appropriate.

 

[Lumikko]

Not sure if my new-guy skills are honed enough to feel these changes, but i am a tinkerer by nature, so once I've put some laps in with this truck, ill see if i can notice these changes!

In that case, try holding back with the changes and apply them one at a time. If you adjust many things at the same time, it’ll be impossible to know which one was for the better or worse. The exception is an adjustment that should be coupled with something else to maintain balance.

The setup possibilities are virtually infinite, it’s easy to get lost. If the truck is comfortable to drive, don’t change things because some random dude on the internet said so.

If you only do one change, I would suggest the anti-squat mod first. No SCT should have pro-squat in the rear in my opinion.

 

[RustyUs]

My dad has one of these brand new. The battery that came with it died after a few charges. We tried the nickel metal hydride charge setting but the voltage was still too low. Maybe reedy has some quality control issues?

I wonder what Team Associated would say about the battery. Wouldn't hurt to ask.

 

[RustyUs]

I'm picking up what your putting down. Not sure if my new-guy skills are honed enough to feel these changes, but i am a tinkerer by nature, so once I've put some laps in with this truck, ill see if i can notice these changes!
Thanks again for the info.

As far as reedy QC, i have no idea, never run reedy stuff before. The truck i purchased has no rx/tx or battery, so no worries there.
Interested to see how the stock 60a esc holds up, seems small for a 4wd SC truck.

Truck also has original reedy rtr servo, which I'm sure will be nothing to write home about. And a Absima servo, which i have never heard of. Seems absima is more of a thing in europe.
If neither servo is super great, id love some suggestions on a decent servo for this truck in the $50-80 range. I've only got experience with servos for crawling and cheapo’s for bashing. Seems something faster and lighter would be appropriate.

When shopping for servos, take note on your ESC's BEC output. I do believe the stock SC600BL BEC output is 6v/2A... at least that's what the Hobbywing's WP-10BL60-RTR are rated.

For a lighter weight 4wd SCT, I'd be looking at servos with ≥200 oz-in torque spec. If running on higher traction surfaces, then I'd look at even stronger servos with all metal gears. For the "middle of the road" type servos, I've come to enjoy JX CLS5830HV-V2 servo. I had them in a 1/8 scale buggy, 2wd SCT, 4wd SCT, and I even put it in a monster truggy for a year, but I wouldn't recommend doing it... I was testing it's limits.

Some people really go for super fast servos. Me, a servo with 0.09~0.15 sec/60° speeds is what I search for. YMMV. Going towards the faster side of things leads the servo to be slowed down a bit with radio (provided the radio has a servo speed adjustment feature) for track conditions/driver input preference.

Lots of great "middle of the road" servos out there. PowerHD servos have been on my wish list for years, but I can't give any first hand usage opinions. For me, I always check that I can get replacement gear sets for any servo I purchase. Select your favorite speed/torque muscle.... let 'er rip!

Edit: I have no idea why links are included when I type "BEC".

 

[islandlife]

Anyone ever run an external BEC or direct power servo on non-crawler vehicles?
Eventually ill likely be upgrading the esc in this truck, but might be a good stop-gap measure to run a betrer servo sooner.

 

[Lumikko]

I second the recommendation of 15 kg-cm / 200 oz-in torque as a lower limit, and no need to go much below 0.1 seconds. Get a servo that meets these values at 6 Volts and you avoid the hassle of HV electronics.

 

[islandlife]

Found 2 of these servos locally on marketplace. Older discontinued model, but NIB never used, 2 for $50 CAD.
Specs seems good for the money, and full metal case too.
Ill use one for steering my 3s senton, and one in the sc10 when it arrives hopefully this week.

 

[F.R.S. Ninja_007]

My dad has one of these brand new. The battery that came with it died after a few charges. We tried the nickel metal hydride charge setting but the voltage was still too low. Maybe reedy has some quality control issues?

The battery wasn’t properly charged when it was put in storage, so it was dead once we tried to use it. Stupid stock charger

 

[RustyUs]

Anyone ever run an external BEC or direct power servo on non-crawler vehicles?
Eventually ill likely be upgrading the esc in this truck, but might be a good stop-gap measure to run a betrer servo sooner.

I only had to do it on a rock racer, and 1/8 scale buggy, 'cause of cheap speed control's BEC failing. It saved me a couple of times from buying a new speed control. I used Castle Creations 10A BEC, but there are cheaper ones out there.

 

[islandlife]

Truck showed up today, seems in pretty good shape. Definitely used, and raced, but every thing seems tight, no obvious issues.
Came with all the manuals, and original parts.
The lack of slop in the hubs and steering assembly is impressive, definitely puts my senton to shame, and I've replaced all those parts on it recently lol.
I've installed a receiver, made sure the servo was centered, calibrated the throttle.
Just got to change the deans connector to ec5 to match my 2s packs.
Pics and first driving impressions to come shortly.

