Crawler Canyon Presents: Redcat Everest Ascent Pt.3, Ascent, ascended 

Happy turkey day to you too!

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Yep...thats the reason they are called "crawler" 😎

Lol..exactly my thoughts😂

I can't take credit for the paint. It showed up at the Canyon like that. Who doesn't love a Gulf livery?

That was painted by a guy in Great Falls Mt.

Spec-class crawling NEEDS to be a thing. Hell, just RTR-class. Tire mods only.

You might be the only person on the planet that prefers the Ascent cab over this one.

It's all repurposed parts. Redcat LOVEs those weird body mounts with the big... fan hole? in it.

I think the problem is that by definition ambivalence is spot on, but that word has been misused for so long that it's now synonymous with apathetic, and that's the opposite of how I feel about this build. Ambipathy could become the "new" ambivalence, because people ruined the old one. Just look at decimate-- a word with an absolutely singular meaning, reduced to another synonym for destruction-- a word with dozens of synonyms already.

@@CrawlerCanyon yeah the misuse problem is rough. The second dictionary definition of the word 'literally' is now 'figuratively'

@@gr3yh47 reading that gave me an actual, factual, real LOL. So you know-- not just literally, but

You'd better not buy a Redcat! Life is too short. I have a faux-2Low in a box waiting for a build. Have the axles for it too. But I am SO easily distracted, that I invariably start working on something else, and as it stands right now, that build is like 3 ICFTW series out.

@@CrawlerCanyon awesome. Enjoy all the videos. Running those $50 clone plastic Capra axles too. They’ve been great. Just replace all bearings and they are good to go. You haven’t steered us in the wrong direction yet lol😂

@@BobBitchen100 I'm thinking about picking up another set of those clones, because hey, can't have too many axles. And the entire fleet has ONE set of Capra axles in it, which is kinda wild when I think about it.

@@CrawlerCanyon I bought 2 sets when I ordered. Took 2-3weeks from China. Worth it. I did have to turn down stub shafts a couple thousandths to fit real bearings. Just removing their coating plus a little more. Chucked up in drill and hit w/ file. Cave man lath😂 Many packs threw normal crawls/falls and binds. They’ve been great. I don’t worry about snapping them at this point. I’ve paid $200 for real sets. Never again😂

@@BobBitchen100 I've noticed this with a lot of err... "economy" parts. The machining is pretty good, then they run some kind of coating on it-- electroplate, powdercoat, whatever-- and then things barely fit together. Wheel hexes!! I got a set of aluminum hexes that were 12.0mm. Some hubs wouldn't fit on them at all.

They sure did-- it looks radically different from the pre-release version. Still not enough link mounts (IMO) but it's definitely improved.

Yes I think your right I do not have A vanquish but I do have scx pro and I’m loving it! If had pick ide prob get pro can run servo on Alex or chassis ! But carbon I want as well!

Or buy a negative G kit for your trx4. Vrd is portal and axial pro is a straight axle keep in mind when making a choice. I've driven all of them and imo the negative g was the most impressive rig to date and its a couple yrs old now and still top dog imo.

1000%. My parts bins are pretty deep, and I can fabricate most anything else-- so my investment in the Ascent is minimal. But for (forgive the generalization) most anyone else, starting with a kit, or putting axles and gearbox to a dedicated "comp" chassis will still be cheaper than starting with the Ascent. I had early hopes that the ol' Redcat False Economy Engine® wouldn't be running full steam with the Ascent, but it absolutely is. Any amount of money spent on an Ascent is well and truly better spent elsewhere.

Trx4 is a great rig man 😎😎😎🤙

If you go back and watch the 'It Came From The Workbench' ICFTW series he has done you can find a bunch of builds with low price components. I'm rewatching them all to put together a $299 build list and it's doable if you have a radio already, which you do. Just an idea before you buy. Having said that if you have the budget get a Vanquish kit, they are amazing.

With a few exceptions, I feel like Iim simultaneously preaching to the choir and yelling into the wind. I get the idea what much of the "core viewing group" shares at least some of my sentiments about Redcat, while in contrast the remainder are people that already own Ascents, and HOW DARE I NOT LIKE THE THINGS THAT THEY LIKE Whether this is the last Ascent video or not, I don't know. I am 1000% sure it's the last Redcat video on the channel.

You can be confident that the moment-- the very instant-- those show up on Amazon I will be ordering a set.

