The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

Greetings from Mongolia Ascender fans,

I am happy to report that I will soon (hopefully shipping will be smooth) be joining your ranks as the owner of what will be the first Vaterra to run in Mongolia. A couple of people have suggested that it might be a good idea to run a different body, since the K5 is now discontinued, so could be sold for a nice price later. However, my vision for this truck is with sheriff/police paint and decal scheme, hence the post title.

Anyway, I am excited to join your community here, and am looking forward to sharing and learning.

Please offer your suggestions for electronics I should run for trailing and light crawling. Also, since durability is the most important aspect of this truck I am counting on, should I stick to 2s or does it handle 3s fine.

Thank you for your thoughts,
MP

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

Congrats! The Ascender is an awesome truck.

For the ESC look at the HobbyWing WP 1080. Excellent choice and it's a relative bargain at $40. I'd suggest starting with a 35T sealed can motor like the Holmes Hobbies TrailMaster Sport.

As far as police lights go I'd suggest this bar. I had one and really liked it.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apex-RC-Pro...EAAOSwlSda6KOH

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

Thanks JTR,

Any thoughts on 2s vs 3s? Shorty vs full size packs? Cool lightbar!

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

I prefer 2S and I like the battery in the stock location. It gets the weight way down low. I love the Turnigy 4200 Shorty pack from HobbyKing.

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-...-approved.html

If you want a simple mod to get weight down low check out my "meat stick" mod on my thread. Here's the link: http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/vater...ml#post5564755

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

My Ascender is from 2014, the only drivetrain durability upgrades my truck has ever received were the HD axle gears and driveshafts when they were released. Since the HD parts are now standard equipment, it doesn't really need anything to be reliable. My truck has never seen anything less than a 35T on 3S during it's entire life so 3S is clearly my preference. Most 2200mah 3S packs will fit the stock tray.

Toss on an aluminum servo horn and you will be set for a long time. "thumbsup"

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

X2, 3s the only way to fly! "thumbsup"

And congrats on your new Ascender! 8)

Thanks again JTR,

I like the Turnigy batts but have had mixed results dealing with Hobbyking shipping nonsense. I will defo take another look though. I'll also check out your meatstick, and this sentence makes me want to laugh like Beavis and Butthead.

-MP

Cheers Nate the Great,

Thanks for the warm welcome. It seems like you're the man when it comes to the VA. I look forward to reading through your threads and I'm glad to have your experience and support.

Best from Ulaanbaatar,
MP

Hi fellas,

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/PSCtFo0.png[/IMG]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/L05yXFS.png[/IMG]
Can you see these? I am pretty crap at posting images. I'm hoping to have these images printed as high-quality vinyl decals. I'm going to paint the K5 black or very dark blue and leave the doors, hood and roof white. I've also got a red and blue police LED light bar coming for the roof. I might add sirens if I can find em.

Anyway, just an update. I've finished ordering everything to begin The Sheriff of UB build. The set up will be:

Hobbywing 1080 ESC
Tekin T-Series HD 35T
JX CLS-HV7332MG HV Servo w/ a Hudy 25T alum. horn
Protek RC 3s 100C 3600mAh shorty lipo

I've also got one of those cheap ebay Hobbywing UBEC things that I have to learn about, to see if I would benefit from wiring it in.

Let me know what you think of the set up if you like.

Thanks for stopping by,
MP

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

Sounds like a great build plan and list of parts, any other questions just post up and we'll help out! Images both work for me and looks good. :)

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

Hello again Ascender fans,

As I wait for my K5 kit to make it's way across the earth, I am thinking about how our first scale crawler (Not an Ascender) has spent most of the time we've owned it sitting around waiting for replacement parts to arrive. So,

What should I keep for spares? Which parts are most likely to fail and need repair/replacement that I should keep backups of?

Thanks,
MP

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

Well of you end up getting the upgrade parts I've been showing you, you'll have a whole mess of stock parts as replacements....

