Went with the Ascender for my crawling fun

[wyd]

I just mounted up my tires enough to see what they will look like. Really like those bronze rims from Proline.

[Natedog]

Yes, but I bought Vaterra spring tuning pack and have played with that too. Blazer is currently stock springs and crawling excellent. K10 had firm (green) upper and lower rear springs, but currently back to stock medium (silver) springs with Rich’s TT reduction mod on rear shocks, will try his mod on front shocks too.

Oh dang didn’t see your last post until after I posted , Pro-Line Pro-Forge wheels look hot!

[wyd]

Finally my PL inserts showed up at my local hobby shop so I picked those up. Tuesday if all goes well I will have my new tires all setup on my new rims. One step closer to having my Ascender ready to start running. I have my new STRC aluminum parts so I hope to get my those parts on as well. Once that is done I can run my Ascender but I want to get the shocks figured out as well so that will be a work in progress as the more I run the more I can dial it in and I hope after I rebuild them they will quit leaking. I will also get a few pics as well.

[OSRC]

I limited mine 10mm internally, and mounted them "outboard" to the lower mounts in the back. I think that's the TT mod Natedog is referring to. Stock shocks and springs, I was very happy with the setup.

The Ascender is a great truck. Before mine moved on to greener pastures, it was so capable it was almost boring. You picked a good one!

[wyd]

Today was a good day of working on the Ascender. Put my new STRC aluminum differential covers on along with the STRC steering knuckle and caster clock setup on. Its great to buy aftermarket parts that actually fit so thank you STRC for making great parts.

Ok onto the Proline Hyrax tires, PL aluminum wheels and PL molded tire inserts. Finally got to put everything together after waiting for a few weeks til every was available. Well worth the wait at least on fit and finish. I'm not a crawler guy so I have very little experience with bead locks so it was great that all the PL stuff just fit like a glove the first time which made me very happy. Spent a good amount of money on this tire setup and now after getting them all built it was worth it.

I have all the wiring finished up. I kinda have OCD if my wiring looks like a birds nest. I just hate when I work at the hobby shop and people bring things all wired terrible with bad soldering so I try to keep mine looking nice.

[wyd]

Tonight was redo my new Vaterra shocks as from the package they leak after some reading I decided to redo them. I tore them apart and first added a 6.5mm spacer to lower the shocks and new Traxxas O Rings. Lets hope this slows up the leaking. The stock black o rings surely didn't get the job done. Put some fresh oil in them and put them back on the truck. While I was at it I did the shock mod for the torque twist. When finished I took a little spin out front of the hobby shop over a few rocks and it feels great. The new Hyrax tires with the PL molded inserts feel like velcro. The torque twist I have non at this time so that's great. Can't wait to take the Ascender out and hit some trails and some climbing.

[wyd]

Today we had a bif off road race at my home track and while racing I had time to check my Vaterra shocks that I added new shock o rings and limiters to and happy to say I didn't have any oil leakage like aHarley.

[wyd]

I have the Ford F150 body on my Ascender and I'm looking for bumpers that would fit it with the Warn winch on it. You guys that do this all the time have any setups that you like please feel free to post them up.

Thanks
Brian

[Natedog]

Codyboy (Ermie) makes some nice looking steel bumpers and sliders (pm him here on RCC) or Wertymade here:
https://www.wertymade.com/
IIRC, they'll do custom work too.

[wyd]

Just ordered some SSD steel wheel hub with spinning rotors. Should have them by Friday. Wheel Hub with Spinning Steel Rotor

I don't run in any water, mud or anything like that so keep them clean won't be a problem for me. Sorry unlike many crawler guys I'm not a fan of mud and water as more of a fair weather crawler type of guy. Even when racing off road I keep my stuff pretty close to spotless. Kinda the way I have always been. I have always been like that since I started R/C.

Won't be too much longer til I get my truck out with others to have some fun but until then I will just keep adding a few things at a time. I pretty much have everything but a winch with a front bumper.

[wyd]

Didn't do anything to my Ascender today but I did get some killer rear axles from Vanquish and waiting for my fronts to come off back order. I did get some brass batter lipo weights to use under my battery as well. My 72 Chevy body kit arrived so I can change out my F150 if and when I want to. Not sure if I want a realistic paint job or my standard wicked racing paint scheme I use when racing off road. It is loud and wild. I have plenty of time to think about it.

