Axial Racing - Constructing a Rock Crawling Course

Constructing a Rock Crawling Course

With the tremendous popularity of the AX10 rock crawler, our rock course that was constructed for the iHobby show was a big attraction as well. Retailers saw the course as an ideal attraction to be able to entertain and demonstrate the capabilities of the AX10 Scorpion. So due to overwhelming demand, we've put up a basic step-by-step tutorial on how to construct a rock crawling course.

A course can be constructed of several different types of materials (yes, even rock), but if your looking for a lightweight easily configurable course to fit in a retail showroom, than this tutorial will help give you a basic framework of what goes into constructing one. Since this course would be used to transport to trade shows and events, it also collapses down to a fit on a palette, and the spray-on bedliner has proven its durability in transport.

The course cost approx. $450 and took about 1-2 days. You'll also want to consider alternative ways to construct a course such as using chicken wire and tarp, but for the adventurous types real rocks, logs, etc can be used.

Good luck!

Description	Cost
Wood	$130-$150
Expanding insulation foam (*Dow "GREAT STUFF")	$6 (qty 12x)
Sheet of insulation foam	$18 (qty 6x)
Strong Adhesive (Liquid Nails)	$15-$20
Hardware, hinges, etc.	$25
Electric Carving Knife	$20
Hacksaw	$7-$25
Spray on bedliner (Line X)	$150-$250
.	Total Cost
	$450-$600

Rock Crawling Resources

www.rccrawler.com

Step 1
Evaluate the space you have available and build a substructure to hold your rock course. In this example we wanted to have something with several choices to make it to the top of the hill.

Creating the overall substructure for the rock crawling course

Step 2
We started by taking 4’x8’x2” insulation foam sheets and cutting them down to form a rough shape of the rock course we wanted. We held them in place with a strong adhesive (liquid nails). NOTE: We used a standard hacksaw blade to cut the foam, this allows for a rougher edge which will provide you with more traction later.

Step 3
Next we used the expanding spray foam to build up the courses and fill in several areas to make the rock look more realistic.

Step 4
After letting the foam and adhesives set up overnight we went back and started shaping the courses using a electric carving knife (carving the Turkey for Thanksgiving won't be a problem this year). We used a test AX10 Scorpion to drive the course throughout this process, we wanted to make sure that the course was driveable but still challenging. Having multiple lines to drive to the top will ensure that you and your customers will always be challenged when rock crawling with your AX10 Scorpion.

fine tuning the shape with a electric carver

Making a quick test drive to test the course.

Step 5
We recommend having the course coated with spray-on bedliner. We attempted to use the roll-on bedliner but ran into several issues. It was chemical based to start with and affected the foam, and was taking an extremely long time to get coverage. The spray on bedliner was around the same cost and took only a short time to get done.

the course with the bed-liner sprayed on. It almost looks like a lava flow