1ton's Ascender

[1tonblazer]

I haven't really started a thread yet for any of my rc crawlers yet.... I recently put my Ascender together and have only ran it a couple times outside so far. I'm taking my 1:1 Blazer to Moab in a couple weeks so I'll bring the scale Blazer with me so hopefully I can get a few action shots of it instead of in my home lol.

Anyhow, I built my 1st Ascender pretty much box stock, I used a Tekin 35t brushed motor with a Sidewinder3 esc, Castle bec, and Hitec 7954 servo. Upgrades thus far are sweet r2j sliders, mip shafts, killer locked up rc wheels, with wideners, rear hubs and scale hardware, rc4wd front warn hubs 1/8 scale to look more like d60 hubs) and Rc4wd Gladiator (Nitto look-a-likes) tires. I also swapped a Twin Hammers transmission into it out of a used roller I bought. I seems to work very well, time will tell for sure though.

I did reroute my servo wiring and relocate my bec into the receiver box since the pics were taken... just fyi

[1tonblazer]

I had so much fun building this I bought another Ascender kit.... planning to do something a bit different than this one.

[joe122]

Nice choice of accessory parts....Locked-Up wheels are awesome. Nice looking truck.

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by 1tonblazer

I haven't really started a thread yet for any of my rc crawlers yet.... I recently put my Ascender together and have only ran it a couple times outside so far. I'm taking my 1:1 Blazer to Moab in a couple weeks so I'll bring the scale Blazer with me so hopefully I can get a few action shots of it instead of in my home lol.

Anyhow, I built my 1st Ascender pretty much box stock, I used a Tekin 35t brushed motor with a Sidewinder3 esc, Castle bec, and Hitec 7954 servo. Upgrades thus far are sweet r2j sliders, mip shafts, killer locked up rc wheels, with wideners, rear hubs and scale hardware, rc4wd front warn hubs 1/8 scale to look more like d60 hubs) and Rc4wd Gladiator (Nitto look-a-likes) tires. I also swapped a Twin Hammers transmission into it out of a used roller I bought. I seems to work very well, time will tell for sure though.

I did reroute my servo wiring and relocate my bec into the receiver box since the pics were taken... just fyi

Nice. Is that Dynamite 2s Shorty lipo or?

Originally Posted by 1tonblazer

I had so much fun building this I bought another Ascender kit.... planning to do something a bit different than this one.

Let's see your second Ascender build.

Originally Posted by joe122

Nice choice of accessory parts....Locked-Up wheels are awesome. Nice looking truck.

Yes, LockedUpRC makes nice stuff.

[1tonblazer]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Nice. Is that Dynamite 2s Shorty lipo or?



Let's see your second Ascender build.



Yes, LockedUpRC makes nice stuff.

Yes, I run Dynamite 2s shorty in my Ascenders, as well as my Twin Hammer.

This is my other Ascender in it's current stage. It has stock Twin Hammers motor and esc at the moment but I have a hand wound Tekin 30t and sidewinder esc on my work bench just waiting to be installed. I narrowed the axles 14mm and tweaked the wheel base a bit, lowered it a ton using 80mm RC4wd shocks. I wanted it to look more like a stockish tow rig than a crawler.

[1tonblazer]

A couple more pics of the Power Wagon

[1tonblazer]

I also added a few new goodies to my older K5 Ascender. I've had it out a few time now and bent the lower links so I upgraded to the heavy duty Vaterra parts and I also added aluminum Cs, knuckles and weights (brakes rotors) and the rear hub carriers. Tossed a set of Vaterra aluminum shocks on it as well.

[Natedog]

Your Dodge tow rig came out great, nice with trailer and TH in tow.

I'm deciding on new lower links for my Blazer, stockers are not bent yet but I know that's just matter of time...even my Wraith bent some VP ti lower links lol. The Ascender stock links are aluminum and even thinner than SCX stock links, which I bent....they turned into self made high clearance links after awhile.

I've seen the Hot Racing and Vaterra aluminum knuckles, c-hubs and rear lockouts at my LHS, they are both pretty nice. Vaterrra are definitely nicer looking and beefier, but HR is about half the cost. I'll go with the Vaterra when it's time due to the quality.

I'm thinking about lowering Blazer body on mine too.

Any problems with the larger Axial clamping servo horn hitting links on supsension compression?

[1tonblazer]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Your Dodge tow rig came out great, nice with trailer and TH in tow.

