Static Age

Me & my RC buddies used to have a really good track locally, it was in & around a derelict barn. The great thing about it was that the track was marked out by what was there so you could just turn up & drive. Land owners came along one day in a bad mood & kicked us off, told us never to return. I live in the country side but we are having problems finding anywhere to run the cars, plenty of large grass recreation areas but the local council dont cut the grass short enough to be able to run electric buggies.

I do rate the ansmann shocks, got them on two cars. Would they not be too stiff for a grasshopper though?

Thanks for your comments regarding my Frog, it did turn out rather well. Those ansmann dampers are very good value, I have them on two cars. I think the ansmann springs will be too hard & the oil to thick for the Frog. The Frog is very light so to get the best handling you need soft dampers with soft springs. The yeah racing ones on the rear are superb. Finding dampers for the front is even more of a challange. I wanted to use rere Hornet rear dampers & springs but they are too long for the front of the Frog. The ones I have fitted are ok but I think there could be a better choice. I see people have fitted Losi Mini T dampers to the front end of other vintage buggy's, however the length of these may be too long for the Front of the Frog. I dont think it would fit under my beetle shell but a custom front shock tower with mini T dampers with the frog shell would be pretty cool & effective. Edit: just noticed your comment about making a shock tower. Its fairly easy. I made a template out of card, you can keep doing that until you get what you want, alot cheaper & easier to cut than alloy. Once I was happy I drew around the card on a piece of alloy & cut it out with a jig saw.

Forum rules forbid links to ebay, so you will have to search for yourself. CRP have a ebay store & they do ship to the UK at a reasonable price. I have the rear shock mounts & bumper, both good upgrades. I built my own front shock tower from aluminium & used some unknown shocks that I found on ebay. The yeah racing dampers are a good choice for the rear as they come with a set of red springs which are nice & soft. This suits the light rear end of the frog. Link to the wheels http://www.fusionhobbies.com/Carson-2WD-Al...k-p/c900027.htm They are availble in chrome too. Pics of my modified frog here http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?...mp;#entry415177

Ebay item No 160471709596 The red springs in the set are the softer ones, these would probably be the best on the hopper. I think the shocks come without oil in, I would use very light oil, the grasshopper works best this way. I used a set of these on my rere Frog, big improvement of the standard dampers. Oh, they are available in blue too.

It would be good if some step by step photo's were available for the Frog gearbox transplant. I bought a Frog gearbox a year ago as my Wild One has some cracks in the screw holes in the gearbox casing. Though now that the FAV has been re released I'll probably just buy new gearbox case set.

Thats in very good order, looking at the underside it appears to have hardly been run. Only a few runs will leave scratches on the battery door. Those front wheels are quite fragile, I have boken the centres out of the later reinforced version. I have a set on my Wild One runner that are starting to crack. I'm sure it wont take much work to make your Wild One look superb.

If you are going to build it from kit form then you really should put proper bearings in it. If you buy used & it doesnt have ball bearings then fit some. A 540 motor upgrade is cheap & will give a big increase in speed. Hornet oil filled shocks will improve the handling but dont expect it to handle like a modern buggy. There are a few more mods available like the FX10 front suspension mod, but the above are the cheapest & easiest. Its a basic chassis so you can only go so far. Like all of the fixed rear axle Tamiyas its great as a fun runner/basher but if you want a serious performance RC then its not for you.

Thanks for the item number. I think as long as all of the lights work & it has a fog lamp & reverse light, then I guess you could MOT it. It might need wheel arches fitting, though I'm not sure as ex millitary vehicles are subject to slightly different rules. Some of the trucks & armoured cars qualify as agricultural vehicles when registered for use on the public highway & only require an MOT style inspection every four years.

The ebay link has been removed, got an item number?

Great thread. Its going to be hard to resist buying one of these, I aready have far too may cars.

I dont mind what the paint is like as long as its a complete bonnet. Its for a runner which will be painted non box art, anyone have anything? Alternativley I'll wait until rere FAV parts are available. No longer wanted. Thanks to Stefano.

These look great. A I guess a slight mod would alow them to be used on the lunchbox/Pumkin.

Go for a steel pinion if you can get one, lasts way longer. I found I got through two tamiya 19t pinions pretty quickly, both times they shredded the spur gear as well.

I have been using one of those foam bumpers on my TL01 drifter for a couple of years with no problems. One thing I would recomend is changing to a steel pinion, the alloy one wears pretty quickly. Even more so if you decide to lock the diffs. Also, use the lowest gear ratio to get more torque. Thats the 19 tooth pinion.

I remember RCP. I bought my long wheel base MArdave Meteor chassis & shell from them amongst other things. The book, although small had pretty extensive lists of hop ups for most vintage racers.

Fusion also do them in chrome.

You could buy the from Fusion to save on shipping http://www.fusionhobbies.com/Carson-2WD-Al...k-p/c900027.htm

Just goes to show you dont need to spend much money to have fun with RC. I have a set of those carson wheels/tyres. Not so great on very loose surfaces but the level of grip on hard surfaces is superb.

This is the best solution, you can buy drift wheels with 10mm offset.

I used those yeah racing shocks on my frog, have to agree with the points above. This mod makes a huge difference, the stock shocks are way to hard. I think a ball diff would be great as you could limit some of the slip, the the only one available is the old thorpe unit & its as rare as hens teeth these days. If only tamiya would issue a ball diff for the frog, it would have so many other applications in vintage cars & re re's.

After taking the prop off & having a proper look I found that the pin in the UJ had slipped right over to one side. This placed all of the load on one side of the prop, I have orderd a stock prop for now as they are £12 for a pair. If I break another one then I'll go for the jufac props.

It broke, sheared off the plastic side of the uiniversal joint. Thanks for the link.

Ok guys, things have been going great but today I broke the rear prop shaft. Any recomendations on uprated props?

I'm going to have a look at doing the stick pack mod tonight. To alow proper articulation of the front axle I will have to move the top of front dampers from inside to outside of the chassis. I dont think this will have much effect if any on the suspension travel.