Andyk

As above, which do I choose? Swaying to the Vaterra Ascender. Which would you go for and why?

Brandon1977

iTrader: (14)

Axial has a much larger aftermarket support but they both perform pretty well. Vaterra has better steering out of the box

sobiski racer

iTrader: (2)

Both great trucks. Vaterrra only takes "shorty" packs. That is the only drawback on either truck

Andyk

Is it easy to adapt the ascender to take normal sized batteries? That's what I like about the scx10, lots of upgrades but still like the sound of the Adcender.

diesel559

iTrader: (12)

Out of the box the Ascender hands down. It comes with all aluminum 4 link in the rear and 3 link in the front with a pan hard bar, frame mounted servo and cvd's all included. The axles also look more scale and come apart to grease and oil them easier.

OSRC

iTrader: (10)

The Ascender is better out of the box, no question. I mounted an Axial battery tray crosswise on the chassis. Super easy to do. There are a few conversion kits out there as well.

kingy1

iTrader: (12)

I finally got to handle an ascender in the flesh the other day, and hands down its better than a kit/rtr scx10 in every way. metal links out of the box, huge steering angle, cv's, steel transmission gears, adjustable chassis length and probably more I'm not thinking of atm. Even the included motor, esc and servo didnt feel too shabby. Chassis mounted servo has its pros and cons obviously, good if you want scale, not so good if you want all out performance.

Where its let down is aftermarket support. The scx10 can easily be built into a better vehicle, but will cost you a good amount of money to do so. The ascender doesn't have anywhere near the amount of aftermarket parts, so isn't able to be as easily built into an epic comp vehicle.

in short, if you want to buy it and drive and not spend a heap of money upgrading it, ascender all day every day.

hotrod87

iTrader: (252)

I personally will stick to Axial. Just way more support and anything and everything for them and I can build one with my eyes closed.

Andyk

Well I went out and got got an Ascender today, just started building it. Surprised it came with grease, thread lock and tools. So far a good fun build.
Thanks for all your advice

BruceR.

I'm glad I stumbled upon this thread. I had the same question. I'd love to get into crawling. Seems I'd break a lot less things than I currently do racing. I like the looks of the Ascenders better, but was worried that I wouldn't be happy with the way it performed and then grow frustrated and have an expensive vehicle collecting dust because it wasn't satisfying to drive.

DWJL511

iTrader: (1)

It really doesn't matter. Once you get into this hobby and love it, you'll be buying more than one truck and from different brands. I started with an Axial, then got Gmade, then got an RC4WD. All of them have their pros and cons—whatever makes you happy. But I'm glad Vaterra came out with a great product that is giving Axial some good competition—we consumers benefit in the end.

DriftMatt

iTrader: (1)

Should keep this thread going .
I have both the ascender and scx10 and both are quite impressive rigs
Out of the box the scx10 needs a fair bit changed to be able to compete with the ascender or even finsh a few hours of trail running

The ascender on the other hand straight out of the box it performs and looks sensational and i have found it very durable .

The scx10 is very cool once upgraded and a very capable rig with endless parts

The vaterra part support is still quite limited

Its pretty easy to get a scx10 skelleton these days so if i had to buy either vehicle again i would buy the scx10 and build it properly from the begining.

A quick run down on my 2 setups

Scx10
2.2 flat irons on weighted beadlock wheels
Cheap turnigy 18kg servo running at 6a using a castle bec
Still uses the ae5 speedy
Tekin heavy duty 45t motor
Alloy front everything except axle housing
Cvd front shafts
All alloy links (4 link front and rear)
High gears in front dif and low gears in rear dif
Alloy skid plate and gearbox
All metal gears in gearbox
Metal spur gear
Standerd drive shafts
Carbon fibre battery tray relocation to down low up front position
Alloy rear hubs
Alloy bull bar
Traxxas big bore shocks on losi mini springs
Custom shock positions
Assorted lights
I think thats everything
Drives very well now and i really love her

Ascender
Removed front bull bar
Tekin pro 30 hand wound motor and stock speedy
Virus rc 18kg servo
1.9 Pitbull rock beasts on deep dish rc4wd sunnys
Swapped stock springs to be setup upside down keeping the shocks up the normal way ( if that makes any sense)
Alloy servo horn
Twin hammers metal spur gear
Its a awesome rig and im extreemly happy with it

They both keep up with eachother now.
Sometimes the scx10 gets up things the ascender struggles with and other times its the other way around ( i have used multiple wheel/tyre combos on both and i find the scx10 better on 2.2s and the ascender better on 1.9s ( thats my opinion )

I guess if you dont know how to work on them or dont have the time the ascender is the best pick for you

If you like fiddling and fine tuning the scx10 is the winner there

Hope this helps

RC Bombshells

iTrader: (143)

Ascender is hands down the better supported and performing platform. SCX10 II was a bootlegged copy of much R&D from Vaterra.

Check out my Undercover Ascender with Axial Jeep (throw away) body. Axial folks hated this body. See what I did to it on the K5 frame with the K10 Rollbar.

Enjoy.