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cool, thats a relief. so my motor should be ok then......phew!!

now that i have removed a lot of standard stuff, including the battery pack, and bearing in mind the suspension etc is stock tamiya, should i be looking at adding weight ballast to the car to help handling, or is lighter better?

agemax wrote:

now that i have removed a lot of standard stuff, including the battery pack, and bearing in mind the suspension etc is stock tamiya, should i be looking at adding weight ballast to the car to help handling, or is lighter better?

The theory of having a low "unsprung weight" - i.e. making suspension as light as possible - kind of falls down with the rolling rear axle cars, as the gearbox/axle/motor is most of the weight on the back end ... in theory, adding weight will improve the unsprung/sprug ratio & improve handling, I've seen a "spare" wheels stuffed with lead shot attached to the rear roof bars...

In practice, there are things that are more pressing, like the single pivot point & lack of damping on the rear (upgrading to Hornet dampers & pivots will help) & the lack of damping & very poor suspension geometry causing massive bump steer on the front (Team CRP make a double wishbone conversion kit for the Futabu FX10 that fits the grasshopper, Hornet, Pumpkin, Lunchbox,Pajero wheelie, and almost certainly the new Montero wheelie, but it's quite a carve up to fit).

Overall, I'd say if you want to enjoy drving the Grasshopper, it's more about finding the right surface for it - fairly bump free & with a loose surface - then it's a real hoot

sounds good, i will hopefully take it out this weekend for a "test drive". will hopefully post a vid up if the wife can cope with working a camera haha.