UK Monsters Pro Carbon Lunchbox Chassis Build

[toyolien]

Before the build begins, here's a little back story to this chassis. I messaged Ryan at UK Monsters about 12 months ago to ask if he'd got any plans for a carbon chassis for the Lunchbox, as I'd always liked his Clod chassis. He said that he had considered it but had no plans. Fast forward several months I bought something from him and again asked about a chassis. He said he would look at it. Over the next few months he kindly shared his progress with me and asked for some feedback. And, here we are. What a beauty. I'm so pleased to have this. I know I've recently built an “Ultimate” Lunchbox but that now has a Midnight Pumpkin body on that my Wife uses. So, he's my replacement.

 

The chassis kit comes nicely boxed with all the parts in separate bags. The included manual has colour pics too. It's very easy to follow.

 

I'm starting this build with the transmission. This is just the kit plastic part.

 

Where the rear damper mount fixes to the transmission case, I've drilled all the way through and will use a nut and hex bolt to fix it. This will hopefully prevent the case stripping or splitting.

 

I have one of these left so it'll be going inside.

 

 

Plenty of AW grease.

 

UK Monster rear suspension brace kit.

 

 

 

Carbon wheelie bar kit. This fits the transmission really 'snugly'.

 

 

I also drilled through the case where the wheelie bar mounts and put a nut a hex bolt all the way through.

 

Onto the chassis build.

 

The servo can be mounted as standard which uses the kit steering arms, OR like I have it down the centre. This allows the use of the same length steering arms for both sides. A nice feature.

 

 

 

Four aluminium braces stiffen up the chassis.

 

Some really nice CNC'd aluminium parts next. (I forgot to take pics of these installed).

 

Next is the transmission axle mounts.

 

Another well thought out part are these holes that allow a raised part on the kit plastic mounts to locate into. This keeps everything tight and square.

 

 

Another nice CNC'd part. This is the rear chassis brace that also incorporates two holes to mount the optional axle brace.

 

 

 

Front suspension arm mount is next.

 

V2 double wishbone suspension kit.

 

The V2 arms have a stainless bar through the mounting points to add strength.

 

 

 

Here you can see that the carbon upper link mount fits nicely into the recess of the aluminium front chassis brace.

 

That's all for now. I'm just waiting for some damper parts before I can get the dampers fitted.

[AG100]

Looks like it’s going to be a great build.

[Nikko85]

Very interested in this.

I have a pumpkin with the V2 arms, CVA dampeners and axle brace, so thinking this could be a nice step forwards.

It states it is for the LB, if there's any way you can see if pumpkin could fit that would be amazing.

 

 

[AG100]

22 minutes ago, Nikko85 said:

Very interested in this.

I have  pumpkin with the V2 arms, CVA dampeners and axle brace, so thinking this could be a nice step forwards.

It states it is for the LB, if there's any way you can see if pumpkin could fit that would be amazing.

 

 

I think Ryan who makes these has said it won’t fit, but might be worth messaging him?

[toyolien]

1 hour ago, AG100 said:

I think Ryan who makes these has said it won’t fit, but might be worth messaging him?

I asked Ryan and he said if someone could 3d print body mounts then the Pumkin body would fit.

[svenb]

I had a black lunchbox with I quite enjoyed modify but this is a massive lump of over the toppness.

 

[Nikko85]

18 hours ago, toyolien said:

I asked Ryan and he said if someone could 3d print body mounts then the Pumkin body would fit.

Lovely. I might just consider this then. I printed by own mounts for my Pumpkin anyway - to lower the body slightly and improve stance, so sure I could knock something up.

 

[toyolien]

6 minutes ago, Nikko85 said:

Lovely. I might just consider this then. I printed by own mounts for my Pumpkin anyway - to lower the body slightly and improve stance, so sure I could knock something up.

 

When I've finished up the chassis I'll drop my Pumpkin body on just to double check.

[toyolien]

9 hours ago, Nikko85 said:

Lovely. I might just consider this then. I printed by own mounts for my Pumpkin anyway - to lower the body slightly and improve stance, so sure I could knock something up.

 

Yep, the Pumpkin body fits fine. You'd just need to make up some body mounts.

[toyolien]

18 hours ago, svenb said:

but this is a massive lump of over the toppness.

 

What's wrong with "over the toppness"?

[svenb]

1 hour ago, toyolien said:

What's wrong with "over the toppness"?

Nothing 

If anything it should be encouraged 

[toyolien]

The rod ends I was waiting for arrived. The idea was to try to reuse the big bore dampers from my XV-02 (now that I converted it to RS spec) but they were a little too short. These rod ends should get the right length with the small sacrifice of a few millimetres of travel, which I don't think will hurt Lunchbox.

 

Here they are fitted.

 

 

 

And a test fit of one of my Lunchbox bodies. I'm not going to use this one. I'm painting up a Black Edition body for this build.

