After doing a pair of AX24 builds, my wallet was screaming "No Mas! No Mas!" 
Seeing all the good stuff on the new Ascent 18 I decided challenge myself to do a $1.00 limit build using only stock parts.
The $1 budget is for nuts, bolts, zip ties, double sticky tape, springs etc.- NO PURCHASED PARTS!
Ordered the Ascent on 3/8, got it on 3/12. Had a $5 discount so it was $104 delivered. Lots of reviews out there so I won't go into the details, just the stuff I did to make it better.
OOB it really runs good, just top heavy, average tires and poor weight distribution.
Here's what I did to address the weight distribution.
Removed the battery tray, cut the mounting tabs off the bottom and zip tied it to the front of the frame over the front axle.
Moved the front plate to the middle of the chassis and mounted the ESC to it. Took off the front bumper and trimmed the body fender flares.
Weight bias is now 57% front, 43% rear. The battery is pretty high, raising the CG but I figured the tradeoff was worth it.
The body needed to be raised about 3mm to clear the battery so I stuck a piece of velcro on the inside front that sticks to the battery strap. Also added a spacer on the back clip to make the body more or less level.
To lower the chassis I rebuilt the shocks with the pen spring mod. 1/2 of a spring in each shock, kept the factory springs on and filled with 30wt. Moved around the mounting positions. Dropped the truck about 3mm and reduced the flex, again I think worth the tradeoff.
Added a couple of 7g wheel weights to the chassis to get more tire grip, not sure about this so far...
Vented the tires with a soldering iron and roughed them up with some coarse sandpaper and doused them with simple green.
Because the tires are glued to the rims I couldn't add weight to the inside of the rims. If I can figure out how to get the tires off the rims without destroying either I'll probably do that.
In the meantime, one of my buddies who's an avid golfer is bringing over this weekend some golf lead tape 1/2" wide 2g per inch. Gonna try adding the tape to the inside and outside lips on the rims and maybe on the axles. We'll see...
So far I'm into it for less than $1, just a couple of dollar store pens, some velcro and zip ties.
Any suggestions on free/ less than $1 mods are welcome!
While fooling around I found this neat trick... Wheelstands! I may put a couple of ball bearings on the rear bumper and see if I can really control it...
Seeing all the good stuff on the new Ascent 18 I decided challenge myself to do a $1.00 limit build using only stock parts.
The $1 budget is for nuts, bolts, zip ties, double sticky tape, springs etc.- NO PURCHASED PARTS!
Ordered the Ascent on 3/8, got it on 3/12. Had a $5 discount so it was $104 delivered. Lots of reviews out there so I won't go into the details, just the stuff I did to make it better.
OOB it really runs good, just top heavy, average tires and poor weight distribution.
Here's what I did to address the weight distribution.
Removed the battery tray, cut the mounting tabs off the bottom and zip tied it to the front of the frame over the front axle.
Moved the front plate to the middle of the chassis and mounted the ESC to it. Took off the front bumper and trimmed the body fender flares.
Weight bias is now 57% front, 43% rear. The battery is pretty high, raising the CG but I figured the tradeoff was worth it.
The body needed to be raised about 3mm to clear the battery so I stuck a piece of velcro on the inside front that sticks to the battery strap. Also added a spacer on the back clip to make the body more or less level.
To lower the chassis I rebuilt the shocks with the pen spring mod. 1/2 of a spring in each shock, kept the factory springs on and filled with 30wt. Moved around the mounting positions. Dropped the truck about 3mm and reduced the flex, again I think worth the tradeoff.
Added a couple of 7g wheel weights to the chassis to get more tire grip, not sure about this so far...
Vented the tires with a soldering iron and roughed them up with some coarse sandpaper and doused them with simple green.
Because the tires are glued to the rims I couldn't add weight to the inside of the rims. If I can figure out how to get the tires off the rims without destroying either I'll probably do that.
In the meantime, one of my buddies who's an avid golfer is bringing over this weekend some golf lead tape 1/2" wide 2g per inch. Gonna try adding the tape to the inside and outside lips on the rims and maybe on the axles. We'll see...
So far I'm into it for less than $1, just a couple of dollar store pens, some velcro and zip ties.
Any suggestions on free/ less than $1 mods are welcome!
While fooling around I found this neat trick... Wheelstands! I may put a couple of ball bearings on the rear bumper and see if I can really control it...
