Chuckworks RC Slice 4X

The Chuckworks Slice 4X came in as the heaviest truck of the three. A hulking 6.25 lbs (almost a 1/2 lb heavier than the T-RCE). You’ll also notice on that second set of temps, it got a little toasty. This run was cut short, and Jim had to replace the front bearing in the motor. He did a fine job though, getting it done quickly so we could get the truck back out there. Great job Jim!

And the setup sheet for the Chuckworks.

What did our drivers think of the Chuckworks Slice 4X?

Handling

Matt – (3) Truck “felt” heavy. A lot of body roll. Couldn’t change direction very quickly
Kevin – (3) A little better than the stock Slash. Felt like I was driving a Tamiya Sherman Tank. Felt very heavy.
Jarodd – (3) Had good on power steering. Mid corner handling on power was tricky. Corner exit had a little push but was predictable. Small bumps were soaked up easily
Jim – (4) Good rear grip in the corners, Turn in was a little mushy, needed to blip the brake sometimes to get it to turn.
Dumper – (4) Very sure footed. Easy to drift. Drives “Heavy”

Average Score: 3.4

Jumping Ability

Matt – (3) Jumps even with a touch of throttle off the jumps. Lands a little hard though if not perfect
Kevin – (2) Jumps like there’s a cinder block on the nose unless you mash the throttle to the floor
Jarodd – (3) Jumping was a little nose heavy, but could be corrected with the throttle in the air
Jim – (3) Could handle small jumps ok, but big jumps it was nose heavy. Throttle could correct slightly. Not predictable
Dumper – (3) Good actually. I’d like to try this truck with a better ESC/Motor combo

Average Score: 2.8

Speed

Matt – (3) Speed was ok, but felt heavy. Be curious to see this with a more powerful motor
Kevin – (3) As fast as the other two trucks, but felt like it took a second longer to get up to speed compared to the others
Jarodd – (2) VXL system is lacking on the straight, but has good low end torque
Jim – (4) Truck was pretty good, but felt like it lacked speed on the straightaway compared to other trucks on the track running 4 pole motors
Dumper – (4) Good corner speed

Average Score: 3.2

Durability

Matt – (4) Held together during my run
Kevin – (4) Nothing broke despite my best efforts somersaulting it
Jarodd – (5) No breakage
Jim – (3) Nothing broke on chassis, but VXL ESC had issues (on/off switch sticking)
Dumper – (3) Blew a motor bearing during my run

Average Score: 3.8

Some general observations about this chassis. The Chuckworks RC Slice 4X costs less than half of the other 2 kits. This is because it has less machined parts included (i.e. motor mount, bulkheads, etc). The chassis keeps the stock bulkheads and basically mounts them to the upper deck, instead of the bottom of the chassis plate. It does still lower the Center of Gravity by dropping the ESC, battery, receiver, etc, but the motor position does not change. This would be our only criticism on this chassis design, because it leaves a hulking weight still mounted relatively high, it’s performance gains are not as big of an upgrade as the other 2 chassis.

Dumper claimed he sees potential in this truck. The heavy weight doesn’t make it bad, if anything it made it more forgiving. However, the setup we ran was not quite right for the weight of the truck. We believe that this truck might very well benefit from stiffer springs to compensate for the weight (which weren’t allowed in our rules). It may then be a more formidable option.

Also, we had issues with chassis flex, which flexed the motor/diff mount to the point we were stripping spur gears. We corrected this with the use of a King Headz aluminum motor mount. Others, from reading online, have not had the flex issue, so we’re not sure if this extra expense is something you should have figured into your conversion budget.

So we’ve driven the trucks, and told you our opinions. But you know what they say about opinions. I won’t repeat it here in case the kids are reading. Lets have some hard numbers to see how each truck performed.