Jato the Ultra

[JatoTheRipper]

Some people say I'm "extra". I say I'm Ultra! :lmao:

I was sure that I was going to buy a Pro kit after building my Limited. I'm glad I waited because, unbeknownst to us, Vanquish had the Ultra up their sleeve. I was torn between the Pro and the Ultra, but I ultimately decided on the Ultra because it's most dissimilar to the Limited. With the Ultra I'll get the VFD transmission and portal axles which I think will be of big benefit here. I'm sure a Pro is also in my future and then I'll be able to compare all of the VS4-10 flavors, but that's in the future.

Another thing that swayed me towards the Ultra is that, while the portals raise axle clearance by 13mm, the 10mm shorter shocks make it so that the chassis and center of gravity are only 3mm higher than the Pro. I know I also have less articulation, but you win some and you lose some. I've never been in a situation where I've felt that a truck with 90-95mm shocks needed more articulation so I'm hoping, and assuming, the 10mm shorter shocks also won't be an issue.

Because I'm ass backwards, I ordered the 21% OD gears for the VFD transmission before I received the Ultra kit. It seems easy enough to remove the transmission, but I figured why not throw OD gears in there right away.

If I had waited for Harley's Ultra live build I may have went with the rear "underdrive" portal gears because it's a cheaper option and you get slightly more overdrive that way. Oh well. Impatience gets the best of me again.




Just a week after preordering, my Ultra kit showed up on my porch! That's the way it should be. I hate when companies tease products with stupid, little photos and videos and then two months after the first photo you have the announcement of a disappointing vehicle. Just release the damn thing already!

I'm serial number A1812605. No idea what the code means.




I was blown away when the shipping box had the price on the outside! :shock: This is dollar signs for package thieves! I'm lucky enough to live in an area where crime is very low, but if you aren't you may want to be home to receive this package!

The censored portion of the box is a code that gives me exclusive rights to 50% off all Vanquish products for life! :mrgreen:

OK, OK you called BS and I must admit it's just my address written in Sharpie, that I covered up. :lmao:




Inside of the Vanquish shipping box, we have the Ultra kit box. It's a very good looking box.




When I opened the box I was expecting a laser cut piece of foam on top organizing and highlighting the aluminum parts similar to what came in the Limited box. Sadly, that isn't the case here. The aluminum parts are bagged and thrown into the box with the rest of the stuff. I'm not a stickler on packaging though so no big loss here.




That's as far as I got on this build. I've been too busy playing with my Prusa 3D printer.

 

[B-MOW71]

Sweet looking kit! Congrats Jato!"thumbsup"

I'm excited to see how this build turns out! Your Origin is a great looking rig and I'm sure this will be extra Ultra!

The Ultra is on my list of must haves! I'm hoping to pick one up this summer.

Subcribed to see more!

 

[sherbs]

Did you buy the motor plate also? My kit had one miss-made part in the shock bag but other than that almost ready to go.

 

[Inspector86]

This kit is on my short list of must have rigs. Looking forward to following this build!

 

[Teng]

Congratulations Jato on your new girl friend. Happy Upgrades never ending:mrgreen:"thumbsup"

 

[OSRC]

Done yet?

 

[JatoTheRipper]

Sweet looking kit! Congrats Jato!"thumbsup"

I'm excited to see how this build turns out! Your Origin is a great looking rig and I'm sure this will be extra Ultra!

The Ultra is on my list of must haves! I'm hoping to pick one up this summer.

Subcribed to see more!

Thank you for the kind words!

Did you buy the motor plate also? My kit had one miss-made part in the shock bag but other than that almost ready to go.

No, I didn't get a motor plate because they don't have the light-weight version in black yet. Which motor plate did you get?

What part was messed up?

This kit is on my short list of must have rigs. Looking forward to following this build!

I'm looking forward to it as well!

Congratulations Jato on your new girl friend. Happy Upgrades never ending:mrgreen:"thumbsup"

:lmao: I'd say, "Don't tell my girlfriend this," but she's very aware of my love for my hobbies and the resultant lack of attention paid to her.

