Cross RC EMO AT4. TRX-4 Bronco. Which of these will prevail in a head-to-head?
Join me to find out! This comes from user ‘Johnny Boy’ with a
conversation I had with him just the other day. Comparisons have their
limitations in usefulness. These videos are intended for entertainment purposes.
When I say which is best, it is definitely a personal opinion. We
do have some numbers involved, which is your performance numbers, but keep in
mind that bias is hard to completely erase and
although it's the same driver, same course, I’m not always going to drive
consistently; I’m still going to make some mistakes here and there. I’ll do my
best, always, to give you a fair look at at whatever truck I’m looking at. We are
incredibly lucky these days, we have so much choice and the models that we can
choose from are just… they're diverse, they're durable, they perform really well
and for what you get, the price continues to drop. With rock crawling there is a
little oasis of calm. I find the community is a really positive one
and I really like sharing this hobby
with you guys, which is good for my mental health and hopefully it's
entertaining for you guys, too! So join me today. We're going to look at the Cross
RC EMO AT4 and the TRX-4 Bronco. It's hard to believe, but I’ve never actually given
the TRX-4 Bronco a proper test on my course here with the Canyon Trail wheels;
I only did it with the Proline Super Swampers.
So today, the Bronco gets its time in the sun and then we're going to put it
against the EMO AT4. These guys are actually really similar:
two-speed, two-speed; remote locking diffs, remote locking diffs; full light system,
full light system; portals and portals! They're a similar size,
wheelbase is pretty much the same (313mm),
they're both heavy in the hand, honestly. So overall, we have two fairly
similar rigs. Let's do it!
First on the new course is the Cross RC EMO AT4. We're in low range, diffs are
locked, let's do it! [Music]
Both being portal vehicles here, clearance won't be a big deal. I’ve
unlocked the diffs to help steer sharply, then we lock it again to get it off that
ledge. I'll lock and unlock as we go, here. We're
currently locked. I’ll often unlock to get it around a
corner and as soon as we have the new direction,
I’ll lock again. [Music]
This helps me maintain the direction of the truck
without losing traction. So we unlock because I want to straighten the vehicle
up, here. Now that we've got
the nose up, we're Locked.
That's one reverse. No gate touches, so far.
Now, of course, we're using the stock wheels that came with the AT4,
which are very heavy. That's gate 4 cleared. I’ll unlock again,
bring it around. I’ll look to maintain traction through.
This is a difficult little section here, through gate 5.
AT4 handles it, no worries. Now this is a tight little section. I’ve unlocked again
because it's a sharp corner and we have a post in the middle, there:
fencing post, which the AT4 clears without a trouble.
Locking again for traction as I’ve got a
reverse actually. So we've had two reverses just then and
we're over. A blip of throttle to get it across the
Obstacle. [Music]
That's through gate… Ah, we didn't tighten the slipper from
the other day! That’s gate 6, anyway with another reverse.
The slipper is a bit loose from factory, I think,
although it'll suit drivers with heavier
throttle usage. But
it's actually too loose for me to claw its way up here.
That's gate seven cleared. Another reverse.
We're unlocked, there we go. [Music]
Now we can do the bonus at any time.
We're going to do it now because that's what we're up to.
Then, we've just got gate 8 and finish. And we're at 2 minutes 19.
So, this thing made mincemeat of this course, even with the loose slipper.
Even dropping a wheel off the side there, we haven't touched the gate,
that's good. [Music]
I’ll take a wide arc, because I can. [Music]
Okay, across to eight. Oh, that slipper. This is the
cause of a couple of reverses here, but even so,
no dramas as it pulls itself up. [Music]
Diffs are locked again.
I think. [Music]
The ESC in this truck is the 1060 from HobbyWing, WP-1060,
and the motor, [Music]
there we go, the motor is just a five…
Oh, we are unlocked, there we go. [Music]
Across the line, 3:13’56. Oh sorry, the motor is the stock,
Cross RC 35-turn 550 that it came with.
So we have the AXE 2300, we have a Brushless, waterproof servo in the front,
so fast and strong. This thing out-powers the EMO AT4
by significant margin, but it pays for it in weight. We've got
metal sliders, I’ve got brass front and rear as well.
This is made to be a trail rig. I haven't used it for rock crawling particularly
much in recent times. So it should be interesting to see
just how we go. But you can see the difference with a
powerful servo, there's ah plenty of power, plenty of speed.
