What did you do to/with your Ascender today

[carpetfuzz17]

Put in the "for sale section"

[Browneye]

Proline has released the Chevy Colorado ZR2 body...
It happens that I have a black 2015 Colorado 4x4 as my DD.

[Browneye]

Originally Posted by Browneye

This is is for his girlfriend's rig - lots of camping gear and party equipment going on it, with a custom painted body for a Bronco's fan. I'll get a pic when he gets finished - sounds like it's going to be a show piece.

>snip

The new body got done...I think it's pretty cool. I may even hire the guy to do one for me, and I'm a painter!

The lady-driver is a huge Bronco's fan...this is a Christmas gift from my crawling buddy. The flatbed goes on it and all the camping and tailgate-party stuff.

We updated the chassis last night - extended the wheelbase, outboarded the shocks, new DS3218 servo, and generally went through it all. I'll post later with the completed build.

The guy charged $50 for this. Personally I think it's fantastic...

[M1tch]

Got busy with my milling machine and roughed up a couple of delrin bumper mounts to take the big lump of metal in the photo. This is the protect the body and grill as I cracked them a while ago when it took a big tumble. Got to finish off, but it's taken me a while to get myself started. That's due to buying a used Twin Hammers a while ago and stripping that down.

I want to recess the inner of the mounts to fit around the chassis rail similar to the stock mounts. The rail is on the outside of the mount in photo, but will be on the inside when finished.

[BIGW0RM]

Removed the TF2 body and rear cantilever setup to stock. Added 100mm shocks and the honcho body back on.

Missed the honcho body.




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[BAJAREY2017]

Had to get some flexing pics


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[soze]

Originally Posted by Browneye

The guy charged $50 for this. Personally I think it's fantastic...

Almost the right colors.... wrong team though.

I should do something in navy and orange with a C to celebrate winning the division.

[213inc]

Hey guys I just got the Suburban Ascender. New to this truck have a few scx10. What are some must do things for this truck
Any recommended hop ups. Thanks

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[Browneye]

Originally Posted by 213inc

Hey guys I just got the Suburban Ascender. New to this truck have a few scx10. What are some must do things for this truck
Any recommended hop ups. Thanks

Natedog's thread is a good read, lots of good ideas.

The Ascender is pretty darn good right out of the box. It needs some weight on the axles, so beadlocks and hub weights, beef tubes, or something helps keep the front planted. You can get quite a few runs out of the steering servo, but a DS3218 is a cheap upgrade and perks it up a lot.

The stock speed controller is a cheapo - so throttle is on or off - a Hobbywing 1080 for $40 is kind of a no-brainer.

2S power is good initially, but with an upgraded esc then 3S also wakes it up. It's more similar to the SCX10 in this regard than different. You can adjust pinion size to change wheelspeed if you find it lacking one way or the other. For trailing 3S gives good speed, but can be jerky with the stock controller.

Outboarding the rear shocks stabilizes and reduces torque twist - super cheap mod - 32mmx3mm TRX screws and a couple of rod-end balls for spacers.

There's a pretty good setup vid from back in the K5 days - I would go find that on youtube - set spring preload, etc.

Other than that run it 'till you think you want to change something - I still love the platform - 3 of them in Browneye's garage - one RTR and two I built from kits. They are super durable as well.

Vaterra Garage...

[Browneye]

Originally Posted by soze

Almost the right colors.... wrong team though.

I should do something in navy and orange with a C to celebrate winning the division.

The colors are wrong? Not sure how that would happen - those two are big-time sports fans. But I wouldn't know a bronco from a colt. LOL I just don't do spectator sports at all. Zero, zilch, nada, nuthin'.

[soze]

Originally Posted by Browneye

The colors are wrong? Not sure how that would happen - those two are big-time sports fans. But I wouldn't know a bronco from a colt. LOL I just don't do spectator sports at all. Zero, zilch, nada, nuthin'.

Oh I was just giving you a hard time. I'm a Bears fan. The Bears use navy & orange.

