This winter I was doing some maintenance and upgrades on my Axial Yeti XL, when I noticed the stock bearings were starting to get a little crunchy and I decided to replace them. I immediately thought about Boca Bearings, which is where I have bought my bearings from the past. I have had no issues with Boca bearings, but this time, I wanted to try something different. After doing some online research, I decided to try Fast Eddy Bearings and I ordered the Fast Eddy Axial Yeti XL Sealed Bearing Kit $23.99us. I must say that their website was very easy to navigate and finding the correct bearing kit for your vehicle should not be a problem with their impressive vehicle database.
The shipping from California was very fast and it should be considering it cost $12.99us. The package took about a week and a half to arrive here in Nova Scotia, this also included an inspection of the goods by CBSA at the border.
Upon opening the package, I counted the bearings and confirmed they were all in the package. I then grabbed one bearing and rolled it, I grabbed another and did the same thing. It did this for every bearing in the package and there wasn’t a clunker in the bunch. I was very happy with how smooth the bearings rolled. They were extremely quiet and rolled with seemingly no effort.
Left to Right. Fast Eddy Bearing, Boca Bearing and a Traxxas Bearing. The Traxxas Bearing has a raised lip on the outer edge. This seems like it may cause the bearing to not roll as good as it could. The Green seal on the Boca Bearing doesn’t seal properly to the bearing all the way around notice the bottom inner edge. The Fast Eddy Bearing has a clean tight appearance.
At this point, I was going to open up each bearing and pack them with grease, but based on my first impressions, I decided to skip that and just install them on the Yeti XL. The bearings installed without any problems and all of the bearings were spot on in their measurements.
I have used my Yeti XL 3 times since the bearing change and I can say the truck just feels better and the bearings have held up to the muddy/snowy conditions. After my latest run, I pulled the vehicle apart and the Fast Eddy Bearings were still “Silky Smooth”. Due to the fact that my Yeti XL is my bash vehicle and not my race vehicle I may never really noticed the full benefit of new bearings. I will say that I am happy enough with the purchase that I will consider purchasing the Fast Eddy Team Associated Race Spec RC8.2 Sealed Bearing Kit later this spring when I will have time to replace them on my vehicle. If I lived in the US, I believe Fast Eddy would be my bearing of choice, but due to the exchange rate on the dollar and the high shipping cost to Canada, I could understand a Canadian looking elsewhere.
Ultimately, if the Fast Eddy Bearings endure the torture I intend to put my Yeti XL through over the next couple of months, it may be tough for me to look elsewhere for bearings for my other RC’s.
To be continued………..
