Pro-Line Racing BFG Krawler

Pro-Line Racing Bfg Krawler 1.9" Tire

Losi Night Crawler with Pro-Line Racing BFG Krawler T/A tires.

The BFG Krawler T/A tire is one of the most popular dedicated rock-crawling tires on the market today. Its unique tread pattern was developed by Gary Enterline of Michelin tires, who based this design on testing results derived from cutting unique lug patterns in tire blanks and testing them out on the rocks.

Gary worked with these tires until he pinned down a pattern which was well-suited for difficult, technical terrain but could also be further carved out by the customer for additional tuning.

It was an interesting approach, giving the customer a final say in exactly how the tire would look and perform for their specific needs.

Eventually this project tire morphed into what is known today as the BFG Krawler T/A rock crawling tire. Once the BFG Krawler T/A made its debut on the 1:1 market in 2003, it immediately became a favorite of the rock crawling community. Nearly 20 years later and it's still considered one of the best rock crawling tires on the market.

In 2018 Pro-Line Racing released a licensed version of the BFG Krawler T/A KX ( known simple as “Krawlers” in this article ) for the 1/10 scale and rock crawler market.

Almost immediately these tires became a hot item with their perfect scale detail contributing to much of this popularity. The Krawler was on the forefront of a surging “scaler” market, and it seemed like Pro-Line had their hand on the market’s pulse.

Since then, these tires have remained popular, but they are not commonly found on 1.9” crawlers focused on absolute technical performance.

In the Pro-Line Racing product suite, the Trenchers and Hyrax are favored more for their pure rock-gripping performance, but they don’t have the classic 1:1 look of the Krawlers.

I feel it's a good idea to have this variety in their product line, allowing the customer to pick which tire is best suited for their needs.

Vanquish VS 410 Pro in action.

I had the chance to watch a good driver run his cookie-cutter carbon chassis Power Wagon with these tires, and I was surprised to see his truck struggle on the rocks. It was one truck in a sea of Power Wagon builds on the trail that day, but it stuck out from the rest due to its poor performance. While the Krawlers looked sharp on the truck, they slipped and clawed with little success on the steep, technical rocks.

Looking closer, I noticed his tire foams were much too firm, resulting in the tires having little flexibility to grip the rock's surface. Most of his climbing was achieved through a combination of surface friction generated by the rubber compound and good ol’ 8000 rpm hill-climbing. It's wasn't a pretty sight to behold. Clearly seeing that his foam setup was wrong, I made a mental note of testing these tires out with a better suited tire foam.

While I didn't find out what tire compound he was using, I couldn't image Pro-Line releasing a crawling tire with such a low level of performance. Lucky for me that a short while later on a trip in Boise, I stopped by Action Hobbies and sitting there waiting to be purchased was a complete set of Krawlers in the Predator rubber compound. It was a sign to kick off the project.

Pro-Line Racing Krawlers out on the trail.

Krawler Tire Detail

When it comes to intricate and exacting designs for RC tires, few companies match the careful attention to detail from Pro-Line Racing.

Among their wide range of tires, their lineup of crawler tires seems demonstrate this detail the most, and the BFG Krawler tire is a great example.

The tread pattern is a near exact copy of the 1:1 BFG Krawler, with crisp detail on the lug pattern as well as the raised lettering on the sidewall.

The chunky lugs are spaced wide enough apart to grip the rock’s imperfections while still getting enough rubber to the ground for friction-based traction. Wrapping down the sidewalls is a staggered lug pattern of large and small blocks, aiding in sidewall grip when used against the side of a rock. A thin flashing of rubber is present on the surface as a byproduct of the molding process, and it wears away quickly once you hit the trail.

The bead is well-formed and easy to mount on a beadlock wheel. Inside of the tire is smooth without any supporting ribs (which I prefer), and like the full-sized version, the tire is non-direction with a mirrored / reversed tread pattern.

Like all of our crawler tires, we punched three small 3mm holes in the tire for venting.

Rubber Quality

The Krawler tire is offered in two compounds: G8 and Predator.

Like many RC tire companies which use creative but highly ambiguous names to describe rubber compounds, Pro-Line Racing has inexplicably followed this trend by selecting names which need some kind of translation to understand.

The “Predator” compound is a softer rubber, best suited for low-speed crawling, were as the “G8” is a harder, more durable rubber compound better suited for higher temperatures and rough, rocky trails.

For this tire we selected the Predator (soft) compound, which we felt was best suited for this project.

The Krawlers seem to be at home in a wide range of terrain.

Losi Worm ready for a full day of testing.

Foams and Setup

At the risk of this reading like a cut-n-paste section, which it’s not, I opted for the Crawler Innovations two-stage foams.

The Pro-Line two-stage foams felt a bit too large for these tires, whereas the 4.5” CI foams seemed to fill out the tire with enough support and still allow adequate flexing of the tire carcass.