[wyd]

Today I added my new SSD steel spinning rotors onto my Proline aluminum rims. They fit and finish is excellent and only took about 5 minutes or so to install. I really like them and the extra front end weight will be nice. My new rear Vanquish axles came in as well but didn't have time to put them in yet but wow are they awesome looking and you can easily see they are going to be super strong.

Another project I want to do is now that my shocks don't leak and I want to open up the piston hole in them or actually make them a two hole piston as stock with 25wt they are very slow reacting and stiff so other than some time it will be a very easy fit and I have drill bit set that I use to do this on my off road buggy shocks so not a big deal other than some time.

[Browneye]

Any crawling pics of this one? All we've seen is the chassis.

[wyd]

Originally Posted by Browneye

Any crawling pics of this one? All we've seen is the chassis.

Not yet as I have not taken it out anywhere to try it out. I mainly been just putting my new parts on as they come in but will be taking it out soon. My indoor racing season ends this weekend and then off for a few weeks so I will be taking more pics once I get to actually run it.

Since I worked at the shop tonight I got some unexpected free time so I tore the shocks aparts and drilled out the stok pistons. The rear I drilled to 1.5mm with 20wt oil and the front shocks I drilled to 1.6mm and went with 25wt oil and now my suspension is very nice and smooth vs with the stock sized piston holes and 25wt it was molasses in winter time. 1.6mm really pushed the limits of what the hole can be drilled as if I went to 1.7 it would of broken out the side of the piston.

[wyd]

I know you guys where asking for some pics with the body on so here you go. I took it out today for about 4 hours and roughly 2 miles and the thing is absolutely awesome. I could not ask for it too work better. Only thing is the torque steer but I think I might have the shock I did to combat that I might have on the wrong side but otherwise its awesome.

[wyd]

Has anyone noticed that over the last year or so how hard it is to get R/C stuff? I work at my good friends hobby shop and are 2017/2018 indoor season was very difficult as everything we want to order is on back order. So hard to get tires as all the distributors are out and then you call and go direct and they are still out. This is for the off road side of the hobby but now I got my Ascender and to be honest its about the same as these companies never have stuff in stock and either do the distributors. I just wonder how these places stay in business as they never have anything in stock. If they do sell out then I wonder why it takes them months to get the stuff back in stock. Good thing I found most of the stuff I wanted and got most of the main things I wanted. Just need to get the Vanquish VVD's for the front and then I at least got all the stuff that makes my Ascender more durrable.

I thought I found the bumper I wanted but as I ordered it because it didn't show out of stock but then the email a day later saying its on back order til late April. Told them just refund my money. Ok done venting.

[wyd]

Before we just got 10 plus inches of snow dropped in my area I was at the hobby shop and messed around with the shocks and the chassis torque. I have it a lot better now but will work on it more once I'm back at the shop and can try a few different things and see what works best.

[wyd]

I ordered from one of my favorite places ST Racing (STRC) and ordered some front and rear gun metal aluminum link mounts. Seems like anything else I wanted to order was on back order but at least Steve has some parts in stock I wanted and so I guess he is the winner and gets my money. Can't wait til next week to put them on my truck. We still have 10 inches of snow right now so no biggie as it will be about 2 weeks til I get out but least I will have them. I will get some pics once I install them. Thanks Steve for actually having stuff in stock as its much appreciated.

[wyd]

Did get to work on my Ascender a little on Thursday night. I put on my new STRC upper mounts for the front and the rear of the truck. Installation time took about 15 minutes and is pretty straight forward. Little tough to see in the pictures but most of you know what I was changing out. These where an absolute perfect fit and finish as usual with STRC components. Think my Ascender is getting pretty bullet proof for the motor combination I'm running.

[wyd]

Went thru my pictures today and redid them so they are not upside down so they look much better now. For some reason my tablet does that where my computer at work does them right side up so I had a few minutes and fixed them.

When my new Vanquish axles arrive I will get some pictures of those and post up. Should be a little later this week. Can't wait for these to arrive as its the last thing that I really wanted and everything else is stuff I would like to have down the road but my last durability piece was the front VVD axles.

I did get some new tools to carry with me on the trail. Come in a nice pouch to carry them so will be great to take on the trail with me. Perfect size. Comes with a 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 hex driver and then a phillips and straight screw driver and comes in pouch with clear cover so you can see them.