Ascender'nMN builds WB4 II

[Ascender'nMN84]

Originally Posted by Shinchu

NICE!
cant wait to get moved in my new place and get ready for Halloween next year... my favorite holiday after Christmas.
the pallet with hands coming through is creepy as all get out... love it!

also, the crawl pics... is that a maroon 79 ford?! ;) your truck is looking great and performance continues to inspire!

Well then I'll be sure to post a few pics of the house after I get all my lights up!

Maroon truck is actually the pickup jeep body. 10.2 based truck of one of the club members I've trailed with a few times now. Wouldn't be surprised if he ends up with an Ascender at some point though. He digs the K5 body and on numerous occasions I've pulled lines with ease that he had to take several attempts at. In fairness, it's gone both ways but more times than not it was driver error on my part. If I can get some time this weekend I'm gonna try to get the empty shell thrown on the chassis and see what it can do with less weight up high.

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[Ascender'nMN84]

Well no real updates on the truck as of late. Last few weekends were spent taking Halloween down and getting Christmas put up around the house. This is my favorite/most dangerous time of the RC year for me though. I still haven't purchased anything during the Horizon discount but I have about a week left.

I did, however, find a steal of a deal on four (4) RC4WD predator tracks with all the required mounting pieces. I've been looking at them for years but could never justify the cost. Should be fun for helping break trails in backyard this winter. I'm a sucker for their mystery boxes too so I have one of those on the way as well. Obviously I'll post pics but we have family vacation to Disney we leave for end of next week so it might have to wait until after we get back.

Hope everyone (in the States) had a great Thanksgiving!


My name is Ryan and I'm an Ascenderholic..

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[Ascender'nMN84]

Vacation was a success. The days leading up to vacation were full of orders being placed, orders bring received and shopping carts of wish list items filled. Still awaiting the predator tracks from RC4WD, however my mystery box showed up and wow was I disappointed. Last year's contained a winch, set of 2.2 mudslingers and a bunch of other usable items. This year I got 2 pairs of their limited edition King shocks, some front aluminum jeep fender flares, a winch hook and a few other items that will end up in the parts bin. The "value" was there, however not nearly as good as last year's.

While on vacation I placed another order with RPP and man I can't say enough good things about them. I won't waste time with all the details but they're top notch in my book. In that order, I finally caved and got the SSD front bumper for the Ascender (SSD00046). Upon initial inspection I was a bit intimidated. Compared to the stock bumper, this thing is massive. After a few iterations, it ended up on the go-to rig, replacing the RC4WD bumper that moved over to this rig from my original. I'm much happier. (This is all based on looks sitting on the bench.) The RC4WD brackets were bent and re-bent a few times. I was never happy with the way they made the bumper sit on the truck so an upgrade is needed. So is a welder but that's not in the cards currently. The RC4WD bumper had a flat vertical surface that the brackets attach to that I know caused me SEVERAL hangups on the trail. Not so with the SSD. And since it uses the stock bumper brackets I was able to tuck it much closer to the body than I could with the RC4WD bumper. Time will tell but now for some pics to explain my ramblings...

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[Ascender'nMN84]

So the predator tracks arrived in Minnesota just after midnight Monday morning. They weren't put on a truck Monday or Tuesday morning. Apparently they were put on a plane and sent to f%&#in Arizona.... I love ordering during the holiday season.... So basically no clue when I'll see them. I'll be making a call or 2 today from work to figure out when I should expect them now. End of rant for now. Wish I had better news to share/show but I don't. As soon as I do, I will.

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[Ascender'nMN84]

12/21/17 update: new scheduled delivery date is 12/27/17. Frustrating....

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[Ascender'nMN84]

Couldn't wait until I got home tonight. Had to rip open the box as fast as I could out in my truck. Better pics tonight but they're here. FINALLY!

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[JatoTheRipper]

Sweet! I'll be interested to see how you like those tracks. RC4WD asks way too much IMHO. If I were to get Chinese tracks I'd go the cheaper, unbranded route.

[Ascender'nMN84]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

Sweet! I'll be interested to see how you like those tracks. RC4WD asks way too much IMHO. If I were to get Chinese tracks I'd go the cheaper, unbranded route.

The ONLY reason I got these is cause they had 4 tracks and mounting pieces on a flash sale for $135. Normally that's a $310 setup. I couldn't not get them at that price. I've also got some more aggressive tread tracks I ordered from RPP that I should get Friday.

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[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Ascender'nMN84

The ONLY reason I got these is cause they had 4 tracks and mounting pieces on a flash sale for $135. Normally that's a $310 setup. I couldn't not get them at that price. I've also got some more aggressive tread tracks months way from RPP that I should get Friday.

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Damn that was a steal! Where/when was this flash sale? And how were you notified about it?

[Ascender'nMN84]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

Damn that was a steal! Where/when was this flash sale? And how were you notified about it?

It was Black Friday weekend. I want to say the 24th if memory serves me correct and I was on their (RC4WD) website to get a mystery box and happened upon the flash sale section. 10 minutes after I placed my order, the deal was done. I got super lucky honestly.

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[OldNTired]

Originally Posted by Ascender'nMN84

It was Black Friday weekend. I want to say the 24th if memory serves me correct and I was on their (RC4WD) website to get a mystery box and happened upon the flash sale section. 10 minutes after I placed my order, the deal was done. I got super lucky honestly.

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You get that mystery box? The tracks look nice.

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[Ascender'nMN84]

Originally Posted by OldNTired

You get that mystery box? The tracks look nice.

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No. I got these in addition to a mystery box. Contents of said mystery box were pretty meh IMO. Had good luck with the one I bought last year but not so much this year. I just found the "flash sale" link and these were one of roughly 6 items they had ultra discounted that day.

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[Ascender'nMN84]

First I stripped off the rear wheels

Next was to install the new rear lockouts. These have little tangs top and bottom that the tracks sit on to them in place. I needed to steal the bearings out of the stock lockouts I had on the truck.


The middle of these wheel but covers is also 7mm and takes a little encouragement to get loose. I like that.


Wheel nuts back on and covers reinstalled it was on to the front. I worked one side at a time, stripping and installing before swapping sides. Steering linkage first and then topand bottom knuckle screws. I work in reverse on the install.


Pretty happy and I've already taken it for a quick loop outside the back door. Off to bed now. Here I just thought I was gonna fully unbox and snap a few pics after work...


Thanks for looking. I'll try to get some video soon.

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[Ascender'nMN84]

Finally had a day when it wasn't -25*, the sun was out and I had a battery ready to run a few laps around the yard with the Predator Tracks.


https://youtu.be/1WGVxdIwUTk






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[throttlejock27]

How well do those work in the snow?

[Ascender'nMN84]

Originally Posted by throttlejock27

How well do those work in the snow?

In the brief time I was out there they ran great! There's a link to a short running video in the post if you wanna check it out. Much slower with the tracks vs tires. Tomorrow will be the real test when I have more time, sun and another truck with tires to compare the 2.

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[Ascender'nMN84]

[throttlejock27]

Looks fun! What part of mn are you from?

[Ascender'nMN84]

Originally Posted by throttlejock27

Looks fun! What part of mn are you from?

Yeah they're pretty sweet. I live in the cities.

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[Shinchu]

My mom is from there. Scary thing is it took me this lomg to watch fargo last week fornthe first time hahah

I showed my wife your tracks and she goes "well you can get those if we move to the snow"
We live in san diego... so... yeah.