Monster Truck Madness – Impressions on the Traxxas TRX-4MT

Hey all, Happy Thursday!

This week, let’s talk about the new Traxxas TRX-4MT Monster Truck release! If you missed it, here’s a link to the announcement along with our unboxing and running footage videos.

What Traxxas has done here is created an “out-of-the-box” solution for those wanting to turn their High Trail TRX-4M’s into monster trucks that resemble those of the earliest era of the full size trucks.

That is my favorite use of the 1/10 High Trail TRX-4 and I recently picked up a 1/18 TRX-4M High Trail to do the same thing with….so it’s cool that Traxxas has gone ahead and just done it themselves!

The changes they’ve made to “monster truck-ize” it are good ones. The frame drops/bends to add significant lift to the truck (visually, this also creates the look of a suspension cradle which Traxxas has further exacerbated by applying sponsorship decals) that allows the center of gravity to remain decent.

Adding dual shocks to the platform is also important because it really does help stabilize the vehicle. There’s no sway bars (it wouldn’t make sense to have them, as the truck is more of a trail monster truck- more on this in a moment), but the shocks help the truck avoid the “roly-polys” that sometimes vehicles like this can have.

The tires are shrunk down versions of what you’d find on the 1/10 BIGFOOT #1, and they look great. There are no foams, but the truck weighs basically nothing so they don’t feel needed. If nothing else, it lets them deform over obstacles to better grab things and act like full size flotation tires. Note that I don’t really feel this way about the standard TRX-4M’s that are dedicated crawlers, but on a monster truck setup like this I like the lack of foams. The truck has a metal geared servo, and it has no issue whipping said large tires around which is nice.

On to the cosmetics- the addition of the blower/carbs sticking out of the hood is a fantastic one. Old school monster trucks look weird if you don’t have some kind of engine sticking out the hood. The BIGFOOT inspired bumpers are a nice touch as well.

So here’s the thing- the TRX-4MT is very much a TRX-4M and that means it has locked differentials and a relatively slow top speed. This is very much a truck that should be thought of as something like a monster trail / mud truck. It’s a different type of vehicle than something like the Losi Mini-LMT which is a modern race style monster that’s all about speed and jumping.

You can absolutely have some car crushing fun, and it’s a lot of fun to iron wall obstacles (especially model cars!) as the truck reacts like an old school monster would, but you won’t be carving corners or getting large air off jumps. The vibe of the rig is more so that it’s fun to take off-road on muddy trails and water holes. I can verify that it is indeed VERY waterproof, as mine has already been straight up submerged a few times! It’s a killer mud bogging truck.

I think I should end these first impressions by discussing the size. The TRX-4MT, despite being 1/18 scale, is large and can easily tackle terrain outside. Look at it (below) next to the High Trail TRX-4M- it’s got a much larger stance. As such, it has no issues handling the great outdoors.

As a lover of old school monsters and the activities that they would engage in (car crushing, mud bogging, hill climbing), and someone who personally could care less about hardcore rock crawling these days, I am SO HAPPY that Traxxas has released the TRX-4MT. This is my kinda rig.

Look for more on the TRX-4MT in this space over the coming weeks, as I’ve already got some modification plans. You’ll probably also see the Chevy version of it on my bench soon, too.

Until next time, keep it on all 4’s.