Done yet?

Yes, obviously!

OK I lied. :mrgreen:

 

[sherbs]

I bought the silver motor plate one because I also installed the silver shock mounts, a sorta of ying and yang look. I have the stainless hardware but unsure if I will swap out the hardware, built it with the included. The messed up part is a 2/3 made "E" clip for the shock shaft. Looks like it was punched out wrong. And of course here in the woods the hardware store does not have such small ones so I'll have to wait for Vanquish to send me one, I hope.

 

[FREEDOM83]

 

[JatoTheRipper]

Hey, I've made progress!

Grey MR310 wheels, blue rings from China, and black, scale hardware from LockedUp RC.

This is the one and only wheel I have completed. :ror:

I have to say it drives me absolutely batty to see the 'D' from "Method" hidden under the beadlock ring.

 

[B-MOW71]

Yep, the blue rings look great! I think they look better than the red.

Nice black scale hardware! I like the look!"thumbsup"

 

[JatoTheRipper]

Yep, the blue rings look great! I think they look better than the red.

Nice black scale hardware! I like the look!"thumbsup"

Thanks. I agree the blue looks better - most times I looked at the wheel anyway. LOL I still like the red and I wanted it to look better, but the blue won out. I just wish somebody would make scale lugnuts in black.

Now I have to think of a paint scheme for this one.

 

[dezfan]

Looks Ultra cool, and you’re such a nice guy to boot!

 

[JatoTheRipper]

This weekend I refused to leave the house. My girlfriend and I have been pretty busy lately and I haven't been sleeping well so I just didn't feel like doing shit. The farthest I went this weekend was to the driveway to unload groceries when she got home from the store. Sometimes it's just good to veg. :mrgreen: This, of course, gave me some time to get started on this kit.

First up was finishing the other three wheels. Scale hardware is a PITA to use, but it looks so good in the end. And on the beadlock rings there are a ton of screws - 96 total to be exact - so it's an exercise in tedium. After installing all of the scale hardware, I mounted up the tires to the wheels. The last one was fighting me every step of the way. It's always the last one...

Then I had something happen that I've never seen before on any wheels. The tab for the rear ring broke off! Well sonuva...

These wheels have been completely frustrating. I sent two of the faces back because the anodizing was inconsistent and had "watermarks" on them. Also, all of the rear rings had sharp edges right where the tire seats! Vanquish customer service was great like always. They sent me two new wheel faces and four rear rings, but apparently one of the replacement rings had a weak spot. I just continued on and used the ring for now.






I'm using 225 SLW hubs to hopefully get the wheels as tucked in as possible for the sake of looks and scrub radius.

I also bought a bulk pack of black, stainless steel #4-40 x .25 screws for the SLW hubs. Shiny screws would have looked out of place here. I wish somebody would offer scale lugs in black. Literally, the day after I ordered this black hardware, I saw that Vanquish announced they were also releasing black screws for the SLW hubs.




Da wheels is finally done and they look güd! I'm still not convinced I shouldn't have used the red rings, but that's probably because I'm indecisive AF like the kids say. The Landmines tires look great, but the compound feels just "OK" so I'm interested to see how they perform. They feel like a harder G8 (Proline) compound.

 

[JatoTheRipper]

Now, we can move onto building the kit.

When I pulled the manual out of the box I honestly thought it looked stunning. The bright green coupled with the excellent photo was a treat for the eyes. You won't often see me drool over a manual or even take more than a quick glance at the cover page, but this one is done very well! "thumbsup"




Up first is the front axle. Again, we start at the front and work our way back which make sense. I like things that make sense. 1+1 = 2. I don't want some hippy shit where 1+1 = happiness or something unicorny like that. :lmao:

The natural lighting inside my house is poor in spots. It drives me nuts. I actually build with a headlamp fairly often so that I have light when I need it. Getting old sucks, kids. The degradation of eyesight is the worst part!