If it's a battle of "Best for the least," much as I hate to say it it's probably going to be the Fordyce. $399 for the RTR, then pop in a Fusion for 80 and a Creep cab for 20. 500 bucks, and you're causing trouble. The VFD motor position is a cheat code compared to others (look at it next to an LCXU) and the geometry is well thought out. The TRX-4 makes sacrifices for durability-- it's not the absolute best crawler out of the box, but it is STRONG LIKE BULL. Honestly, DIY is the best way to spend 500 bucks today. Start with some $30 no-name rails, a $30 dig box and some AE $50 Capra-clone axles, and you're so far ahead of any kit you can't see them through your dust. As he sits today, even with unnecessarily extravagant parts, Toothless is sitting sub-500 .

@@CrawlerCanyon I totally agree. For the casual RC user, DIY is too much for them to wrap their head around. It is the way, but a bit of foundation is necessary to go that route. All the right parts can be assembled in all the wrong ways :). This series had me looking at my rigs so see if I installed my upper front link on the wrong side of any 😂

There are a couple of RTRs I've gotten that have the front upper on the wrong side for no reason at all. I literally just unbolt and bolt on the other side. Another in-house favorite is "4-link with CMS." The power flopper.

I'd like to see fully independent suspension as well, even though I think it would handle TERRIBLY. The Lasernut would be AWFUL, as the chassis is like an 18" flat aluminum plate. What's the opposite of breakover? That. I think full custom out of a pair of Element IFS setups would be pretty trick, even if something on a pair of AR44s could crawl circles around it.

Jipper...have a look at RCC ..a guy made a crawler out of a traxxas c-maxx and a summit..pretty cool.

The mountain59’s comment reminded me- I’ve seen guys convert Traxxas Summits into crawlers, and they look hella fun, but it’s definitely more of an “this thing can crawl now” than it is a “look how capable this is.” The Summit is massive, so I imagine that helps.

@@CrawlerCanyon by crumb if i had the means I'd send you a summit to play with. I always forget about that rc and am always reminded when I have one of these left field ideas that it would be satisfied by it.

"Rattle Cat" Lmfao!! 😆😂🤣

The 40 is compared to the 80. Not like bare-bones AM32 small, but small. The footprint is a lie though, because all of the input wires are on one end, and the motor wires are on the other. So mounting it is still a nightmare, just a smaller one. Someone with skills needs to design and 3D print a little case that fits the Rhinos, so we can mount it like a normal ESC. I'd buy half a dozen.

@@CrawlerCanyon looks like a $10 dollar difference. The internal BEC is only 3 amp??

@@nicholasstephey8475 yeah, 3A BEC. It's really meant to be paired with a direct-power servo. It is small compared to the 80A, though. Just a little bigger than a typical receiver. The 80, especially with the wires, usually takes up a whole side of the chassis. Not heavy, just... difficult to mount cleanly.

@@CrawlerCanyon agreed the wires coming out both ends is troublesome

It it familiar, is it not?

That body is the best part of Rattlecat. I love that look.

Junkbot isn't pretending to be good. And he has kinda passable geometry, so points there.

Is an Ascent on the DSM chassis still an Ascent? I could make a perfunctory argument that the DSM-kitted one Exocaged drove isn't an Ascent anymore either. But that's why my argument would be half-hearted at best (mostly because I like to argue) as I think that the less Redcat it is, the better it gets. Imagine this rig on decent axles.

Does it sway at all that I don't have enough parts left over to build another Ascent? I mean... I'm really close. We're down to: FMM, skid, axles, shocks, front bumper/mount.

@@CrawlerCanyon lol. I feel you have show great restraint.. it would of been hilarious if you just rolled out baseline with the blue body on it.

So you're telling me you have a Redcat powered by the combo of an iSDT ESC70 and a cheap, sealed-can 5-slot motor? Because that sounds like the worst thing I can imagine. Throw a Flysky G7P on it and the sky will likely turn black as sackcloth, and moon red as blood.

I would argue there is an objective truth in, "will this rig get up this rock", but "am I having fun driving my RC truck" is a subjective opinion.

@@thindigital I'm all for self-imposed frustration-- people drive leafers and hardbodies and the like for the challenge, I get that 100%. But the Ascent's failings are not a matter of opinion. The upper link is on the wrong side. The panhard/drag-link relationship is terrible. Nothing is shimmed and everything needs to be. The axles are large and loud, with bearings, and in general wrenching on it borders on anxiety inducing. Then again, much like when Moe exclaimed "Why can't I find Amanda Huggankiss?!?" I think Barney's reply might be suitable when directed at me as well: "Maybe your standards are too high."

