Natedog's Vaterra ASCENDER

[Hobbezco]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Couple drops of ca to hold the buckets in and then E6000 or? I don't think MEK or Bondene going to melt the Axial light buckets to Vatrra styrene(?) grill?

MEK and/or Acetone doesn't work well on Axial or Vaterra plastics. A dab of thick or gel CA on each side then blob on the Barge cement/E6000/Shoe Goo. Holds well and does double duty as waterproofing.

[Natedog]

Thank you!

[Natedog]

Trail n crawl follow the leader!








D110 and Va'Blazer #1 taking in the view during all day n night session.

[fyrstormer]

If you need to glue something like headlight buckets, don't use CA glue, use Shoe-Goo or hot glue. Those are removable without solvents, and they are flexible unlike CA glue, so they're unlikely to break loose when the body flexes. The best stuff to hold headlight buckets, though, is 3M foam tape -- not servo tape, but the permanent-bond stuff that's sold in rolls at office-supply stores. It has the strongest bond I've found among flexible mounting solutions, and if you ever do need to remove it, you can slice through it with a hobby knife, then slowly peel the two separated sides of the tape off the components they're attached to.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by fyrstormer

If you need to glue something like headlight buckets, don't use CA glue, use Shoe-Goo or hot glue. Those are removable without solvents, and they are flexible unlike CA glue, so they're unlikely to break loose when the body flexes. The best stuff to hold headlight buckets, though, is 3M foam tape -- not servo tape, but the permanent-bond stuff that's sold in rolls at office-supply stores. It has the strongest bond I've found among flexible mounting solutions, and if you ever do need to remove it, you can slice through it with a hobby knife, then slowly peel the two separated sides of the tape off the components they're attached to.

Some CA glue IS flexible.

[Natedog]

Thanks, I used Bondene (styrene glue) to glue the taillights back together, careful not to let the lenses get cloudy. Then used E6000 to hold the lights in the body, removable and flexible.

[hipkatgreaser]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Did the rear bumper mount flip to gain little more departure angle, thanks for the idea Northernerbill! I have a couple fresh black Sharpie pens now too.
Here's a before pic showing body to rear bumper (body lowered two mounting holes front and rear from stock RTR).




Front pic for reference of body position in general, obviously this rear bumper mount flip does not affect body height or the front.

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After rear bumper mount flip, raised it a good 1/4" at least, maybe 3/8"...will measure and post back:



Somebody asked about how I flipped the rear bumper, forgot to say in my original post about that. Here's how to flip the rear bumper mounts
Un-bolt the rear bumper mounts from the frame, flip them upside down (have to swap sides to do this). Then unbolt the bumper from the mounts, flip it right side up, re-assemble and gain some sweet departure angle increase!

I didn't due that but instead trimmed them on the sides and removed the larger 2 spacers to suck it up closer to body

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[Natedog]

Trimmed the bumpers, or, got a picture?

[hipkatgreaser]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Trimmed the bumpers, or, got a picture?

I can tonight, at work. I may have gone a little over board on the rear it started looking like a roll pan instead of a bumper.

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[Killerbyrd14]

Roll pans look cooler


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[hipkatgreaser]

Originally Posted by hipkatgreaser

I can tonight, at work. I may have gone a little over board on the rear it started looking like a roll pan instead of a bumper.

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[Killerbyrd14]

Looks like a mud racer with the huge cut out fenders


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[Natedog]

Originally Posted by hipkatgreaser

I may have gone a little over board on the rear it started looking like a roll pan instead of a bumper.

Nice looking Blazer, trimmed bumpers came out great! I prefer the rear out a bit more to protect the body, but that's a lot of clearance.

Originally Posted by Killerbyrd14

Looks like a mud racer with the huge cut out fenders

Tastefully trimmed fenders!

[hipkatgreaser]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Nice looking Blazer, trimmed bumpers came out great! I prefer the rear out a bit more to protect the body, but that's a lot of clearance.



Tastefully trimmed fenders!

Thanks I just got into this hobby 2 weeks ago and trying to pickup tips along the way. I went up that far on the fenders because the proline hytrax tires I put on were about 1/4" taller and at full articulation they would rub. Natedog is there anyway I could get a measurement or template of the aluminum plate you used to mount the rear diff upper link to raise them?

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[Natedog]

Welcome to a great entertaining hobby and RCC! I would give measurements but since they're based off measurements of a purchased RULR from user TODBLDZ, I'm not going to. Please pm him to buy a set for very reasonable price or try your own, just undo one rear link at a time, hold it all steady and pivot the link up wihtout moving the axle, mark your blank plate and drill.

[Dskel]

Tons of great information in this thread! New to the hobby, and decided to go with the ascender bronco just weeks ago. As said before, my only complaint is torque twist. And thanks to this thread, I know how to correct it

[Natedog]

Thanks Dskel, congrats on your new Ascender Bronco, looking forward to your thread here on RCC!

I was asked what I used to internally limit my shocks, here it is:
Shock Downstops, (travel limiters)
Part #: TLR5096
https://www.amainhobbies.com/team-lo...lr5096/p193813

[Natedog]

Original RTR 35T motor was requiring oiling a couple times every crawl session (it would literally start squealing and running kinda warm), so I installed a new Vaterra 35T in it's place and recycled the old one. Rockhugger was over helping RC wrench last week and convinced me to do water break in on the new motor, we used a couple half dead D-cells (total 3 volts) and ran it fully submerged in a cup of water for probably 45 minutes. Kept checking on it every so often and it came out with nicely seated brushes, smooth commutator and spins really nicely!

[Hobbezco]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Original RTR 35T motor was requiring oiling a couple times every crawl session (it would literally start squealing and running kinda warm), so I installed a new Vaterra 35T in it's place and recycled the old one. Rockhugger was over helping RC wrench last week and convinced me to do water break in on the new motor, we used a couple half dead D-cells (total 3 volts) and ran it fully submerged in a cup of water for probably 45 minutes. Kept checking on it every so often and it came out with nicely seated brushes, smooth commutator and spins really nicely!

Thats how I was taught to break in a motor. We used to just connect it to a single AA and let it run in a mason jar full of water until the battery was dead.

[Brian Alderman]

I want to say thanks to Natedog and all the other informative folks! The first time out with the truck I had super swamper xls with memory foams and the aluminum vaterra shocks out of the package with ride height set at whatever looked right to me lol! I thot the truck did great but I didn't really know what to expect. The 2nd time out I used Nates shock setup and added hyrax tires with stock foams. The shock setup stopped all the issues I thot the truck had first time out but it did seem I could not get up some things i did before in the same conditions. Here in Ky we were in a creek so the tires stay wet this is where I think the swampers are better than the hyrax. But I will do more comparison, I haven't even touched different foam options yet. I did however go from 9mm of limiters to 5 and will test that also. The Mamba X and Roc412 3100 on 3s is a total beast!