In the search for maximum bash performance, you just can’t overlook tires. A bad set of tires will make your truck feel like it is on ice, where as outstanding kicks can make your truck feel like it is glued to the ground.
The crew over at Pro-Line are the world’s biggest experts on rc tires. A few months ago P-L sent us a set of their new Trencher Pre-Mounts for the Traxxas X-Maxx. Now, Trenchers are arguably the single best bashing tire on this planet, hence the reason we couldn’t wait to give them a try. About 2 minutes after we received them, they were mounted up to our in-house X-Max for some serious real-world testing. Keep on reading get our take on Pro-Line’s Trencher pre-mounts for the X-Maxx…
From: Pro-Line
Direct Links: Trencher 4.3″ Pro-Loc Pre-Mounts For X-Maxx
Review By: Cubby
Pics By: T-Mohr
Quick Specs-
Height- 8.60″!!!
Width- 4.57″
Weight- 1.4lbs
Over-sized tire design
Reinforced tire bead
Foam inserts standard
Pro-Loc Bead Technology
Blacked-out Impulse wheel styling
Extra thick wheel design for durability
Part Number- #10151-13
Street Pricing Per Pair- $106
Set-Up And Install Notes- We tell ya what, it just doesn’t get any easier than bolting up a set of pre-mounts. Switching from the stockers easily took less than 5 minutes and only required the use of a 17mm wheel wrench.
How They Drive- Ummmmmmmmmmmmm… Every time we think Badlands are THE basher tire to end all basher tires, we get another set of Trenchers. 🙂
Right out of the box, it was easy to see that the Trenchers were somewhat taller (and heavier) than the stock tires. The Trenchers are also taller and heavier than 4.3″ Badlands, making the Trenchers some of the meanest tires available for the X-Maxx.
On the upside, the 4.3″ Trenchers are super tall (the tires come in at nearly 9″ in diameter) and that really helps when the going gets extreme. The larger diameter not only helps to soak up huge landings (to a small degree), but also makes it easier to fly over large rocks, bumps, tree stumps, etc. The extra weight of all that rubber comes in handy doing backflips as well. The extra rotating mass simply makes it reasier to gas it and pull off a backflip. And still on the upside, there is a LOT of rubber tread on the Trenchers, thus allowing them to wear for what seems like forever.
We only found one downside from the added size of the Trenchers, motor temps. It does take more power to turn those beasts over, so be sure and keep an eye on your motor temps during your first couple of runs. Our test truck was dialed for gearing and we mostly ran on cooler days (sub 80 degrees) so we didn’t have any motor temp issues, but keep on eye on yours just in case.
Grass- Oh ya, the Trencher seem to live to chew up grass. Side bite is good, but forward bite is top notch. If grass is your main playing field, you will love the Trenchers.
Dirt- We found the Trenches best in soft, but not loamy, dirt. Of course they did a good job in loam/sand/mud, but we found them best in good old everyday dirt (think empty corner lot, empty dirt area at your local park, etc). In deep mud they were total beasts, providing excellent traction, while also “cleaning out” its tread quite easily. If dirt is where you drive, you will be amazed with the newfound traction your X-Maxx will have.
Pavement- An unexpected surprise was how well they handled on pavement, where their relatively soft tread easily managed to find decent grip. Also of note, some tires get ruined by running just a couple packs on pavement, that was not the case with the Trenchers. The size and depth of the Trencher’s lugs allow them to last a very long time, even when driving on pavement.
Durability- We’ve already talked about the long wear characteristics of the Trenchers, but we also did the best we could to simply destroy them. Needless to say, we were not successful and our Trenchers are still doing service on our X-Maxx today. While the tire compound is soft enough for seriously traction, it is also hard enough for long wear, and is also hard enough to reduce balloon compared to the stock tires. We also tried to throw a bead (holding the truck WFO 8S), but that just wasn’t happening thanks to the Pro-Loc bead system.
Final Verdict- Hands down the Pro-Line Trencher pre-mounts are our favorite overall bash tire for the mighty X-Maxx. They excel in providing excellent grip across a wide variety of surfaces, plus ours have lasted for what seems like forever! The BigSquidRC Bash Crew are HUGE fans of the Trencher pre-mounts for the X-Maxx and can very highly recommend them to you.
