The ARRMA Kraton has really taken off with the bashing crowd. It has been flying off of hobby shop shelves and was recently voted by you, our BigSquidRC readers, as our March Bashness Champion. Because of its popularity, a few months ago we did a How To Upgrade the electronics in the Kraton and recently we decided to give our review truck a major face-lift. If you’ve been bashing for any time at all, you know that a big part of our hobby isn’t just about driving, it is also about upgrading and making your favorite basher the best it can be. And do we have to mention that you don’t want to show up to bash with your buddies with a stock looking (or performing) truck?
While the stock body on the Kraton does a decent job, it isn’t as thick or tough as some of the better aftermarket bodies that you can find. We ended up going with a 2014 Chevy Silverado body from Pro-Line. Their Chevy body is molded from a thick genuine GE Lexan to add durability, and it added a tough, yet more scale realistic appearance to our truck. We must also note that the stock body support cage on the Kraton fits perfectly inside the Chevy body.
While we were mounting up the body, we ditched the stock body clips and added Pro-Line Secure Loc Caps. The P-L Secure Loc system is a much better way to secure the body- you don’t have to worry about losing any more body clips and they also help keep the body from ripping out around the mounting holes.
To really increase the performance of our Kraton, we had to upgrade its tires. We mainly run our Kraton on dirt, so we went with the best dirt bashing tires that money can buy, Pro-Line Badlands. The P-L 3.8″ pre-mounted Badlands worked perfectly on our truck, giving it a hardcore appearance while drastically increasing traction in loose dirt. The 3.8″ Badlands pre-mounts come on black Desperado wheels that have a ½” offset with 17mm wheel hexes, making them an easy and direct bolt-on.
Our last upgrade this time around was to install some very trick Pro-Line 17mm Wheel Nuts. These blue anodized units add a touch of bling, while their serrated mounting surface helps keep the wheels from coming loose.
After we finished up our mods, of course we had to hit the local park to see how everything held up. The Badlands gave an insane amount of traction on the local baseball diamond while throwing up copious amounts of roost. As far as the body was concerned, we tested it with a bunch of hard crashes. After inspecting the body afterwards, it was a bit scratched and dirty, but it held up like a champ to all the abuse that we put it through.
We aren’t done modding the Kraton yet, so stay tuned to see what else we have up our sleeves in the coming weeks. Have you modded your Kraton? If so, send us an email with some pictures. You never know, we might just showcase your truck a with post on our front page!
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