Joined the mini crawler gang today. Ascent 18

[FJC_GUY]

Wife and I went out of town for my birthday and stopped in a hobby shop. I had been contemplating a mini crawler and decided I liked the Ascent 18 more than the Scx24 and Trx4M after reading a lot of reviews. I picked up the Scout and completely out of character my wife grabbed the pink truck.

We charged them in the FJ on our way back to where we are staying and found a beach with lots of rocks to play on.

So far loving it. I think they will both get brass portals and diff covers to keep them planted a little better and other than putting a light kit on her truck leave the rest stock until something breaks.

https://imgur.com/8XSb8dD

 

[Dark Wolf]

Congrats!

DW

 

[Lucifur10]

Awesome. These mini rigs are a ton of fun. I have 3 SCX24'S, an AX24 and a Element in that scale. Good affordable fun.....well if you don't get carried away with modifications!

 

[Tunedfrog]

Nice, congrats.

 

[Doom!]

Awesome choices! They benefit from a little weight in the front, very capable other than that wheels and tires help too. I think the redcat Ascent18's are the best bang for the buck out there.

Cool that the Missus grabbed one too. Mrs. Doom keeps saying she doesn't need one, but then always want's to try the one I'm using.

 

[9x19]

A nice looking pair!

 

[OnwardGuinevere]

Very nice! 1:18 scale is tons of fun.

 

[FJC_GUY]

Awesome choices! They benefit from a little weight in the front, very capable other than that wheels and tires help too. I think the redcat Ascent18's are the best bang for the buck out there.

Cool that the Missus grabbed one too. Mrs. Doom keeps saying she doesn't need one, but then always want's to try the one I'm using.

I noticed the truck especially wants to roll back really easy. My friend who is very into minis said the brass steering links and servo mount makes it way better.

 

[Doom!]

Steering links are a must on almost any mini crawler, the plastic links at that size just flex too much. Brass pumpkin or portal covers will help keeping the front planted. Any weight up front and down low is good.

 

[Breitmaierz]

My daughter's truck. This thing right out of the box is really amazing and needs nothing. The pink wheels are because Pink is life! Lol awesome rigs love the scout.

 

[FJC_GUY]

View attachment 225673
My daughter's truck. This thing right out of the box is really amazing and needs nothing. The pink wheels are because Pink is life! Lol awesome rigs love the scout.

My wife wanted me to add a light kit and a grill to hers. I will be doing some brass adds this week when the rest of the parts arrive tomorrow.

We will see how long the light bar holds up. Bright though.

Headlights only.

Headlights and lightbar

Steering links are a must on almost any mini crawler, the plastic links at that size just flex too much. Brass pumpkin or portal covers will help keeping the front planted. Any weight up front and down low is good.

I've got full front portal brass cases for both, brass diff covers, and a brass servo mount. All the links are getting replaced with a high clearance stainless set with adjustable ends.

I also ordered a set of wheels for mine. She wants to stick with the stock ones for now which seem to be a pretty good tire overall.

 

[OnwardGuinevere]

I finally got to play with the Ascent Scout II. First run about in our living room, I was very impressed how well it climbed fully stock. I do have some brass links for the front to help the weight distribution, I'm sure It'll be even better then!

The lights and grills on your ascent 18 look awesome!

 

[Breitmaierz]

awesome grill and light set up. That's so sick!

 

[Doom!]

My wife wanted me to add a light kit and a grill to hers. I will be doing some brass adds this week when the rest of the parts arrive tomorrow.

We will see how long the light bar holds up. Bright though.

Headlights only.

Headlights and lightbar

I've got full front portal brass cases for both, brass diff covers, and a brass servo mount. All the links are getting replaced with a high clearance stainless set with adjustable ends.

I also ordered a set of wheels for mine. She wants to stick with the stock ones for now which seem to be a pretty good tire overall.

Looks great, Diggin the roll bar in the back too.

 

[FJC_GUY]

Looks great, Diggin the roll bar in the back too.

We will see how it holds up. There is another grill I like better but it's not my truck haha. Mechanically I can do almost anything to it and she doesn't care but when it comes to appearance it's all hers.

 

[Breitmaierz]

We will see how it holds up. There is another grill I like better but it's not my truck haha. Mechanically I can do almost anything to it and she doesn't care but when it comes to appearance it's all hers.

Where do you find your stuff?

 

[FJC_GUY]

Where do you find your stuff?

Mosly Amazon right now. The grill and light kit came as a set and the roll bar was separate. The Amazon seller is Dash-RC. Etsy has some parts as well and I will probably end up printing some stuff as well.

The shop I bought these at is 2 hours from my house and the only place that happens to carry Redcat products. The other 3 LHS around me carry barely anything other than SCX24 and Trx4m parts.

New wheels and tires for the Scout.

 

[FJC_GUY]

Progress.

 

[FJC_GUY]

Finished up the links and front brass last night.

Toned down the brass highlights a little too. Sharpie works well for coloring it.

 

[FJC_GUY]

View attachment 225673
My daughter's truck. This thing right out of the box is really amazing and needs nothing. The pink wheels are because Pink is life! Lol awesome rigs love the scout.

I showed my wife this picture and she went from "stock wheels are fine" to "I want those" pretty quickly haha