The Slash Slays!

Christmas in August

The USPS text rang on my phone, “package left on the front porch.” I know what this package is. I made sure that USPS sent me continual updates as this package traveled from the North Pole to my home. The alert told me that my order from A Main Hobbies had just dropped on the porch. Oh, I mean, gently placed down. This means that the postal service functions as my personal Santa Claus without the creeping sneaking into the house through the chimney type thing. The best part is that I get to open a gift. The downside to this whole scenario is that I had to buy my gift, but we don’t want to ruin a good time with that detail. So, I ran down the stairs because I had to see in person what the elves had assembled and delivered to me.

You can mock a guy for opening boxes like it is Christmas morning, but the bright side to ordering your gifts in the mail is that you never get the clothes you don’t want. This means you’re not tearing into things like Ralphy, and you won’t end up looking like some deranged easter bunny outfit. I mean, who wants to look like a deranged easter bunny? You get the good stuff. What good stuff? I got the new tires along with other miscellaneous stuff that will be reported in the future.

Whatcha Git?

The main item of concern is the arrival of new skins. I ordered the Proline Badlands pre-mounted tires for the slash. I have to put some more miles on them to see what I think. I did drive the Slash with the rear ones, and the truck was way more responsive with just two on the truck. I think this is going to be a very welcome upgrade. I will have to do the hard work and drive it with all four. My initial impression is that they look sweet! They are going to do a lot better with some dirt on them. They have great knobs on them, and the compound feels pretty soft for a medium tire. I have always liked Proline products, and I suspect that these will not disappoint. I also ordered other things that will be reviewed and covered soon.

(I got the rear ones mounted. They look pretty nice. They feel sorta soft for medium compound. I am not complaining because they feel like they will hook up on pavement, they will dig into the loose dirt, and they will clear out mud. It will be interesting to drive with them mounted.)

Now, I promised that I would do something for science…. I promised to experiment to discover if the truck would drive or get traction with the foam insert and no tire. My prediction was that the open differential would just make it so the car would accelerate slowly, and the wheel with the foam would just spin and melt the foam. I figured that the car would eventually start moving forward as the other wheel would eventually get the truck rolling.

(This is a good sign that your tires need to be replaced.)

I was disappointed in a good way. I guess the truck has enough weight to get the plastic rim to dig into the foam because it hooked up. I did have to steer the truck a little to make sure that the back end stayed behind the front end to drive it out of the garage. Then, it was fun to see how the truck handled. You could do donuts at half throttle on demand.

The foam lasted for a bit, and endured more abuse than I thought it would. It took about 12 minutes to burn the foam off. So, I had to do some donuts to speed up the process. Not the kind that makes your dad bod into a well-rounded father figure, but the kind that creates some smoke and some great noises that summon the kids from around the neighborhood. My neighbor has family in town so I put on a show for a bunch of kids who thought I was the coolest guy in the neighborhood. I am not sure what it is about an RC truck with no body that just spins in the driveway, but I was getting some cheers. Eventually, the foam shot off, and it was pretty awesome. The other rear tire is pretty much completely bald. So, I would say mission accomplished. The video evidence is below.

I will cover the tire mounting, wheel assembly, and the like for the Proline tires next week. It is not overly tricky, but it takes a bit of fiddling. The main thing is to make sure you put the screws through the front of the rim to hold the wheel to the hub. I really want to get some driving done on these before I say a yay or a nay.

(Basically, you find the hub you want, put in the included hex screws, and then mount the wheels. The wheel on the left has the hex screws halfway turned in, while the one on the right has them all the way installed. Pretty easy.)

Thanks for reading! Until we meet again, may the Lord’s blessing and peace be upon you.