The Demon was an impulse buy. I was already aware of (and a fan of) Cross RC by way of my military UC6 and BC8
trucks. I didn't own any of their 1/10 scale crawlers but had my
eye on them for some time. I liked the chassis of the SG-4 and
SR-4 but was not very enthusiastic about the body. The SU-4 solved
that with its SUV styling and full interior. Still, I didn't
really need another trail truck so resolved not to buy it. Then
one day I want to the LHS for paint and there it was, the flagship
version, sitting on the shelf. I was powerless in its
presence. I went home with it and forgot the paint.This is a scale trail truck with metal chassis rails, solid axles, and 4-link suspension. The transmission uses a gear reduction unit and separate transfer case. A brushed motor is included. The wheels are metal beadlocks and the tires include two stage foams with a memory foam inner. The body is hard molded and includes a full interior with light kit in the box. The chassis uses molded inner fenders as well for a closed up final look. The flagship version contains all the options with almost all the moving and structural parts being metal.
I usually like to use brushed motors in my crawlers for the smoothness, but I was tempted by the new HobbyWing AXE FOC (Field Oriented Control) system. I had actually already purchased the power system and was going to retrofit it into one of my other models, but then decided it would be a perfect match here. It is. Besides incredible low speed performance, the benefit of this system is speed linearity. By that I mean that you are actually commanding a speed, not a power setting. So if I move the throttle to 40% then it moves at 40% speed whether it is going uphill, downhill, or on the level. No change in speed. This is really useful for crawling. It is not so good for pavement because if you just let off the throttle then it stops abruptly like a full drag brake. You need to train yourself (or program your radio) to make slow throttle changes.
This is an extremely capable crawler, one of my best. The ground clearance and traction are excellent. It has a reasonably tight steering lock and incredible approach angle. Add to all that the fact that it looks really good, and I've ended up with one of my favorite models by chance. I've been pleased with Cross RC across the board whenever building one of their products. If there is any compliant, it is that there are a few errors in the instructions and a couple of the part bags didn't have exactly the right hardware, but that didn't cause me any problem. I haven't made any changes or upgrades to this model since it seems just right as it is.
Update: This model was destroyed in the 2022 fire. It is no longer available so cannot be replaced.
 Page 1: Building the Chassis |
 Page 2: Building the Body |
 Page 3: Final Photos |