Posted: 6/12/17
Custom Built Axial 6X6 by John Keifer Jr.
words & photos: Rodney Wills
I previously posted the above image with this statement on my Facebook page:
I've never ran a 20-gallon 2S tank in a event before. I'm actually not much of a TTC/event guy, I'm more of a 50-gallon 3S adventure type. Plus, this is a new rig too, so I'm not use to all the functional details and I've yet to install my old 4-bar Team FastEddy fuel-gauge. Anyhow, I went exploring the back forty of the Team KNK R/C Farm and ran out of electro-juice. Had to call a 6X6 wrecker service! Luckily John Keifer Jr. of Dad's Trucking had his CB on during the event. He was at the same event, so the dispatch office called him and came to my rescue from Poison Oak forest. I was super impressed with his rig so look for a vehicle feature on the Axial blog soon'ish!
I couldn't get this rig out of my head, so check out the following photos I took during that trip and a few details about John Keifer Jr. and his awesome looking - meticulously detailed - custom built Axial SCX10 6X6!
And check the little video we shot as well.
JOHN KEIFER Jr.
John got his first hobby grade R/C roughly around 1985. It was a Tamiya Falcon buggy. From there, Keifer Jr. has owned all makes, models and forms of cars and trucks. And John has spent his fair share of time racing off-road outdoors and indoor carpet racing. But like many, John took a little break from R/C when his family expanded with siblings added. As both kids got old enough to enjoy the hobby, John got got back into it along with getting his kids into the hobby as well!
The scale crawler scene is what really drew him back in and when the time came, the family purchased a couple Axial SCX10 Deadbolts and it all escalated from there! Then a Cassie Curry SCX10 was added and his son recently purchased an SCX10-2 KIT at the KNK TTC4. He assembled it himself and has it running.
THE RIG:
John, like most grown adult men, love big trucks and work semi’s. But he wanted to build a flatbed hauler to haul their scale trail trucks around at events. For John, The SCX10 platform was an easy choice for a "budget" winter build to allow time for buying and trading of parts to acquire all the items needed.
I asked John about the Dad’s Trucking company decal on the door and asked him, what’s the story on that? John knows a graphic designer who makes all of his scale decals and license plates. He did his research on trucking company door decals for reference as he wanting something that looked like an old school trucking company. It was John’s idea for Dad’s Trucking as he stated, “I seem to be the one building and maintaining all of our family's rigs!” The 419 in the number is his local area code to keep it realistic. Once he had it sorted what he wanted, his graphic artist worked out the details and went with it.
When asked, what was the most difficult part of building his 6X6, John stated the most difficult part was getting the links and suspension to function properly and somewhat scale. It is not competition crawler but it can hold its own on a trail course. And tow one home too!
• MOTOR: Dynamite 35 turn crawler motor. It’s what he had it laying around.
• ESC: Tekin FXR is handling the motor control.
It has a Castle CC BEC set at 7.2volts.
• SERVO: Hitech HS-646WP servo handles the steering.
• Holmes winch controller powers the Warn 9.5 TI winch on the flatbed.
• Front Axle: Stock Axial with Vanquish Products Aluminum C-Hubs and 8 degree steering arms.
• Middle Axle: Stock Axial (albeit using two axles to produce the through axle) is running Vanquish Products aluminum lockouts.
• Rear Axle: Stock Axial with HR aluminum lockouts.
• Tires: Stock Axial SCX10-2 1.9 BFGOODRICH ALL-TERRAIN T/A® KO2 TIRES - R35
• Wheels: Stock Axial SCX10-2 1.9 Method Mesh
• Front and rear LED running lights and head & taillights. Jonathan Baskins built [2] two-way light controllers to turn lights on/off from a hacked Flysky GT3B with Flysky 6-channel RX.
Juiced by a 1000mah 3S lipo.
• ESS ONE+ sound unit . Diesel engine sound and third Channel horn from the TX.
• Rig is powered with a 7000mah 3S lipo.
