Ascender SR5 Truggy Build

[AggressorBLUE]

Welp, I haven't found anyone else that's made an Ascender Truggy using the Proline Hilux body and the K5 cage, and I have no idea what the heck I'm doing, so it only make sense that I start a build thread.



So, purchased the proline hilux body, bed (because always have a plan B), and -because I built my K5 kit with my own hands, grease, and nuts, the way god intended- the K10 cage set:



Which is actually a very nice bit of kit; it comes with Aluminum panels, and the plastic seems flexible but rugged, not bad for $25:


The real moment of truth however: how does it line up with the Sr5 body. I hadn't found anyone else using this cage with the proline body, since apparently it's illegal to make a truggy using anything other than the honcho frame.

Turns out, it fits like it was made for it!





Really looking forward to getting this on the truck!

[racer]

This will be worth watching

[M J]

Looking good so far!

Fixed images for you:

(If you look at your link you will see 2 numbers separated by a comma - this is the resolution. Forum rules require images to be no larger than 640 x 480).

Originally Posted by AggressorBLUE

Welp, I haven't found anyone else that's made an Ascender Truggy using the Proline Hilux body and the K5 cage, and I have no idea what the heck I'm doing, so it only make sense that I start a build thread.



So, purchased the proline hilux body, bed (because always have a plan B), and -because I built my K5 kit with my own hands, grease, and nuts, the way god intended- the K10 cage set:


Which is actually a very nice bit of kit; it comes with Aluminum panels, and the plastic seems flexible but rugged, not bad for $25:


The real moment of truth however: how does it line up with the Sr5 body. I hadn't found anyone else using this cage with the proline body, since apparently it's illegal to make a truggy using anything other than the honcho frame.

Turns out, it fits like it was made for it!






Really looking forward to getting this on the truck!

[racer]

What ya going to set the wb to?

[CODYBOY]

Originally Posted by M J

Looking good so far!

Fixed images for you:

(If you look at your link you will see 2 numbers separated by a comma - this is the resolution. Forum rules require images to be no larger than 640 x 480).

Good job MJ!!!

[CODYBOY]

Great job AggressorBLUE!! thanks for sharing, very cool that it is such a good fit!!
Ernie

[Hobbezco]

This is the one I made up. Its gone now, but it was a really great performer. I didn't like it at first, but the more I have used it, the more I have become super impressed with this body. Apologies about the pictures. I cant take a good picture to save my life.







I converted that rig into a 6X6 and am still running the cab.






Looking forward to what you come up with.

[AggressorBLUE]

Originally Posted by M J

Looking good so far!

Fixed images for you:

(If you look at your link you will see 2 numbers separated by a comma - this is the resolution. Forum rules require images to be no larger than 640 x 480).

I thought that was just for uploaded images. My bad :(

Also, it looks like it's 800x600:
"Pics should be no more than 800 pixels wide x 600 pixels tall to keep upload times of the pages reasonable." (makes sense, as x480 is tiny)

Thanks though! I'll update my post now with your revised text

[M J]

That's right - IMO it should be 1024x768 at the least, I guess some of us are still on dial-up.

[AggressorBLUE]

Minor progress today, as it was a long day of business travel, and I had distractions in the work shop...



I did manage to assemble the cage, which wasn't too hard and it actually came together quite well:



BTW, in case anyone, like me, was wondering how the heck the cage mounted to the chassis, it's actually quite a nice system:

Basically, the body posts are on the cage itself, and slot into the holes on the rig. clips are inserted below (note that in the image above they post are only partially inserted, as it's easier to see)

Originally Posted by racer

What ya going to set the wb to?

Well, I thought this would be an opportunity to set the rig to a shorter wheel base, but after eye-balling the setup against the truck, it looks like it'll fit the long wheel base best:


I wasn't in the mood to start cutting Lexan tonight (did a bunch of that this weekend, as I'm painting a tundra short course body as well), but at least I'm starting to get a better idea what she looks like:


Things on my mind:
-Front bumper. Stock seems a bit wide, and having such a wide front bumper does defeat the purpose of a narrower body. Open to thoughts on what would work well. Doesn't need to be steel or AU.
-Cab has to be silver, as do all my RC Toyotas, as homage to my 2016 Quadcab Limited 4x4 Taco But, that does leave me wondering, what about the cage, do I paint it?


Thoughts?

PS: Someone needs to make a scale 3rd Gen Tacoma body. Heck, the marketing writes itself! Call it: The Taco Shell
Or you know, we could always use another Raptor body... (actually, I think the raptor is awesome, but why can't the TRD pro get some scale RC love too? :( )

[AggressorBLUE]

Originally Posted by Hobbezco

This is the one I made up. Its gone now, but it was a really great performer. I didn't like it at first, but the more I have used it, the more I have become super impressed with this body. Apologies about the pictures. I cant take a good picture to save my life.