In the front are the standard inner / soft outer foams with medium outer foams in the rear. I pulled a set of Vanquish aluminum beadlock wheels from the rack, and mounted them with a set of wheel weights to help add a bit more weight down low.

Testing with the Losi Worm

Like most of our tire reviews, we started out the testing with our Losi Worm rock crawler. This low-slung, light-weight rock crawler is tailor-made for the steepest blocks of sandstone and nasty technical ascents in our area.

The Worm’s crawling ability will quickly show any shortcomings of a tire related to tread design or rubber compound. In short, if the Worm can’t make it to the top, then it’s a tire issue.

Headed out to the Badrock Ridge, I didn’t expect too much from the Krawlers based on what I had seen earlier, but I had a hunch that with these CI foams installed, they may actually put on a respectable showing.

The Pro-Line Krawlers taking the Worm to the top!

Starting on more conservative areas, the Worm cruised through the trail easily, working through a series of short, moderately difficult climbs. I could see that with the Worm’s light weight of 1900 grams, the 4.5” CI foams were just a bit too stiff in the front on steep climbs, but the rear tires were hooking in rather well and helped overcome the front traction issue.

One section of sandstone had a fun, short climb with smoothed and rounded corners. I interested to see if the Krawlers could get the Worm to the top.

I considerate it a moderately difficult climb where the tires need to be both sticky and flexible, and as you can see in the video, the Worm easily walked up the rock.

This was the first real indication that these tires were far more capable than I had expected.

Continuing on with steeper sections of the rock, the Worm continued to perform well with only a few struggles on the really steep, smooth sections.

In these areas the Krawlers just couldn’t bite quite well enough into the rock face, and the rear tires were unable to hold the truck in position.

In areas where imperfections dotted the rock's surface, the Krawlers were more than capable of hauling the Worm to the top.

After a day of good testing results with the Worm, I was ready to move them over to the Vanquish VS 410 Pro for the main body of testing work.

This line was a bit too steep for the Krawlers.

The VS 410 Pro out on the sandstone.

Vanquish VS 410 Pro

Headed out to Badrock Ridge with the VS 410 Pro, I had much more confidence in the Krawlers after watching the Losi Worm perform so well with these tires. I opted to skip all the basic trails and went after more technical terrain.

Starting in lower Badrock, the VS 410 Pro easily blasted through the trail, crawling over countless rock shelves and nasty undercuts on the mountain of sandstone.

I found that the heavier driving weight of the VS 410 Pro ( 2850 grams ) greatly improved the flexibility of the tire. Now the Krawlers would twist and conform to the rock surface, digging in deep the soft Predator compound.

During this testing, one of the most surprising results was how well these tires were able to stick to a steep rock slab.

Now it’s important to keep in mind that this rock slab is heavily eroded with bits of rock missing and small undercuts, and these do provide areas of traction for the Krawlers to grab hold of.

For this ascent, I had to fish around some with the steering towards the right side, trying to reach a rough section of rock for the Krawlers to hook up. The plush suspension of the VS 410 along with the additional weight on the tires kept things smooth and under control.

Another thing to note in this video is the tire speed. This rock is nearly 15’ tall, and while 8000 RPM rock bouncing / crawling may work at times, it won’t get you to the top of tall, technical rocks. Slow and steady is the way; that’s why it’s called crawling.

Moving over to a challenging section further west, there is a difficult climb consisting of another tall, heavily eroded section of sandstone with large, deep undercuts.

This formation requires you to weave around the undercuts and carefully pick your line to the top.

I had cleaned this line a number of times with VS 410 running other tires, but I wasn't sure if the Krawlers were up to the challenge.

The best camera spot is near the top right at the last section of the trail. I set up the Go Pro to capture the VS 410 making past this surprisingly difficult section. You can see in the video that the truck becomes stuck on a under cut which captures the rear axle, but with some steering of the front tires to the right, I was able to dig in and pull the rear axle up and over.

We continued to work around Badrock Ridge for a number of days, enjoying the fine performance of the Krawlers in the desert terrain.

The more I worked with these tires, the more I came to like their “can do" performance out on the trail.

It was at this point of the testing where the Krawlers had won me over with their performance, and from that point on I had plans of keeping a set mounted up and ready to run at any given time.

This steep climb was no problem with the Krawler tires.

The VS 410 Pro putting in time at Lucky Peak.

Boise, Idaho

A month into the project, I had the chance to bring the VS 410 Pro along for a week of testing around Lucky Peak reservoir area in Boise Idaho.

Lucky Peak is a fun place to crawl with a number of technical trails and various rock piles all situated on a heavily eroded lava rock field surrounding a beautiful reservoir.

It is a large enough area for multiple days of crawling without becoming bored, but you have to keep an eye on changing water levels. At times the water level will rise quickly and you can end up losing some of the crawling areas overnight.

