Re-Re Grasshopper with H.P. suspension kit

[Tamiya_addict]

My re-re Grasshopper and High Performance suspension kit arrived yesterday. I brought the NIP suspension pack for US$8, which was cheaper than the original 1800 yen on the tag. You have to feel for some guys. Oh well we all lose out some times and it's not why we are in the hobby - or me at least.

I promised myself the GH would stay NIB for a long long time. Period. I so wanted one when I was 11.

Well today is another day my friends and one less in my life so after watching TC videos of GHs on the beach, it was lid off...  and build time.

I wanted to hop it up a bit (no pun intended); with a 540, bearings, and the HP suspension kit (that I'm sure doesn't actually do anything for the better). The first part of the build was the alloy shocks. The shock shaft has two ring marks at the bottom end. The instructions state to screw the lower plastic ball pivot up as far as the 2nd ring. I found it impossible. Using pliers and a single layer of thin card between the shock shaft and pliers I couldn't get it that far - even with tremedous clamping, the shock shaft just slipped. I think it is on far enough. The plastic is very hard, not like soft CVA plastic. Have others experience this?

Also, the instructions call for the body to be cut in four places in the back end to accept the rear shock upper pivot brackets. I don't want to hack up my new body, but do want to run these quaint alloy shocks on the GH. It seems I could just leave out the upper pivot brackets included in the HP suspension kit and pivot the shocks at the same location as the standard plastic shocks.

Any ideas, or should I just get brave with the body? Thanks.

[Bigwheels_inc]

the problem is if you cut the body where it says it weakens the rear of the body and it snaps easily but if you try to mount the shocks to the original grasshopper shock mounts they jamb up and foul the motor when the gear box moves

then again the body will fit with the H.P. shock kit but it is exteamly tight and you usualy end up cracking the body !

the solution is to mark the body and very slightly dremal out the peice but dont take out quite as much as tamiya say so you still have a thin peice of the shell there or you could use counter sunk screws so they dont stick out as much !

the H.P. suspention kit is just a set of hornet shocks and they do work better than the std grasshopper ones once they have been used a few times to stop them binding

Pete

[Carty]

Hi, i put the hp kit on a hopper, as i didnt want to cut the body either i used a small washer between the body and chassis(at rear) and then screwed it down, worked a treat never had any probs!

[Guest DImblum]

I went through all of these same steps when I started my hop-up project. I did not want to cut the body either and unless you mount the shocks to the stock shock tower, the body cannot mount securely.

In the end, I located a vintage set of parma oil filled shocks which are a very thin design. You actually mount them upside down, however the kit did not include any mounts for the shock rod. I did some measurements and found that the aluminum ball pivot mounts sold on (I think) RC4WD.com fit perfect. These are excellent for mounting to the stock shock tower since they can pivot as the shocks compress (and not put pressure on the shock tower). I also switched the stock GrassHopper springs for the longer Hornet springs.

If you are willing to keep the stock gearbox mounts, then the shocks will not hit the motor. All in all it works great, except you lose the ability of a pivoting gearbox.

The pictures in my showroom show my inital shock setup. I think I will take a new photo to show the final solution.

I could not produce the same results with the Hornet shocks since they are a little more bulky (and the mouning points are too short) for them to fit loosely to the stock shock tower (rightside up, or upside down). Then again, if you mounted them upside down with the pivoting ends and used longer screws to space the shock bodies away from the gearbox mounts, then it would probably work great! Hmmm.

I'll send some photos when I get home later this evening.

Dan 

 

[backtomyroots]

Perhaps a Lexan Shell would suit your needs ? You could hack it up & not wreck the hard body & it would be great for "bashing" too !

http://www.shopatron.com/product/product_i...0.17031.0.0.0.0

 

[Tamiya_addict]

I ended up keeping with the GH's stock rear end setup, though used the Hornet shocks with the lower pivot part from the original GH shocks. The spring is a little large in diameter, so I just need some washers to support the spring. Bit of a 1/2 way house. I can't get over how basic the GH friction based suspension is  - especially the construction of those rear friction shocks. Not much better than something from K-Mart. Oh well, it's for the shelf.

[Tamiya_addict]

Fitted an o-ring as a jounce bumper, then the spare frt suspension o-ring retainer from the parts tree. The o-ring retainer keeps the spring centered. Both parts were from the HP kit. I used some spares from the M03 friction shock trees, including the lower spring retainer and lower pivot/shock eye. Some material will need to be shaved off the spring retainer as a slight foul exists with the axle. Nice "all Tamiya" solution without having to cut the body. []

 

[Guest DImblum]

I went through all of these same steps when I started my hop-up project. I did not want to cut the body either and unless you mount the shocks to the stock shock tower, the body cannot mount securely.

In the end, I located a vintage set of parma oil filled shocks which are a very thin design. You actually mount them upside down, however the kit did not include any mounts for the shock rod. I did some measurements and found that the aluminum ball pivot mounts sold on (I think) RC4WD.com fit perfect. These are excellent for mounting to the stock shock tower since they can pivot as the shocks compress (and not put pressure on the shock tower). I also switched the stock GrassHopper springs for the longer Hornet springs.

If you are willing to keep the stock gearbox mounts, then the shocks will not hit the motor. All in all it works great, except you lose the ability of a pivoting gearbox.

The pictures in my showroom show my inital shock setup. I think I will take a new photo to show the final solution.

I could not produce the same results with the Hornet shocks since they are a little more bulky (and the mouning points are too short) for them to fit loosely to the stock shock tower (rightside up, or upside down). Then again, if you mounted them upside down with the pivoting ends and used longer screws to space the shock bodies away from the gearbox mounts, then it would probably work great! Hmmm.

I'll send some photos when I get home later this evening.

Dan 

 

 

Finally got a chance to take some quick photos of my GrassHopper rear shock solution (keeping the stock shock tower and ensuring the stock body will mount without any modification)

I used a set of Parma oil filled shocks (designed for reverse mount), a new set of Hornet springs (nicer, longer and perform better than the stock GrassHopper springs), a set of washers from Lowe's to work as the upper spring retainers, sandwiched between the stock shockrod nut and a set of M3 ball swivel Rod Ends from RC4WD.COM (http://rc4wd.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=1224). Please note that these swivel Rod Ends perfectly fit any 3mm shock rod (standard for many vintage shocks).

This combo allowed me to mount the set to the stock shock tower, while the pivoting Rod Ends alleviated pressure and torquing of the tower while the shocks compress.