New Vanquish VRD Carbon

[B-MOW71]

Sandstone is excellent to crawl for sure, but it can fool you. Little bits of sand are always peeling off, and when you're trying to go slow and steady, it can be frustrating to have a good hold for a moment, only to have it crumble away from underneath.

This is 10 Rock, one of the most difficult rocks at Badrock Ridge.

https://youtu.be/cV-JoIG4i20?si=3cXU63atsH5gfXPz

Of all the challenging lines we have at Badrock, this was one of the most pleasing to have conquered.

For sure. I guess that's why we have so much rock crawling and off-roading in the southwest.! Moab is pretty amazing, as well as other spots. We are spoiled for sure. No state income tax is also pretty nifty.

I plan on sending one of our Element Gatekeeper builds and a Losi worm on down the line, and most likely I'll use that coin for another VRD build. I want to run it head to head with our in-house designed Antero ( the green truck in the vids ). I think the Antero will still have the advantage, but it's gonna be real close. I think Vanquish put out a winner here. The first benchmark for VRD #2 will be 10 Rock trail. If it climbs that, well then I'm gonna need to reflect a bit. One thing is for sure, I don't let all of this beautiful red rock go uncrawled.

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Nice climb at 10 Rock."thumbsup" I could see the front end get light a few times.

I can see why 1:1 rock crawling is so big out west with that type of terrain.

Looking forward to seeing the head to head with the VRD. It'll be a nailbiter! I do think VP did their homework and put out a great tested and tuned rig with the VRD.

 

[Col_Sanders]

I got my Carbon Friday and put it together in a few hours. I installed a Holmes SHV650 and Fusion Pro 2300, Dravtech shocks, 52T spur, VXT2s on DLux fab wheels, and a Stance body. Otherwise, I built it stock.

Anyway, my thoughts/observations:

Some of the plastic feels very soft compared to the usual Vanquish plastics. The chassis braces are quite flexible and are an odd width so none of my stash of braces fit without shimming or cutting. Also felt like I had a couple other screws strip the plastic out.

Lower links are beefy.

Instructions were missing the bearing placement on the rear of the topshaft of the transmission. Took me a few minutes to figure out why I had an extra bearing.

The truck is surprisingly light and everything is nice and clean with the Fusion Pro.

Kind of a bummer VP didnt include a mount for a servo winch up front.

The stock bumpers and sliders stick out quite a bit from the chassis. The bumpers dont even line up properly with the Stance body (body is too long).

Front shock mounts could be a bit further back.

The short run I did with it this weekend it did pretty good.This is not intended to be my primary comp rig, but will be used for a couple team comps we have here every year and also as a loaner.

 

[bgredjeep]

My body finally came in. I've got it trimmed and sitting were I want, I'm just waiting for some offset body posts for the rear and I'll get that mounted. The sliders will need some hacking to fit with the zuul body so that's coming up as well.