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I PROMISED myself that I would leave the Lunchbox alone... I mean, why would I upgrade a "truck" worth about $100? The upgrades would far exceed the price very quickly...

Well a few opening statements about Vanessa for me to start off with, she is what has draaaaaggggggggggggged me back into RC AGAIN and more importantly, into Tamiya and led me to you pack of nut cases :P Good, bad or indifferent, she has been a joy to drive and bash like heck and it's not about the money at all actually, it's about the good ol' fun of RC and loving the car you have, and that means for me using it like all heck then upgrading as needed.

Well that time has come. I looked for many months for suspension but just couldn't justify it, finally I gave in and got some GMade as they are fantastic build quality and really cheap for what they are. I would have loved Tamiya CVAs for this but they're too hard to find and too expensive.

I also LASHED out on an ultra expensive ESC from HobbyKing :lol: The final piece of the puzzle for now is arguably the most important, the 2S Lipo :ph34r:

Well, I'll post pics as we go here, I assume the final (LOL) upgrade will be the front A-Arms.

A3BC57FD-7E62-4DAC-8815-7E13EDC0AC6F_zps

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Ok so here they are built. I do have to admit, these are really nice quality. They are exactly what I would have hoped would happen to RC cars - cheap, awesome and sexy ;)
I used the two hole piston and also the strong setting from an oil perspective which means filled the reservoir to the very top, no air, and sealed... Very nice action... Time will tell though!
04653E13-B9FC-4872-A567-C52233BF5FDF_zps
Bit of wrangling on the Tamiya mounts, had to bend and coerce into place. Can get there, just be patient!
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They are a little longer, but when on the ground it sits well... It screams for A-Arms upgrade now.
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Finally the paranoia of a Lipo in a loose fitting kicked in, so paded it up. This is pretty good, but a better solution is probably going to happen...
18BEABF8-53A0-44E7-9754-9B1D0C98E1EA_zps
6A38B15B-289E-4E6B-AFE3-DC4BF40680C0_zps

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Agree, I've spent a small fortune on gmade shocks, I'd like it if they offered a s*******y low friction hop up shaft but that's my only 'gripe'. I've been looking at other brand shock shafts on ebay to see if I can find one that might fit, but that's just being anal lol.

I used a very simple but effective cable tie mod to control that ludicrous front camber on mine, I'll have to dig out a pic for you!

Also are you going to be fitting a 5th shock? It's a must on these imho and plenty of space on them for it. I went with 85mm front and 102mm rears and a 75mm 5th shock. I also changed tyres and wheels and fitted foams and it handles suprisingly well even with lidicrous brushless power.

The core RC round case lipo fits perfectly btw (in all my Tamiyas actually), the lunchbox battery compartment is pretty short, my HPI round stick lipos don't fit the LB.

Cheers

Nito

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Wanted to show a few runs so everyone gets a sense of the speed and handling.

There's definitely a huge improvement with the new shocks, huge. The power as well from 2S is perfect. I wouldn't go any quicker, waste of time and money as it'll be uncontrollable. I'm using the GT Tuned motor at the moment, I might swap out to the Torque Tuned to see how it goes as well.

Slow-mo, because we all love slo-mo:

This shows it on uneven terrain (one-handed driving as always so sorry) It's great, handles very well.

I think some weight in the front would help a lot, but not too much!

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E4BE16EF-D115-443B-A305-11434E482651_zps
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Agree, I've spent a small fortune on gmade shocks, I'd like it if they offered a s*******y low friction hop up shaft but that's my only 'gripe'. I've been looking at other brand shock shafts on ebay to see if I can find one that might fit, but that's just being anal lol.

I used a very simple but effective cable tie mod to control that ludicrous front camber on mine, I'll have to dig out a pic for you!

Also are you going to be fitting a 5th shock? It's a must on these imho and plenty of space on them for it. I went with 85mm front and 102mm rears and a 75mm 5th shock. I also changed tyres and wheels and fitted foams and it handles suprisingly well even with lidicrous brushless power.

The core RC round case lipo fits perfectly btw (in all my Tamiyas actually), the lunchbox battery compartment is pretty short, my HPI round stick lipos don't fit the LB.

Cheers

Nito

What's a low friction shaft???? Me no comprehende.....

Yeah until the A-Arm upgrade happens, keeping the front lower will help, but admittedly it's still awesome as is and way better than it was!

I didn't bother with the 5th shock, I used some left over rubber tubing from the shock bottom out and installed it on each side:

BAA0E07C-97E5-4369-9042-CA94A667002E_zps

No doubt it's not as nice as the 5th shock, but it works...

I would like foams...

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Looks nicely balanced power wise. I suspect I'll be moving the brushless kit off mine at some point and putting it into a more modern chassis because it is total overkill in this.

Here is the only pic I have to hand of the front cable tie mod. I'll get a better one later...

gallery_28308_3750_102792.jpg

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Looks nicely balanced power wise. I suspect I'll be moving the brushless kit off mine at some point and putting it into a more modern chassis because it is total overkill in this.

Here is the only pic I have to hand of the front cable tie mod. I'll get a better one later...

gallery_28308_3750_102792.jpg

Nice! Clean build!!!

Is that an A-Team shell!!!!! Radical.

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The last video wouldn't embed for some reason... Maybe too many in the one post? Here it is here to show handling a bit better on uneven terrain:

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Low friction shaft, like thes titanium nitride jobbies...but in the correct length...they just have smoother operation.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301796120700?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I didn't bother with the A-arm option, for me the cable tie trick has been great. I like your tubing mod, might give that a try on my Hornet.

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Thanks, Indeed it is,

gallery_28308_3750_142323.jpg

Watch out for Col.Decker

gallery_28308_3750_63485.jpg

Ps. For some reason 2 is the max amount of vids that can be embedded in a post, I've had that before too also.

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Ok, just took some better pics of the cable tie, it's a great mod because it stops the positive camber, doesn't restrict compression and is virtually free!

large.image.jpeg.158b3fe9f535988876179f3

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And this is how it sits, you can control how much camber you want to a degree by how tight you do up the cable tie, it remains under tension by the force of the truck trying to go into positive camber.

large.image.jpeg.72d1db7e2f0af1498ec6ef6

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Nito

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So awesome! Good idea on the cable tie, that's a good solution if you can't be bothered with the A-Arms for sure... Will do that in the interim.

The tubing is good and super simple, I also liked the idea of the BIC Pens springs in there, but didn't have any on hand. Of course 5th shock would be superior, but I think the difference would be marginal.

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Also forgot this, 21.4kmh - seems to be the sweet spot for bad handling high tops!

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