The Axial XR10 Design Team: Brandon Coonce was the lead designer for the project, but one key difference with Axial is that you won't ever see any one designer...More

The Axial XR10 Design Team: Brandon Coonce was the lead designer for the project, but one key difference with Axial is that you won't ever see any one designer take credit for the sole development of a product. Instead, the development and design of each project is a culmination of multiple individuals’ input. The end result is a well thought out and cohesive product stemmed from multiple perspectives. Without the input from Senior Lead Designer, Matt Kearney, “The Icon" Brad Dumont, and the rest of the staff at Axial, the XR10 may not have turned out as successfully as it has. DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE XR10: “When we first started this project, I knew we had to go well beyond anything that was out in the market; something that would revitalize the crawling segment by becoming more competitive in the 2.2 class, bringing new people into crawling, and creating the easiest 2.2 competitive comp crawler to set up at a great price point. As the leading rock crawling manufacturer in our industry, we wanted to show that we care about the sport just as much as our customers do. We took our experience from the award-winning AX10 and learned from the other entries in the crawler market to decide on a general direction. After spending extra time thinking and re-thinking every facet of the project, often times throwing out 90% of our work to prevent compromising our final goal, the end result was the XR10.” - Brandon Coonce and the Axial Design Team When did the design process start? We started the design process in mid August 2009, and we started tooling for the project in late February. The tools of the trade: All of our design work is done on PC workstations using SolidWorks 2010. Where do you start when designing a vehicle like the XR10? When starting the XR10 from the ground up we knew that it had to have individually powered axles, or “MOA” (Motor-on-Axle). The ability to power the axles individually for finite control is important. We took our experience from the AX10 and learned from the other entries in the crawler market to decide on a general direction. The axles were the key component and the most time was spent here investigating different styles to achieve the best ground clearance and lowest center of gravity without any sacrifices in other areas. Once the basic drive train was laid out we focused on adjustability and providing the customer with an axle that is complete out of the box. During the entire design process the chassis and suspension geometry played a major role in the placement of all the components. What's the final drive ratio? This is an important topic on the XR10. We tried quite a few different gear ratio’s and settled on 37.9:1 using the included 14T pinion in the kit. This is one of the highest gear ratios in the crawling market currently. Reason for this is wheel speed and run time. The two go hand in hand. Now using the XR10 you will be able to achieve more wheel speed with a higher turn motor (55T) giving you better run times. With the current advancement in motors and ESC’s available today you can still achieve a controlled low speed crawl with the gear ratio in the XR10. What was the hardest to design on the XR10? The style of gear reduction we decided on required a lot of work to achieve a compact and strong drive train. Working around this drive train and incorporating all the adjustment in the axle required some time. Steering was the biggest issue, and we wanted to be able to clock the motors (adjust the height and clearance) and still have the steering move with the axle without affecting the caster. Some people may think a product is developed basically overnight, but what exactly is involved in the overall design process from concept to completion? This definitely isn’t the case. Product design and development is a very time intensive process. We may have sent off the drawings for tooling in February, but once you start to see prototypes and initial samples, you may stumble upon features that need to be changed. Whether the changes include the product’s strength, aesthetics, or overall functionality, it’s definitely something most people don’t realize when they are viewing a completed product. The simplest items can sometimes require the most attention. Luckily with the support of the R&D Team, these potential problems or features were spotted early and I believe that the final product has reflected the collaborative effort that has gone into the XR10.Less