My 4-year-old daughter’s mind was blown when she saw her pink wheels on her pink truck. That brought a smile to my face.
She cared about pink and I care about things working as expected. I also wanted to try modding for the first time.
Beadlock Wheels & Sticky Fat Tires
When it comes to pink SCX24 wheels, there aren’t many options. On Amazon, we found the OGRC 1.0 Deep Dish rims with some decent tires for $30. Yeah, I agree; this is pricey for a 4-year-old’s setup. However, I knew I would be the one operating this machine the most, and you can use Amex points on Amazon, so it wasn’t as painful.
These wheels and tires were a PAIN to assemble. Two are already coming off the rim. I spent hours trying to figure this out. Unfortunately, YouTube had no helpful videos for assembling this type of wheel. It took a ton of trial and error, along with two broken screws. One is still stuck in a wheel.
After watching numerous videos, this OGRC wheel is apparently constructed differently. Each wheel requires a slightly different technique. One worked well with the star method – the same method for tightening lug nuts on a real car. Another required gingerly tightening screws at a snail’s pace while watching the rubber to see if it popped out. As two tires are coming off the bead, I did something wrong.
One YouTube creator, Cape Crawlers, said the first is the hardest. They get easier to assemble from here. All I know is my daughter is having fun with hers, and I will reseat the bead later.
Injora Steering Servo
Thankfully, this was far easier to install than the tires and wheels.
It seems SCX24 parts don’t come with instructions. A QR code would have sufficed, guys. Fortunately, enough video content is out there to make this a breeze. On top of that, it is fairly straightforward. I now see why this is a recommended first modification.
This Injora Steering Servo was another Amazon purchase. I splurged to get the servo tray version because I wasn’t sure how difficult it was to cut things off the Axial OEM parts. Now that I have done this install, I see that it is super easy! Unless you like the bling that nobody can see, save a few bucks and get the one without the tray.
Bad me, I did not test the new wheels with the stock servo. I don’t really know how much of an improvement the stronger servo made, but I can see there is absolutely zero struggle with turning this rig. In fact, it turns so hard the bigger tires were digging into the body to the point where it completely stopped the truck when turning in reverse. I trimmed a little bit of the body to make clearance for that. I’m a Lexus GX owner – trimming is what we do!
Overall, this is an easy mod.
Injora Steering Rod Links
Guess what? Another Amazon purchase here. $9 was tough not to do, but my research pointed me toward doing this with an upgraded servo.
They absolutely stiffen things up on the front end. And they look cool. On top of that, they’re insanely easy to install. Put all that together and I think this is a no-brainer upgrade for any SCX24.
Before
After
Conclusion
I think my daughter’s truck looks terrific and performs so much better. Before the installation, she was running a flip per minute and has only flipped once since. It will be fun to get this on some more challenging obstacles soon. Wheels/tires, a servo, and steering links are modifications that enhance the performance of the SCX24 crawler. I recommend these as a nice start.
When it comes to plans for my son’s Bronco and my GX470, the combo done to this pink machine will look quite minor.
More modding fun is coming soon!
