Lukekang77 Ascender build...

[LukeKang77]

Hello all,
Picked up a new Vaterra Ascender from RRP, finally had some time to do a build thread on it. I was completely sold on this this rig from when I first heard of it, it was my first pre ordered vehicle actually. Once I got the rig built and installed the body, it sat, while I went on vacation for 10 days. Here's a picture of it built with some mad beast on it, before I left.
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Of course while on vacation the squirrel cage got rolling in my head and I decided to take this Ascender in a different direction. I had a bunch of random parts from my scx10 honcho, for a 80's Chevy build that I never did, ordered a few other goodies to. So when I got home I decided to build a Chevy Ascender pick up truck.

Here is a list of parts that I had collected.
-Proline 80's Chevy pickup #3248-00
-axial fender flares
-locked up rc SLW 1.9" aluminum beadlock wheels
-VP .350 hubs
-pitbull Rock beasts with CI foams
-rock armor rear bumper for scx10
-RC4wd winch
-R2J sliders
-spektrum DX4C remote
-Castle MMP esc
-solar D772 servo
-Hobbywing QuicRun sensored 21.5t brushless motor
-converted the tranny to a 2speed, no shift servo installed yet, so locked in 1st gear for now.

Here a few pics of the parts installed, I had to use my trusty Dremel on a few things. I moved the sliders way in, so I cut the mounts way back. The R2J sliders are are awesome, I had to trim a little off the front edge of the sliders after I moved them in, the rock beast were rubbing just a tad.

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The proline truck body has a shorter wheelbase than the blazer body, so I left chassis set at the longest setting, and just removed one of the rear spacers on the rear upper and lower links. It puts the wheels base right at 12". Painted it up gun metal grey.
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Here a few shots of the truck all assembled. It's all nice and clean right now, so took a few shots, because it probably won't look this clean again.
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Thanks for looking! Going to try and get the truck out on the rocks tomorrow. Next some kind of interior, and maybe some lights!

[dextan22]

Very nice. I've been considering getting another body for the ascender as well. I really like what you did there though.

[m1009cucv]

like what you did too

[LukeKang77]

Hello all,
It's been a while since I have done an update. I have been super busy at work, and just haven't had time to stay on top of my build progress with my Ascender. A lot has change, but surprisingly the stock gears and drivelines are still holding strong, bought the HD ones as a back up. Overall very impressed with this vaterra truck. The first day I actually had it out on the rocks and gave it it a true test, it was taking lines that my highly modded SCX10 couldn't take. Here's a few pics of that glourous day! It actually snowed 3 days later and has been buried every since, ready for the snow to be gone!
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Wasn't to stoked on the Hobbywing motor, a little to slow for me. I stole the roc412 3100kv out if my honcho and have ran it in the Ascender up until a month ago. Crazy power with this motor even on 2s, and would get up and go in 2nd gear too. Like I said earlier stock gears and drive lines holding strong, and I don't drive lightly

About a month later I installed some pitbull growlers also robbed from honcho, and did some hacking on the truck bed and added a stock honcho roll cage to the Chevy body, actually worked out better than I thought it would! Here some pics of Chevy getting dirty!
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[LukeKang77]

I found that my honcho was turning into a paper weight, and I robbed all of parts off of it, so I decided to sell it and focus on my Ascender. I liked the look of the black wheels on this truck so those were swapped with my honcho before I sold it. They are locked up RC wheels with vp .350 hubs. Picked up a Scalerfab front bumper and ended up cut down the mounting tabs and drilled some new mounting holes to get the bumper up and back against the chassis, it stuck way to far out. Here a few pic in back yard rock garden.
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I'm thinking those tires are little to big, going back to rockbeast, and those axles are little to wide for this body. Time to do some cutting. More to come. Thanks for looking.

[Natedog]

Very nice, what's going on with your Ascender now? That Chevy pickup body, wheels and all go together great!

[LukeKang77]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Very nice, what's going on with your Ascender now? That Chevy pickup body, wheels and all go together great!

Thanks natedog! I haven't done an update in a while and a lot has changed on my Ascender! I continued to run the Chevy truck body for awhile, but it started to fall a part, the lexan was starting to break apart. I did cut the axles down, to try and get those big ole tires in. Replaced the growlers with the trusty rockbeasts. Installed an interior from an axial yeti. Here is a few pics before I changed the body.

[LukeKang77]

Well I'm a fairly new to the whole crawler and scaler thing. All I know is I really enjoy changing thing up on my rigs. The vaterra ascender has been a great platform for me because if it's adjustablilty. It gives me lots of different choices for bodies. This truck has been an awesome performer, and has taken some punishment and keeps on truckin! FYI still rocking the original diff gears, non HD ones. Over 30 packs through this truck to date.