 

[islandlife]

Heres a couple pics. Ran through one pack on my small grass/clay track. soooo smooth compared to my senton, however, it is very tail happy the way it is setup (no idea how the previous owner has it ser up), tons of oversteer on corner exit.
Overall the truck runs/drives great, cogging is extremely minimal on 2s, flies nice and flat off the one jump on my track, turns way tighter than my senton.
Today i will hopefully go through the diffs and shocks, dont know what oil is in there. Feels like all three diffs are really light, shocks feel decent. Probably going to put 25-30w in the shocks and f/c/r diffs i might try 20k/60k/10k for starters.

 

[Lumikko]

Heres a couple pics. Ran through one pack on my small grass/clay track. soooo smooth compared to my senton, however, it is very tail happy the way it is setup (no idea how the previous owner has it ser up), tons of oversteer on corner exit.
Today i will hopefully go through the diffs and shocks, dont know what oil is in there. Feels like all three diffs are really light, shocks feel decent. Probably going to put 25-30w in the shocks and f/c/r diffs i might try 20k/60k/10k for starters.

I spy bleeder screws on the shock caps, that’s something mine doesn’t have.

The sway bars look bright and thick, possibly home-made from piano wire. The stock ones are black and 2.0 mm thick.

These things are tail-happy out of the box already. It’s the stiff rear springs and pro-squat geometry. If the rear sway bar is thicker than stock, it’ll further reduce your rear grip.

Probably a good idea to get the diffs and shocks sorted so you know what’s in there.

 

[RustyUs]

I spy bleeder screws on the shock caps, that’s something mine doesn’t have.

The sway bars look bright and thick, possibly home-made from piano wire. The stock ones are black and 2.0 mm thick.

These things are tail-happy out of the box already. It’s the stiff rear springs and pro-squat geometry. If the rear sway bar is thicker than stock, it’ll further reduce your rear grip.

Probably a good idea to get the diffs and shocks sorted so you know what’s in there.

Yeah, they look like "home made" bleeder caps... drill/screw/o-ring... good to go.
Who ever came up with the bleeder cap idea... brilliant!

Heres a couple pics. Ran through one pack on my small grass/clay track. soooo smooth compared to my senton, however, it is very tail happy the way it is setup (no idea how the previous owner has it ser up), tons of oversteer on corner exit.
Overall the truck runs/drives great, cogging is extremely minimal on 2s, flies nice and flat off the one jump on my track, turns way tighter than my senton.
Today i will hopefully go through the diffs and shocks, dont know what oil is in there. Feels like all three diffs are really light, shocks feel decent. Probably going to put 25-30w in the shocks and f/c/r diffs i might try 20k/60k/10k for starters.
View attachment 165625

Very clean ride. Probably very low run time on that RC.

 

[islandlife]

I spy bleeder screws on the shock caps, that’s something mine doesn’t have.

The sway bars look bright and thick, possibly home-made from piano wire. The stock ones are black and 2.0 mm thick.

These things are tail-happy out of the box already. It’s the stiff rear springs and pro-squat geometry. If the rear sway bar is thicker than stock, it’ll further reduce your rear grip.

Probably a good idea to get the diffs and shocks sorted so you know what’s in there.

Yes, the previous owner added the bleed screws and xray pistons in the shocks.

Ill double check the thickness of the sway bars, but they both seem the same, and dont seem home made, unless they did a really clean job!
I am going to do some laps today with the rear bar disconnected, hopefully it will settle the rear down a bit. Next thing to try after that is they antisquat rear mod.

I noticed that the po changed the rear most pills for the rear hinge pins to .5 down inserts. That would be lessening the pro-squat in the rear, correct?

Went through the shocks and diffs yesterday, all in good shape and fairly fresh fluid.
I went with 30k/100k/20k F/C/R for the diffs, and 35w in the shocks front and rear.
Manual calls for 60k/100k/3k for the diffs and 40w in the shocks i believe.

Changing the fluids didnt change the driving experience much

 

[Lumikko]

Yes, the previous owner added the bleed screws and xray pistons in the shocks.

Ill double check the thickness of the sway bars, but they both seem the same, and dont seem home made, unless they did a really clean job!
I am going to do some laps today with the rear bar disconnected, hopefully it will settle the rear down a bit. Next thing to try after that is they antisquat rear mod.

I noticed that the po changed the rear most pills for the rear hinge pins to .5 down inserts. That would be lessening the pro-squat in the rear, correct?

Yes, pills in the D-block moving the pin ends down would reduce the pro-squat a bit but the difference will be small as these are rather wide arms; the pills are further apart.

What brands are the pills, by the way? I’d be glad to have some adjustment possibilities but the regular AE pills for my B74.2 don’t fit the arm mounts and they are for 3.5 mm hinge pins anyway.