Project: Full-Option Sledge
Get the Most Out of Your Sledge with Genuine Traxxas Accessories
Every Traxxas model is fully supported with a wide variety of accessories and upgrades so you can personalize and customize your machine, and that includes the all-new Sledge. The high-voltage, 70+mph supertruck is already well equipped for best-in-class performance and durability right out of the box. We’ll focus this build on color-molded parts for a personalized look, contrasting anodized-aluminum accessories for even more styling excitement, and tuning with spring rates and sway bars for sharper handling. We’ll also add to Sledge’s built-in telemetry capabilities, give it even more steering power, and set it up for maximum-speed running at 70+mph. Let’s get started!
PHASE 1: Custom colors
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| Phase 1 Parts List |
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Sledge’s suspension arms, arm covers, and mud guards are available in red, green, orange, and blue, all molded in the same heavy-duty, cold-resistant composite as the standard black components. The shock towers come in colors as well, with vivid anodizing in red, green, and orange, plus a stealthy gray color. We went for a contrasting look with blue for the suspension arms and mud guards, and red anodizing for the hubs, wheel nuts, shock caps, and spring retainers.
Sledge arms are sold individually as lefts, rights, fronts, and rears. You can get them in blue, green, red, orange, and black.
The arms are marked to indicate placement, so you won’t be wondering which arm goes where. This is the left rear arm, so it’s “LR.”
The arm covers are sold in front and rear pairs in the same colors as the arms. We stuck with the black covers for more contrast.
The wing comes in multiple colors too to create your own style. We’re keeping the blue theme going for this build.
We chose red-anodized shock towers, caps, spring retainers, and hubs to contrast with Sledge’s blue components. You can also get them in black, green, blue, red, or orange.
The red caps and spring retainers really pop against the blue arms and shock bodies. The aluminum caps boost Sledge’s sky-high durability even further, and O-rings in the retainers grip the shock bodies so your preload settings don’t wander.
We traded Sledge’s blue-anodized hubs, wheel nuts, and T-bar for red versions simply as a style choice—other than color, they’re identical to the stock parts.
Our full-option Sledge is looking good so far.
PHASE 2: Shocks and Steering
Superpowered Steering
Right out of the box, Sledge’s metal-gear, 347 oz-in 2275 servo gives it substantially more steering power than other RTR truggies. No upgrade required here! But in the spirit of throwing the full accessory catalog at our Sledge, we’ll go ahead and swap it for the slightly more muscular 2255 Red 400 Brushless servo, which ups torque to 400 oz-in and swings the tires extra quickly thanks to its brushless motor.
Right out of the box, Sledge’s metal-gear, 347 oz-in 2275 servo gives it substantially more steering power than other RTR truggies. No upgrade required here! But in the spirit of throwing the full accessory catalog at our Sledge, we’ll go ahead and swap it for the slightly more muscular 2255 Red 400 Brushless servo, which ups torque to 400 oz-in and swings the tires extra quickly thanks to its brushless motor.
Sledge’s stock 2275 servo and Red 400 both have aluminum mid-cases and full-metal geartrains, but the Red 400 gets a brushless motor that gives it a 53 oz-in torque boost over the stock servo.
You’ll need to remove the battery tray to route the servo wire through the guides in its underside. We also added a servo extension (inset) to allow the Red 400 servo’s slightly shorter wire harness to plug into the receiver with some slack.
Red 400 servo in place. Sledge has a metal servo arm as standard equipment, no upgrade required.
Stiffer, Slicker Shocks
We’re experimenting with Sledge’s shock setup by going up on the spring rates for a slightly firmer ride and enhanced hard-packed dirt handling, but not so firm that our Sledge won’t have plenty of cushion for rough terrain. The front and rear springs are offered in two firmer rates than stock; we’re going one step up, which should keep us in the Goldilocks zone (as in, “just right”). While the shocks are off, we’ll also install the optional titanium-nitride (TiN) coated shafts for even smoother shock action and extended shaft life with a high-tech gold finish.
We’re experimenting with Sledge’s shock setup by going up on the spring rates for a slightly firmer ride and enhanced hard-packed dirt handling, but not so firm that our Sledge won’t have plenty of cushion for rough terrain. The front and rear springs are offered in two firmer rates than stock; we’re going one step up, which should keep us in the Goldilocks zone (as in, “just right”). While the shocks are off, we’ll also install the optional titanium-nitride (TiN) coated shafts for even smoother shock action and extended shaft life with a high-tech gold finish.
The gold TiN finish is harder and slicker than chrome to resist scuffing while delivering ultra-smooth and responsive shock action—all the better for getting maximum benefit from the stiffer springs.
Sledge arrives with the softest springs as standard equipment. We went up one step in stiffness with the #8967 and #9657 springs.
That completes Part 1 of our Sledge build. In Part 2 we'll be prepping the Sledge for maximum speed, adding telemetry, and painting a custom body.
