half leaf, half coil, ford ascender mashup

[Itali83]

Hey guys, figured I'd show you my latest build. Bought another used ascender on ebay and just had to have it. Someone bought every vaterra aluminum piece, MIP's, Brushless power, beadlocks, flatiron xl's, and a brand new ford atlas body. It was just thrown together and nothing was set up, so lots of binding and just not working well. I had a set of red tamiya leafs kicking around and wanted to try them for a torque twist solution. VERY HAPPY with them. No torque twist at all with them, a little stiff in the rear but I like them like that lol. I almost didn't use the ford body but after sitting it on there I found that I could slam it so low and have so little body rub I fell in love with it. It is fat for sure so tight places will be a challenge but it's low and mean. On to the pictures...



First picture out in the daylight.



Hmmmmm, homemade brass axle tubes and brake rotors. The stinger works awesome too! Bumper is my design too.



Red leafs and blue truck, not my favorite but I'm not pulling them apart to paint! See my super high and tight rear bumper and sliders



I could tell you what those mounts are that mount the leafs to the axle but then I'd have to kill ya.... Nah, they're just 1/2" nuts, drilled out and ground down. The one flat I left was where the leafs bolt to. Use long bolts and they thread into the axle tube allowing for infinite pinion adjustment and no way to spin after tightening down. Front mounts are crude but hey, eyeball engineering at its finest.




Brake tube guide to servo winch. Titanium front links and offset tie rod end to clear pitman arm at full turn.



Here you can see the sliders and bumpers. That switch on the pedestal is for my servo winch. I'm too cheap to buy a winch controller so I just glue the potentiometer in place at center, but this switch shuts power off to it just incase it decides to creep. Yeah I've got to touch the truck to get the winch to run but the in and out is controlled by my controller so that's good enough for me! The switch is flush with the bed floor and I drilled a hole so I just touch it and it's on or off. You can also see that I brought this truck to Rhino Lining for a bed liner.



Yes I drove this pig here, and drove out. It climbs and side hills like a motha!

That's all for now. Just figured I'd get some pictures on here and show you a much cheaper way to do rear leafs than buy a kit for $100+. This truck is going on the block for sale though. I've been bit by the 6x6 bug and NEED to build one. I've got to finish my Little Jimmy first then it's on to a big, and I mean BIG rig next...

Thanks guys.
Ben

[CODYBOY]

Looks good Ben, you're a master at fabricating! Thought I'd let you know that I got the body yesterday, thanks a bunch!
Ernie

[Natedog]

Very nice Ben, always like your home engineered parts! Rear leaf hangers kinda look like GMade from under neath, leaves are sweet , TF2 Toyota or Chevy Blazer hardbody would be sweet on there too.

Btw very clean leaf setup, nice to not have a bunch of adapter looking brackets back there.

[Jeepiac]

I really like what you did with the leafs. I've been contemplating leafs on the back of my Bronco. Thanks for sharing! Now if I can find my collection of leaf springs that I haven't seen for a year.

[Itali83]

Thanks guys. Not to bash a certain company, but the bolt on rear leaf kits I see are bolt on and easy, but look so stupid I can't believe it. All of these silly spacers off the frame and crazy bracketry. Just make a front hanger, rear hanger and shackle and be done with it. But I digress. I did have this chassis out with my red blazer body once and it really did well. That was before the metal bumpers/sliders and foams which were way too soft it wasn't funny.

Ben

[racer]

The small tube for the winch line.love it.......

[Natedog]

Any rear flex pictures with the leaves?

[Itali83]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Any rear flex pictures with the leaves?

I'll try and get some. It's stiff for sure and could probably take a leaf or two out but I wanted to test as is. There's a spot I'd like to bring it to before it sells and I'll know for sure if it's too stiff but haven't made it there yet.


Ben

[Itali83]

Here's two. Most of the twist is coming from the front suspension lol.





And those are the tamiya "soft" red springs. Can't imagine how stiff the black ones are. I did take the small helper spring and put it on top of the main leaf to give support at the axle as I slightly bent it on the first outing.

[rag6]

Really diggin' those tires... How do they do on dirt and loose surfaces? That body looks much better than I thought it could on this chassis. Cool bumpers too. Shame ya gotta sell it 8(

[Itali83]

I've only hand it on my rock pile with these foams for like 5 minutes and they're new so not broken in. They seem to grip pretty well. Not as well as rock beasts or my very broken in Vaterra TSL's but I think they'll do well. I really do like the look of them for sure. Haven't been in any diet with them but bet they'd clean out with wheel speed.
Ben

[rag6]

Nice

[tgh117]

Nice job. I'd like to leaf mine also at some point. I agree with you, the kit out there in the market is cheesy looking. It's mainly why I haven't gotten around to it yet. Been engineering one in my head also.

