The Grasshopper II was introduced in the late 80's as an upgrade to the original. With its streamlined design and easy building steps, the Grasshopper II is great for new builders and seasoned rc drivers wanting to return to their roots. The Grasshopper II comes with friction dampers, bushings instead of ball bearings, a TBLE-02S ESC, a 380-sized brushed motor, and an ABS plastic body. The Tamiya Grasshopper II is priced under $100 and is currently shipping.
CLICK HERE for more information on the Tamiya Grasshopper II
Last edited by Matt Gunn; Apr 11, 2017 at 01:06 PM..Thread Tools |
|
|
|
same here, I like the original much better. as far as this G2, there is no performance increase to it. just different cosmetics that aren't very appealing imo
|
|
|
|
|
|
Just took my original Grasshopper re-release "for a walk" the other day (we're not allowed to have dogs in our apartment building, so I take my cars out with me when my wife and I go for walks). Nothing better than charging up a 3000mah NiMH and having it last the hour long walk no issues.
|
|
|
|
|
|
I like it but I prefer the looks of the original and I don't need another car that handles terribly with anything more potent than a 380 motor. They are great fun with a 380 but even adding 540 silver can means it will be on its roof a lot and those hard shells scar quickly and permanently.
It's a shame they didn't use the DT-01 chassis for this because it fixed a lot of the problems with the hopper/hornet chassis, the DT-01 is still crude but you can at least tackle corners at high speed and feather the throttle to get a balance between over and understeer. I find with my hopper if I try to corner fast it flips over and if I try to slow down it also flips over lol! It's amazing how slow you have to get before the inertia can't flip the car over. The DT-01 will still bump steer and spin out but it will usually be on it's wheels at the end of it so you don't ruin the shell or need to go and turn it back over. I have got a plan though, the mad bull shell (DT-01) is virtually identical to the Grasshopper 2 shell so I could dress up a mad bull shell with GH2 decals and put the shell on my fighter buggy RX (also DT-01) and hey presto, Grasshopper 2 with much better handling! |
|
|
|
Maybe Tamiya will also release an "upgrade kit" with oil dampers, and some other improvements, allowing better handling? But in it's current shape it's more nostalgia or to have something for on the shelf, I think.
|
Latest blog entry: Eachine E200 UH-60 Black Hawk - Dual...
|
|
|
|
|
I don't know , at the price of £60 delivered it's pretty good value for a Tamiya build quality car , yes it's a primitive design and never going to compete but for a child as a first hobby grade car it's very robust and not too fast. I had one back when they came out but I'm not tempted to get another .
|
|
|
|
||
|
Quote:
They handle perfectly well with the 380 motor too because the chassis can handle it, they accelerate brilliantly and won't flip over when you corner at high speeds. They are just not very good if you want something you can upgrade cheaply and simply. Put a 540 in it and it will roll onto it's back and ruin the body shell with alarming efficiency. They can be made to handle well it it takes a lot of work. The solid rear axle is of course totally inflexible and it's all unsprung weight so the rear suspension pretty much doesn't work even if you put oil dampers on it. To get it to work better you can add some weight to the rear of the car and take one of the suspension springs out. If you want it to be able to pivot you have to get the Hornet pivot mounts but this gives rise to a well known phenomenon where under throttle, the front of the gearbox raises up inside the pivots until they can't move any further and the force gets transferred to pulling the rear shocks open so the rear suspension is 100% locked up and ineffective with throttle applied. The fix for this is to add a "3rd shock" between the front of the gearbox and the chassis which stops the gearbox flipping up on it's pivots but still allows the gearbox to move side to side, once you've done all that the car will handle much better, then you can start on converting the front to FX10 double wishbones! A few years later Tamiya released the DT-01 chassis, still a solid rear axle with pivots but they made a few simple design mods that improved it immensely, the entire gearbox was attached to the chassis with a central ball joint which has the same effect as the 3rd shock mod. The battery was located as far back in the chassis as possible to put more weight there to get the suspension working and the shock absorbers were mounted with a very extreme, almost horizontal angle which almost made them actually work more. It's still a basic chassis but it doesn't flip over all the time even with a 540 motor so it's much more fun. I wish they have put this chassis in the Grasshopper and Grasshopper II re releases but I guess purists would have been up in arms about it! I think the best VFM Tamiya at the moment is the DT-03 Neo Fighter, excellent handling out of the box but cheap to hop up too. It lacks the charm of the Grasshopper but it does come with alternate decals to turn it into a "Neo Frog" which makes up for it a good amount! |
|
Thread Tools | |
Similar Threads | |||||
Category | Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Discussion | Tamiya Grasshopper Traxxes Stinger motor | RCNewbie730 | Electric Power Cars | 3 | Mar 02, 2017 07:01 PM |
Question | upgrades for tamiya grasshopper | darwinorsler | Car Talk | 10 | Mar 01, 2017 11:09 AM |
Video | Tamiya grasshopper in the snow | reptileman | Off-Road Vehicles | 5 | Feb 24, 2017 04:02 PM |
Discussion | Brushed Motor Upgrade for a Tamiya Grasshopper? | DrewC | Off-Road Vehicles | 22 | Nov 14, 2015 01:58 AM |
Resurected Tamiya Grasshopper II | PFC FMJ | Off-Road Vehicles | 2 | Oct 01, 2005 07:06 PM |