My old Grasshopper revival

[MadAnt]

Back when I was a young teen I was gifted my first hobby grade electric RC car. It was used and abused before I had it, the re-release Grasshopper did not exist then, but I made it work and gave it new life again. I had loads of fun with the old grasshopper over the years, going through multiple bodies, motors and evolutions, it was the one car that was always working despite being the worst sometimes and always fixed for as cheap as possible and back in action quicker than anything else. It was terrible at everything and yet it was so fun. 

Now here we are in 2024. I have not used the old Grasshopper in years, it was still in the sorry state that I left it in, which was borderline trash. I really wanted to bring it back to life, which would not take much, but I just kept putting it off, letting it collect dust. While recovering from my recent brain surgery(which I still am), I decided that it was time and I wanted something to do and enjoy since working on big cars was not an option while recovering. Well... I did more than just fixing it, I made it better than ever-ish. 

Just fix the steering and body post I thought to myself. We know that did not happen, it got the special treatment.

There is a story for why the chassis has metal bracing. Anyone would say it needs a chassis, but I don't want to take all of this buggy's character away, so I'm keeping it the way it is.

So I started with analyzing the steering to see if I can just fix it with some other junk that I have stored. Well... I have lots of junk, new and old hornet spare parts and some Ampro parts that I bought from Shapeways in the past. I think you can tell where this is going.

 I don't need this jank repair in the pic above anymore.

 Yes, I know I have the Ampro 10mm offset control arms on opposite sides and upside down. Trust me, it works better that way for what I wanted to do and it allows the room needed for the lower shock/spring perch end. Using hornet front o-ring dampers takes out a little bit of bounce and the longer shanked screws for the shock shafts give the suspension more travel along with my larger springs. I still need to make bump stops, I might get to that someday. Anyway,  besides fixing the steering and having a new servo saver, this suspension conversion is a big upgrade for this pile of trash.

 Installed some new spare hornet rear shocks too with miss match lower spring retainers.

Ok, so the suspension got some special treatment. Why not improve things just a little more with what I have laying around? Since I had a spare Futaba S-FHSS 2.4Ghz receiver it seemed like a good idea get with the times and bind it with my Futaba 2PL. No more crystal swapping nonsense when ever I get radio interference.

In the pic above you can see that I upgraded from the mechanical speed controller. So out with the old and in with... the old! Well, I had a couple of old Novak 610HRV electronic speed controllers in my inventory, so I figured why not. Also, under the styrene repaired shock tower, I downgraded the motor from a Venom Fireball 19 turn double to a 25 turn Tamiya Torque Tuned motor from my spare motor pile. I figured and was right that the slower motor would help make the old Hopper more drivable. To help the drivetrain run smoother I replaced the brass bushings with ball bearings from Panther Products, which was from my bearing stash. My recommendation for RC hobbyists is to buy the most common bearings in bulk, it will save you money.

Now in its final form, I can enjoy the old hopper again. I tell you what? I had a smile on my face running this old buggy again. It still has it's charm, but with slightly improved handling. It will always be special to me, I've learned that built instead of bought can be more fun sometimes, or maybe rebuilt several times can be more fun lol.

 

[Mad Ax]

Great write-up.  I do love a good origin story.  I hope there's many more mods, fixes and improvements to come  

I too had a grasshopper that was given to me used and very-much-abused back in the mid-90s, and that also ended up with metal bracing around the front after one of the shock towers snapped off in a crash.  Also it had a shock tower from a completely different car grafted onto it, so it had uneven towers and mismatched shocks!

[KEV THE REV]

Excellent . I like a 'make do and mend' approach to an old item or model . It's easy to just buy lots of new parts but you can lose the soul of the original model or idea if you over-do it .  I've got a few 'saved from the bin' models , body shells etc . I like a challenge and I can see that you do too    . 

Have fun !! , and a speedy recovery

[Hypoxic]

These things are GREAT therapy. I can totally relate as I can’t work on much of anything at the moment either after my own surgery. So good on you! Enjoy and keep running it as they seem to take the sprit in a good direction. Wishing you a sound recovery.

[Grumpy pants]

Great thread 👍