By Brandon Wilcox

*This kit is discontinued, but feel free to read the review and enjoy the pictures!

What is the roc-max? It is a quality chassis kit for the traxxas emaxx that converts a stock emaxx into a very capable competition level RC rock crawler. When I first got my hands on the roc-max professional kit I said to myself, wow this kit is light; I opened up the bag and looked at everything included and I was shocked. Everything you need to complete the pro kit was included, screws, washers, battery hold downs, mounts for servos, steering links, and of course the great plastic chassis made out of delrin. The delrin material that this kit is made out of is super light, yet super strong, even stronger then some metals. I was eager to get this kit together; I had seen a prototype version just a week before at a lovers leap crawl in CT.

Assembly was very easy; the directions were great and very clear. The only thing needed to put this truck together was a screwdriver, the included hexes, and 2 pieces of wood. The pieces of wood are used to properly mount the pivot tubes inside the axle supports, it's very easy and by following the directions and looking at the pictures any amateur can put together this entire kit in under an hour. For electronics I went all stock, I used the stock steering servo for the rear steer, and I purchased a hitec 645 servo for the front steering. I stuck with the stock evx speed control, I just modded it so it will run on one battery. For motors I had laying around some spare 45t lathe motors, but the stock titan motors are fine for crawling if your just starting out, just remember to gear down your truck for crawling. Everything I needed was pulled off my emaxx, I already had some aftermarket skid plates, RPM lower A arms, and aluminum body mounts so I decided to use those, they are stronger then plastic and look better too. That's the first thing I really liked about the roc-max, I can still use aftermarket parts that make the truck look better and perform better. Another nice feature about this truck is the fact that so many hobby shops carry traxxas parts, unlike the clod buster parts which are obsolete in hobby shops.

Once the truck was together I mounted my brand new Moab tires on some shinny new aluminum rims I got off of eBay, the truck is starting to look good. I mounted my battery in the front of the truck to help with vertical climbs. I also tidied up the wiring with some zip ties to keep the truck nice and clean looking. Here is a shot of underneath the truck, im using the stock plastic skid plate in the front and an aluminum skid plate in the back.

One thing that I did not do was bend the edge of the skid plates up, this will make sure you don't get caught up on things, And should be easy to do provided you have a good heat source. Im going to be replacing these skid plates with titanium ones in the future so I just left them alone for now. Here is a picture of the finished truck after putting on my new body. The body is a pro-line F350 body and the paint job looks absolutely stunning!

Once the truck was built I decided to test it indoors before I brought it outside. The first thing I climbed was my couch, a completely vertical couch about 14" tall from the ground. It climbed right up! I was feeling really confident in the truck after this; after all I've only seen a couple stick clods do this before. I headed over to my stairs and starting climbing them. I really liked the feel of the truck, and the new suspension system. Its not like a standard system, there is no sag or travel, it only allows articulation. This is perfect for rock crawling as we are going so slow and trying to clear different obstacles, we don't want to sag and lose ground clearance, we just want to articulate and get over the object. This is exactly what happened; the truck went right up the stairs no problems.

After playing with the truck indoors, I threw on my crappy body on the roc-max and headed to my local dam. The first rock I climbed was a 13-14" practically vertical face. Here is a picture of me climbing right up.

As you can see I decided to use my old imex red rock crawler tires, I didn't want to break in my new Moab's on aluminum rims just yet. I was very happy with the truck; it climbed up mostly everything I threw at it. It even climbed this very steep rock with moss on it, I really like how the truck was set up at this point.

After running threw 1 battery pack, I took the roc-max back to my condo to climb over some steep hills of small rock. It was really fun. The roc-max had no trouble finding a line up the hill and taking it, and I loved how the suspension did not sag, it makes for easy climbing on small sharp rocks.

Here is an overall rating for the truck:

Design 10/10
Instructions 10/10
Assembly 10/10
Performance on steep rock climbs 10/10
Performance on small sharp rock 9/10
Stair Climbing 8/10

Advantages:
1. Parts Availability
2. Newer Technology
3. No clod stall
4. Amazing horizontal climbing thanks to the width and WB of the truck
5. No suspension sag
6. Great Price and Support
7. Competition-Ready

Disadvantages:
1. Some people would prefer a slightly lower center of gravity.

Overall rating 9.5 Highly Recommended

*The Roc-Max has been discontinued, thank you for reading the review.