I'm very pleasantly exhausted from a great day of crawling WITH my best-bud and his new TRX-4 Bronco Sunrise Special.
My Ascender K10 did great, even with the temporary "rigged" steering link, TRX-4 take-off shocks on the rear only, stock shocks up front, 1.7" RC4WD MT/R tires on Raceline 1.7" beadlocks.
I am sticking with this wheel/tire combo - I love the combination of scale appearance and crawling ability.
I'm currently holding off on further mods to the ol' Chevy because... (a temporary situation, fingers-crossed)... unemployment.
A while back I posted pics from a looong and STEEP ridge in my neighborhood park area that I nicknamed "The Devil's Backbone".
Austin hit 97deg today (a record) and we had warmed up on a limestone and gravel bluff, both slow-crawling and going full-throttle up those sections that would allow it.
When we were good and overheated from being out on that bluff with zero shade, we both decided to hit Devil's Backbone with a vengeance!
It's a real physical workout initially clambering down the narrow path without falling off the vertical drop-offs on the sides of the massively-eroded finger of limestone ledges.
Then, we turned around at the base and slow-crawled up the whole thing, an extremely technical climb with many decisions needing to be made as to which line would result in a successful "Ascent"!
This was made all the more anxiety-provoking by the possibility of the rig cartwheeling completely off the ridge itself, likely destroying the body and possibly ripping a wheel clean off... :shock:
But, the challenge was made ultimately more rewarding by all this drama.
Best time crawling EVER!
I could make some lines my friend couldn't and he likewise made others I couldn't - the many differences between the vehicles were abundantly clear.
He had more tire (height AND width), more weight, and 3S power with all the techno-wizardry that comes standard on a TRX-4.
I had a modded vehicle on skinny 4.19" tires with all my weight moved up front and brass at all 4 corners courtesy of SSD, and a upgrade to a transverse-mounted 3S LiPo / HW 1080 ESC / HH Trailmaster Sport 550 21t electronics (and let's not forget my "magic" little cheapo DS3218 servo plugging away!) and a caged-back instead of a large (and admittedly gorgeous) Bronco shell with scale-accurate low-hangin bumpers front and rear.
It was an education for both of us.
And, in the end - a day that made me forget that I could not make it out to the Pro-line "By the Fire" event wearing my kick-ass "Ascenders Assemble" t-shirt this year.
EXACTLY what I needed!
Thanks to my pal with his Sunrise Special Bronco... "thumbsup"
The ONLY bummer was that for the first time ever, I somehow lost the dozen or so pics I took with my Pixel XL.
WTF??? :lmao:
I MAY be saved from total embarrassment there because he had a POV setup courtesy of an interior-mounted GoPro as well as a tripod-mounted Sony video camera.
Maybe I can get a link up to the footage when he's got it ready, we will see.
You guys enjoy Apple Valley - I will make it out to a group event with RCCrawler.com presence one of these days!