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Natedog's Vaterra ASCENDER

Thanks bud, Folsom Lake has great crawling spots. He needs an Ascender lol, is he signed up on RCC yet? Always nice to have good folks to hang out and crawl with. 8)
 
Fresh set of Simple Greened Vaterra TSLs mounted on SSD beadlocks. This time I installed CI DW CWR-3005 foams (for Proline TSL XL) with the ribs trimmed off, feels good all mounted up and I think once the break in, will be perfect! Edit: CI DW foams for Pitbull Rockbeast2 are the best in the stock tires! :)




Notice anything "off"?




Finally started to tear through one front bumper mount hole, I'll repair and reinforce this just like I did the rear previously.






While getting ready to mount second set of tires on new SSD beadlocks, I noticed that the hub moun 2.5mm cap screws were already wearing into the stamped steel wheels.




They also were dimpled in around the screw heads, easier to see in person, tried to capture it as best I could in pictures. The center holes of these wheels are larger than RC4WD and HR (unnecessary for the holes to be this big) and this makes the center area a little weaker too.




In an effort to not wear into the wheels anymore and to flatten out the dimpled in areas around all six hub screws, I used two flat washers under the screw heads while seating beads and initial tightening. I stacked them opposite each other so that their natural slight curvature offset each other and acted like a springs, like this () which makes the washer stack slightly stronger and provides nice smooth surface against the wheel and screw head to tighten easier. Once it was all tight, I removed once screw at a time, removed washers and re-installed hub screws until tight, seems to have helped. I've never had this problem with RC4WD or HR (Hot Racing) stamped steel wheels even after mounting and re-mounting tires several times. Seems the SSD steel is little softer and maybe thinner? Difficult to get the calipers on it for accurate measurement.
Also not that the wheel to hub mounting screw holes are rather mis-aligned even all but one screw is installed. The holes are little larger than they need to be, thus allowing the front and back wheel halves to rotate out of alignment more than I'd like. This misalignment almost makes the back half of the wheels visable from the front side of the 'D' hole cut-outs, not good.

 
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No instructions - either for cantilever kit or mount :(.

You may be right about the spread I thought you were talking about looking at the chassis from the side.

I'd consider leading the rear with the GCM stage 2 kit but they're sold out and so are the shock relocation kits. So it's either figure something acceptable out with what I have or play the waiting game for a while.

avgatbest


Suggestion: if you start a new thread, I'd be happy to chime (as would others) to help you get yours sorted. Don't want to do it here because I don't want to hijack Nate's thread. "thumbsup"
 
I've got several different sets of tires and wheels and am done playing with the Duratrax 1.9 Deepwoods CRs and want them to go to a new home. Look at the pictures below and PM me if you want these tires for your Ascender and they are yours. All four tires are vented with three 2mm leather punched holes per tire and include the stock Duratrax single-stage foams. I will pay shipping within reason, beyond that whomever wants them will pay extra shipping. 8)"thumbsup"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



1.9 Tire comparison
Duratrax Deepwoods CR after more testing (with CI DW for TSLXL), new set of Vaterra TSLs (CI DW foam for TSLXL with ribs trimmed off), my original set of Vaterra TSL (CI DW foam for Pitbull Rockbeast II) after much use.






Duratrax Deepwoods CR

 
You're welcome and yes it is, I'll send you the tracking number when it ships. 8) "thumbsup"

Good job Nate, I think we are slowly getting back to some of the old RCCrawler ways, and I think the guys in Ascender section are sure doing their part!"thumbsup"
Ernie,
 
Hey Ernie,
Thanks I always try to keep it positive and help others. Hobbies are about having fun. :)
 
LHS had a couple 1972 Chevrolet K10 Pickup Ascender 4WD RTR (VTR03090) in stock yesterday, they had three bodies and three cages for it and they all sold in less than one day, waiting for mine. As others have said the headlights are just stickers over chromed plastic, they should have gone the little extra and included fully molded buckets with clear lenses like the Blazer and Bronco. I'll have to figure something out to install proper LED headlights that looks scale. The "fuel tank" receiver box is molded in a nice shade of red plastic, not painted. The sideways servo mounts are molded in this same shade of red. Body off and close up of fuel tank...I like it.








Picked up some yellow paint, more of a Camel Trophy yellow and some white and black for backing. Think back the yellow with white and then black will get the color I'm looking for.




Vaterra machined aluminum 66mm front lower links, ends and balls to make new lower links for K10 body. Tires and plastic wheels for spare tires on the back.




