After Every Run: 10 Minutes Now, Fewer Rebuilds Later
Part of the Crawler Tools & Guides series.
You already paid for the chassis. Bearings, shock seals, and a set of rod ends are the cheap parts. Bag the truck dirty because you're tired, and you get to spend a Saturday chasing grit through a portal. Ten minutes now is a lot cheaper than that.
TL;DR
- After every run: battery out, look it over, brush the shock shafts, spin each wheel by hand, snug the obvious screws.
- Dirt on a shock shaft is how you kill a seal. A rag beats a pressure washer.
- Creek, mud, snow: low-pressure rinse, blow dry, water-displacing oil on metal. Not on the motor windings. Not WD-40 as a standing lube.
- Gritty, notchy, rusty, or play in a bearing: replace it. Don't "clean it one more time" into dirty grease.
- Trail rig that stays mostly dry: about a year on the hub and axle bearings if you do this. Creek or mud is still same-day. Not a factory hour rating.
That's the whole post. The rest is the why.
After every run
Battery out first. Then look. Chassis, links, rod ends, wheel nuts, pinion set screw, servo horn screw. Loose now is cheaper than loose on the next ledge.
Brush packed dirt off the shock shafts and the seal faces. Axial's shock-care writeup is blunt about it: dirt on the shaft is the usual killer. Wet paper towel. Not a pressure washer.
Spin each wheel by hand. Grinding, notchiness, or play means that corner doesn't wait for "maintenance day." If you've got a slipper, dig, or two-speed, click through it once while you're there.
Water, mud, snow
Traxxas and Horizon manuals say almost the same thing after a wet run. Water doesn't care who molded the plastic. Depends how deep the hole was, honestly, but the steps don't.
- Drain the tires. Body off, truck inverted, a little throttle. Hands clear.
- Battery out. Blow the connector recesses dry.
- Rinse mud with a low-pressure hose. Never a pressure washer. Don't aim down axle tubes, into the trans, or at bearings.
- Blow it off. Water-displacing light oil on bearings, fasteners, other metal. Not on the motor windings. Not on the can.
- Let it drip for a few hours. It will.
If it sat wet about a week, Traxxas wants the portals and trans opened: dry, clean, re-grease the metal gears. Nylon gears don't get grease. Axial still lists WD-40 as a cleaner and rust preventative on hardware. Fine for that. It is not gear grease, and it is a lousy standing lubricant for bearings. Displace the water, then put real oil or grease where it belongs.
When a bearing is done
On a trail rig that sees dirt more than creeks, a year is a fair expectation for hub and axle bearings if you actually do the ten minutes. That's field practice, not a warranty. Life is still how you ran it. A creek day is same-day work.
If it feels gritty spun dry in your fingers, has play, shows rust under the shield, or stays notchy after you cleaned it, replace it. A sealed chrome bearing that only feels a little dry can get flushed and re-oiled once. Silt-packed from a wet run: new bearing. Don't put a "serviced" one back into a portal that still has dirty grease.
The cheap hour
It's the hour you already have at the tailgate. Skip it and the bill shows up as a pitted shaft, a packed portal, or a truck that sits because you don't want to open it. Small time now saves the big time and the money later.
What's next
Shocks are the other half. Oil weight and when to rebuild is its own post. Until then: if the shaft is scored or the cap weeps, you're already late.
More setup math and calculators live on the Crawler Tools & Guides page, including the Gearing Calculator for drivetrain numbers and the Crawler Geometry Tool for the links.