[213inc]

Originally Posted by Browneye

Natedog's thread is a good read, lots of good ideas.



The Ascender is pretty darn good right out of the box. It needs some weight on the axles, so beadlocks and hub weights, beef tubes, or something helps keep the front planted. You can get quite a few runs out of the steering servo, but a DS3218 is a cheap upgrade and perks it up a lot.



The stock speed controller is a cheapo - so throttle is on or off - a Hobbywing 1080 for $40 is kind of a no-brainer.



2S power is good initially, but with an upgraded esc then 3S also wakes it up. It's more similar to the SCX10 in this regard than different. You can adjust pinion size to change wheelspeed if you find it lacking one way or the other. For trailing 3S gives good speed, but can be jerky with the stock controller.



Outboarding the rear shocks stabilizes and reduces torque twist - super cheap mod - 32mmx3mm TRX screws and a couple of rod-end balls for spacers.



There's a pretty good setup vid from back in the K5 days - I would go find that on youtube - set spring preload, etc.



Other than that run it 'till you think you want to change something - I still love the platform - 3 of them in Browneye's garage - one RTR and two I built from kits. They are super durable as well.



Vaterra Garage...

Awesome thanks for the input. I really appreciate it.

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[BIGW0RM]

Threw some low profile street rims on it for yard driving. I prefer to save my nice scale/crawler tires.


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[Browneye]

Originally Posted by Browneye

I have two generic 'china' ds3215's due in the mail today - will post up if they arrive and how they look/work.
They are $12.99 shipped from AliExpress. But take a month to arrive.
I ordered 2 of them.

2 more showed up today - I think that's about 8 of them used and shared out/sold to friends, and they work pretty darn good. My heaviest rig is right at 7lbs.

I was just testing one and it's not very fast on 6v, stalls easily too. Oh well, it's a heavy rig.
Surely better than stock.
If I put the bec up to 7 or 8 it blows the China light controller.

[Browneye]

Originally Posted by Browneye

Arrma pins work..recent posts on it...

I was trying to find the post about Arrma pins for driveshaft and axles - are they the same?
Cuz I had some AR713001 pins and there is no way they will work in the front axle - they are too short and smaller in diameter.

I'll post some close-up pics tomorrow of stock front axle vs Vanquish VVD's.
It would be interesting to compare the metallurgy since they look virtually identical in dimension. I don't have a way to test that. The pin is a little bigger. They do LOOK a little nicer with the fancy red collars.

EDIT: Here's a pic of the Arrma pins - do these work for the driveshafts? Is the cup smaller on the driveshafts compared to the axles? I did not disassemble to check.

[BIGW0RM]

Originally Posted by Browneye

2 more showed up today - I think that's about 8 of them used and shared out/sold to friends, and they work pretty darn good. My heaviest rig is right at 7lbs.



I was just testing one and it's not very fast on 6v, stalls easily too. Oh well, it's a heavy rig.

Surely better than stock.

If I put the bec up to 7 or 8 it blows the China light controller.

Hey I had my ds3218 on high volt in my 1080wp and didn’t realize it. I remember it saying 6.8v max. It ran that way for a week.

Might have been lucky. I immediately put that back at 6v.


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[Browneye]

Originally Posted by BIGW0RM

Hey I had my ds3218 on high volt in my 1080wp and didn’t realize it. I remember it saying 6.8v max. It ran that way for a week.

Might have been lucky. I immediately put that back at 6v.


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Naw, we run em at 7.4 no prob. They work pretty good then.

On my rig with lights I keep the lights off and up the volts for comp. Most of the time the 6v setting is fine - it's just a little sluggish. Lol

[Browneye]

An update on my broken front axle. There's another thread on just the axles, but this is ongoing for general work on the vaterra ascender so I'll post it here...

Last weekend I finally broke my ascender running gear after a year of hammering on it. I thought I just lost the pin in the joint, but on closer inspection the whole cup in the stub-end had cracked and the pin retaining spring was all that was holding it together.

