Advice for my new ascender

[Bash&slash09]

Hey all,
I made a post in the newbie section awhile ago about my first rock crawler, a Vaterra Ascender.

I bought it as a roller and plan to use a Hobbywing 1080 for an ESC and a PowerHD 20kg servo.

Any advice for mods? I've read around a little bit and it looks that these don't need too much in the way of upgrades.

Thanks, Bash&Slash09

[Teng]

How about you just play the stock ascender first, then maybe upgrades later? If I were you, maybe it is good to deal with the torque twist problem first?

[Natedog]

X2, play with it first for awhile, observing and planning your future mods. Pictures? Does it have tires and wheels or? That's a great ESC, the servo seems to be a good budget servo What motor, transmitter, batteries, 2S, 3S? Some metal beadlocks, good tire foams and a rear swaybar to reduce TT would be my first mods. Congratulations on your new Ascender and either way nice to drive it stock for a baseline.

[HumboldtEF]

The Ascender is pretty solid from the start, so like the others said try it "as is" for a while.

2 things do come to mind though for things to check and or upgrade.

The diffs come with 2 shims each and some aren't where they need to be. The proper orientation seems to up to opinion or varying tolerances. I needed the 2 shims on one side but not everyone does. If you can just test it in different positions, you'll want them to be "tight-ish" with a tiny bit of play. I also found that the amount you tighten the 4 bolts that hold on the diff cover have a big effect on the gear mesh of the diff. Mine was ok if I held off on fully tightening them but fully tight was "grindy" (technical term) before I got the shims right.
The HD diff gears are also something you might want depending on how hard you drive, they come in the new kits I think, they are a bit more gray in color.

The rear upper link bracket that holds the top of the rear axle tends to bend quite a bit under load and break eventually. I ignored it until I snapped off one of the bolts that it mounts with, which ruined my axle housing as extraction is near impossible. STRC makes a aluminium bracket
and some take it a step further by running a bolt through the axle housing to the STRC bracket, heres Natedogs method

Oh and which one is it, Bronco, K10 or blazer?
And Welcome!

[Yeti.stealth]

make sure the slipper clutch is set correctly, so it actually slips in a bind before you snap something. My first crawler was an ascender rtr and I shared it with my son and niece and nephew. Out of the box the slipper clutch is set too tight IMO. Back it off and avoid breaking the rear upper link bolts.
You can always wind on a bit more clutch later as you progress and desire more drive to the wheels in tough situations.

get out there and enjoy your truck ASAP!

[Bash&slash09]

The truck came as a roller, so it does not have a body. The seller said they built it from a kit. it already has pitbull beadlocks and RC4WD king shocks. For the other electronics, I plan to use a Rc4wd 35t motor, a flysky radio and 2s lipos.

Natedog, can I have a link to the swaybar?

Otherwise, I plan to just drive it and tune it to my liking

[Natedog]

Axial Wraith front swaybar set, Yeti.stealth and I both have installations documented in our Ascender threads. Little more work to drill two holes in the frame and install the Yetistealth way (in front of rear axle) but this is preferable to the earlier method behind the rear axle.
Axial Racing - Wraith Front Sway Bar Set (Soft, Medium, Firm)