Let's do it! And now we're in low, there we go. Okay, so
that was 3:13 to beat, with a bunch of reverses and no gate touches.
TRX-4 Bronco, time starts now.
The other thing that's taking weight on this thing is the winch.
We have a winch on the front bar. Rear is unlocked.
Rear’s locked again. And we have a WP-1060 just controlling the winch
which is the ESC for the entire truck on the AT4. Now I haven't
added the Cross RC tires to my tire test yet, but the Canyon Trails from Traxxas,
we know from our testing in wet and dry, to be very, very good.
So that's an advantage that the Bronco enjoys, but being so heavy,
it's such a heavy one, (we just hit a gate then,
I couldn't do much about it, either), hang on, there's a reverse. This is me walking
and talking, I forgot about gate five, sorry Bronco!
She's also a little taller than the AT4, just a little, but enough
that it touched the overhead bridge, then.
Another reverse. If I had a weaker servo I would have got
bound up and that wouldn't have made it through, just then, but we
did it, but it's messy. [Music]
What can we do about this? Reverse.
Another reverse. Sorry, Bronco!
There we go, so the weight, in this case, stopped it
from bouncing back off the rock when it came in then.
So, while weight is a disability in some cases, it definitely pays to have that
weight in others. Now, I can't avoid hitting that gate, I don't think. We're
going to try. There's a reverse, we're going to…
oh, we did avoid it! How about that! That was definitely worth the extra
two reverses that cost.
Now, I paused between reversing; that still counts as one reverse.
It only counts as another one when you change wheel direction.
I really like the FOC, that's Field Oriented Control,
electronic system in the HobbyWing AXE.
The big, heavy Bronco keeping itself upright!
And we're using the same little 700 milliamp hour 3s battery in both of
these trucks for the test.
Oh, that was messy. Another reverse.
Now we had more reverses (there’s the rear
locked again) more reverses with the Cross, but we did have a gate touch.
On my testing here we call that five points. In competitions that'd be almost
always ten points. But I’m talking and driving and
thinking about what I’m going to say and where I’m gonna stand;
that takes its toll on the quality of my driving so we call it five. I’ve found, from
experience, that gives us a better point of comparison.
And we are carefully, carefully across the line
in 317. So the timing was pretty much the same.
While we have the Bronco out and on, let's move on to the
six problem course and see how we go. TRX-4 Bronco, problem one,
first time on this course with the Traxxas Canyon Trail tires.
Previous to today, this truck has only done these problems on camera with the
Proline Swampers. Here's the FOC
of the AXE really showing
its goodness. There's such a narrow line of error here
I actually will need to crawl quite slowly with this truck
on several parts of this test, and that's okay.
We're actually not out of the woods yet.
Now we are. I've disengaged the rear.
I will say at this juncture on the GT5 I’m using, I’ve got
just the channel three button there; I can, when I’m driving, I can just
lock and unlock the rear diff, which is really handy.
Okay, on to problem two.
Again, you pay for weight: this thing is heavy. We've got metal.
This is a heavy beastie, this one. Oh wow! Wow, wow!
These tires really grabbed there and
many trucks wouldn't have. You see the pretty Samix weights in
there. They're not strictly necessary. I
actually had them surplus to needs from another
setup I was doing some time ago so they're in the Bronco just because
they're pretty. But they look good behind these wheels, eh?
Again, not necessary. You can stick any weights in here, that'd be fine.
Problem two done cleanly. Okay, now we're on to problem three, which,
from this angle, is a big ask for the Bronco.
There are two paths up here. We're going
to lock that rear again. [Music]
No, unlock it. Yeah, this is the way to do it and now we
lock the rear and it should hopefully claw its way up.
This skid plate was on the rock then.
Oh, look at the tire deformation in that!
There we are, no, I thought we had that.
Oh, she's heavy. This could be the heaviest
crawler I have! I’ll leave that footage in, that was actually quite interesting,
but we're going to hopefully get it more smoothly this time.
[Music] Alright,
I’ll leave that last footage in where we had that off.
Since we've got it out, I’ve got brass weights; I’ve got brass outers and brass
inners. This is a silly, oh my goodness,
what was I thinking? That's a metal axle housing too!
