Traxxas Slash 4x4 Platinum Edition review

[Please excuse this super-ugly paintjob, it was the first RC car I painted]

I’m going to change things up a little bit and try to have a more formalized approach to reviews.  Hopefully this reads a little better and is a little bit more of a standardized and comprehensible way to read my thoughts on the car.

My first RC car was a Stampede 4x4, which is a close cousin of the Slash.  Most of the parts between the two cars are interchangeable.  The Stampede was good, but I started driving primarily on an indoor track, and it was not really the right vehicle for that environment.  So I decided to go more “kit” and the Slash 4x4 was an easy choice.  The Platinum edition is really the best version to get (there are probably like 10 different versions of the Slash 4x4) in my opinion, because you get everything you need, and nothing you don’t.  You get all the hop-ups of the Ultimate Edition (aluminum carriers, center diff, GTR shocks, LCG chassis), but you don’t pay extra for the basic radio and useless battery/charger, and you get a body you can paint yourself. 

The Traxxas Slash 4x4 is the most popular hobby-grade RC car on the market.  The Slash, in particular, launched an entire segment of vehicle (short course truck) that persists today.  After the success of the Slash, every major manufacturer came out with their competing product, both in 2WD and 4WD format.

Traxxas themselves came out with a host of 4x4′s based on this design, including the Stampede 4x4, the Rally, the XO-1, and of course the Slash 4x4.


Overview

The Slash 4x4 is probably the most versatile RC car available.  You can bash the car, you can make it a road car, turn it into a monster truck, you can race it, you can go indoor, outdoor, in the snow, even turn it into a…  boat ?!!?!?!

In addition to being versatile, the car is very newbie-friendly.  This is true of Traxxas cars in general, which are targeted to the more casual driver/less hardcore RC enthusiast.


Build:  N/A

Ha!  There is no build, this car comes Ready-to-Run (RTR).  Ok, well, almost ready-to-run, the Platinum edition requires a radio, receiver, a battery and some paint, but it’s 90% complete.  I chose to pair the car with a Futaba 3PL which is a much better radio than the Traxxas TQi that comes with the other Slashes.


Performance:  5

The Slash is kind of a basic car, with basic adjustments you can make.  There are 3 holes of shock tower mounts, 4 holes of camber link adjustments on the tower, and the standard set of adjustments you can make with camber and steering links.  Out of the box, the Velineon system is plenty fast on 2S, and you can go to 3S if you want.

However, it’s not really a race-level car.  The kit stuff is OK (plastic LCG chassis, GTR aluminum shocks), and with some basic setup of camber and roll centers and tires it drives reasonably well.  The stock tires are pretty sticky for pavement, but not really that great otherwise.  It tends to nose-dive off jumps.  Cornering is actually one of its stronger points, and is tunable with springs and swaybars to get as much or as little rotation as you want.

The 4WD system works pretty well.  With the 3 diffs (center, front and rear) and slipper clutch, you can tune as much or as little power transfer as works for you.  This car has pretty good traction, and tunable traction as well.

The shocks on this car are decent – they don’t have the smoothness of race-grade shocks (when compared to TLR or Tekno shocks).  But they will work fine for 95% of people and are very durable.

Probably the only kit part that sucks is the servo.  It’s plastic, it’s weak, it’s slow -- it’s a $20 part that really should be tossed for a faster, stronger one.  The servo saver protects it, but once you get a stronger servo you'll want to look into getting a stronger servo saver as it tends to give in high-traction situations.

Overall it's a solid performer, one of the better RTR's, but not at the level of the race kits.


Durability: 8

This is the strongest point of the car.  Traxxas cars are known for being bash-friendly, mainly because the cars are very tough.  I let my sons drive my car all the time, and while things do break, the cars go through a LOT and I find the plastics to have just the right balance of flex for durability and stiffness for performance.  Ask anyone, and you would be hard-pressed to find a tougher car.  Stuff does break if you slam into walls or crash into the face of jumps, but considering the amount of abuse these cars tend to take, I give the durability high marks.

The only weak part of the drivetrain is that the gear diffs tend to leak through the outdrives.  LEM o-rings are a nice upgrade that are more durable.


Value:  7

Traxxas cars are not cheap, in fact they tend to be some of the most expensive RTR cars you can buy.  The Slash 4x4 Platinum costs $400.  But considering it comes with a solid ESC and motor, that’s not a bad price.


Support:  10

This is another area where the car shines.  The customer service for this car is excellent.  Even if you burn out your ESC or motor, they will usually swap it out for a smallish trade-in fee.  I don’t know if there is another manufacturer that has more support than Traxxas.

The aftermarket parts for this car is also phenomenal.  You can literally change out every single part on this car for an aftermarket part if you want.

Traxxas parts are also the most heavily stocked items in the country, pretty much every local hobby store will have the most common parts, which is nice when you break an A-arm and want to go driving again that day.


Dislikes

As mentioned earlier, the servo pretty much sucks.  The hinge pins on the left arms also tend to back out which is annoying.  This is easily fixed with STRC or Lunsford parts, but you would think that would’ve come up with a solution by now.

I can’t really complain about much else about the car.  The car is a little vague when compared to race cars, but that’s intrinsic to the use of softer plastics that are more durable.  The chassis also has a little too much flex – I fixed that with a chassis brace.


Conclusion

The Slash 4x4 is a great first RC car.  It’s very newbie friendly, it’s easy to get parts, it’s very durable, and you can always modify the car to your liking.  It worked out so well for me, I ended up converting my Stampede 4x4 to a Slash 4x4 to have as a backup.

Highly recommended unless you are looking for a true race/track car.