 

 

That's all for now. Electrics next.

[ThunderDragonCy]

Hot DAM! That looks good with those dampers.

[Twinfan]

Ooof!  Lovely!

First dibs if you ever sell it  

[76jimmy]

So good 💯 

[Guest]

The carbon chassis certainly is a work of art. I have been pondering the thought of buying one for my lunch box build but was unsure of the quality. Now I have seen it up close it's made my mind up and I do definitely want one. Can you use aftermarket aluminium arms on it or do you need their independent suspension set up? I bought some bling for mine a while ago so would love to use them if possible. Also do you have any photos of the completed build? I am eager to see how it looks when it's all done. 

[Nikko85]

@toyolien how does it drive? I've been debating one of these to breathe some life into a CW01 Chassis that I have.

I am debating the gains of weight and stiffness, but worried it will make the Pumpkin even more top heavy!

 

 

 

 

[toyolien]

12 hours ago, Nikko85 said:

@toyolien how does it drive? I've been debating one of these to breathe some life into a CW01 Chassis that I have.

I am debating the gains of weight and stiffness, but worried it will make the Pumpkin even more top heavy!

Ashamedly I haven't finished it yet, but your post spurred me into action this afternoon and I managed to get the chassis finished and the electrics in. I'll update this thread shortly. 

I wasn't happy with the big bores. There were too short and had no enough travel, so I've ended up swapping them. More to come soon. I hope to get it out driving soon...

[toyolien]

Here's what I managed to do today.

 

As I mentioned above I wasn't overly happy with the big bores. They were too short to fit in all honesty, but I used longer rod ends on the bottom to make them work. That meant the overall travel was reduced and I really wasn't keen on that. So, I resorted back to the spare set of yellow CVA's I had.

 

As on my other Lunchbox (which will soon become a Midnight Pumpkin) I replaced the flimsy pistons with these. I also drilled 2x 1.6mm holes in each pistons and used Tamiya yellow damper oil as a start, with soft springs on the rear and firm on the front.

 

 

I also fitted a set of these that I had spare.

 

The damper manual calls for the CVA's to be 80mm for the CW-01 chassis, so I added some 'o' rings inside to reduce the length to 80mm

 

 

This is my go to damper seal grease. It seems the same as Associated green slime, but much cheaper.

 

And, then I added these to smooth out the movement of each end of the damper.

 

After a test fit, I removed 1x 'o' ring from inside.

 

All four dampers are then popped into the Tamiya air removal thingy.

 

After some deliberation on motor choice I opted for this. The other option was a TBLM-02 15.5t. I'm hoping that this will be quick, but not too quick.

 

 

 

The electrics are now fitted and it's finally all ready to go. I haven't yet painted a body, but I'll use my beat up Lunchbox body for a while to get it set up.

 

 

 

That's this one done. I'll report back once I've given a few runs.

[Twinfan]

Blummin' lovely @toyolien , it looks fantastic!

[ThunderDragonCy]

@toyolien Blimey! Rockshox grease is cheaper than green slime?!slimat slime stuff must be gram for gram more than diamonds. I am regularly appalled at how much it costs us to restock SRAM Butter ;-)

[Nikko85]

Well I have ordered one. When it arrives I'll do a build thread for it on a Pumpkin!

 

[toyolien]

2 hours ago, Twinfan said:

Blummin' lovely @toyolien , it looks fantastic!

Thank you. Almost too good to use....

2 hours ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

@toyolien Blimey! Rockshox grease is cheaper than green slime?!slimat slime stuff must be gram for gram more than diamonds. I am regularly appalled at how much it costs us to restock SRAM Butter ;-)

Yep. Rockshox is £10 for 1oz (which is 43p per cc) and Associated Slime is £7.50 for 4cc (which is £1.88 per cc) And, I do think the Rockshox Dynamic Seal Grease works better.

2 hours ago, Nikko85 said:

Well I have ordered one. When it arrives I'll do a build thread for it on a Pumpkin!

 

Great. Be good to see another build. However, the Pumpkin body won't fit unless you make your own body mounts. I don't think he offers any at the moment.

[Nikko85]

56 minutes ago, toyolien said:

Thank you. Almost too good to use....

Yep. Rockshox is £10 for 1oz (which is 43p per cc) and Associated Slime is £7.50 for 4cc (which is £1.88 per cc) And, I do think the Rockshox Dynamic Seal Grease works better.

Great. Be good to see another build. However, the Pumpkin body won't fit unless you make your own body mounts. I don't think he offers any at the moment.

That's fine, I'm happy printing my own and making it work. As long as the body fits on/over the chassis I'll be grand.

Once made I'll share the files, should anyone else need them although it's probably quite a small pool of people!

[Grumpy pants]

This has also turned out to be a fantastic shock tutorial for me - thank you 👍