Everybody’s Scalin’ – What got you into scaling?

Last week there was a chain message going around Facebook where if you got tagged, you had to post a picture of your first r/c crawler and describe how you got into it. I got tagged by a few friends…but I abhor those things so I never did my part. I figured it would be better to just share it here.

Quick digression- it’s amazing to me how much Facebook has turned into the modern day equivalent of AOL in the late 90’s. Chain letters, instant messaging, chat boards, trolling, your aunt posting an MS-painted photo that she finds funny….it’s all there. Everything but the dial-up.

Anyways, so how did I get into crawling? It all started for me in the late 2000’s when I picked up a new Wheely King 4×4. I wanted to try this new rock crawling thing, and so I locked both axles with JB weld, extended the wheelbase with new links and added some Pro-Line MOAB tires. I actually found it pretty boring as this truck wasn’t exactly a rock beast and I spent as much time upside down as I did trying to climb obstacles. I went back to off-road racing and sold the WK.

A couple years later I decided to give crawling another try, this time with a Venom Creeper that I picked up used. Ugh, that f****** truck. What a colossal pain in the rear that thing was. The diffs constantly unlocked, I had problems keeping the battery in a good position and the general mechanics of the truck left A LOT to be desired. Still, even with mechanical gremlins I was battling I managed to have a good time. While I was still a racer for the most part, I was beginning to see the beauty of what crawling could be. I was just missing the right tool for the job.

It was around this time that the Axial SCX10 started making waves. When I first saw the new Dingo version, I knew I had to have it. I sold the Creeper for pennies on the dollar and used that to purchase a lightly used RTR SCX10 sporting Pro-Line Flat Irons. It was a capable truck that was also durable, something that neither of the previous vehicles I had owned could boast.

It was love at first sight. Overnight my primary interest in the hobby shifted away from the race track and to the trails. Looking back, it’s amazing how hard scaling grabbed me…even if it took 3 different vehicles to finally sink its hooks.

The picture above is the first day I got my SCX10, less than 10 minutes after I opened the box. I do not have photos of the other vehicles mentioned, but they weren’t lookers anyway. So there you go Facebook, that’s my long winded story. I really regret selling that original Dingo :/

My advice to someone reading this that’s tried but couldn’t get into it crawling before – maybe you should try again? It wasn’t instantaneous for me, but once I finally got into it I REALLY got into it. Sometimes, well, it just takes time.