New Lunchbox owner, looking for mods and am overwhelmed

[Scipunk]

Hey all, so i just got a re-re of the Lunchbox (wanted one since i was a kid) andi have been through a lot of the mod threads and it's a bit overwhelming as to what i should actually get so i am here to ask for legit best items for:

Shocks/suspension
wheels/tires 
Chassis upgrades
Anything else you can think of

Best motor/battery combo for fun but not ludicrous driving. I have a granite 3s for that...lol 

Shes not finished yet, i am deciding on a paint scheme

[Bromley]

Glue the tyres to the wheels, over time they will start to spin on the rims. Bearings are a must if not done already. I've compared oils shocks and standard shocks on these things and to be fair can't say they are worth the outlay. Motor wise I'd say a 17t brushed cheapo of the bay is perfect in these. I run one in mine with the standard TBLE-02S ESC no issues. Battery power you'll want a Core RC 4000mah 2s pack(it's an oval shaped pack so fits all older style kits). With the 17t motor and Core battery, run times are around 45-50mins.

Then go and enjoy the thing.

Just my recommendations, others will have different ideas.

This is the sort of motor, any of these 17t generic ones will do.

[Bromley]

Alluminium body mounts too. These are essential!

Oh and a cheapy lipo alarm, the TBLE-02S doesn't have built in lipo cut out.

[Nobbi1977]

Finish it and run it as is. Almost any money spent on these is a waste, they are what they are. They are fun but no amount of mods makes them much better handling, hundreds have tried and spent thousands trying. 

See how the stock silvercan floats your boat before an upgrade. 

[Fabia130vRS]

I did a few mods, and all of them were free or

cheap.

 

5th shock mod just made the knocking go away and smoother acceleration from stop.

top shock brace, made the front stiffer

Alu body mount, snapped 8 plastic ones by now.

bigger wheelie bar

18T pinion

brushless 9T 4370kV with 3s

oil shocks 100mm

 

well

to be honest, I liked the lunchbox as stock.

It wasnt my intention to do all this, but it just happend. And it is fast.  

 

[E28_M5]

3D printed Transmission brace from Shapeways/Ampro Engineering - simpler and as effective as the 5th shock mod, cheap and very easy to fit. They also make neat front chassis braces.

Tyre foams before glueing the rims!

[nowinaminute]

It's really up to you how far you want to take it, it will never be a racer but I've seen ones with double wishbones at the front and 4 link suspension with a panhard bar at the back that have drastically better off road handling than stock.

Some would argue that this detracts from the "character" but personally I don't see how modding a Lunchbox is any different to modding any other RC car, it's all for enjoyment and personal reward at the end of the day.

While I wouldn't personally spend a fortune, I think a set of CVA shocks is worthwhile personally, they do improve the ride and make it a little less bouncy going over rough terrain. They are also much quieter than the stock pogo sticks (although that could be considered a tragedy) see if you can get the set of 4 for cheap from one of the Chinese web shops like rcmart.

Bearings are also a must if you haven't fitted those. Glue the tyres to stop slipping or put rubber bands in the rims to give a compromise between grip and slip to help preserve the gears. Alloy body mounts Because the stock ones break easily. The front shock brace is effective and you could even make your own from threaded rod and a few links. 

A 3rd shock mod or a transmission brace will stop the front of the gearbox slapping up in it's pivot mounts.

Try it with the stock motor first and see how you like it, it's not the fastest in the world of course but on the upside, the chassis does a little better at staying upright with this modest power source. I was surprised how "well" it handled on stock power, I certainly expected it to tip over more easily. In fact, I'm pretty sure all the battle scars on mine have been the result of silly accidents that could have been avoided like not committing to jumps and landing nose first, trying to drive with two wheels on the kerb and tipping over etc.

In terms of upgraded power, I like to use brushless these days, they are powerful and efficient and you can get decent budget motor/esc combos for £30 on ebay. I would say 3-4000kv on 2s would be more than enough. You can get motors that aren't full size 540 but instead have a 390 size core and then cooling fins to fill it out to 540 size, you may prefer one of those as it doesn't quite have the punishing torque of a full 540 but is still as good if not better than a brushed motor and will be even more battery efficient. The lesser torque is probably a good thing because it's that brutal initial acceleration that comes with brushless that really tends to overhwlem these simple chassis. You may find the finned motor gives you the best of both worlds.

If you prefer brushed then those eBay rebuildable motors mentioned above are cracking for the money although if you wanted to go in grass or sand etc you might want to go for something s little slower than 17 because heat might be an issue. 

I'm about to take delivery of a cheap 3d printed double wishbone upgrade for the front so keep an eye on the forum to see how it works out!

 

[Cephas]

Hi, I have done some research on this as I too am reliving my childhood a bit.

aluminium body mounts

i have a sport tuned Tamiya 540 and 02tbl esc with Lipo sensor, as mentioned above

ampro suspension mods, can be expensive, fastrax oil shocks.

Changed bearings all round

servo saver

tyre sponges

i have found 3 solutions to tyre gluing, which is needed if you upgrade motor.

1 rubber bands where tyre bead sits in wheel

2 silicon instead of glue, easier to remove if needed

3 glue.

as I I am still experimenting I am going to try rubber bands first.

I have spent too much, possibly, but I love it.

lunchbox is for fun, never gonna be a racer, so take it as far as YOU want and enjoy. 😄

[Cephas]

Also get a different running body, cos it could get a bit fubar, if you want to keep the lunchbox body looking good.🤯

[Scipunk]

So after i built this i had this on my desk...did i miss something?