Vaterra TSLs come with two-stage foams, the two layers of foam are glued together with a lightweight flexible glue to keep them from shifting or bunching up inside the tires, nice. Inner looks like race buggy foam, outer appears to be memory foam. Hopefully they start using these foams in the RTRs.




These tires and foams look pretty good, think I have to put them on some beadlocks and try them out. Need to find a couple RTR take-off wheels and tires for the spare tires on my trucks. :)
 
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Must be nice to have a hobby shop that stocks vaterra parts. My local shop dosent have one thing for the vaterra's in stock. Like seeing the wall of vaterra bags in that shop. Not that I need parts all the time because I just don't break things, but I'd like to be able to shoot over there to pick something up. Oh well. Can't wait to see your new k10!
Ben
 
I've had my eye on one of these bodies since it was announced. Did they have the body for sale by itself? What is the wheelbase for the k10 body?
 
Hey Ben,
Yes it is, thankfully they are very into rock crawling and pay better attention to what the customers want. They also sponsor events and Bruce of BPC Chassis works there and he helps organize and run events all year, such as Crawl for the Cure. Last year there were many Ascenders present, more than at any comp/GTG I've seen in one place, it was awesome! NorCal peeps like and run the Ascender. :)

BPC Chassis
Bp Custom Chassis - Home

Crawl For A Cure 2015
http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/competitions/544089-crawl-cure-2015-a.html

Crawl For A Cure 2016
http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/competitions/568559-crawl-cure-2016-a.html
 
I've had my eye on one of these bodies since it was announced. Did they have the body for sale by itself? What is the wheelbase for the k10 body?

Yes, they had 3 K10s (cabs and cages) that sold the day they came in. Wheelbase for K10 is WB2, 290mm, but I'm going to run this setup with 12mm longer rear links (Blazer WB4 links). "thumbsup"

Kit manual page 40, step D-1
http://www.horizonhobby.com/pdf/VTR03023_Manual.pdf
 
Had a great time crawling and comping with Butte County Crawlers at Bald Rock this weekend. Rob and Todd, thanks again for setting up and running another awesome course! After early morning gate setup, then returning to camp from setting gates, there were about 50 people standing around ready to sign up and play with toy cars! Out of nowhere a forest ranger showed up and couldn't believe what was going on, fortunately Rob talked nice to him and he turned his head and said didn't see anything just make sure you clean up and then he left. Thank you for letting us finish our comp, next time they will have the correct permit in place!
Thanks for dealing with the Ranger. 8)

My new set of Vaterra TSLs soaked in Simple Green running CI DW foams for TSLXLs (with ribs trimmed off) on SSD D-hole beadlocks worked well, but not as well as my previous setup with the CI DW foams for Pitbull Rockbeast II (my go to setup for tires and foams). I'll be re-doing my TSLs on RC4WD Wagon Wheels with CI DW Rockbeast2 foams. :)



Show and shine was awesome, Kerry Lemos from Yuba City took the win with his awesome RC4WD Blazer. Raffle was awesome too, lots of great stuff given away! They gave away a ton of stuff from E&H Hobbies in Yuba City, Asiatees.com, Scale by Chris (SBC, makes nice 3d printed scale items), and Amainhobbies. Thanks to all the sponsors for supporting this great group of people! After the raffle everyone lined up and the the crawling was started in small staggered groups to avoid bottlenecks and run gates. First person back did all 269 gates in just over one hour. Last person through was just over 3 hours.

Was lots of fun as usual, thanks guys for another great Bald Rock comp! 8)

Show'n'Shine, check out the new 1972 Chevrolet K10 Pickup Ascender 4WD RTR (VTR03090) next to my Blazer. 8)
http://www.horizonhobby.com/product...olet-k10-pickup-ascender--1-10th-rtr-vtr03090




Through the woods and up the first giant granite slab! This was kinda tricky and required several attempts, the bottom is smooth and the black stuff is slippery.




Sweet TF2 on it's maiden run crawling crack.




My Va'Blazer taking a quick water and snack break. It was hot out there, just over 100*F.




Sweet sidehill gate.




One of several really cool though the boulders sections.






Trail goes down under...that a ways...





 
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Awesome pictures! That is my kind of crawling for sure. The ole blazer just doing it's thing is great to see. Keep up the great work.
Ben
 
Thanks Ben, beautiful country and more so when there aren't forest fires all over the state screwing our air quality. Original RTR Blazer just keeps on doing it's thing. "thumbsup"
Nate
 
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