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Well after starting this build nearly 3 months ago Grasshopper #2 is finally finished. Waiting for parts to arrive is a killer! After perusing the interweb looking at other Hoppers I got a few ideas, along with seeing what not to do. My design brief to myself was to make it look different to anything else and try and make it look good while using the original stripes, oh and add a few hop-up parts in the process. I think I have almost nailed it, I'm pretty happy with the way it has turned out anyway. It now features a bunch of aftermarket parts (over night from Japan. Sheesh I wish!) which include coil over oil shocks all round, aluminium front suspension arms & bash plate, carbon reinforced uprights, full ball bearing set and aluminium wheel outers which look really nice. Also fitted are some very nice aluminium side nudge bars, gearbox oil filler cap & pinion cover/heatsink all from T4works. It still retains the little 380 motor so shes not fast but is totally controllable. Took it out for it's first run last night at the Manawatu Indoor RC Car Club meeting and she ran good. Had a couple of small teething issues to sort, the battery cover on the bottom fell off and dragged the battery on the floor and the front suspension had a couple of screws come loose. Not sure if that is because I failed to check them before assembly or if it means they are not up to the punishment, time will tell I guess. Picked up a few scuffs already but that's ok, just proof that it's been used and not a shelf queen. A nice addition to the collection which is growing.

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Gotta love the front shocks. I bet they're much better than the older thirdpart hopups! Good job. :)

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6 minutes ago, mongoose1983 said:

Gotta love the front shocks. I bet they're much better than the older thirdpart hopups! Good job. :)

They are quite nice and are a simple fit to either the stock suspension or the aftermarket one. Only down side is they increase positive camber.

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Great looking Hopper, I love the color. What shocks do you have on the front?

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1 hour ago, Slyda said:

Manawatu Indoor RC Car Club

Are you in New Zealand? Thats pretty cool you can take a Grasshopper along, I could probably take something similar along at NHRCCC and enter the allcomers for a laugh, but its hard to find an offroaf track that would suit them

Great looking Grasshopper too.

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1 hour ago, Biz73 said:

Great looking Hopper, I love the color. What shocks do you have on the front?

Thanks man, the shocks are Ansmann Racing ones.

 

2 minutes ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

Are you in New Zealand? Thats pretty cool you can take a Grasshopper along, I could probably take something similar along at NHRCCC and enter the allcomers for a laugh, but its hard to find an offroaf track that would suit them

Great looking Grasshopper too.

Yeah bro I'm a Kiwi. Me and one other fulla are they only ones running old school Tamiya so the club runs a seperate Vintage class for us.

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Any chance you have a part # or link to where you got them? Are they sold as Grasshopper/Hornet dampers?

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2 hours ago, Biz73 said:

Any chance you have a part # or link to where you got them? Are they sold as Grasshopper/Hornet dampers?

I don't know the part number sorry, the Ansmann Racing Web sites doesn't have a listing for them so I don't know if they are still in production any more. I bought mine on eBay so just search for 'Tamiya Grasshopper Shocks' and you should find them. Mine took way too long to arrive, 10 weeks to get to NZ from China! 

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Fantastic work!  I never get tired of seeing the original Hopper, one of my all time favorites.

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21 hours ago, 87lc2 said:

Fantastic work!  I never get tired of seeing the original Hopper, one of my all time favorites.

I find it quite funny, when I was a kid you got soundly laughed at for having a Grasshopper 🦗 but nowdays there seems to be a cult following. 

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Nice Grasshopper!!!! I began my Tamiya passion back in 1989 with a Hornet.

After I ran it for a while, life got in the way and it was forgotten for almost 30 years.

I recently moved and found it in a box-so I got it running again and promptly broke it.....

Got a new Grasshopper kit-and I am having a blast with it right out of the box. 'Hoppers are the backbone of the hobby, in my humble opinion.

Just a bearing set and a 380-but occasionally I use a 540. Enjoy your Grasshopper.

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3 hours ago, Slyda said:

I find it quite funny, when I was a kid you got soundly laughed at for having a Grasshopper 🦗 but nowdays there seems to be a cult following. 

True...my first RC was an RC10 (I was 13) and at the time I looked down on the poor little Hopper.  As time's gone on I've really come to appreciate it.  Still not a great performer, but brings back a lot of memories and looks fantastic.

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On 7/21/2018 at 11:57 AM, Biz73 said:

Any chance you have a part # or link to where you got them? Are they sold as Grasshopper/Hornet dampers?

281061157280?rt=nc&_trkparms=aid=222007%I wanted to know that too.  Those shocks are shockingly expensive!  At $51, I could get a used Grasshopper.  

https://www.ebay.com/i/281061157280?rt=nc&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20160908110712%26meid%3Dc924e28d4668452395259daba9dba1db%26pid%3D100677%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D5%26mehot%3Dag%26sd%3D171321702062%26itm%3D281061157280

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6 minutes ago, Juggular said:

Wow! I think I'll stick to the stock springs for front suspension. I already have the rear end converted to Hornet specs, I just liked the idea of bolt-on front dampers. I'll just keep enjoying my GrassHornet as is. Thanks for the info.

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2 hours ago, Biz73 said:

Wow! I think I'll stick to the stock springs for front suspension. I already have the rear end converted to Hornet specs, I just liked the idea of bolt-on front dampers. I'll just keep enjoying my GrassHornet as is. Thanks for the info.

Yeah, I liked the look of Slyda's smaller shocks that perfectly fit.  I have hornet's O-ring shock-absorbers on the front.  For light weight Grasshopper, o-rings do a good job stopping the rebounds.  

 

 

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are there any other oil filled front shock options that will bolt right up?

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I agree mighty expensive. 

BUT these bolt straight up. I think YOU-G did some but they are vintage and will be even more expensive. 

My question is are they any good? Are the spring rates suited for li po ??

I will get a set at some point.

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Thanks

Please report how they perform.

I just added a set of oil shocks all round on my Grasshopper from my bits & pieces.

Did these come from RC Mart??? 

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2 hours ago, MAD RACER said:

Did these come from RC Mart??? 

No they came from some random in China. It's another Grasshopper 🦗 that came from RC Mart. 😊

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14 hours ago, MAD RACER said:

Thanks

Please report how they perform.

I just added a set of oil shocks all round on my Grasshopper from my bits & pieces.

Did these come from RC Mart??? 

So far I have only run it once (busy building more cars) and it was indoors at a cricket training centre so rather flat with astro turf and a few jumps thrown in. The front shocks seemed to be pretty much spot on but the rear was too stiff/bouncy for my liking. I will look at rectifying this at a later point once I have looked further into shock tuning.

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