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Tamiya 57409 - Lunch Box Mini (SW-01)

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5 hours ago, Potato749 said:

So if you follow the setup measurements with the connectors you end up with toe-in on the rear and toe-out on the front. This seems a little counter active to me. I've got mine set with a little toe-in on the rear, but it shimmies at full speed. I'd this likely due to the amount of toe-out recommended on the front? 4.4 mm setting if i remember correctly.

Yeah I experienced the same so I levelled up the wheels a bit more 

JJ

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Great thread, I've only just found this forum but I could have done with asking some questions here a few weeks back ^_^ This was my first Tamiya build (actually first RC build) and I had few issues, but its been a great learning experience so far. I picked up my kit back at the start of May from ebay of all places. It went together perfectly well, I built it up with bearings and upper arm connectors. Initially running was a bit sketchy, but I adjusted the front wheels to neutral and rears to toed in and it ran true and turned like a charm (hopefully you can see the setting from the pic). Only problem I had was I lost one of the screws that held the back of the ball joint on the steering arm, obviously the only metal on metal so I should have used thread lock, but this was an easy fix.    

The problems started when the Sport Tuned motor turned up, it ran really quick for 10mins then went a bit weird, like there was no torque left. You could hear the motor running beautifully but the LB would not wheelie, was slow to get up to speed and if it bumped into anything like  small pebble or twig on the ground it no longer had the power to move over them. First guess pinion, checked it no problems. Wondered if it was the new motor, so put the original motor back in, but it was the same. I checked the diffs and couldn't find any damage. I stripped the gearbox looking for damage and found nothing. I took a leap and ordered a new set of gears online (went for the yellow ones of course :D) waited 2 weeks to get them, installed everything still the same. At this point I think I've had it in bits and back together like 7 or 8 times.

After much newby head scratching I went step by step and found the drive shaft (dog-bone?) was slipping in the universal joint. I tried to fix it by reseating and tightening the grub screw but this hasn't worked so I have now purchased a new set of Yeah Racing Steel CVD universals. Hopefully they will be here next week :D       

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Should have also mentioned the battery, I managed to pick up a couple of small 2S LiPo batteries, both fit really well and even allow space to squeeze a Venom LV alarm in as well ....

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Yeah. I think a couple of people have mentioned they super glued those pieces if they switched to the sport tuned motor.

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The manual of the Hop-Up metal cross joints say to glue them... I don't get the point why they left this out from the original manual. I think it's a must even with stock motor.

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33 minutes ago, TDanny said:

The manual of the Hop-Up metal cross joints say to glue them... I don't get the point why they left this out from the original manual. I think it's a must even with stock motor.

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Thanks I'll give that a blast ... *runs off to grab glue*

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So my reinforced C and B parts arrived today.

I wonder if somebody tried building the lower rear suspension arms inversely.

That would give a slightly bigger wheelbase and maybe the car would be more stable and won't flip backwards so much.

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5 minutes ago, TDanny said:

So my reinforced C and B parts arrived today.

I wonder if somebody tried building the lower rear suspension arms inversely.

That would give a slightly bigger wheelbase and maybe the car would be more stable and won't flip backwards so much.

Interesting idea, let us know how you get on.

 

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How are the hop up metal joints compared to the plastic? Are they the same size? Do they also pop out easily?  Currently looking at getting the YR metal cvds.

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45 minutes ago, Leiywen said:

How are the hop up metal joints compared to the plastic? Are they the same size? Do they also pop out easily?  Currently looking at getting the YR metal cvds.

They are bulletproof but if you use them the next weak spot will be the axles. I use them with the reinforced carbon parts. So far looks good. 

I think you need some flex in the drivetrain so if you use YR cvds with more power you also have to swap the diffs.

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18 hours ago, Leiywen said:

How are the hop up metal joints compared to the plastic? Are they the same size? Do they also pop out easily?  Currently looking at getting the YR metal cvds.

I went with the YR metal CVDs and they seem great so far, perfect fit and like that they come with the metal 12mm Hexs as well. 

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When i was in Japan last year i came across the lunch box mini but thought that i had enough hobbies altogether to keep me occupied. But the recent lockdown made me scratched my head and i went to buy both the lunchbox mini as well as the mudmad, both are essentially the same base with different shell and wheels. I have 2 kids, 5 and 8 years old and they love playing with them in and around the house. I found that the driveshafts are very easy to fall out especially when bumping to walls and other obstacles, still waiting on the YR billet driveshaft to arrive, can't wait to have them fitted, and hopefully this solve the problem. Another thing i found is that both cars do not wheelie anymore, more torque goes to the front which makes it almost 80% front wheel drive. Any clue on what could cause this? Have i round the rear gears in the drivetrain? I have ordered the yellow Tamiya hop-up gears hoping that it would be stronger but then again its still plastic. Or have i installed something wrong? When i finished assembled them, they both wheelie easily and i think this is what made it interesting in the first place. Any help/clue would be much appreciated, thanks in advance!

