Team Durango is a relatively new company based in the UK that made the legendary Durango 1/10 scale 4WD buggy available to everyone. The "Durango" as it is widely known was invented by Gerd Strenge from Germany and formerly only available as handmade prototype for a mahoosive amount of cash. Then, back in 2009, the first Team Durango DEX410 was released, after Gerd teamed up with some industry heavyweights, to produce Durangos for the mass market.
Overview
Now, in 2011, the DESC410R (Durango Electric Short Course) is the third, well actually fourth (if you count the high-end DEX410 and budget DEX410R as two different buggies) kit to leave the Team Durango towers in the UK. Much awaited by the growing following of 4WD SCTs (Short Course trucks), the DESC410R incorporates the racing pedigree of its buggy sibling mixed with ideas new to the developing class of 4WD SCTs. Can the upscaled 1/10 truck really make a difference compared to the competition, that consists mainly of downscaled 1/8 scale buggies? We are here to find out.
Saying the DESC410R is based on the DEX410 and (DEX410R respectively) means both chassis share the main design ideas and parts such as the front and rear quick release differentials, bulkheads, shock towers, parts of the centre slipper clutch/differential, quick release battery mount and more. But if you look closely, there are some more-or-less subtile tweaks incorporated into the design giving hints on future plans with the DEX410 platform.
If you followed our new Build Blog and the build of the DESC410R in general, you might be aware of most of the design features of Team Durango's 4WD SCT. Therefore we don't go too much into deep with the description of how to put the truck together and give you an overview so you know what the truck is all about. For even more detailed information, more pictures and some useful tips visit our DESC410R Build Blog.
Like its buggy sibling the truck is based on a tough (this time black) anodised aluminium chassis with angled front and rear ends for more ground clearance while jumping and landing. Plastic rails sandwiched between the chassis and upper aluminium plates make up the chassis sides and provide torsional (and overall) stiffness. U-shaped plastic guards support the sides of the body shell and also protect the chassis plate during heavy side impacts.
The DEX410 buggies are known for their quick release differentials that are accessible undoing only a handful of screws. These also are part of the DESX410R and are smaller and lighter compared to many of the competitors trucks. The light drivetrain lowers the overall weight and also helps to "spool up" quicker out of corner and after jumps making the TD truck feeling more nimble on the track even with milder motors. The geared differentials the TD buggies known for, are taken over to the truck too, making tweaks and set-up changes using different weight oils possible. Team Durango supplies the kit with 7000 CST oil for the front and 2000 CST oils for the rear diffs.
While the front and rear aluminium shock tower was seen on the DEX410R before, the wishbones, front and rear hubs, steering knuckles, driveshafts and shocks are completely new designed for the Short Course truck. The lower wishbones are longer to make for SC truck common track width. The hubs are larger and offer the possibility to attach them in low or high position affecting the roll centre and therefore steering characteristics of the chassis. The front and rear bulkheads and the wishbones have location holes for the DEX410's anti-roll bars so you are able choose this as another set-up option if you wish.
The steering knuckles and rear hubs feature a larger inner ball bearing, allowing the use of new designed wheel axles with captured cross pin of the drive shaft. No more lost pins if the retaining grub screw falls off (the DESC410R driveshafts doesn't even feature a grub screw as the pin is held in place by the bearing)!
And now, last but not least, the new big bore oil-filled shock absorbers. Featuring a 14mm diameter they measure 80mm up front and 101mm in the rear (from screw to screw) giving the truck huge amounts of down travel. The design allows the use of the DEX410 original rubber shock boots to protect the piston rod and sealing from dirt, dust and moisture.
Along with the new suspension components go 15mm wheel hexes and a racing inspired wheel design. The 15mm hexes are an industry first in the wake to even more powerful 550-size electric motors and the need for stronger drivetrains and wheels. It now is very unlikely to strip a wheel with the 15mm but they need special DESC410R wheels as standard 12mm aftermarket rims will not fit the Team Durango truck. Also the off-set is a bit different on the TD wheel as they sport zero off-set compared to the average Short Course rim.
Moving to the middle of the chassis you can clearly see the "slipperential" called combination of a geared differential and a slipper clutch. The design allows for easy switching between a 1/10 scale-ish slipper clutch and a 1/8 scale-ish gear differential (with additional slipperclutchability). From stock the slipperential works as a slipper only, making use of most parts of a differential but with an inner locking insert to keep the assembly from acting like a diff. By taking the insert out and using inner spider gears additional traction can be created for slippery or loose tracks without loosing the slipper action. The kit comes with two different types of main gears - a 48dp 102 teeth for the use with 540-size motors and a Module 1 54 teeth for stronger 550-size motors.
Something that was carried over from the original Durango prototype was the quick release slipper clutch/spur gear assembly to get access to the saddle-pack batteries. The battery holder is the revised 2010 type that allows the use of 25.1mm LiPo batteries as well as lower 23mm types by choosing different location holes for the upper brace. The differential is located by a U-shape wire and a plastic gear cover that gives some protection to the gear, battery wires and your fingers.
