You may have a point if you think this didn't get a fair go in my review I just
did - and if you haven't seen that, go check that out!
This is the Vanquish Phoenix Portal VS4-10
and the
kit build I did, I used the wider front wheel adapters and the narrower rear
wheel adapter.
So, we had a slightly wider track at the front.
So, to give this thing a fair shake, we're
going to actually make both ends narrow, which I think I should have done in the
first place and we'll just see if it makes any difference and if you want to
know whether a wide or narrow front track makes a difference, too
(because I really do), stick around!
Let's do it.
The Vanquish Phoenix VS4-10 comes with
different width wheel adapters and I’ve got the narrow ones on now, but I had the
wide ones on the front, earlier.
Now, the track width front and rear
is the same, and just as a side note, I did notice the
body doesn't sit quite square on the axle,
and that would be a function of the panhard link.
If that, if that was lengthened, this thing would sit further
that way, which it needs to be.
The fact that the body doesn't quite sit straight
on the, over the axle is mainly a cosmetic thing
and even some production vehicles like, the old
4Runner in the background there, are actually the same - not quite straight.
So that's, on its own, no problem and in fact, it's arguably more, more scale,
given the body that it's sitting on.
Anyway, we've got a narrow track, front and rear, that's the only change I’ve made.
So let's see what difference this thing
makes over the 6-problem course now over stock.
Now remember, we had problem one,
two, three and five completed successfully.
I’m interested to see if we can do problems four and six.
I suspect six will be a problem, still, but four, at least with the narrower
front track, we may just have that little bit of
traction that we just didn't quite have last time.
Anyway, we'll do all six, just for comparison's sake and I’ll see you on
the other side.
Let's do it!
Okay, problem one.
I may leave the front on six percent for this test, for the most part,
because none of my problems here really quite
need that higher overdrive, especially not
when we have the DIG and even just being able to turn the
wheels to freewheeling, which I could do now, for example,
although that maybe wasn't the best time to do it!
The DIG actually is now a good, a good thing to use, because we don't want to
fall off the rock… but we've just done it.
Take five, Vanquish Phoenix Portal VS4-10.
Now, with matching track, front and rear,
we had wide and narrow wheel adapters with the kit.
I had wide on the front and narrow for the rear, in the review.
Now it's narrow for both.
[Music] [Music]
Okay, just between you and me, this is the
fifth attempt!
I’m actually struggling more with the narrow front.
I really thought I’d made a mistake in that review, but…
[Music] goodness me!
This is take six.
[Music] Come on!
No!
Ah, unreal.
I’m six attempts in on problem one and I cannot get it to finish!
We got close a couple of times, but it just fell off.
I’ll play all of the attempts now at a higher
speed because you don't want to sit through them all, but suffice to say,
4.65 inch tires, even with portals, I seem to be getting
hung up.
I don't know if it's a question of geometry.
I mean, no, it is, it's a question of geometry.
I don't know
precisely what combination of factors on this thing are leading to this, but
I’m really struggling with problem one.
Often, I’ll make attempts with cars and and sometimes it'll take me a few goes
just to get it through because I’ve got to get used to the vehicle and
every vehicle is a bit different and sometimes, you know, I’ll have a few
halting starts and then I’ll get smooth and you know you see the end product but
in this case, I’ll show you the lot.
I’m already familiar with it and I just can't get a line where it's
doing it.
Anyway, on to two, three, four, five and six and we'll see how we go,
remembering we couldn't do four and uh six in the review.
So, we'll do the rest of them as well,
just to see, because although it's only one change, it's
clearly a big, it's making a big difference.
So let's continue with this little
experiment.
Okay, problem two.
[Music] Now, in the review, we had to come over to
the left, here and then the tyres had the traction (oh,
we're gonna roll, here.
Can't do anything about that).
Start him again.
Second attempt, problem two.
And I know I need to stay left but then I’ll keep steering to the right.
That was probably my mistake before.
I turned there, just a little too soon.
I’ll also add I mentioned this in the review,
left’s just landed on that corner again, this poor,
poor vehicle, it's
really taking a hiding on this test course of mine.
I it's funny, you know, I thought,
[Music] I thought this thing would just walk our
problems, but you know, there's a degree of uh
chance in all this and that is chance with the
geometry of the car and the length and size of the problems.
I had to get that exactly right, exactly right, and if that front right wheel
wasn't there to catch the vehicle it would have rolled.
So we'll make this now but
I had, I would say, a few millimeters, if that, of uh
tolerance for error.
So, that made it look hard, honestly.
Problem three.
Another thing worth noting is, I can't get this thing back on its wheels just
using throttle and steering.