Why run an ESC70 when you can run a Reedy SC480x!@@CrawlerCanyon

@@oldmanjeepingandbiking9621 Performance-wise they're dueling dumpster fires, but I give the 480x the "livibility" edge for not trying (and failing) to incorporate Bluetooth. An SC480X is outright awful, but it WILL turn on every time you plug in a battery. And in general, they're free-with-purchase with every Element. You have to buy an ESC70 on purpose.

I traded about 80% of the Ascent, including the body, for a 540 motor. Probably almost 6 months ago.

That's the idea!

However you computed your CGH... you did it wrong. There's simply no way Newtonian physics are going to put your CG below your chassis rails unless you've added an amount of unsprung weight that exceeds the weight of everything above the axles. So I am whatever qualifies for the next tier above non-believer. Because what you're claiming is impossible. The stock rig (and if you'll recall, I scaled mine bone stock) has a CGH just under 4 inches. I dropped it an inch by removing over 400g of sprung weight. So no. You didn't. But I'm all for anyone willing to put up a defense of the Ascent, because I firmly believe that everyone has a right to be wrong. There is absolutely nothing budget about the Ascent. At 300 bucks, it's not even competitive in the marketplace. See it for it's potential? And what is that exactly? Awful geometry (including built-in bump steer and axle swing), minimal gear reduction, trail truck shock placement, poorly thought out FMM, etc, etc. The only thing they got right is the HX TS servo, which can be had for $7 on AE. Wheee! There are also zero perks to it. There are no bonuses. The cab-only body mount solution is about as last-second as a "design" could be. Your primary mistake was thinking that everything I'm saying is an opinion. Geometry and finance are both math-- this is quantifiable stuff. The Ascent doesn't get a passing grade on either. But hey, you got your CGH almost an inch and a half lower than it possibly could be (unless you've left off a laundry list of "changes") so there's a whole lotta math here that simply doesn't add up.

Wow man take a breath. He’s not being bias. Redcat has continued to trashcan engineer there rigs. I’ve had red cat. And will not own another.

@@CrawlerCanyon I like how you get when you're challenged. You haven't seen any footage or any pictures and you're speaking as if you are God himself and you know everything. Now, it is possible I measured at the wrong location. I measured to the bottom of the steel chassis rail, which is what you pointed to in your video, isn't it? The bottom corner of your slider? I looked at what you pointed to and measured to the same place. Or maybe the markings on my ruler are wrong? Either way, I'll be happy to take a video showing what I measured and how it's set up so you can see it. I don't make claims I can't back and if I'm wrong I'll gladly eat a slice of humble pie. I'm a human being, I'm not perfect and I'm not afraid of being wrong. I don't speak for the masses so when I say something is "budget" I can only be speaking from my perspective, and my perspective is when you compare this to a Vanquish Product, or going the Rock Pirate route. I got mine locally for $275, the same price as the Gatekeeper (nearly) and I think the Gatekeeper is cheap. The Gatekeeper is better quality, sure, but not anymore capable out of the box with that heavy cage making it roll everywhere. Rock Pirates shock towers can fix that, but you're in almost $100 to make that happen AND you're chopping the cage to make it fit. AND the stock servo is going to go out quickly. Between the shock towers, wheels, tires and the servo, you just spent another $250-$300 just so you don't want to yeet your Gatekeeper because it rolls so much. MOST RTR's will need something similar, won't they? So, it's starting price is about the same and you only need to spend $11 on springs to solve the height problem. No, you're not competing, but you wouldn't buy this if you were. I wouldn't. There are so many vehicles we could do this all day. By the way, with Redcat being Redcat, you can use your thumbs to break the glue around the tire and get the tire off the stock wheel. I did this will all 4 and they all came off fine. You are set on geometry as if anyone would choose to comp this thing. Some actually might now that I think about it, but I'm set on the fact that a kid without a lot of money could pick this up and it would do well enough for what it is. The tires don't completely suck. The servo doesn't completely suck. The steering angle doesn't completely suck. It doesn't have an extremely heavy body that will make it tip at the slightest angle. It has steel links and full bearings and portals and a lot of things that you would normally have to shell out top shelf money for...and a kid on a budget can afford it. This is long enough. I'll make a video and post it for you.

@@urg0nnah8me I appreciate the effort, but all I need are corner weights and wheelbase. CGH isn't a magical point in space. So this isn't anything akin to me "knowing everything" as much as it is me simply "using math."

@@CrawlerCanyon I said I would and now I think you may have gotten a defective unit or something? I can't get my ride height up to 4" using the parts supplied by Redcat. Or I'm measuring incorrectly. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LiUak67hFr0.html