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

Hi from UB fellas,

Any day now, any day...

The waiting is the hardest part, and I do lots of waiting! The only part here so far is the $5 Flysky receiver, which I will coat with conformal and stick in that receiver box, once I build it.

I have ordered some items for The Sheriff of UB:

-Police/Sheriff decals from mytrickrc.com
-A red and blue police light LED bar from INJORA (China)
-A scale antenna
-Hardware to reposition the rear shocks
-Gmade SR03 steel beadlock wheels (matt black)
-32p 12/54 gears/slipper clutch (will keep the 14t stock and a 12t 48p pinion as spares with the stock spur gear)
-Axial aluminum hexes (narrow)

Thank God for this forum and all the great threads to read as I wait. I'm chompin' at the bit over here!

Thanks for having a look.

-MP

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

Hi fellas,

The Sheriff of UB has arrived in Ulaanbaatar to restore law and order! (Good luck with that one, sheriff).



Build updates and questions coming soon...

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

Hi fellas,

I'm taking the build slow and steady, I've just about completed the chassis.

Anyway, I built the axles with the 2 shims on the ring side to get the gears close together, and it's a bit crunchy, the rear more so than the front. I read that this is desirable though, bad that the gear mesh will 'break in' and work itself out. Is that right?

Thanks,
MP

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

Build update:

Chassis is done and I'm just waiting for the ESC and motor to arrive, oh and the 32p spur gear. I am very happy with the rear shock mod, mostly because I had parts that fit perfectly. I had bushings that came in the hardware set for the 1/24 ECX Barrage that work perfectly as spacers.

I'd love to share photos but now whenever I try to post using imagr, the pics are hilariously huge, and I don't know how to resize them. Will posting photos be easy if I buy a RCC star?

Oh, is there a simple trick to star-cutting tire foams? I am going to try to cut the stock set.

Thanks for stopping by,
MP

Oh, is there a simple trick to star-cutting foams?

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

I use tapatalk on my phone and tablet which makes pictures easy.

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

Same

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

The newer axle housings are a little tighter tolerance (which is good imo) I had a set that setup like you said, I used CRC steel shims and ended up setting one slightly looser with a thinner shim in the pack, may have used total of three shims iirc.

https://www.teamcrc.com/


Sweet, re-purpose your ECX parts!

Flickr and others have tools to resize the pictures (I'm assuming Imgur does too?), I bought a star and upload some of my pictures here directly, also great way to support the site! :)

Don't waste time star cutting any foams, that's old way and not the best. :)

Another option. :)

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

Thanks Nate,

So, what should I do to the stock foams/tires? Nada? I do have some nice Gmade steelie beadlocks to run ;)

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/cBPG1sOl.jpg[/IMG]

I'm very pleased with the build and can't wait to run it, still waiting on the ESC, motor and 32p spur gear to arrive.

These Gmade steelies look and feel amazing, but it was a nightmare to mount the stock tires on em. It was my 1st bead lock experience, and quite a learning experience to say the least.

I think I'm going to go with either dark blue or black, leaving the roof, doors and hood white. I'll finish her up with some police lights and decals, maybe a scale antenna, and we should be ready to keep the peace in Ulaanbaatar in a week or two "thumbsup"

Thanks for stopping by,
MP

Re: The Sheriff of Ulaanbaatar
 

Hi guys,

Update for the Sheriff of UB Blazer:

I'm happy with how the shock mod worked out with these bushings from the 1/24 ECX Barrage hardware kit [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/1t1bcKpl.jpg[/IMG]

I've also finally chosen colors, will be white doors, hood and roof, and this weird but appealing (to me) Pylox brand green gold [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/JiWSDM9l.png[/IMG]

The UB City logo will live on the hood, and I'll also stick on some 'sheriff' decals
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/7MVLndpl.jpg[/IMG]

Everything is built, except some soldering. I hope to post some running video soon.

Thanks for stopping by,
MP