I converted that rig into a 6X6 and am still running the cab.






Looking forward to what you come up with.

<<<<< About sums up my reaction to all of that.

So, in summary:
"yeah, your thing is cool, but when I hand built my own cage with a 1/10 scale blow torch, it felt played out, so instead I bolted on another axle. That was one hell of a tuesday night!"

Seriously, that is awesome though! One day I'd love to try a tri-axle build...and learn to use a tiny blow torch!

Originally Posted by CODYBOY

Great job AggressorBLUE!! thanks for sharing, very cool that it is such a good fit!!
Ernie

Thanks!

Originally Posted by M J

That's right - IMO it should be 1024x768 at the least, I guess some of us are still on dial-up.

May god have mercy on their souls...

[Hobbezco]

I had a lot of time on my hands this last year recovering and had to keep busy, so I rebuilt my Ascender I think about 5 times. I am really interested in what you come up with here because I have an Ascender that I am building as a buddy/loaner truck and have an unpainted Toyota body and one of those cages sitting under the workbench and was considering using them. Looking good so far.

[AggressorBLUE]

Progress!

Had a chance to get back to work on the Truggy build. I started with bolting the cage to the body, using my ProLine Frame Mounting rods, which are built of high grade steel and formulated to work specifically with Lexan and RC sca...OK, they're just nails:




Said nails worked perfect for helping keep the frame in place and aligned as I drilled the holes, and then as I screwed in the mounts. As a result the inner body mounting process went pretty smoothly:


Next, I took a 1/10 scale reciprocating saw pair of scissors to the body, and off more Lexan than was left, when the dust settled, but against all odds it does indeed look like a truck:


However, my "wow all this stuff fits together perfectly, gee these custom builds sure are easy!" luck was soon to run out. Things began to go awry when I mounted the body to the truck. Basically, if the stock rear mounts are used, the body sits waaaaaaaay to far forward (will need to grab pics tomorrow). I'll need to work out a custom solution so that the cage sits further back than the stock K10, like so:


Still open to ideas on front bumpers btw

[AggressorBLUE]

Decided to take the plunge on the Knights Customs SR5 Grill and lens set. Seems like a nice set.

Only bummer is it won't be in until first week of January, so I might just go with the decals for now and use as a "beater body" and then work on a more scale version (possibly with the truck bed) down the line.

Leaning towards the Proline Ridgeline Bumper (wide version), as at 7.5" wide it's about a half inch narrower than the stock ascender bumper, and I'm a fan of the armored look. Now I just need to find it in stock somewhere...

[Hobbezco]

This is what I did to address the issue.

[AggressorBLUE]

Got the body mounted to the frame today!

Wound up using some 3/4" #10 machine screws from a harbor freight hardware set, some scraps of lexan, and a spare rear bulkhead from the VTR231034 parts kit:







She sits pretty well now. I have the front posts as low as possible, and didn't need to cut them shorter, which is nice. All in all, I should be able to convert back to the stock Blazer body in less than 10 minutes, if needed.



Even better, looks like my Knights custom grill is due in tomorrow, so I'll likely get her up and running by sunday.

Time for painting!

[AggressorBLUE]

So, last weekend I got the body finished.

After painting the body, I proceeded to cut out the stock "grill" and light assemblies, to make room for the Knights custom grill:


That's where things started to go awry, as I found it was tough to get a clean cut with the dremel on the compound corner of the tail light:


That compounded with choosing the wrong glue for the mount, leading towards a really job of mounting it. You might want to have young children leave the room for this...


Still, from a distance she looks...less like a war crime (use of my modeling skills against a foreign power is strictly prohibited by the Geneva convention)


Still she started to clean up a bit, and by the time I got out the truckin' site that day, she almost looked good enough that people won't need to sign waivers before seeing. Almost.


Fortunately, I'm an expert at applying scale weathering to my trucks. By which I mean I drive them and they quickly acquire the look of a machine that's had to endure being driven through WW III by a 5 year old with ADHD:






And of course, the family portrait, complete with the Mudthership in the background:


So, from here I need to decide how to handle the front. I might paint the first quarter inch or so of the nose matte black, and say it's...um, to stop sun glare.

[Natedog]

Great looking shop helper there "distracting" you! Where's your Ascender crawling now?

[Junkk5]

Nice build man, it helped me to decide on what body my ascender will get.

[Ascender'nMN84]

Awesome work! This is essentially my next build but I'm still debating on what body I'm gonna use. WB4 with the K10 cage parts are just waiting on a few more friends and body choice. You just saved me TONS of head scratching I imagine.

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