Scale Crawler – The Axial Racing Falken Tires Wrangler G6

We all want to tackle the toughest terrain on the planet with the ultimate crawler JK Wrangler. However, budget will tend to kill that idea very quickly and the wife will probably kill you for taking the daily driver out of commission for several months. Instead, it might be easier to do that dream ride on a scaled-down budget with a scale JK. Axial has created a great lineup of JK-bodied chassis to chase that dream ride. Now, they have introduced the Falken Tires edition of the Jeep Wrangler G6 SCX10.

It’s more than just a new body on the venerable SCX10 chassis. Right now, this is the only way to get your hands on the newest tire from Falken: the WildPeak M/T. You won’t be able to buy the full-scale tire until later this year, but you can give it a scale try right now thanks to the Falken Edition G6.

The scale WildPeak M/Ts measure out at 4.7 inches tall, 1.5 inches wide, and will fit on 1.9-inch wheels. The tires are molded in the R35 compound, so they will be more than capable out of the box. For the Falken G6, they are pre-mounted on a set of 1.9-inch Walker Evans Racing wheels in black.

That’s not the only thing that separates this SCX10 from the rest of the crawler chassis out there. Starting with the body, it is a dovetailed version of the Wrangler G6 body with the Falken Tires livery painted on. The dovetailed body gives you extra clearance for that tight section of your favorite trail. This is an officially Jeep-licensed body that is molded in .040-inch polycarbonate plastic to take the bashing that comes with crawling.

The interior features a fully molded interior with steering wheel, dovetailed cage, and five-pod light bar mounted to the windshield. The light bar doesn’t come with LEDs, but you can purchase a set from Axial for night crawling. You can also make them look like PIAA lights with the included PIAA light grille covers.

You’ll also get a Poison Spyder Rock Brawler bumper on the front. It’s not just a lookalike, as it features mounting holes for the LED lights, a stinger bar for front protection, and mounting points for D-rings. Those D-rings work just like they do in real life by giving you a realistic recovery point, which is important in the G6 Challenge where they do not allow for the “hand of God”, or recovery by moving your rig by hand. In the G6, if you can’t do it in full-scale, you can’t do it there either.

The chassis features a four-link rear suspension and triangulated three-link front for maximum articulation. The oil-filled, dual-rate shocks offer the best handling while on the trail. The servo is the Tactic Servo that features internal metal gears and provides 151 oz-in of torque.

The Falken Edition G6 uses the new Axial AE-5 ESC, which is not only three-cell (3S) LiPo-capable out of the box, but also is waterproof. Not using a LiPo battery? You can switch the ESC’s battery protection profile using a simple jumper. You don’t need to program it, and you don’t have to worry about weird button procedures. Just change the jumper and you’re off. You can also select the Drag Brake profile with the second jumper — again no programming or procedures.

Finally, the Falken Edition G6 uses the updated version of the WB8 HD Wildboar Driveshaft. It features a larger-diameter cross pin and an M4 screw shaft for far more strength. Gone are the hollow shafts. Instead, there are new center-splined slider shafts that float between the front and rear of each drive shaft for reduced drive shaft flex. The cross pin design makes maintenance easier as you no longer have set screws to worry about.

Once a model becomes available, we’ll get our hands on one from Axial Racing for a full test. Be sure to look out for future tests on more Axial Models.