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Kowalski86

Project "Rockhopper", a Frog Restoration

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A couple of days ago I decided to try rallying my M06, some tarmac slides and some light off-roading. Long story short I decided that I'd be better off with a buggy. I went on ebay looking for a used Grasshopper 2 and ended up with two Frogs.

Frog A was the first one, this one came with a body, good back tires, and a controller. I didn't realise until later that it was short a dog bone! So I looked up dogbones, the Universal Driveshaft hop up, I decided to use vintage car restoration logic and buy Frog B which has shafts, posts, and a bumper.

Frog B was the first to arrive, I must have spent 20 minutes looking it over un amusement, and not in a cynical "this is so bad" way, I was actually quite fascinated. The front suspension actually had halfway decent damping despite the lack of shocks, certainly better than the friction shocks on modern entry level kits.

Unfortunately Frog Bs battery was misplaced I guess, but I did get a card for the sellers social media accounts (which I promptly pitched because I dont care). But I couldn't complain, you'll see why.

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I decided to transfer the wheels, body, and crystal over to Frog B, and low and behold the old MSC, servo, controller, and motor still worked. Unfortunately I encountered a problem, I guess ORVs were made before 7-cell batteries were standard so I had to wing it a bit. And I couldn't just, you know, take a miniute and realise that you can space the battery tray out just a little bit with bushings.

That being said it feels a bit silly eating up 12 AAs and one stickpack for just one RC! But, those were the days.

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On the dry run I was actually impressed with the Frog, it wasn't nearly as terrible as my Grasshopper, it was quicker than I expected even on bushings and an MSC. And my awful battery job held together even with some off-roading. The run ended when the battery died, but the diff nor transmission went out which is a miracle.

My plans for the Frog are to throw in some bearings (obviously), but I might keep the old electronics installed. I'm not a big MSC guy but why mess with something when it works? Frog A, the spare chassis, will likely be sold off if anyone is interested. Both of these chassis are in good shape, but Frog B in particular is in good shape. The body is an original and I have no plans to paint it, instead you can see the servos in action and the MSC.

I have some ball bearings on the way so when I get those installed I'll shim the gearbox a bit, then see how long it'll run and how long it'll hold together!

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Looks like a couple of nice finds there!  Is that actually a 7-cell (8.4v) battery you stuffed in there for testing?

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1 hour ago, bRIBEGuy said:

Looks like a couple of nice finds there!  Is that actually a 7-cell (8.4v) battery you stuffed in there for testing?

Its a 7-cell 7.2V NIMH, it was held in with a zip wrap and tape which worked a better than I expected (even if it looked sloppy). Before I run it again I'll add some spacers to expand the battery tray.

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Because I want to do a bit of a retro build, I've ordered a Bolink Beetle shell re-production and some NOS parma body mounts. It'll also save wear on the old Frog shell, don't want to rip the wing off in a rollover.

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For anyone looking to run a 7-cell or just a bigger battery in an ORV, you might want to read this post.

I took each battery end and flipped them around, while using bushings between the chassis and each end to space them out (obviously these will be upgraded to bearings in time!). Theres still a little wiggle room so some sponge might be needed, but my 7-cell fits well enough for now. Im surprised that there isn't some sort of hop up that adds blue aluminum spacers and such.

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These days, I always try to work some clear bits into my design, although never the whole shell and only on buggies. Suggest you put in some bling lights on the chassis itself to make it shine (pun intended). As much as I do not think much of the ORV chassis, I still think it looks interesting. I did try to work some translucent into my Frog, but it didn't turn out too well.

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18 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

These days, I always try to work some clear bits into my design, although never the whole shell and only on buggies. Suggest you put in some bling lights on the chassis itself to make it shine (pun intended). As much as I do not think much of the ORV chassis, I still think it looks interesting. I did try to work some translucent into my Frog, but it didn't turn out too well.

Do LED lights work on a 2 channel receiver? I've been wanting to run lights on at least one of my RCs.

Also, while doing my battery tray mod I broke the very old soldering job from the antennae to the post. Time to phone up Hobbywing...

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36 minutes ago, Kowalski86 said:

Do LED lights work on a 2 channel receiver? I've been wanting to run lights on at least one of my RCs

Yes! You have to use a battery pack for the MSC so get a splitter and power the LED off the same power pack.

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7 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

Yes! You have to use a battery pack for the MSC so get a splitter and power the LED off the same power pack.

I won't be needling that splitter, I decided to upgrade to modern electronics so I don't have any out of control incidents.

I do have a question for anyone reading, is there any way to brace the transmission using a washer or a brace? My transmission isn't clicking but I figured I'd either order a brace or make something myself.

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15 minutes ago, Kowalski86 said:

I won't be needling that splitter, I decided to upgrade to modern electronics

Oh, just reuse the battery pack for lights then. I did the same way back on my Lunchbox. (If your new Rx has no battery out connections)

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2 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

Oh, just reuse the battery pack for lights then. I did the same way back on my Lunchbox.

My Flysky receivers have a third channel thats always on, I'll probably plug them into that and figure out a good spot to put the lights.

I think the ORV works fine as an interesting if not perfect pre-RC10 design, I'm not big on the monster variants though, too much trouble.

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15 hours ago, Kowalski86 said:

I do have a question for anyone reading, is there any way to brace the transmission using a washer or a brace? My transmission isn't clicking but I figured I'd either order a brace or make something myself.

Last pages for most recent version I think.

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2 hours ago, Problemchild said:

@Xeostar

the braces are still as popular as ever :)

JJ

I just sent a PM, my only concern is shipping since I live in Traxxas town.

If Amains on time I'll be installing bearings and what not come Monday.

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Back from my trip, and my bearings and newer electronics arrived...and a monkey sticker?

My go to electronics for silver can Tamiyas is a Hobbywing 1060 and Futaba S3004, may as well spend a few extra dollars for a nicer servo over the S3003. Everything went in no problemo, I mounted the ESC upside down beneath the MSC mount.

 

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The first test drive was unfortunately cut short since I forgot to shim the servo mount screw! After that I drove around for about a full battery pack. 

After a few jumps, lots of slides, some off roading, and a cart wheel...nothing broke! The transmission held together fine, my battery tray expansion held together, the only real damage was a lot of dust!

At this point my only plans are cosmetic changes, but if the transmission starts clicking I'll be re-building it and installing a decent brace. I am surprised at how easy these are to work on, there aren't a ton of little parts or spacers between things, barring my re-purposed bushings.

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1 hour ago, Frog Jumper said:

Upside down wing?  Interesting!

I never knew that it was upside down until you mentioned that! That explains why the sticker doesn't stick though. Whoever did this body had some interesting ideas.

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Took it for a nice hour long run at the park, lots of slides, some accidental cart wheels, even bumped the back end a few times due to bad driving (I cringed when that happened).

The only thing that went wrong was the double sided tape under my ESC giving away. I did stop a number of times just to check the transmission/diff, so far its holding up, but a brace might be in order just to protect the transmission in accidents..

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Got around to painting finally and used up my spare cans. Its not perfect, but I wanted it to look like a baja that someone would have slapped together in their backyard, then wrecked, then patched together.

Painting with Tamiya and Duratrax paint can be annoying since Duratrax paint comes out thin and spreads well, while Tamiyas comes out thicker.

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