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I think that the biggest problem with the LBM is that the suspension parts are too soft. From a point of view its a good thing because it makes the car bulletproof for kids but from another point, thats what causes the drive shafts to pop out and the car will loose alot of ground clearance as the upper arms will bend. 

Now the Tamiya HopUp reinforced parts and metal cross joints solved those problems for me so Ill wait with the metal upgrade parts.

The gears in the car are pretty strong I think... but if you push them hard the small diff gears can damage. What you mentioned is wery strange. Sounds like gear problems. There are way more weight on the rear end so that means more load on the gears. I wonder what the problem could be...

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Sounds to me like the driveshafts need glueing & the back has gone 1st

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1 hour ago, J@mes said:

Sounds to me like the driveshafts need glueing & the back has gone 1st

Yeah, I think you're right. That can be a problem too... 

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Indeed, i am using a 2S LIPO battery that i found quite heavy for the chassis and suspension, i can see the rear of the car squats even when not rolling. I wonder if using the tamiya battery shell and 4pcs of superlight rechargeable AA would help or not, anyone here have gone this method instead? Sounds like i may need to open and re-assess all the gears and pins to check if all ok or not. Another question is that what would be the outcome of upgrading the bearings from plastic to metal? 

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3 hours ago, rkdianto said:

Indeed, i am using a 2S LIPO battery that i found quite heavy for the chassis and suspension, i can see the rear of the car squats even when not rolling. I wonder if using the tamiya battery shell and 4pcs of superlight rechargeable AA would help or not, anyone here have gone this method instead? Sounds like i may need to open and re-assess all the gears and pins to check if all ok or not. Another question is that what would be the outcome of upgrading the bearings from plastic to metal? 

I'm useing the Tamiya battery holder with 4AA batteries. They are standard not rechargable...

Thats a quite heavy setup too but as I mentioned I changed the suspension parts to the reinforced version. 

AA batteries are ok with the standard motor but they are too weak for the Sport tuned version. 

Bearings are a must. Night and day compared to the plastic bushings. 

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Ok, so indeed the rear axles were loose between the metal and plastic part, decided to take them apart and found scouring marks from the sunk screws on the metal axle parts, superglued them, and both lunchbox and mudmad wheelies freely now! Still waiting on the axles i bought from YR however. 
 

As for metal bearings, should i go with Tamiya hop-ups or aftermarket? Would there be significant difference between brands? Not that i will play with water or puddles on these R/C, but humidity is pretty high in Indonesia, so i would prefer something a bit more durable. 

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run time improves with bearings over bushings. 
 

Here in the UK a set of off brand bearings is 1/3 the price of the Tamiya set. I can’t tell the difference in performance I put Tamiya in my MLB & generics in MudMad. Maybe Tamiya bearings are cheaper in Indonesia? 

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Tamiya bearings are super quality precision bearings. I never seen one go wrong. But in such a small car you wont really notice the difference. Tamiya bearings will last longer I guess but you can always use rubber shield bearings instead to keep water and dust out.

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I love these little cars. I think the Mini Lunchbox has stopped my thumbs seizing up over lockdown, I have been able to race it around the house and in the garden. I glued the driveshafts in from the beginning, as I have some T301's and they benefited from doing this. I have totally used and abused it and nothing has broken yet. 

https://www.thercracer.com/2020/06/57409-tamiya-sw-01-lunchbox-mini-build.html

I have 3 of them now, I am working on a very special modified one, just need more time (The story of my life).

As to bearings I always use bearing from RCbearings.co.uk they have never let me down.

 

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Thought you guys might like to see the latest support vehicle to join Team Frog! Always there to help when that rear drive shaft pops out - again!

P.S - thanks @Grotty Otty and @wolfdogstinkus for the toe in tips. I adjusted after this pic was taken and the wheelie steer is better (especially on smooth surfaces)

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A while ago I proposed that the second vehicle to be released on this SW01 chassis should be the Dump Truck, but instead they released the monstrosity that is the MadMud. I tried doing some 'Photoshopping' this morning (yes, it's terrible Photoshopping) and came up with these:

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The idea is that even if it has to be much taller to accommodate the electronics it doesn't look ridiculous, and the actual tray (?) can be enclosed (fake rocks on top) to allow room for ESC, receiver, etc.

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