You'll notice the poor lighting on this photo for sure so I apologize for that. I don't care what anybody says, the iPhone XS Max sucks at taking low light photos...and it's not even that "low" in light. I know that's true for most mobile phones, but they typically have ways to make it brighter via software. I haven't found that to be true for this iPhone. And the flash just overpowers the camera and white washes the image so, yeah, I hate this phone. Let me know if any of you Apple fans have any tips. Sorry, my "Apple sucks" rant is over for now. :x

I never thought I'd own a set of Vanquish portals because, purchased separately, they are more expensive than my curiosity was willing to pay. That's why I think the price of this kit is reasonable with all things considered.




When I opened the pack, I immediately noticed marks on the axles. These wouldn't wipe off for me. I realize the axles are going to get hammered on the rocks, but Vanquish's anodizing seems to be very fragile. If this is a part from China I'm not even going to even bat an eye, but when I buy from a top tier company that prides itself on quality, I expect better. I had issues with the anodizing on my VS4-10 Limited kit, on these wheels and now this kit.

I've had other Vanquish parts in the past and I just don't remember the parts arriving marred from the factory. I'd really like to know how others feel about VP's anodizing. Do you have these issues? Do you feel the quality of their anodizing has changed over the years?




It's very easy to "lose" installed bearings in Vanquish parts during assembly. The bearing seats seem to be machined towards the large end of the tolerances. I wish the tolerances were tighter so that bearings didn't fall out so easily, but I'm guessing they do this to minimize any issues that may come from variances in the thickness of the anodizing. It's not a huge deal, but make sure you don't have any leftover bearings after finishing a step or you probably had one fall out somewhere along the way.




The 30T ring gear is the 6-bolt type. Stock ratio is written on the gear which is always nice.




Ring and pinion gears schmutzed up with Vanquish grease and installed on the third member. Standard Vanquish fare at this point. Everything fits nicely, but we will have to shim the pinion on the outside.




Next up, you install the third member to the axle housing. Almost all of the supplied hardware is black so it offers a nice contrast to the "clear" axles. Here you can see more anodizing issues on the bottom of the axle as well as rough machining. The machining looks much better in the photo than it does in person. Yes, this is nitpicking, but, again, this is a top tier kit.

It would be cool to see an o-ring in between the parts of the axle housing parts which would keep water out, but that's wishful thinking. It's not really necessary nor ecnomical.




The portal covers are held on by a single, silver screw for shipping which I found interesting because they are assembled with black hardware as mentioned above.

Here is another place you will see flaws in the anodizing. I'm not trying to hammer this point home, but it's definitely a reoccurring theme and I wanted to show that.




In the next step, we find one of my pet peeves. Bearings that are very similar in size. One is 12mm OD and the other is 11mm OD. Get our your micrometers and ensure you are using the correct size bearings. Obviously, 12mm bearings won't fit in 11mm holes, but 11mm bearings will drop into 12mm holes.



The instructions call for (4) 10mm drive pins, but I found in both the front and rear axle bags that two are 11mm and two are 10mm. I used the longer ones on the stub axles to capture the drive hexes. The 10mm pins were barely long enough to span the hex and I could see this pin or hex easily skipping and ruining one or both of the parts.




Because the bearings kept falling out of parts, I tried to install the second, 11mm bearing into the portal cover after installing the stub axle and gear assembly. This doesn't work because the gear just barely covers the bearing seat.




I had to remove the drive hex, remove the stub axles, and then install the bearing before reassembling everything. I think the Vanquish logo on the shaft is a nice touch.




This was my technique for holding the idler gears while applying the VP lube using a small paintbrush. Always use protection, folks! :lmao:




Here's the assembled axle. It looks great. "thumbsup"




For those that made it through reading everything, remember when I mentioned o-rings? That would be all for naught since, to my surprise, the stub shafts are open to the outside. This doesn't make any sense to me. Water and muck are definitely going to get in here not that this is the only place open to the elements.




The only thing left in this step is to install the driveshafts. I used both of the included shims. My front driveshaft came with these two, black screws and I have no idea what they are for. Maybe they'll be used later. The silver screws are what was used to hold the portal covers on during shipping.




