Yokomo YD-4 Unboxing and Initial Impressions

Yokomo YD-4 Unboxing and Initial Impressions

A look Yokomo's most recent drift chassis, part 1.

I purchased a Yokomo YD-4 chassis kit on Tuesday from my local RC drift shop, Kong RC Drift in Lynnwood, WA. The owner received a shipment of them earlier in the year, but since I've been busy with my DIB275 and FR-D, I've held off on purchasing one. Now that both of those chassis are either running or almost running, I thought I would purchase a YD-4 and take a close look at Yokomo's latest drift chassis.

Pictures:

Box - The "EURO SPEC" sticker refers to the inclusion of the Rear FCD x1.5 axle. The JDM spec model has a Rear FCD x1.3 axle instead.

Bag no. 1 (Front) - Shocks, suspension mounts, and wheel hexes. These parts are injection model fiber(?)-reinforced plastic from what I can tell. I was hoping that they were aluminum at this price point.

Bag no. 1 (Rear) - The damper bodies are also molded in plastic. I probably will swap these out for some BD7 dampers as I prefer aluminum dampers.

Bag No. 5 (Front) - Contains axles, bearings, carbon upper deck, gears, and drive shafts.

Bag No. 5 (Rear) -

Bag No. 10 (Front) - Bearings, servo saver, shock towers, steering knuckles, suspension arms, suspension pins, and tools.

Bag No. 10 (Rear) -

Bag no. 13 - Rear Diffuser.

1.5x Countersteer Rear Axle Bag (Front) -

1.5x Countersteer Rear Axle Bag (Rear) -

Carbon Fiber Chassis Plate (Rear to the Right) - 

Bumper, Antenna, and Shock Oil (350 and 450) - I won'd be using the antenna tube as my Futaba receiver uses an internal antenna.

Thoughts:

My initial opinion is that Yokomo released a product that fits its pricepoint. I would have liked to see aluminum suspension blocks and dampers, but comparing this with a DPR that has those features included increases the price by a couple hundred dollars. The chassis is designed for CS and the front suspension arms have reverted to the H-arm style from the Type-C's Y-arms. This will mean that converting it to RWD will be a bit more difficult than a Type-C due to additional parts being required, but I've seen it done.

What I want to do next is unbag all the parts to examine them so I can determine aftermarket or replacement part compatibility. From what I've seen of the chassis in person, read on Yokomo's product page, and found in the manual, there seems to be several "donor" designs that provided parts and ideas for the YD-4. So stay tuned and I hope to have more about the YD-4 this weekend.