The chassis is topped of by a nice looking Short Course body shell made from crystal clear Lexan. Part of the package also are window painting masks and a huuuge sticker sheet with head and rear lights, grille, window nets and tons of Team Durango and DESC410R stickers to go with all sorts of body colours.
Track Test
The track test of Team Durango's DESC410R took place at our usual sandy-and-bumpy track near our office. It hadn't rained for some days so the track showed himself partly hard-packed with dust on top and partly as deep as a caribbean beach. A tough task for the truck and the medium hard LRP VTEC Short Course tyres. As we choose quite a speedy LRP X12 Octa Wind 5.5T motor we started with a conservative gearing of around 1:12.6 equalling a 20T pinion on the 102T spur gear. This gave the truck more than enough speed and tons of acceleration without giving the feeling of being too powerful. It just accelerated nice and straight towards warp speed. Coming out of tight corners we quickly noticed that the truck lacked a bit of site bite at the rear as it tended to "fish-tail" a bit so first up we cranked in a bit more camber compared to the stock setting, which should now be in the -1.5° to -2.0° range. The helped a bit but we also laid the rear shocks in a bit more using the middle hole on the wishbones and the shock tower. This gave the truck a bit less traction but pretty much planted the rear end coming out of tight corners.
As for the ride height, which is also crucial for SCT's, we opted to set it so the drive shafts are level with the track making the truck fly nice and level over jumps without the fear of bottoming out during the landing. Further adjustment was needed on the slipper clutch as we found the kit setting with a gap of 3.0mm between the bearing and the first nut too tight. Maybe it was down to the medium-compound tyres but we unscrewed the nut a full turn to get the slipper to work noticeably. Team Durango stresses the fact (and we can only emphasise this) that only a proper adjusted slipper clutch effectively saves the drive train from gear and driveshaft breaking stress. Therefore we can only recommend to use the geared centre differential option when putting 550-size motors into the rig as the centre diff gives additional safety (and control) when using high power motors.
Overall the truck behaved as we expected it to do. As with every competition kit, the overall performance depends on tyres, electronics and the quality of your build. The DESC410R didn't let us down so far and we really look forward to get it into race action! In the meantime we install Tekin's SC4X 4.5T motor to really make this baby fly!
In Detail
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Centre of gravity The DESC410R features a very low centre of gravity. Where other chassis sport high placed speed controllers, heavy receiver boxes or weird located servos, Team Durango's whole truck is a true testament to racing technology. The somewhat exposed location of the electronics in the chassis make protecting them against dust, dirt and moisture a must. In the prototype pictures of the truck a special under tray was visible and we guess these are coming very soon. |
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Suspension holder Although plastic parts are supplied to act as suspension holders, the FF (front-front) and RF (rear-front) braces come as grey (front) and black (rear) anodised aluminium parts. The metal parts take much more stress compared to the plastic items and prevent the braces from becoming cracked when hitting corner markers or when landings go horribly wrong. The braces you can see on the left are the front plastic and alloy part. |
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Things you need Being a kit, the DESC410R needs an electric motor of 540 or 550 size, a suitable speed controller, steering servo, saddle-pack battery as well as a receiver and transmitter. And of course Short Course tyres and paint for the body shell. To power our DESC410R we use a pair of LRP Competition Line 5000mAh/50C LiPo's, a LRP SXX TC-Spec speed controller, LRP Vector X12 5.5T OcatWind motor and Team Orion's VDS-1409 servo. As for the tyres, we tried LRP's VTEC Short Course tyres #122029 with good results. |
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Technical data Team Durango DESC410R - Lenght: 465mm - Width: 290mm - Wheelbase: 329mm - Height: 200mm - Weight: 2450g |
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Likes & Dislikes + Very good specifications + Light weight + World Champion genes + It's a kit! - Would be nice to have a protecting undertray with the kit - Non-standard 15mm wheel hexes and off-set wheels |
Tips & Tricks
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Slipperential adjustment The guys over at Team Durango just released a tutorial on how to adjust the slipper setting on the DESC410R. They recommend a gap of 3.0mm between the inner slipper adjustment nut and the bearing but we would go as far and open ist at least around a turn more to make sure the slipper can protect the drive train from massive stress during landings after large jumps. But, as usual with the slipper it's a bit of a trial and error to get the setting right. |
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Nerf bars The sides of the chassis sport plastic nerf bars to protect the chassis from side impacts. We recommend not to tighten the screws fully but to leave them so that the bars can swing back when pushed like you can see in the picture. |
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Mud deflectors As the kit comes without an undertray but we wanted to protect the electronics from becoming tortured by sand and stones, we cut two mud deflectors from Lexan sheet. They are secured to the chassis sides using double-sided tape and also make a good protection against mud and moistrue. They of course do not replace a proper underbody so be sure to get one as soon as Team Durango release one (Or simpy cut a DEX410 body to size!). |
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Rear droop The DESC410R's suspension allows for a massive amount of droop. Especially at the rear it could be nearly too much. It is recommended to limit the droop by 5 to 7mm. Simply stick 5 to 7mm bushings on the piston rod inside the rear dampers. The limited droop reduces traction rolling and excessive diving of the front end at the corner entry. The pic to the left shows the original, mahoosive, droop! |