Even with plenty of trail time already on the Krawlers, the rubber remained in great condition with only slight wear on the still well-defined lugs. Some of this is due to a low RPM crawling style, as well as what is proving to be a robust rubber compound.

During the first few days on the trail, I could see the Krawlers showing their best performance on the rough, chunky lava rock.

It seemed that the rough texture of the lava rock is ideal for the Krawler’s lugs to wrap around and hold tight.

The VS 410 Pro worked over a few difficult side-hill sections, and much to my surprise these tires held such steep lines that the truck was rolling over to its side before sliding off the rock. In terms of traction, that’s about as good as it gets.

Spending the last few days I working my way around some of the smaller trails, the tires easily crunched their way through rubble piles and vegetation, all while ascending everything but the steepest of rocks.

This section of the trail is a little sketchy.

During this entire trip, I couldn’t find anything I didn't like or felt was lacking with these tires. If anything, the seemed much more at home on these rocky trails rather than the massive slabs of sandstone in Las Vegas, and yet they handle both surfaces quite well.

Standing tall after a long day on the trail.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m quite pleased with the performance of Pro-Line Racing’s BFG Krawler tire. The traction and control on the rocks is better than I had anticipated, and their curb appeal is spot-on.

Initially I had seen the Krawlers as a “scaler” tire with its orientation centered on looks rather than performance, whereas after testing I now consider them to be an excellent balance of performance and looks.

If one day Pro-Line Racing releases these for the Axial SCX-6, I'll be first in line; these would be a perfect pairing to that beast.

Like most tires, two-stage foams will greatly improve the performance of just about any crawler tire, but it’s important to pick the right size for your crawler’s weight. I had pretty good results with the CI 4.5” two-stage foams with soft in the front and medium in the rear.

From our testing results, the Krawlers are best suited for rough, chunky terrain. The large lugs do a great job in gripping the rock’s sharp edges as well as managing loose, small bits of rock eroding away or littering the trail.

The Predator rubber compound is soft and well suited for just about any rocky surface that you’d encounter on the trail, but in the summer months the G8 might be worth a try.

If you’re looking for a well-rounded and capable crawler tire, I think the Pro-Line Racing BFG Krawler is worth your consideration.

This nasty undercut in the rock was a real challenge to scale.

Evaluation Results

Technical Rock: 28/30

Technical Rock is where the BFG Krawler really shines. Excellent traction, superb control on both ascents and side hills, it truly embodies the essence of a rock crawling tire.

Large Slab ( Slick Rock ): 17/20

This is the only area where the Krawlers struggled somewhat, and only slightly. The wide tread blocks tended to slip a bit on the smooth sandstone, but we were still able to ascend some steep sections of trail.

Tire Construction Quality and Appearance: 20/20

Pro-Line Racing did a tremendous job with the BFG Krawler tire. It’s nearly perfect in scale appearance, bringing an excellent look to the truck when mounted on an aluminum set of beadlocks. The carcass is well made and pliable, and the tread pattern is wide enough to take advantage of this underlying flexibility.

Rubber Compound: 18/20

The Predator rubber compound is soft and pliable, but not something I would call “sticky.” That said, it is well-suited for the task of rock crawling.

Tread Life: 5/5

The Krawlers exhibit an excellent tread life when compared to the soft rubber compound they are made from. While the sharp edges of the lugs will round over some after a few trail outings, the overall tread blocks remain in good condition.

Versatility: 5/5

This is one of the few tires we’ve tested which didn’t feel out of place at any point on the trail, and after some discussion, we couldn’t come up with a single legitimate reason as to why a person would not want this tire in their collection.

Total Score: 93/100

Specs

Pro-Line Racing BFG Krawler T/A KX Predator Crawler Tire
Part Number: PRO1013603
Weight: 70 grams per tire
Rubber Material: Predator Super Soft Compound
Directional: No
Size: 4.75” ( 120mm ) x 1.75” wide
Retail Price: $32.99 per pair

Test Crawlers

Vanquish VS 410 Pro

Castle Copperhead 10 / Brood Racing Creep Brushed Motor
Reefs 444 Servo
3s Lipo Battery
Driving Weight: 2850 grams

Losi Night Crawler ( Losi Worm )

Castle Copperhead 10 / Brood Riot 1600 kv Brushless Motor
Reefs 422 Servo
4s Lipo Battery
Driving Weight: 1900 grams

Author's Note

None of the tested or reviewed products in this article were provided free of charge. Pro-Line Racing was not involved in any aspect of this review.

Many thanks to Sandy at Action Hobbies for carrying such a wide range of RC products!

If you are looking for a bit more information about the 1:1 version, Rockcrawler.com has an excellent article written in 2002 by Mike Cohn, featuring a closer look into the Krawler's unique history.