I suggest you ditch the rear cool springs. At the moment your double spring in the back, that isn't going to help flex at all.


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[Itali83]

I don't have coils in the rear. I used the stock shocks for dampening but took the springs off.
Ben

[tgh117]

Originally Posted by Itali83

I don't have coils in the rear. I used the stock shocks for dampening but took the springs off.

Ben

Ah yea I see that now. The silver body on the glance made me think there was a spring. Maybe if you had a hard body instead, the extra weight would aid in the flex. Either way nice job with it.


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[sd38-2]

Nice job on adding rear leaf springs to your ascender. I have a kit installed on mine and I like the way yours looks compared to the kit I have.

[Itali83]

Typical Ford, first time out playing around, blew the motor. Lost the sensor part somehow. Don't think it was the cable or esc. Think it was the sensor board in the motor. Took it apart but didn't see anything wrong or dirty. Runs great with sensor wire disconnected but typical jittery starts.

I was thinking of buying another motor but the esc just wasn't my favorite. Has a slight pause between forward and reverse that couldn't be programmed out of it. So I didn't want to sink money into a motor and have a funky esc and didn't have enough money for a complete brushless set up. New or used. So I talked to one of my local buddies and he sold me his used castle sidewinder and freshly rebuild Holmes torquemaster 27t motor. I geared it with a 14t pinion set up the esc and man o man! Buttery smooth! Freaking love it. Haven't had any time on the rocks but just playing around in the basement it's sweet! Running 3s and it's actually pretty slow, which I love. Slower than my stock 35t turn motor and esc in my rtr blazer on 3s. I'm still playing with drag brake and throttle curves etc with my new castle link but I need to get this on the rocks stat! Too bad it's below zero tonight and 6" of snow on the ground

[rngrchad]

That F-150 body looks really really good. Your rig makes me think of building another 1.9 just to use that body. Cool work on the suspension. I especially like how well the tires fit up under and inside the wheel wells and fender flares. Do you get alot of body rub from suspension articulation?

[Itali83]

Originally Posted by rngrchad

That F-150 body looks really really good. Your rig makes me think of building another 1.9 just to use that body. Cool work on the suspension. I especially like how well the tires fit up under and inside the wheel wells and fender flares. Do you get alot of body rub from suspension articulation?

No body rub. I HATE body rub and can't stand it. I had to trim just a little on the front fenders when the wheels are turned and suspension fully compressed but this body is seriously fat. Made for droop suspension and very little rub. Haven't had it out much because of the cold and snow but I am interested if it'll pull the same lines since the body is so big. But I don't care. I think it looks sick like it does.
Ben

[Itali83]

Got the ford out for some real world testing today. Went to my favorite beach ledge spot and had a blast. First thing, this thing is awesome! I'm still blown away how the sidewinder and HH torquemaster 35t motor are so smooth! This thing is perfect on 3s. 14t pinion is plenty slow but has wheel speed when you need it. This truck is a big fat pig at 22lbs but does not feel like it on the rocks. Only time I felt it was heavy was on straight vertical climbs on smooth rock, other than that, it hooked and was very predictable. The brand new not broken in flat iron tires held their own too. I like the look of them and think with more break in time they'll be on par with the vaterra tsl's.

It is a very balanced rig and sidehills very well. The brass axle tubes and rotors for sure make a big difference. The only down fall really is that the rear springs make me a little nervous on how strong they are. I never bent a leaf today even with a few hard tumbles but I wonder how they'll hold up in the long run. I did take another leaf out from my previous bench testing and there is still no torque twist but I have much more rear travel.

I even had time to take both my ford and jimmy out at the same time with my dx4c controller. I'd run a line with the ford, then follow with the jimmy. I didn't find a line that one could make and not the other. Both have same wheel base but very different in everything else. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing. I don't know if it means I have a really well set up leaf spring truck, or a poor 4 link truck. I was kinda hoping for the Ford to walk all over the Jimmy but I think the reality of a leaf spring truck doing what a 4 link truck is doing should make me happy enough.

Now that I've put the first scratches on it and had some fun with it, the Ford is in the classifieds for sale. Been a dummy with money lately and it's got to go. But at least now I feel confident that it'll make some one a really nice truck that performs well. Hopefully someone will take it off my hands quickly.

Enough talk, here's some pictures...