We here at RPP Hobby have had our eyes on the Team Durango DEX410 ever since the first pictures started circulating the internet. Tons of blingy goodness, geared diffs and an 8 scale buggy inspired design? Sounds like a great combination! In this article, we take a look at Durango’s first offering for the U.S. market, the DEX410R 1/10 4wd Electric Buggy Kit. Designated the “more approchable” Durango, the DEX410R is priced ($350) to compete with the Associated B44, Losi XXX-4 and similar vehicles and thus does not include some of the aluminum items found on Durango’s flagship 4wd buggy, the DEX410 2010 Spec.
The manual is full color and keeps everything clear during assembly.
We epecially like the warnings as they match our current RPP Hobby shirts!
All parts are organized into lettered bags that correspond to the steps in the assembly manual.
Now, we’re not going to go through every detail of the kit here, rather we are going to give an overview of the build process. Kind of like a sports highlight show!
Assembly starts with building the middle slipper clutch/spur gear setup. One thing that we do is compress all the springs a few times before installing them onto a new vehicle. This is because springs tend to lose a little length after the first few compressions. This shortening can cause inconsistencies as the spring seats itself over the first few runs.
Here’s a shot of the complete slipper setup. Gotta love the lightening holes on the hubs!
After the slipper it’s right into the diffs. The Differentials on the DEX410R are what set it out from the crowd. Instead of the traditional ball diff such as those found on the AE B44, the DEX410R features 8 Scale buggy style fluid-filled geared differentials. One advantage of geared diffs is that they do not slip, meaning the Durango should be a rocket ship down the straights!
On our car we used 7K Mugen Silicone Diff Oil in the front diff and the kit-supplied Durango 2K in the rear diff.
From there it was onto building the center universals. Here it becomes apparent that Team Durango pays attention to the details, all of the driveline components are laser-etched with their length and even the pin size!
After the drivelines are assembled, it’s time to stick the main chassis together. The DEX410R features an aluminum main chassis that has plastic “flex control” side plates to keep the dirt out. Durango has also incorporated a transponder mount into the right side plate! It’s all in the details people! If you look closely, you will notice that we opted to install the upgraded aluminum front arm mounts (TDR330006 and TDR330004)
This kit has one of the coolest steering setups of any vehicle we’ve seen. The servo fits into a mount that goes all the way across the front of the chassis and also holds the ball bearing supported bellcrank setup.
For steering duties we are using the awesome Savox SC1257TG Digital Titanium Gear servo. With a transit of .07 seconds and torque output of 139oz this servo gets the job done RIGHT. In testing with the RPP Hobby Race Team the Savox line of servos have proven to be very reliable and super smooth. They are quickly becoming the Team’s top choice for servos!
Like most 4wd electric buggies, wiring the car can be a bit of a……job. In this shot you can see that we used a trick little wire clip called a wire keeper from Calandra Racing. These things are the best kept secret in R/C and are just invaluable when it comes to cleaning up a wire install!
After the steering/servo setup is mounted in the car, it’s basically just bolting on the bulkheads and shock towers and then we get to the fun stuff! One thing that we just absolutely love about this car is how easy it is to install/remove the gearboxes. Basically, 4 bolts and the gear box slides right out of either end of the car! TRICK! This makes diff mantenance/oil changes a breeze!
At that point it’s time to build the suspension up. The DEX410R uses your standard camberlink upper/a-arm lower suspension setup that is found on most rc vehicles these days. We did install Team Durango’s Titanium Camber links/tie rods (TDR330045) on our car for the extra strength. Durango setup the car to use pin drive rear wheels and hex drive front wheels meaning that AE B44 Wheels should be a direct fit. Team Durango Wheels are of real good quality and the price is super low. At $5/pr they are probably the lowest price for wheels on the market!
Hard anodized bodies, bleeder caps, dual seals and prescision machining make for some truely high end shock absorbers! When it comes to shocks, smooth is the name of the game and these Durango units do not disapoint!
Here they are installed on the front end of the DEX410R. This car sure is pretty!
Some other things we thought we cool were the aluminum motor mount and the finned rear skidplate.
Here’s a shot of the completed chassis before the rest of the electronics were installed!
To power our DEX410R, we went with the LRP SXX TC Spec. Electronic Speed Control and Vector X12 7.5 motor combination. This system is super reliable and makes AWESEOME horsepower!
Like we said earlier, wiring a 4wd electric buggy can be a bit of a “job”. Well the DEX410R is no different, it definitely takes some planning and a bit of creative problem solving to come up with a neat wiring installation. One thing that was a pleasant suprise was the use of a removable plastic tray for the ESC and Receiver to sit on. This means it’s possible to take the electronics out with just 2 screws and a minimum of disruption to your wiring job! NICE!
Here’s how we mounted the LRP TC Spec. ESC alongside an Airtronics 92477 FHSS-3 Receiver. Remember those CRC Wire Keepers we mentioned earlier? We ended up using 3 in total. One on the front of the servo, one on the back and one on top of the receiver to secure our wiring. The LRP cap is secured via double sided tape to the top of the receiver.
For the motor, we wanted to make sure the wires did not come into contact with any moving driveline parts so we had to get creative with the orange wire and run it in from the front of the chassis. We also opted to use a Novak 4″ short sensor wire instead of the provided 200mm unit.
We are pretty proud of this wiring job! In this shot you can see the AMB transponder mounted on the DEX410R’s sideplate.
Racer’s Edge Batteries have been a longtime favorite of the RPP Hobby Team. We used their new 5200 45c saddle pack to power our DEX410R.
Fits like a glove and horsepower is off the chart; this pack dumps harder than Sandra Bullock Dumped Jesse James!
Fail
Couldn’t resist on that one! Anyway, here’s a shot of the completed chassis before we mounted up the body and some Pro-Line Holeshot 2.0 tires.
And here’s “DEX” before the first run out at J&S Raceway. Paint by Blake Cannon of 707 Graphics.
How does the DEX410R fare on track? Glad you asked! From the very first lap at J&S we could tell that this car would be very fast…and it was very fast indeed! Team Driver Joe Nolasco easily lapped the field to take home the win in 4wd Modified!
All in all, the entire RPP Crew can agree that the Team Durango DEX410R is going to be a top contender in the 1/10 4wd Buggy class! Thanks for reading our review of this awesome kit! Checkout our Team Setup page for the setup sheet used!
Here’s a gallery of all the images used in this article:
