Radio Controlled rock crawling has really taken off in the past couple of years and with it, a few different variations have evolved. It all started with guys trying to put together rock crawlers from older monster truck kits like the Tamiya TLT and the Clod buster because no one made a “rock crawler” kit.
As the crawling scene really started to blow up, the large companies took notice and you started to see rock crawler kits and aftermarket parts (i.e. tires, wheels, etc…) hit the market in a big way. Now you have the 2.2 and 1.9 (wheel size) crawlers making up the largest segment of the crawler market, and I’ve settled on the 1.9 size.
I’ve been a scale model and R.C. enthusiast off and on since the age of twelve, and I’m not going to tell you how old I am now so let’s just say I’ve been doing this a long time. It was RC Crawling that got me back into the RC game, and I started out with a 2.2 Axial/Tamiya, TLT Axled, Frankenstein monster of sorts a friend of mine picked up for me on eBay as a Birthday gift. The truck has morphed from a 2.2 comp crawler to a 2.2 “scaler” and now has been stripped of its axles for a custom 1.9 scale truck build.
The true to life detail and scale realism of the 1.9 Trail trucks is really what drew me into the category and I guess it’s a large enough market for companies like Axial to produce trucks like the SCX10 and Pro-line to produce their line of scale bodies and accessories. I guess you could say the 1.9 scale truck has been around (and in my heart) for a long time, way longer than the 2.2 class. If you look at the Tamiya F-350 and Toyota Hilux truck, the Hilux has been around since the early 1980’s and they just re-released their 1.9 CC-01 Jeep Wrangler kit! Leave it up to Tamiya to be WAY ahead of the class.
You really can’t beat getting together with your scale truck buddies, enjoying a few cold beverages and hitting the trail. I guess you could say I’m pretty stoked about the 1.9 scale truck class as a whole (I own three) and I’m very excited to see where the future will take this area of the hobby.
Jay Huskey, Media & Development