This thing is ridiculously heavy. Actually, I’ll tell you what I was
thinking: this is a towing rig. I wanted all that extra weight down low
for towing. It kind of munts this thing's crawling ability, but
this truck's built for a different purpose. Look how that holds on!
It's gonna fall, mind you. We're gonna have to have another go at
this. Alright. It's interesting, though, eh? Well, I think it is!
I’ve just unlocked the rear because I wanted
this to spin freely while these things dragged it around,
and I’ve left it, ah,
I left it unlocked. We may not make this, I don't think.
I'll have another go. Alright. Now, my rear’s still unlocked,
because, well, pointlessly actually. We’re locked,
there we go. Oh, skin of our teeth, that was!
Problem three done. Just. Right, here's our last attempt on problem
four. We've had a few and although we got close a few times,
we're getting caught up on this ridge here.
Alright, this is the point to be very careful,
but I think we'll make it if I give it the right input.
There we go, yeah. Alright, that's four for four.
Alright, problem five. [Music]
Again, my first time… oh, wow! So that was the same as the, uh,
the same as the Cross EMO AT4, it didn't get hung up there, and
many trucks do. So, this is my first time with the Bronco on
the Canyon Trails, I’m gonna fix the camera so you can see what's
going on, this is the first time with the
Bronco on the Canyon Trail wheels on these problems. And
problem four was a challenge, but it did it!
I think it'll do five, no worries. I’ve got to fix that body, it's popped out.
Yeah, there we go, no trouble. That's problem five done.
Alright, here's the big one: problem six. [Music]
This is the problem that makes or breaks rigs; it's getting from here
over that. I'm going to
unlock the rear. [Music]
Take a little reverse. Having trouble getting the front around there with the
diffs all locked up, like they are. Lockers are good for traction but
they have a negative impact on steering.
Oh, there we go, there we go! I’m going to unlock the rear.
I want to be able to drag the front around, there we go, now it's locked again.
This is the only chance this car has of getting up.
I don't know if it's going to do it, but it's kind of exciting it got this far! I
reckon it will do it at this point. Yes!
[Music] There you go!
So the Bronco has done all six problems! Couldn't do that with the Proline
Super Swampers, but it did it with the Canyon Trails!
They are on weighted wheels. Now the AT4 EMO is also on weighted wheels but these
guys have a very similar performance. This thing struggled a little bit more
than the AT4, but it does also have extra weight. We've got quite a lot of extra
weight in here, even the axle housings are metal. That's because I’ve set this
thing up to be a towing machine on the trails.
It's all that extra weight I’ve added really detracts from its crawling
ability, I think. But uh tires, tires and line choice are pretty big. Now
my line choice is pretty consistent because it's the same driver, same
experience, same truck, same radio (GT5 for both), the geometry of the rigs is a
little different, but even with all the extra weight, the Bronco managed to pull
off all six problems. It felt they were pretty similar. It was
3:13 versus 3:17, so the timing was similar. They're both brilliant trucks. Which one
should you buy? If you want access to an enormous aftermarket, the TRX4 has that
covered. But the EMO AT4 I think is going to be with us for a while.
It is a very, very good truck. I would say, personally, if I was only going to
buy one, in this case
oh, I’d be buying on price, they're that similar.
I haven't tested the AT4 over the long term, yet. This is four years old. I bought
it near when it first came out and it has had hours upon hours upon hours on
the rocks, on the trails, it's taken so many tumbles. I removed the mirrors a
long time ago so that it would slip through stuff.
It just keeps going and going and going, and the rock lights are awesome, as well.
The AT4, I suspect, won't be quite as durable, but my initial experience with
it so far is that it has really stood up to it. I think, long-term, it's going to
be quite a good rig, but they're both very good. We're living
in a golden age for rock crawling, I think, at the moment, things are
available, they're getting cheaper all the time. These are both really, really
good rigs. Thank you so much for joining me. Throw me a Like if this was an
interesting comparison and I will see you next time on RC-TNT.
Now if you want to see the full review I did of the EMO AT4, you can find that
here. That has all the
details about this very interesting rig and I very much like it. If you'd like to
see how the TRX-4 Bronco has done in the past, check out my ‘rig versus rig’
playlist, that is here now, and this shows the Bronco going against a bunch of
different trucks. But it always is on the Proline Swampers, so the Canyon Trails
really woke this thing up. And so, rubber matters.
Who knew?