Monster Truck Madness – Discussing Upgraded Shocks for the Axial SMT10

I got a good question this week from a reader that I’m sure other Axial SMT10 owners may have –

Hi Doug,

I recently purchased and assembled a new smt10 kit and have finally got it up and running and so far am impressed with the overall performance, but I was wondering if you have and advice on suspension setup? In the trigger king videos I have watched the trucks seem to have much more suspension travel and weight transfer than my truck. Do you have any recommendations? I am currently using the stock, very leaky, kit shocks.

Thanks,
Chris

Thanks, Chris. So, let’s talk about the SMT10 stock shocks. I actually think they are pretty decent for stockers, minus the whole leaky part that some develop. If you have problems with your shocks holding oil, the cheapest fix would be to go to your local hobby shop and see if you can snag some fatter o-rings that help seal off the reservoir a bit better and a heavier oil (30ish weight). That will stiffen the truck up and hopefully allow the shocks to work as they should.

Buuuut, if you are really wanting to get after it, and given that the e-mail says you are actively watching monster truck competition videos I’d say that’s the case, you will want some aftermarket goodies. There are a myriad of options out there, but I’ll give you two popular choices among racers.

The first would be Pro-Line 5″ PowerStroke XT Shocks. These are very tough pieces of kit, with a large variety of available spring options to fine tune for whatever surface you are running on or style of driving you are participating in. Make sure you get the 5″ length shocks, as you need that extra space to run your shocks at the highest mounting point on the chassis to keep your 4 link bars parallel with the ground and center of gravity low, while also allowing for plenty of travel. If you are heavy into tuning, this is your best option.

If you are wanting something a bit simpler to work with and a smidge more budget friendly, go with 120mm RC4WD King Off-Road Dual Spring Shocks. A few guys in my club have been using these to great effect, winning both racing and freestyle competitions. Pick your shock oil, bolt them up and run them hard. They’ve also proven to be tough.

I hope that helps. Let me know what you go with and send pics please!

As always, if you have any monster truck related questions you can send them to doug @ bigsquidrc dot com. Keep it on all 4’s!