I'm deciding on new lower links for my Blazer, stockers are not bent yet but I know that's just matter of time...even my Wraith bent some VP ti lower links lol. The Ascender stock links are aluminum and even thinner than SCX stock links, which I bent....they turned into self made high clearance links after awhile.

I've seen the Hot Racing and Vaterra aluminum knuckles, c-hubs and rear lockouts at my LHS, they are both pretty nice. Vaterrra are definitely nicer looking and beefier, but HR is about half the cost. I'll go with the Vaterra when it's time due to the quality.

I'm thinking about lowering Blazer body on mine too.

Any problems with the larger Axial clamping servo horn hitting links on supsension compression?

So, I put a Vaterra clamping servo horn on mine and it stripped out just playing around in my house. I love the Axial horn, I run them on dang near all my rc rigs. Yes it rubs the track/panhard bar during the compression of my suspension, however it does not bind or cause any performance issues at all.

I like the Blazer body to be as close as possible to the bumpers, just like the 1:1 versions, to me the rtr truck looks like it has a major body lift lol. On the 1:1 K5s it has always driven nuts when people put body lifts on them since the bumpers are bolted directly to the frame they look funny to me with the gap between the grille and bumper... just my opinion though.

[OSRC]

Both trucks are looking good - that Dodge came out great!

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by 1tonblazer

So, I put a Vaterra clamping servo horn on mine and it stripped out just playing around in my house. I love the Axial horn, I run them on dang near all my rc rigs. Yes it rubs the track/panhard bar during the compression of my suspension, however it does not bind or cause any performance issues at all.

I like the Blazer body to be as close as possible to the bumpers, just like the 1:1 versions, to me the rtr truck looks like it has a major body lift lol. On the 1:1 K5s it has always driven nuts when people put body lifts on them since the bumpers are bolted directly to the frame they look funny to me with the gap between the grille and bumper... just my opinion though.

Bummer about the Vaterra horn, I've switched to using 2.6x8mm socket head screws with little washer on all my horns. I found that the sorry little philips head servo horn screws don't really get tight compared to that little extra with the allen driver socket head screw and washer. I've had a couple Racers Edge clamping horns bend across the center hold down screw, causing cracks at the clamping screws and as a result they stripped. So far Axial servo horns have been good, because they have more metal around the clamping area.

I'm with you on the body lift and bumper height. I dropped my body two body post holes front and rear and trimmed 1/4" off front and rear of body, sides still have about another 1/4" between them and nerf bars. It looks way better and I could go down one more hole front and rear on the mounts, but I've already had to trim front and rear fenders to prevent tire rub with the stock tires. Vaterra TSL supposedly 4.5" tall, RC4WD MTZ 4.57" (great looking tires) don't they rub the body?

[1tonblazer]

So I've been lucky enough to take a few of my crawlers out for the last 4 Saturdays, I think my Vaterra Blazer has got to be my favorite... for now. I did blow the factory pinion gear finally and took out the ring gear/locker... it even popped a hole through my axle housing.

[Greeley]

Hi, nice ascender, can I ask please where can i get some of those awesome r2j sliders , I've looked but can't seem to find any.

[1tonblazer]

Originally Posted by Greeley

Hi, nice ascender, can I ask please where can i get some of those awesome r2j sliders , I've looked but can't seem to find any.

Thank you, I pm'd r2j on this site and bought them from him directly.

[Greeley]

Cheers buddy, I already have a set of them on my scx10 jeep but I bought those from rpp hobby, cheers again

[juan r]

Nice k5 i love my to its a lot of fun i also have the r2j silders on my k5

[Natedog]

I bought the Vaterra HD lower links, but have not installed them yet they look very quality though. Nice crawl spot! Finally blew a stock non-HD pinion, looks like it's getting a workout especially with that rock caught up between the tire! That is hard on the driveline, not to mention the body lol.

[1tonblazer]

Yeah that rock deal actually happened to me almost exactly the same on my 1:1 Blazer once on Prichett in Moab. Same buddy with me both times LOL. It was way easier to unstuck the rc Blazer and remove the rock though...

[Natedog]

Your buddy Rocky? lol

[1tonblazer]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Your buddy Rocky? lol

LOL, I guess that didn't make sense. My buddy Tim and I both have 1:1 crawlers along with the scale ones, he was with me when my full size Blazer had a very large rock get caught and pulled up my rear tire and jammed between the body and bumper on a steep wall, similar to my rc above... It took a bit longer to get it going again though.... I'll have to see if I have pics of it somewhere...