midnight pumpkin upgrades

[tamiya monkey]

hi just got a midnight pumpkin of ebay and in the process of restoring back to its former glory, just woundering what else i can do to make her handle alittle better, stripped it and was running with hornet pinion, and i have a set of yellow tamiya oil shocks which im going to fit. what motor would suit this car with a new 10t pinion.

[Allanto]

well as for the pinion your probably going for speed and manoverbility, i guess this as its offroad capabilitys are poor so i would kit it out with a good motor between 14-19t (venom fireballs are cheep at 15 pounds but if your looking for something a bit more advanced pay between 30 - 50 pounds.) , to improve performance fit it out with ball bearings/ball racers if this has not been done, change the tyres for the surface you want, fit it with oil shocks as you said and install a Good esc (electronic speed control). Maybe actually make the suspension stiff and even lower it to the ground to stop the common critism of it rolling over and the poor turning circle, after that (or before prefably while your replacing all the bitts) start to replace the plastic nylon components with aluminium or carbon parts.

 

After this your pumpkin will be a good on road capable machine

PS. if your tuning for off road the higher turn motors will give out more torque youll probably want to replace it with a higher turn pinion to match as well. and get some good oil shocks , be warned the pumpkin already rolls so it may roll even more with higher shocks.

also i am fairly new to this so i am not 100 percent sure about the pinions and motors but i think im correct ,  but tell me if i am wong.

Thanks. and i hope this helped.

[mymonsterbeetleisbroken]

hey tamiya monkey!

i modified my midnight pumpkin to try and control the dodgey roll overs and useless steering,

the result of my mods can be seen in this thread....

http://tamiyaclub.com/CS/forums/thread/152495.aspx

its now pretty hard to roll over, even on tarmac []

the stock 540 provides enough power for some fun. a 23 turn motor would suit it well too. anything lower will start to cause even more roll overs, but the gearbox will take it. it just depends how much you love your trucks body shell []

[Guest DImblum]

Parma has re-released their lexan body shell for the midnight pumpkin as well. It will be a tad lighter and more durable if you have a rollover (you can also keep your hardshell mint for display). Here is the link - http://www.shopatron.com/product/product_i...0.17031.0.0.0.0

[mr_pushrod]

I run a 19 turn motor in mine with the stock pinion and find it to be great fun. It's seriously overpowered, not helped by the fact I run with friction shocks but this is what makes it so fun IMO. While oil shocks and the lexan shell would help make it handle a little better I don't see much point going to too much effort to be honest. The lexan shell is a good plan as it will lower the centre of gravity and be more resiliant however you will never make a pumpkin handle well, just a little better. I'd look into beefing up the steering arms to decent turnbuckles though, the stock ones like to bend.

[Martin71RS]

Something like this you mean... []

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.a...128&sid=947

This is probably the only car I will never sell...it has a history and it is so much fun to run.

 

[Shodog]

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=48128&sid=947'>

This is probably the only car I will never sell...

I agree, the pumpkin and Lunch Box are just too much fun

[Mad Ax]

Out of intense curiosity, where does the bottom of the rear centre

shock mount..?  Do you need to drill the gearbox housing to bolt

up a bracket?

I'm tempted to lock the front swivel so the axle is locked, like a grasshopper, for better stability while wheelying.

Also tempted to use the stock DI shockers on the pumpkin once I've

replaced them with proper allu shocks, should bring the front end right

down for better tarmac handling

[Martin71RS]

pic is a bit dark... but see here:

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.a...7467&id=947

and/or read here:

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/xforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7604

(post from almost 3 years back)

 

Martin

 

[Mad Ax]

cheers Martin, need to find me a suitable shocker now [8-|]

[mymonsterbeetleisbroken]

i just used a normal monster beetle style oil shock on mine, it matches the rest of the oil shocks on my pumpkin.

it makes a big difference having the 3rd shock on the back -

the main reason i did it was to stop the motor hitting the right rear shock under acceleration, i snapped a motor mount becuase of that problem!! []

i think it makes a difference to the wheelies aswell. my pumpkin, with its stock motor, wheelies on command - no need to reverse up first.

and i owe it all to this site []

[Mad Ax]

i think it makes a difference to

the wheelies aswell. my pumpkin, with its stock motor, wheelies on

command - no need to reverse up first.

Aye, that's why I was thinking of locking mine completely.  I

intend to be able to do balance-point wheelies once it's all set up

properly, if the axle is allowed to twist it could affect the stability

of the wheelie...

We'll see, busy building something else right now...