Jet Hopper Rear Wheel Sleeve

prusaprinters

Work in progress… I have a 1980's Jet Hopper that I am trying to get working. One of the issues with these old R/C cars is that the rear tyres breakdown and replacements are hard to find. There are other larger tyres available and this sleeve can be used to fit the larger Hornet tyre to the old Jet Hopper.This adaptor fits the Jet Hopper wheels that are 29mm in diameter and 30mm long. The tyres that go onto the sleeve are listed as fitting the Tamiya Super Champ, Frog, Hornet or Fighting Buggy. I found them on ebay. The wheel dimension I used for the outer dimension of the sleeve is the 1.5" Hornet wheel. I did see a 2.2" Hornet wheel, so be careful selecting the tyre to fit. I printed these in PLA+, but other plastics may be better. I printed .28 layers with supports. Supports are needed in the grooves and under the lip of the retainer. The sleeve is designed to slide over the original wheel and the two retainers are screwed into the sleeve from the back to hold it tight. I think there is enough friction to keep it firm, but if this prooves to not be the case I'm thinking of reworking the retainer to locate into the gaps at the back of the original wheel.The screws needed are small 2mm x 8mm long. You can go shorter, but not longer or the end will break into the groove of the wheel. Screwing the retainer on once the sleeve is mounted is fiddly - I found it easiest to screw the parts together once before assembling on the Hopper to make the process easier when coming in with the driver at a slight angle. Put both sleeves on before fitting a tyre, as it gets in the way screwing things together. The screw drives into the sleeve and not the original wheel, so the sleeve can be taken off again and original tyres refitted.This is a work in progress, as my Jet Hopper doesn't currently run, so this might not work particuarly well. Uploading here, as I'm aware that there are a few people who collect/restore the old hoppers and this might help someone get one running.Feel free to remix this to fit other tyres