I'm a huge fan of Locked up rc, I was shopping on there site, and I stumbled upon some hard plastic Hummer H2 bodies. The black one was out of stock and discontinued, but they had low level stock on the ugly yellow one. I will be the first to tell you I have never been a fan of the 1:1 h2 hummers especially a yellow one. But this body intrigued me enough to purchase it, turns out it was the last one they had in stock, and also discontinued now.

To many of you out there this body might be old news, and have seen it done a hundred different ways, but I saw potential for a pretty cool class 1 truck. I now know this body was off a radio shack monster truck, because I picked up one off of eBay that was broken but the body was perfect and it had the full interior, score! I have it as a back right now! Well enough babbling for now, on to the good stuff.

The wheel base on the h2 was right around 11.5". I adjusted the ascender chassis on second shortest wheelbase. I had to play around with the links a little to get every thing lined up.
-Added a JCAD front battery plate.
-Swapped out the mmp and roc412= overkill. Put in a tekin fxr combo- 35t brushed motor.
-Installed a turnigy bluebird mini shift servo.
-Replaced the stock shocks with some 4" kyosho velvet blues, I might need to go shorter. But they work for now.
-Locked up rc LE winch servo, rc4wd King Kong hook.
-installed a waterproof xperts 7701 servo.
-rc4wd tough armor front bumper (for the scx10), works perfect with h2 body







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Picture of it in the backyard rock garden! The truck handles pretty good, the tires rub all over the place, I'm thinking of seeing whAt some 1.55 wheels and tires might look like.




Thanks for looking, more changes to come. Rear bumper, roof rack, interior, 1.55 wheels and tires..

[ScGRaceR]

love this!. the hummer and the other body both worked great with this truck!

[2-shot]

Nice rig, Luke! I've been really considering getting an Ascender! I really like the adjustability of the chassis length for different bodies!


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[joe122]

Wow.....I think I like Hummer's again! well done.

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by LukeKang77

Thanks for looking, more changes to come. Rear bumper, roof rack, interior, 1.55 wheels and tires..

I'm not a Hummer fan, but that came out great!

Originally Posted by 2-shot

Nice rig, Luke! I've been really considering getting an Ascender! I really like the adjustability of the chassis length for different bodies!

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Do it, you won't regret it....you'll love it. Mine is a blast, most used crawler in my fleet!

Originally Posted by joe122

Wow.....I think I like Hummer's again! well done.

x2

[Tango308]

Nice rig. How did you mount the Honcho cage to the Ascender? Can you post pictures of it.

[LukeKang77]

Originally Posted by Tango308

Nice rig. How did you mount the Honcho cage to the Ascender? Can you post pictures of it.

Thanks! WowI can’t believe it been almost 3 years since I’ve posted anything here In the Ascender section, Boy how Time flies!

Tango308 if you look at the last picture in post #7. I have the cage screwed the back of cab at the top, and a few small screws in the middle of the bed by the bed rails, you can see a couple of small black screws, 2 on each side, they were just thru the lexan into the honcho cage.
At that time I had Rock Armor Rc rear bumper and I used 2 - Tf2 body mounts, you can see the body clips by the rear tail gate.

Here a few pictures I was able to dig up, sorry these are the only ones I could find. This was quite awhile ago.



Good news is, I still own the Ascender, it one of the few trucks in my collections that I use consistently and hasn’t been sold off to fund another project.

I never liked the hummer set up, the short wheelbase and heavy body didn’t work that well on the rocks. It was way to top heavy. Here a few pictures of it right before I converted it back to blazer body.

This first picture was with some 1.9 wheels and RC4wd trail buster tires.


This was with some 1.55 wheels and Pitbull Growlers tires.



More to come....


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[LukeKang77]

Quick update...

The ascender underwent another transformation, this time back to the stock blazer body and wheelbase. It stayed this way up until a few months ago. The really sad thing is, I only snapped one picture during that whole time and it’s a terrible picture, but you get the idea.
SSD front bumper with SSD OX winch, scaler fab rear bumper, 1.9 VP OMF wheels and Pitbull xl, Dinky interior, arb diff covers. Also swapped out the brushed esc and motor for Holmes Hobbies TrailMaster BLE pro esc and 2200kv 540s stubby BL sensored motor, both are waterproofed.


I recently tore down the ascender to do a rebuild, because it spent a fair amount of time in the water, my nephews have been driving more lately, but they hang out more in the water than the rocks.
I will update soon with the latest changes to my ascender, a little hint.. 46 powerwagon, with rear leaf spring and front 3 link. Thanks for reading.





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