I decided to opt for the Vanquish VVD axles in hopes they were a superior product. This is on my primary comp rig so I don't mind spending a little more on upgrades for it. Stock axles for Ascender are $42, the VVD's are $65. That's quite a bit more, so one expects them to be something near a miracle. LOL

In this photo series you can see the broken axle, then the two axles side by side - the worn one is the original factory vaterra axle - the black one is the Vanquish product. As you can see they are more similar than different - just the pin is slightly bigger on the VVD version. I didn't have an oem pin any longer to compare, but the pin will not fit in the pivot piece - it is definitely a larger diameter pin. Otherwise they are virtually identical. Unless the material used in the Vanquish product is substantially superior then it doesn't seem worth the difference in price. Since I got by for a nearly a year with the stock, I would likely opt for them again in the future. If someone can confirm on metallurgy as mentioned before, that would clinch it for us. For all we know the Vanquish are chromoly steel and the stockers are plain steel. I have no way to tell. The cups are not enough different in thickness or design to make any difference, although the straight sides of the VVD may well lend additional strength compared to the tapered stock one.

I imagine the red anodizing and the actual sleeve instead of a spring pin-retainer does cost more, and likely a shorter run production volume would also add to the price.

All buttoned up they work as expected. If they hold up better then it was worth it. One thing I did notice was that the stock axle by visual comparison appears to have a degree or two more ability to turn, or bend. In the first photo you can kind of see it - but again, I don't have a way to actually measure this. They do work fine and the rig seems to turn as sharply as it did with the stock axles.

[BIGW0RM]

Originally Posted by Browneye

An update on my broken front axle. There's another thread on just the axles, but this is ongoing for general work on the vaterra ascender so I'll post it here...

Last weekend I finally broke my ascender running gear after a year of hammering on it. I thought I just lost the pin in the joint, but on closer inspection the whole cup in the stub-end had cracked and the pin retaining spring was all that was holding it together.

I decided to opt for the Vanquish VVD axles in hopes they were a superior product. This is on my primary comp rig so I don't mind spending a little more on upgrades for it. Stock axles for Ascender are $42, the VVD's are $65. That's quite a bit more, so one expects them to be something near a miracle. LOL

In this photo series you can see the broken axle, then the two axles side by side - the worn one is the original factory vaterra axle - the black one is the Vanquish product. As you can see they are more similar than different - just the pin is slightly bigger on the VVD version. I didn't have an oem pin any longer to compare, but the pin will not fit in the pivot piece - it is definitely a larger diameter pin. Otherwise they are virtually identical. Unless the material used in the Vanquish product is substantially superior then it doesn't seem worth the difference in price. Since I got by for a nearly a year with the stock, I would likely opt for them again in the future. If someone can confirm on metallurgy as mentioned before, that would clinch it for us. For all we know the Vanquish are chromoly steel and the stockers are plain steel. I have no way to tell. The cups are not enough different in thickness or design to make any difference, although the straight sides of the VVD may well lend additional strength compared to the tapered stock one.

I imagine the red anodizing and the actual sleeve instead of a spring pin-retainer does cost more, and likely a shorter run production volume would also add to the price.

All buttoned up they work as expected. If they hold up better then it was worth it. One thing I did notice was that the stock axle by visual comparison appears to have a degree or two more ability to turn, or bend. In the first photo you can kind of see it - but again, I don't have a way to actually measure this. They do work fine and the rig seems to turn as sharply as it did with the stock axles.

Good question. Id love to know which ones REALLY are the best.

Ive broken them twice. I tried GPM brand off amazon the 2nd time, and they broke within a few months too. The cup literally broke off clean on the GPM ones.

Im back to stock ones with another spare set of GPM ones in the storage bin

[svt923]

Originally Posted by Browneye

If someone can confirm on metallurgy as mentioned before, that would clinch it for us.

Vanquish shafts are 4130 chromoly.

Harley has said that on social media, YouTube, and probably posted it on here in some Vanquish related thread.