The Lightweight Front Axle Comparison

In the world of R/C Drift, companies are always pushing the envelope to make even the smallest of improvements. A combination of small gains can amount to huge gains overall. Tuners and builders know this all too well, so they are always on the lookout for the next improvement, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem.

Enter the new style, lightweight front axle setup. For this comparison I am only looking at the 2 most popular at the moment. There are others with similar designs, but differ in the way of not having adjustable “hex size”. (I say hex size for lack of a better way to describe what we all have come to know as hex size)

The Yokomo Aluminum UL Front Axle Set uses a series of spacers which are placed on the frontside or backside of the steering knuckles, depending on on what hex size you are after. The adjustment is in 1mm increments, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9mm. With this design, the weight of the axle remains constant as nothing is added or taken away to change the width.

The ReveD ASL Front Axle Set takes a different approach. They start off with a 4mm setup, and from there you add either a 2mm or 4mm hex which keys into each other to make a thicker hex. The possible combinations will give you, 4, 6, 8, or 10mm. Depending on how wide your setup calls for, you can be adding up to an additional 1.1g (10mm).

Overall, these are 2 different approaches to accomplish the same thing. At first I was concerned with the spacers on the backside of the Yokomo axles possibly getting in the way and taking away some much needed clearance, but that has proven to not be an issue from my findings. Both the Yokomo and Reve D offer a considerable weight savings over the stock YD2 front axle/pin/hex combination. Thanks to Ted from Team Ritmo for asking the question, “are you sure which one is lighter?” Answer: yes