My lightly modded K5 Blazer

[ATJ4x4]

Hello, I’ve been a long term lurker looking for ideas, but thought I’d share my K5 Blazer. I built it stock with a Dynamite Fazer brushless motor and found the poor low speed control and stiff damping a bit disappointing. The wheels toy-like appearance also grated so it went to the back of the cupboard.

A Tamiya CC-02 G500 reignited my interest in crawlers, so I took another look at the Ascender and did some research. A couple of holes in the shock pistons sorted the stiffness and I replaced the sensorless brushless for a cheap eBay sensored ESC and a 17.t sensored motor.

Some cheap eBay alloy beadlocks and larger diameter tyres have given it loads more traction and its impressively stable, too. I’ve also dropped the body slightly since these pics, although am tempted to trim it and lower it further as the body has some pretty nasty cracks.

I’m pretty happy with the setup at the moment, although a higher torque servo wouldn’t go amiss. Some sort of rear anti-roll bar to help torque twist is tempting, although I don’t want to lose any articulation. Either way, thanks for posting on this forum, it’s been rather handy over the past few months!

 

[Inspector86]

Welcome to RCC!

Nice Blazer! We don't see many of them these days. In general, the lower you can get the body the better. Here is a pic of mine. It is running a HW1080 and HH Crawlmaster Pro 12t brushed setup.

 

[ATJ4x4]

Cheers! I’m surprised as I think it’s possibly the nicest looking shell the Ascender ships with. I love the front bumper and bull bar on yours.


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[Natedog]

Cheers! I’m surprised as I think it’s possibly the nicest looking shell the Ascender ships with. I love the front bumper and bull bar on yours.

Agreed!


ATJ4x4, welcome to RCC and thanks for posting your Ascender Blazer thread, looks great! Still love mine, my favorite crawler! Is the last pic the current body height? IMO trim the lower edge of body all around about 1/4" - 3/8" iirc, and drop the mounting posts down accordingly. Reinforce the inside with drywall mesh tape and some E6000 or ShoeGoo helps a ton too.

Edit: A light rear swabybar, trim/lower body a little, and back off shocks preload completely really brings the performance to life with these.

 

[ATJ4x4]

Thanks Natedog, your build thread has been very useful!

Yup, last pic is the current body height, so a further trim is in order by the sounds of it. I suspect the arches will need a hefty trim at the same time, especially if I ditch the preload!

In other news, some new beadlocks turned up for my CC-02, but they don’t fit because of the bulky front uprights and step screws on the Tamiya.

The good news is that they fit the Ascender and look pretty good, but not quite as appealing as the wheels I did have fitted.

Now to decide whether to trade these wheels for some more opened backed ones that’ll suit the G, or just go for the easy route and swap wheels.


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[Natedog]

You're welcome, glad to hear it's helped you!

Yes, bottom edges of body need trimmed a little to drop it down, wheelwells/arches radiused slightly at corners and fronts trimmed slightly at the top as I recall, I'll take a look at the body and let you know for sure. I'm running stock Vaterra TSL foams with CI single stage DW foams for Pitbull Rockbeast II, works great!

 

[Yeti.stealth]

Here is a link to that old horizon hobby vid on how to lower and trim the K5 Blazer body and adjust the shocks.

https://youtu.be/-NORRDxCuQM

 

[ATJ4x4]

Here is a link to that old horizon hobby vid on how to lower and trim the K5 Blazer body and adjust the shocks.

https://youtu.be/-NORRDxCuQM

Thanks, body now suitably dropped!

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[ATJ4x4]

A new 35kg steering servo has perked up the steering a little, although after running with some Traxxas TRX4s, I wish I had a bit more steering lock!

All was going well until my ‘waterproof’ ESC started glitching, although this wasn’t the worst that would happen.

A front CVD snapped before the end of the battery pack, so now I’ve got the quandary of whether to replace with stock parts or upgrade. I also suspect I’ll need to get some rear axle parts, the thread lock holding the input shaft screw doesn’t want to budge.

 

[meatmonkey]

I've had good luck with the stock front shafts. Granted they last longer if you occasionally lube them. Lube also helps keep the rust away.

My Ascender steers a bit sharper than my Trx4's. I wonder if your not reaching the steering stops?

I see your spring is hovering above the lower seat. I've lost a couple seats over the years. Drilling a small hole in the lower seat and securing it to the lowest wrap of the spring with a miniscule zip tie prevents that.