Very wordy post, but, as always, words and photos will decrease as we move on in the build. Stay tuned for step B.

 

[Teng]

Yes, very wordy. But also very details and helpful posts. I enjoyed these "thumbsup"

 

[HumboldtEF]

Nice!

I also received my VS4-10 with a price tag on the outside of the package, a definite WTF! I ordered from RPP and let them know they should probably remove or cover the price tags. I'm guessing these are all packaged and ready to ship so thats why theres a tag on the outside, though it could probably just be a simple bar code with no price listed.

Its odd they left the outer bearing out of the axles, sounds like the same deal as the Axial Capra where they tried but it seems like it didn't work out.

 

[JatoTheRipper]

Yes, very wordy. But also very details and helpful posts. I enjoyed these "thumbsup"

Thank you!

Nice!

I also received my VS4-10 with a price tag on the outside of the package, a definite WTF! I ordered from RPP and let them know they should probably remove or cover the price tags. I'm guessing these are all packaged and ready to ship so thats why theres a tag on the outside, though it could probably just be a simple bar code with no price listed.

Its odd they left the outer bearing out of the axles, sounds like the same deal as the Axial Capra where they tried but it seems like it didn't work out.

Mine came directly from Vanquish.

There are outer bearings at the end of the axle housing!

 

[Brandon]

Ive never seen anybody break a back ring on our beadlocks. I know you know... but did you slowly tighten down each screw in a cross pattern? Or start one screw and slam it in? :ror:

Those M3x4mm capheads can be used on the portal knuckle as a bump stop if you wish to remove the M3x6mm caphead + washer. I found last minute that the washer could be removed and allow for some additional steering angle, however the tapped hole in the knuckle would not allow the M3x6 caphead to sit flush.

The exposed stub axle was done on purpose. How cool does it look to see the CVD spin the opposite direction as the stub axle? Both laser etched with VP logos. I couldn't help it.

Looking forward to hearing your feedback on the VFD build.

 

[JatoTheRipper]

Ive never seen anybody break a back ring on our beadlocks. I know you know... but did you slowly tighten down each screw in a cross pattern? Or start one screw and slam it in? :ror:

Those M3x4mm capheads can be used on the portal knuckle as a bump stop if you wish to remove the M3x6mm caphead + washer. I found last minute that the washer could be removed and allow for some additional steering angle, however the tapped hole in the knuckle would not allow the M3x6 caphead to sit flush.

The exposed stub axle was done on purpose. How cool does it look to see the CVD spin the opposite direction as the stub axle? Both laser etched with VP logos. I couldn't help it.

Looking forward to hearing your feedback on the VFD build.

I've never seen a broken ring from any brand either which is why I think it was defective somehow. Yes, I tighten screws in the cross pattern. I'm kinda anal about that. I'll put in a screw with two turns or so to get it to bite into the threads and move, in a cross pattern, onto the next one until they are all installed with just a couple of turns. Then I tighten each screw about two to four turns before moving onto the next and I keep the cross pattern going until they are tight. But this was the very first screw I attempted to install in this wheel and the ring failed before I could even get the screw started.

That's a good idea for slightly more steering. I was going to install the silver screws for bump stops, but then decided to keep the black hardware theme going. Now with your steering tip I wish I would have installed them. :ror: Maybe I'll do that if I remember. Or better yet, I'll trim down the black screws that are in there and remove the washer so I get the best of both worlds.

Yes, it does look very cool! I thought there would be more reasoning though, but I can't complain about cool. :mrgreen: And, like I said, it's not a big deal because there are plenty of other spots for water and debris to get into the axle.

I some build updates to post. I just have to get around to doing it.

Who took the photos for the box/manual/website? Was that Harley? They are pretty awesome photos. It would be cool if you uploaded the high res photos to your website so we could use those for wallpapers. I know, I know...too much to do and not enough people or time to do it. Small business life. But, maybe one day when you guys get bored. :ror:

Oh, and when is the VFD Hurtz Dig going to be back in stock? I definitely want to pick one of those up.