Redcat Ascent 18 Apex Brushless Rock Crawler

[Doom!]

Looks like Redcat is going after HobbyPlus's CR18 market. This looks killer and I expect it to be a great performer. Really looking forward to this one, I think it just jumped to the front of my wishlist.

REDCAT APEX Link

 

[Doom!]

Couldn't help myself, just placed my order.

 

[RC MODS]

Couldn't help myself, just placed my order.

That makes 2 of us! Some bangin' Injora wheels and it should be good to go

 

[OnwardGuinevere]

Looks cool!

 

[WickedFog]

Looks like Redcat is going after HobbyPlus's CR18 market. This looks killer and I expect it to be a great performer. Really looking forward to this one, I think it just jumped to the front of my wishlist.

REDCAT APEX Link

View attachment 249863
View attachment 249864

Did you order from Redcat?

 

[OnTheRocks]

Wow, watched the first YT videos on it and it seems that Cape Crawlers was helping Redcat with the development of this little RTR beast.
Too bad that I already ordered the Furitek TerraX (which still didn't arrive yet), but now I wanna have this too, lol.

Edit: One thing nearly everyone mentions is the super wide stance. That might be a bit challenging for narrow gates to pass. So, I guess a wheel upgrade with 0 offset or even a positive offset might be a worthy upgrade. Someone said that the stance on this is nearly 2 inches wider than the regular Ascent, wow.

 

[RC MODS]

Here is a shot of a regular Ascent on the left and the Apex on the right..definitely a wider stance but not quite sure it's up to 2 inches. For the price point I think its a great deal for 3S out of the box with the only immediate upgrade being a much better servo.

 

[Doom!]

Did you order from Redcat?

Yep, I usually order directly from Redcat when buying their product.

 

[OnwardGuinevere]

Yep, I usually order directly from Redcat when buying their product.

Fingers crossed, yours doesn't get help up in Phoenix for a week

 

[Doom!]

Fingers crossed, yours doesn't get help up in Phoenix for a week

Never had a problem, I've ordered directly from them several times. But the USPS does have a way with packages.

 

[OnwardGuinevere]

Never had a problem, I've ordered directly from them several times. But the USPS does have a way with packages.

Yea it was 100% USPS at the time. Redcat was great.

 

[Alwaysonauto]

So help educate this old fart.
A 200mAh battery?
Really?
How long is that going to last?

Mind you, my only point of reference is my Mohave GROM, but its 3S batteries are 3000mAh ones if I remember correctly.

 

[aklindeman]

Slow speed rock crawling requires a lot less power than running a Grom around.

 

[Alwaysonauto]

I can see based on the gear reduction etc, but I've got camera batteries that are more powerful than what is supplied with this truck.

 

[aklindeman]

Quite likely they picked the battery to keep the left/right balance of the truck within an acceptable range.

 

[Alwaysonauto]

I can understand that.
Thanks, I hadn't really considered the whole of the system they are trying to create here.
Looks like fun but I'm not in the demographic of their audience for it.

 

[Xraycer]

So help educate this old fart.
A 200mAh battery?
Really?
How long is that going to last?

Mind you, my only point of reference is my Mohave GROM, but its 3S batteries are 3000mAh ones if I remember correctly.

If you're just crawling, it'll probably run for +25min. If you're constantly launching it and/or flooring the trigger, then probably less than 10min.

 

[OnTheRocks]

So help educate this old fart.
A 200mAh battery?
Really?
How long is that going to last?

Mind you, my only point of reference is my Mohave GROM, but its 3S batteries are 3000mAh ones if I remember correctly.

I guess there are three reasons to go for a 200 mAh battery in the kit. 1) is the obvious one, it's just cheaper and 2) it can influence the lateral weight distribution which kind of battery capacity you use. You have to try out with a 4 piece crawler scale to see the weight distribution. In this model the battery is mounted on the side, so that makes it, in terms of comp crawling, worth having a look how the weight distribution changes between a 200 mAh and 400-600 mAh battery. And 3) due to the small area where you can actually fit the battery, you are very much limited by the space there, e.g. bigger batteries are mostly longer and they might not even fit there on the side.

 

[WickedFog]

I guess there are three reasons to go for a 200 mAh battery in the kit. 1) is the obvious one, it's just cheaper and 2) it can influence the lateral weight distribution which kind of battery capacity you use. You have to try out with a 4 piece crawler scale to see the weight distribution. In this model the battery is mounted on the side, so that makes it, in terms of comp crawling, worth having a look how the weight distribution changes between a 200 mAh and 400-600 mAh battery. And 3) due to the small area where you can actually fit the battery, you are very much limited by the space there, e.g. bigger batteries are mostly longer and they might not even fit there on the side.

If all of that is a problem. You can simply buy two 1S batteries and solder up a series discharge harness and balance harness to turn them into a 2S split pack. Then you can put the batteries in the chassis on each side to balance the weight

 

[Doom!]

I believe the ESC is on the other side.