Monster Truck Madness – Folks like Lifted Trucks
Greetings all and happy Thursday!
Before we get to it this week, a few notes- the crew at Horizon did a wicked job at Horizon RC Fest! I’m sure they are gonna do up 2024 even bigger, somehow! It’s always a can’t miss event on the calendar!
Long time r/c monster truck fan/racer and, most importantly, full size Raminator driver Dan “Cheech” Agosh performed the car crush at the event and it’s been a lot of fun seeing another hardcore r/c’er find success in the 1:1 world!
Lastly, hardcore monster truck fans should check out the JConcepts video discussing the restoration of the legendary BIGFOOT #4. I know a lot of folks involved with this project, and they are working their tails off to see it done right. The video is long but a fun watch!
Ok, now the topic at hand. Boy, the folks at Traxxas REALLY have found a hit on their hands with the High Trail TRX-4 loadout, eh?
They originally released the square body Chevy OG version last Summer, which turned into a huge hit. That was followed by the classic Ford F-150 version, which was followed by the ’72 Blazer, and is now being followed up on by the TRX-4 Sport version.
While I have absolutely no inside info on this, I’m going to guess the success of this TRX-4 platform refresh has been pretty surprising to the big T. Or at least was during the fall- I think it’s quite obvious they understand it now! We love our big jacked up pieces of classic iron. It also helps that the TRX-4 lift kit is a well engineered product too, of course. The cool old school bodies combined with the proven TRX-4 AND performance of how they work with the lift kit has truly given the TRX-4 platform completely new life.
The only other real example of something like this I can think of would be the original Axial SCX10. With that truck, the original release started out with unlicensed bodies (the Dingo and Honcho were most popular) and then, after a few years, Axial hooked up with Jeep and that’s when the truck got REALLY popular.
The story here is a bit different given that the TRX-4 has always had very detailed licensed body versions available, but in this case they focused on giving the truck a lift and changing the tire size as well as zeroing in the nostalgia of classic rigs like you’d find in old school issues of Peterson’s 4 Wheel & Off-road Magazine.
Thus far, Traxxas has been mining the mid 70’s/early 80’s time period, which is admittedly probably the sweet spot for this kind of truck. That said though, the late 80’s and early 90’s are ripe for the pickin’!
Hobbyists are continuing to eat up the High Trail TRX-4’s, so I see no sign of the releases stopping with the TRX-4 Sport version. Early 90’s Silverado or late 90’s Ford Super Duty anyone? Can’t wait to see what they do next!
Until next time, keep it on all 4’s!
