Shocks: rebuild or replace?

[Mayday!]

So I got an Ascender from a friend,

Pretty fun crawler, but the shocks I think have let out too much fluid. Besides the torque twist the front corner sags and I hear the valve needs to be drilled out. If I rebuild what weight oil to people recommend?

So I need to decide whether to rebuild the shocks or pick something else up.


What are people's thoughts on this?

I'm not trying to build a comp crawler. I normally do trail/crawl mix. But I did do the Crawl for a Cure event on saturday and am very jealous of my friend's SCX10 ii with some super smooth shocks .

[Inspector86]

There are so many ways you can go. Arguably the smoothest replacement shocks are the Traxxas Big Bores in 80mm TRA2660, 90mm TRA2661 or 100mm TRA2662 lengths. I personally prefer 10wt shock oil but that is a personal preference kind of thing. I installed a set of the Big Bore 90mm shocks with Losi Mini-T springs and 10wt oil and could not be happier with the results. By the time you add springs and rod ends, this is probably the best buy going for the Big Bore shocks Dlux Fab

[Shinchu]

those are some sweet shocks! thanks for posting. I like the fact I can get them in all black (if I order the extra soft springs).
I do kinda wish they had adjustable pre-load, though.

[Mayday!]

Thanks

Seems like everytime I ask I get different opinions, very interesting.


I may look into the delux fab ones.


A lot of people seem to use gmade as well, any thoughts on those?

[CODYBOY]

Originally Posted by Mayday!

Thanks

Seems like everytime I ask I get different opinions, very interesting.


I may look into the delux fab ones.


A lot of people seem to use gmade as well, any thoughts on those?

IMO traxxas big bores are the best shock you can buy for the money! Not being a big fan of a lot of flex I like the 80mms. Buy a couple sets of the mini-T springs to go along with them for tuning, and I run 25w oil in the front 27.5 in the rear. Do the cap mod and your good to go!
Ernie

[JatoTheRipper]

The stock shocks are fine with some modifications. The Vaterra aluminum shocks for the Ascender are overpriced and frankly not the right length and not even close to being worth the money.

[Shinchu]

Originally Posted by CODYBOY

IMO traxxas big bores are the best shock you can buy for the money! Not being a big fan of a lot of flex I like the 80mms. Buy a couple sets of the mini-T springs to go along with them for tuning, and I run 25w oil in the front 27.5 in the rear. Do the cap mod and your good to go!
Ernie

are the DLUX FAB (DRAVTECH) shocks (linked above) using 80mm size? says they are 92.5 eye to eye.
i might get me a set. eventually.

but that was a good question about GMADE. i have also been eyeballing the internal spring set.

did everyone just cringe when i said "internal spring"?
i love the old school scale looks of them, but not sure if the function is... functional?

[Mayday!]

What is the stock eye to eye length? I would measure mine but I assume it's not the same length stock as they've work out.

Or is is fully extended it's measured at, which would make sense.

[CODYBOY]

You're right, fully extended.
Ernie

[Mad Hatter]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

The stock shocks are fine with some modifications. The Vaterra aluminum shocks for the Ascender are overpriced and frankly not the right length and not even close to being worth the money.

Are you drilling the pistons out or????

[Kleebatch]

This is what i did on my stock shocks (and i'm still using them even after trying 3-4 other shock sets)

- Drilled the piston holes with a 1mm diameter drill
- Filled the o-ring cartridge with silicon grease before inserting the o-rings
- Removed the upper (shorter) spring and the sliding ring that goes between the two springs

With this configuration you dont have preload on springs but you can set the car height just as you want on each shock, i use 55wt oil on rear shocks and 80wt oil on the front ones, in travel position the shocks sit at about 10mm from full compressed position.

A word of notice, this setup relies on the whole axle/wheels assembly weight to pull the shocks into extended position, i run with near 140g additional weight on the front and 170g on the rear so i don't know how it would work on a stock rig, this leaves me with a nice low and stable setup while still enjoying the twist capability of long travel shocks.

I hope it helps

Claudio

P.s. sorry for bad grammar and/or spelling, this is not my native language