Grasshopper Oil Suspension Upgrade Modification Any Good? | A Tamiya Vintage RC Car Legend. 

I went through the whole grasshopper upgrade thing years ago when i felt determined to race one in a vintage event. It was a fun process but a complete waste of time lol. The issue is no matter how plush you make the rear suspension the biggest weight ie, the motor is part of the unsprung weight along with the g/box/axle assembly & there's relatively little weight on the chassis so the chassis/body will just bounce anyway as there's not enough sprung weight to make the suspension work. The only thing remotely worth doing is a 5th shock mod to stop the 'kick' on acceleration like people do on Lunchboxes etc... The charm of the Grasshopper is the comical way in which it 'handles'

That's something I thought about cutting springs, but left it at thought I screwed so much up with bright ideas, that was a Real Bright One You Verified it for me

I really love this car... Most people go for Avante or Hornet, but with no doubts, this is my favorite Tamiya model followed by the frog. I think you made a huge improvement changing the suspension. Please, show us a video driving this car!!

Best upgrade ever for the vehicle

there used to be adjustable coilovers for the grasshopper/hornet series cars. but that was in the 80s/90s

When i first started racing back in 1988 i borrowed the tires from a grasshopper and put them on mt gold pan rc 10 too see if they would work for racing. Well that did not go well. Had to stop on the side of the track and finished dead last with a total of 4 laps when everyone was getting 15 to 20 laps with the original schumacher minipins.

I've just come across the RCKicks channel...wow! I can properly geek out on all this content...thank you!! I'm after a set of upgraded shocks for my original 30+ year old Hornet - is someone able to ping a link to the shocks in this video or recommend a set to use instead of the awful standard shocks? Thx

When the Hornet was 1st released in the 80's u could get a sway bar for the rear. That combined with upgraded shocks improved handing incredibly. Well worth looking at the sway bar mod if available.

Awesome !!!

Wow, this car has advanced somewhat from my 1988 model.

Need to do this on mine👍🏻

Rc Kicks Its My Birthday Partying with RC Kicks I'm doing the Moon Walk🕺

Very enjoyable. I like that you’re trying out these mods. Any plans in the future for more Kyosho models? It’s getting might close to Christmas and you’re still posting video sir, are we going to see 'The RC before Christmas?’ on the eve? ;-)

Gavin, as a former Buggy Racer... I've got a tip or two. 😉 The Grasshopper is an odd Duck. I would do this if I had the Shocks - and the Grasshopper!! This and the Hornet have an unusual dilemma... An extreme amount of UNSPRUNG weight in the Rear. It's really the only case where you'd want SOFTER Springs and thinner Oil in the REAR, than the Front!! 😳 Those Springs might work in back, but go with 10 or 15w Shock Oil. In Front, maybe a little stiffer Spring, and 30 or 40w Oil. This kit should make a difference! But a dramatic difference would come with AmPro Engineering's Front Double Wishbone Kit. Really! I fitted a similar kit in the Front of my Lunchbox (same bad Swingarms!), and the Handling difference was dramatic!! NOT competition level of course, but much better behaved. 😊 Happy Christmas!🎄🎅 Carmine ✈🚂🚙

Very interesting ones that fit, the Grasshopper does jump around a bit !! can you give me the details of where you got them please.

I had oil shocks for the front of a Hornet back in the day when i was a kid and it would have been better to save my money for a better car.

Did you cut both front springs? Or is there enough length to cut one for each side?

Can’t you pre-load the original front springs?

For the rear it’s a good upgrade,, the front are for looks only,, travel is limited. I got those a long time ago and ended up reverting my suspension. Tip,, use a very light weight oil. The Hopper is too light for modern oil dampening

What was in shock???? Question Iv wondered if on new shocks should oil be changed?I went with the thought don't mess with Brand New

Nice video ! what price did you actually pay ? From what I can see, these aren't cheap at all ! I can nearly buy another complete grasshopper kit for that price...

I have ampro double wishbone fiitted to my hornet and it made massive difference to handling. im still using stock friction shocks in front.

Sima larion I got those, they all leak oil, 2 of them you can,t even screw on so i had to add thin layer of paper. The ones i had to add paper to popped right out after some driving, the others went stiff, tried to change oil and now i cant stop the leak because the very thin rubber broke (was very carefull). Luckely due to Ebay i got my money back, so for me these where useless im sorry to write

Soft and absorbent! oo er missus!