Most crawlers can.
This thing, I haven't been able to.
That's a considerable uh issue.
I’m actually liking this truck less.
I like it as an engineering, engineering piece, but
somehow, the sum of its parts just don't add up to a satisfying
vehicle on these problems, and it is only on these problems, I think.
Out on the trails this thing would be an absolute blast,
but I can't deny the results, and that's kind of a strength of having
consistent problems, because we can test… nope, it's not going to do that, we can, we
can test a vehicle on various problems
or we can take the thing out into the trail and if you take the thing out into
the trail you'll have a great time with it and you wouldn't know it’s
shortcomings.
And I can dislike a rig and yet be wowed by its performance or,
in this case, I can actually really want to like it and I do, I mean I do like a
lot of it, but it's,
it's a battle, getting this thing over the problems.
And again, I’m using the, there we go.
[Music] There we don't go,
it's just, it's just doing it uh with great effort.
Oh, yeah, yeah, we're still not up.
[Music] Okay,
last attempt.
[Music] I lied.
Last attempt.
[Music] I’m not going to cut anything today,
we're just going to watch all of the problems, but I’m going to
fast-forward through problems one and three, so far.
I’m filming, I’ve just finished three.
I’ve been unable to finish problems one and three.
I doubted my initial read on this when I put wide
track on the front and left narrow on the rear, but I think wide may have been
the right choice.
I can't do one and three with this truck.
Yeah, I doubted myself, because they're 4.65 inch tires, but
I thought clearance might have been the Issue, but there's something about the
geometry of this thing.
I cannot get it, I cannot find a line where it can
actually finish either of those problems, and it's not for lack of trying!
And this, again, this body is taking an absolute
beating at the moment.
It's going to break the Lexan all the way through,
at this rate.
And another frustration I have is it's not picking itself up.
When a rig's on its side, you can, you can steer down and
accelerate or steer up and reverse and it'll pull itself back up.
Not so with this body, there's just something about
its narrowness and its height, I just, I can't get it back on its wheels,
so every time it rolls, I’ve got to pick it up.
A small thing, but it'll add up in annoyance.
And it's a shame, because I really like this machine, as a technical creation.
It's, it's undeniably a special machine but
for whatever reason, I’m really struggling with getting this
thing on, uh onto a successful line on these
problems.
We're gonna try problem four now and we'll see if the more narrow
stance is a pro or a con compared to the wider front stance we had.
Uh, I had kind of started this thinking, “oh,
we're gonna finish everything, now.
This was just my little mistake” - but I don't
think it was.
I think I was right: wider at the front, at least, is better.
We might need to try wider in the rear, as well.
Let's try problem four, we'll see how we go.
Okay, problem four.
Now, we couldn't do this in the review with the wider front.
[Music] Now with the narrower front matching the
rear…
Okay, the first bit was definitely easier.
[Music] Not this rock but, now, this rock the
front wheels are on, this was the problem area
in the review.
[Music] Alright, it's gonna do problem four, I
think.
[Music] Again, this body is taking a beating.
It's, um,
really looking worse for wear, now.
And remember, this is my second battery ever
with it.
It's going to age quickly at this rate.
There we go.
Oh no!
This might be more of the same as in
the review.
[Music] Quick review of the condition of this
body: yeah,
front's copping it, too.
I’m not holding back on this.
Problem five.
[Music] [Music]
There we go, save that.
[Music] Okay, no problem.
Problem 5 measures tire traction
mostly, so that shouldn't have been a problem, either.
Problem six.
[Music] [Music]
Hey, back on its wheels for once!
[Music] Alright, well, this was an interesting
experiment and sometimes even a negative result in an experiment is a useful
experiment.
The more narrow track on this made things worse.
The logical thing to try next is to put a wider track on the rear as well as the
front.
This thing came with wide and narrow wheel adapters and I can't help but
wonder whether Vanquish knew from testing that wider
could just be better.
There's a degree of chance in this because
different courses will have different characteristics,
which will see different rigs with different geometries
handle differently!
And so, narrower might be the right answer on some courses.
On these, on these six problems
at least, so far, with a wide front and a narrow
rear, it did better than narrow and narrow.
We successfully, by the skin of our teeth, oh no, we didn't do one, we did
two and five.
That's two out of six.
In the review we had four out of six.
Next time, we're going to do wider adapters on front and rear and we'll see
if that makes a difference.
I have a sneaking suspicion it may.
Throw me a Like if this exploration of the capabilities
of the VS4-10 were interesting or useful to you.
Thank you for joining me and I’ll catch you next time on RC-TNT.