RCBasher.com - Suggested Hop-Ups for HPI Savage

Savage (sav-ij) -adjective: fierce, ferocious, cruel, untamed, barbarous, wild, rugged, bloodthirsty

HPI Savage Hop-Ups

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The HPI Savage is a great truck, but it's not perfect or indestructible. Nothing is. Below are some lists of hop-ups and their approximate prices that most people consider to be necessary at some point in the life of a Savage. How necessary they are depends on how you drive, the terrain, how often (and hard) you crash, how much power you've got, and several other factors. Not all recommendations apply to all versions of the Savage, since they've changed so much over the years and some will already have some of these hop-ups, so keep that in mind.

Basic "must-haves" for RTR Savage owners:

replace stock plastic bushings in steering posts with 6x10x3mm bearings - $4
5-cell rechargeable 3x2 battery pack with charge jack, 1200mAh or higher - $20+
4-gear differential upgrade x 2, HPI #87193 - $9 each
replace stock shock oil with quality 20wt silicone shock oil - $6±
inline fuel filter - $3+
make sure you have after-run oil and air filter oil on hand and use them regularly - $8±

Phase 1 Hop-Ups: improved performance, durability, and driveability:

adjustable servo saver setup, HPI #87197 - $16
rear-pickup, non-primer fuel tank, HPI #87149 - $13
aluminum diff cups from HPI, FastLane, Nova, etc. - $10+ each
performance tuned pipe such as HPI #86138 - $30
replace steering servo, 130 oz/in minimum, move stock steering servo to throttle/brake - $32+
fill diffs with lube to prevent "diffing out" - $10 (one bottle 7,000wt, one bottle 10,000wt)
swap to a 3-shoe clutch if you haven't already, such as HPI #87153 - $14

Phase 2 Hop-Ups: more power, great durability, better adjustability

replace heavy stock tires (pre-Savage X) with something lighter (Bowties, Mashers, etc.) - $44
replace throttle/brake servo, minimum 80 in/oz and max .15 sec transit time at 6.0v - $32+
new .28 or larger engine from LRP, Axial, Racer's Edge, STS, O.S., etc. - $115+
replace stock tie rods with turnbuckles, HPI # - $
adjustable upper arms, HPI #85066 - $14
high-strength, hex-drive, machine thread hardware kit (not stainless steel)- $22+

Phase 3 Hop-Ups: ultimate power and durability

computerized FM or 2.4GHz system for better adjustability and control - $150+
high-end engine (stock or modded) from RB, Novarossi, etc. - $250+
heavy-duty LCG extended plates from FastLane Machine or similar - $60
RPM RC Products suspension arms - $13 per corner
aftermarket aluminum bulkheads for improved rigidity - $55 each
CEN Nemisis 7.7 diffs - $40± each
aftermarket engine mount and plate - $25±
"mid-tank mod" along with throttle servo relocation - $varies

Savage Bling

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and beauty to me is clean and functional--at least when it comes to R/C.

To others, however, it has to be shiny to be pretty. There's nothing wrong with that, to each their own, but be aware that while replacing plastic with aluminum will usually increase strength and rigidity, it will also increase weight and can transfer loading to adjacent components causing them to fail. Also, aluminum doesn't have much "memory." If you bend plastic, it will usually bend back to its original shape, and do that many times over. If you bend aluminum, it will usually retain its new shape and if you manually bend it back it usually doesn't end up exactly the way it was and repeated bending will stress the metal and cause it to eventually crack and break.

There aren't a lot of plastic components on the Savage that I recommend switching over to aluminum unless you're mostly interested in appearance, but here are a few:

Aluminum diff cups: they're stiffer than plastic cups and help keep your diff gears from climbing one another, prolonging their lives - $10+ each
Aluminum bulkheads are something that can be beneficial because they hold your drivetrain more rigidly which can help prolong the life of your differentials, but they're expensive - $60
I also like to replace with aluminum the plastic cross bars that run transversely between the TVPs along the skid plate; the plastic bars can get beat up and worn out; you can use the HPI #86063 bars that mount under the engine plate with appropriate screws, or use some cross bars specifically made for this purpose from Fast Lane Machine - $3+ per bar

Here's a blinged-out Savage from a while back. It's pretty, but the owner removed nearly all the aluminum within a couple months of installation because it was so heavy and because when something would bend, it stayed bent. Savage plastic is very tough and almost always springs back to its original shape. It usually pays to leave it there.

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