What is the name of these shocks so I can look them up. Thanks Gavin

Great video. I have been thinking of getting the same shocks for my Grasshopper as well. Just adding oil dampers with the right wt oil by itself would help dramatically on the bounce. I wouldn't go any further as it is a Grasshopper after all. Thanks for sharing.

No thanks my hopper is still hopping around on stock shocks and love it !

Nice upgrade over Stock 😎👍🏻

I think I would’ve used 28-32 wt myself. Although it depends on your terrain. Good vid!

The problem with these grasshoppers is that there's too much un-sprung weight... for a shock absorber to be able to "absorb" shock, there needs to be enough sprung weight to cause enough "shock" to be absorbed in the first place

please put where to find them... like what to search for :). I was thinking of upgrading my Hopper with a brushless 380 motor and lightwight battery/servo for a while, making it eaven lighter than it already is, then the 380 motor should have easy time to pull it. Oil shocks + 380 motor + 35g servo + 800mah lipo battery should make the total car verry light with the already low base weight.

👍👍👍👍

I was just wondering are you testing the shock performance with the battery installed or with out the battery installed ???

I’d put 25wt rear and 20wt front shock oil.

I purchased this same kit from ebay. I am having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to install these as there are NO instructions with them, as you indicated. Do you have any instructions that you can provide to those of us who purchased this kit?

I would go for a 15 weigt oil or so

So how is it? Is it worth the money?

Is there s video of this running with the oil shocks?

How to cut these springs? What tool did you use? Thank you.

I've installed some oil shocks on my grasshopper and the rear shocks are touching the 540 at rest. If the shocks are compressed they obviously come away from the motor. Surely this can't be right. They are pretty stiff and seem to be putting a bit of force on the 540 can? Even in this one here it looks like the larger motor is touching the shocks.

Hello what mag

Great video but you have gone with 20w oil but very informative.

i have these on my grasshopper they work much better than the standard ones my hopper is so upgraded they do help

You need to trim that tree rhats growing in the background

Is there a link to where i can buy the shock absorber kit?

Hi where do you get the shocks from please I am starting a grasshopper build

Can we get a link to as where you got them from?

Why does the front need to got up fully when your car not moving? You tuning the suspension for a non traveling rc. Once it driving a rwd will push the front it up...you want travel you need softer springs and oil... Weigh

Put some 70 wt oil in them

I got those, were great for a few minutes, then fell apart. Total waste of money.

Putting oil shocks on a grasshopper is like putting a turbo charger on a Toyota Prius, sure you can.....but makes no difference lol

upgrade? can of lighter fluid and a match.

45 is way too heavy for that light weight car. Remember it had zero weight oil before. The only reason I said to put 25 rear and 20 front is to help steer on throttle.

I wonder if gavin likes bounce why would u change ur hop on ur grasshopper I'll never get this tamiya thing down I'm to much of a new bee well looks solid like a rock gots a lil bounce tho stiff springs its looking good if you change the back tire I'll throw a fit lol jk I like a hop how is it so sopost to be a classic if ur up grading it's not the same when you ran it when you where a kid now I'm lost and sad turn back young grass hopper befor it's to late I never knew just any shocks didn't fit a odd duck so thay say wowza I dislike off set but freek it if you know what works go for it on another note I would have put a thumbs down not cuz I dislike the video because I dislike changing the Grasshoppers legs but I didn't would have been disrespectful to Gavin idea Gavin change the rear shocks back to the originals keep the front shocks upgraded so that way the front doesn't stay down and you still have the bounce on the back end problem solved now if I could get a problem solved with more RC content instead of the little content that I have oh well I'm happy with what I got happy happy happy

You are going to “cut the springs”??…….are you going to add a big bore exhorts, a whale tale spoiler, lights in the wheel wells, and some fury dice 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Expensive crap, too bad. Nice effort tho.

The fun of tamiya is that they bounce all over the place and look awesome with the awful suspension they come with. Put oil shocks on it and that will be gone. If you want performance dont buy a vintage tamiya, buy a Losi. I have Tamiyas because they look the best but that's it.

I get what you'er doing but by doing this you just killed the whole meaning of the car is to hop threw the grass.