[Scipunk]

9 hours ago, Cephas said:

Hi, I have done some research on this as I too am reliving my childhood a bit.

aluminium body mounts

i have a sport tuned Tamiya 540 and 02tbl esc with Lipo sensor, as mentioned above

ampro suspension mods, can be expensive, fastrax oil shocks.

Changed bearings all round

servo saver

tyre sponges

i have found 3 solutions to tyre gluing, which is needed if you upgrade motor.

1 rubber bands where tyre bead sits in wheel

2 silicon instead of glue, easier to remove if needed

3 glue.

as I I am still experimenting I am going to try rubber bands first.

I have spent too much, possibly, but I love it.

lunchbox is for fun, never gonna be a racer, so take it as far as YOU want and enjoy. 😄

I have the bearings on the way, i have shocks, the wishbone mod, the trans brace etc in my cart. Havent glued the tires as i have the gold monster beetle wheels coming,

What servo saver do i need? I'll look got the aluminum mounts 

8 hours ago, Cephas said:

Also get a different running body, cos it could get a bit fubar, if you want to keep the lunchbox body looking good.🤯

Oh i plan on it, this body is gonna be a shelf /show queen...lol

 

[Fabia130vRS]

4 hours ago, Scipunk said:

So after i built this i had this on my desk...did i miss something?

Same here with mine and my buddy got one, we build the gear box... and this part does not go anywhere.

[Scipunk]

1 hour ago, Fabia130vRS said:

Same here with mine and my buddy got one, we build the gear box... and this part does not go anywhere.

Well thank god for that...lol, also i really wish i had gotten the black edition. I might grab the body off ebay, are the wheels hard to find?

[Fabia130vRS]

2 hours ago, Scipunk said:

Well thank god for that...lol, also i really wish i had gotten the black edition. I might grab the body off ebay, are the wheels hard to find?

I like the classic yellow one. He bought the BE because it was cheaper delivered with a TBLE02S esc then the classi one.

I find the wheels attractive, but my Lunchbox in shelf’s appearance will be orange with chrome details and chrome rims.

for bashing I will use the black rims since I glued them to the rims already and another body.

[Saito2]

10 hours ago, Scipunk said:

So after i built this i had this on my desk...did i miss something?

The Lunch Box gearset was originally developed for the first Wild Willy. (Incidentally, this was Tamiya's first use of a differential in an off road vehicle, all others prior were "spools"/no diff). While the gears were the same, the gearbox itself was not and the Wild Willy used this extra gear. Tamiya must have found it cheaper to simply leave the extra gear on the mold rather than removing it.  I had the same question myself when I built my first Lunch Box in 1987. 

[Scipunk]

3 hours ago, Fabia130vRS said:

I like the classic yellow one. He bought the BE because it was cheaper delivered with a TBLE02S esc then the classi one.

I find the wheels attractive, but my Lunchbox in shelf’s appearance will be orange with chrome details and chrome rims.

for bashing I will use the black rims since I glued them to the rims already and another body.

Hmm interesting, didn't know that! Mine was also goign to be orange, but i have decided to go in a gold direction for a 70's custom van

1 hour ago, Saito2 said:

The Lunch Box gearset was originally developed for the first Wild Willy. (Incidentally, this was Tamiya's first use of a differential in an off road vehicle, all others prior were "spools"/no diff). While the gears were the same, the gearbox itself was not and the Wild Willy used this extra gear. Tamiya must have found it cheaper to simply leave the extra gear on the mold rather than removing it.  I had the same question myself when I built my first Lunch Box in 1987. 

Wow no diff, that must of been interesting...lol. Thanks for the Info Saito! 

 

[Cephas]

New running shell, looks better than I thought, still needs finishing 

[Cephas]

This was great, score and snap technique on Lexan shell, works better then scissors or curved cutters, just go slow and don’t drink beer during process lol. £2.50 from the Range.

[KEV THE REV]

16 hours ago, Scipunk said:

So after i built this i had this on my desk...did i miss something?

If my memory serves me well , the extra gear is used in the Willys wheeler gearbox and not needed in the LB .

[Scipunk]

Quick question, would 120mm shocks work? I know 20mm difference is kinda big but i already have them and I have nothing to put them on. Could i use the stock spring on them to make the have less travel? If not i will get proper ones was just wonder

[KEV THE REV]

LB shocks need to be around 80mm

[Grumpy pants]

I kept the mods on our LB to simple basics to start with, bearings, oil shocks, alloy body posts and the 5th mod shock. 

I’m just about to upgrade to CVA’s, a sport tuned motor, an alloy servo saver and a bigger wheelie bar.

In time I want to fit a front chassis brace, AMPRO front suspension, rear axle lock and a rear stabiliser. 

But not because I have to or because I need to, just because I want to. 

That’s the beauty of a LB, cheap to buy, massive fun to run and you can take it from mild to wild or utterly bonkers 👍

 

[Scipunk]

Started fitting new shocks i got at my LHS, also relocated the battery inside and my lipo alarm. Got foam under the battery, just figuring out actual mounting. Shocks are Pro-lines the, fronts are great the rears need to be moved back some as they are a little stiff. I haven't added oil as i needed to get screws. 

\

[Fabia130vRS]

what about you take the small black spring out, and only leave the white shock andadjustthe height and it shouldnt be stiff that much

[Scipunk]

28 minutes ago, Fabia130vRS said:

what about you take the small black spring out, and only leave the white shock andadjustthe height and it shouldnt be stiff that much

That's a pre-load spring so I should be able to do that, i'll fidgit with it tomorrow