Bootnut

Waiting to take delivery of a chrome pumpkin today, Imight paint it and use it on my slash, don't really like the chrome body. Was just after another rolling chassis, chrome wheels, tyres and radio gear

Lunchboxer

If LB shell is not your style, this is pretty cool too.. (same chassis..) Great for messing around, pulling wheelies, etc.

Bootnut

Yeah I seen that, do fancy one to add to the collection

Bootnut

are there any decent aftermarket wheelie bars? or mods to the the wheelie bar?

mine is pushing its way into the gearbox! will upload a pic later on.

kistner

My Feedback: (10)

There is a pic and couple posts in here (somewhere) where a guy put a nice bend on a metal ruler and mounted it to the gear box for a mod wheelie bar.

Found it - http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=7631450


a search on tower for 'waterproof esc' brings up the Traxxas vxl esc and a venom esc/motor combo. We have used a castle sidewinder with a few different motors. they have been splashed some (but not submerged) with no difficulties. In the winter we have boxed the esc and bagged the receiver and all was well. current motor I have in it is an Ammo 36-30 4000kv, runs great.

DuneDaddy

Does it make any sense that although Idon't even have my first LBcomplete and running, let alone painted, that Ibought another one?Iguess I couldn't pass it up. Hoping it turns out to be complete and undamaged, but Iguess there's eBay protection for that. Should be here before X-Mas. My name is Todd and Iam a LBaddict. The first step is admitting it.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=120817075578

DuneDaddy

I emailed the seller, after the fact of course of being the winning bidder, and he assures me it is 100% complete, with no broken or missing parts. Kind of an extra security measure in case it's not then I have his email to fall back on with my complaint - refund whatever. although not likely I would seek restitution, it's still a pretty good deal. Looking for it to come before X-mas, then I can build it up and have 2 ready to go and switch back and forth. Gives me a reason to buy some extra batteries and a dual charger that I have been eyeing on CL.

Lunchboxer

Not a bad deal.. keep us posted!

lbshelfqueen

i was looking for a set of white montery wheels when i stumbled on these, great price for a set of aluminum wheels, nice and clean, not too much bling, suit the tyres perfectly and run as true as can be. still need the white ones though for my other lunchbox. been a while since i had this out of its bag, still dont know what those tyres are though

Bootnut

cool wheels ibshelfqueen, are they one off's or are there more available? would the standard lunchbox tyres fit on them?

Hwa224

I wanted to post Hi! after reading this entire thread. It took me two weeks, LOL, but I'm finally here - in present time. This thread truly is epic and is a bit of paradoxical time machine considering how far back it extends and yet how timeless that it and the information contained within it seem to be, if you know what I mean. It's strange like that and I'm glad to see some of the earliest regulars of the thread still seeking the perfect mod or the most beautiful setup. This hobby is great!

Anyway.I have the Gold Edition Lunch Box. I bought it because I was looking for a cool home decoration. (And of course I bought it for the sentimentality of it all -I desired one as a kid my dad's friend who was into RC planes had gotten my dad and I to go to a hobby convention; soon after, I got into the hobby myself,regularly thumbed through RC magazines and stared at all the various levels of models, motors, batteries, chargers, prices, and options for hours. In the universe of that and all the iconic pictures and advertisements, was Vanessa's Lunch Box. In short, I wanted one.But I never got one. I ended up getting the Tamiya Hornet and (ultimately) the Team Losi JrX2 instead.)

I don't yet have much of a setup going. But,

1) I have the tubing on the stock front shocks to lower the front down and better the camber.

2) Inspired by this video(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAY99..._order&list=UL) and because my body mounts broke recently, I will be using the Tamiya F1 aluminum body mounts in combination with soft-metal L-brackets as a replacement (still waiting for them to ship in).

3) I have Venom VSC 240 esc. It's water proof and has good specs, and cost me 18 bucks. What I don't like about it is that the off/on switch is tethered very close to the esc which I have mounted in the usual spot. The result is that I have to take the shell off in order to turn the car off or on. Very inconvenient. Any suggestions?

4) I have all the decals set up with no modification. It looks great in gold. What I'd like to do is velcro a newsboy type of plaid hat onto it. I wear such hats and I think my Lunchbox would look great with such a hat with the added bonus that the hat would shield and cusion the body from the majority of scratches. I haven't seen any Lunch Box dolled up yet, and I may be the first to do it. LOL. (The possibilities are endless: Winter hat Lunchbox. Santa Claus Luncbox. Pimp daddy Lunch Box.) Stay tuned for pictures.

I will be buying a parma body, however, for serious bashing, and I've got a cool theme in mind for it.

I just have a question: Where do you guys get the stickers? Stickers for companies such as Bosch or Good Year, etc?

5) I have a Super Stock BZ 23t motor in it. I love this motor. It's plenty fast, looks great, and enables the Lunchbox to glide through tall grass and leaves. The stock Tamiya ESC was able to handle the motor and to be honest, I don't notice TOO much of a difference between that ESC which is rated at 70 (?) or so amps, and the new Venom which is rated at 240 amps. The BZ is a powerful motor and gives me great run times. I sometimes multiple sessions of more than 15 minutes. I havne't run down the battery yet. And with everything bone stock, I wasn't able to run down the battery even after 40 minutes of full throttle long distance asphalt bashing. (I have a 3800 mah Tenergy.)

6) Because of the BZ, and all of the wild handling charasterics on rough terrain my LB leaps and half spirals sometimes in the air, it's kind of scary LOL, not to mention the "cartwheels of death" I have now broken both of the wiresrpings. If anyone out there is reading this and is looking for quick, easy solution that doesn't require surgery or even any money, do what I've done. Get one of those wire hangers that comes with the cardboard base. Remove the base and then use the wire hanger itself in such a way that it curls and weaves in and around the back and then ultimately into the circular battery hole and poking through to the transaxle. You can use that bit of metal from the hanger as a support, with improved tension over the original springs. The KEY to this is to fit the terminal wire loop of the hanger into the shape of a thin but wide enough leaf, so that pushing into through the hole is easy enough and it doesn't come back out in the other directoin due to the shape!

I've seen a few people asking for a solution to the problem of broken springs and the above is as redneck-fun and easy as it gets. I'll post some pictures later.

7) I will eventually get the 3rd/5th shock mod going. But not till I get a good enough drill. And I would also like proper shocks on instead of the pogosticks. I have a set coming in from Hong Kong, but I'm not sure if they are oil filled. But they look cool as hell purple and blue alloy with black springs for 10.00 USD.

8) I've ballraced and glued down the tires (using silicone RTV sealant which is a very forgiving type of glue and effective here).

9) And, oh yeah, I've got pulsating Christmas lights on my LB! It's quite crude right now and doesn't work the way that I wish, and I only have 4 colored LED (one stickered close by for each of the four shocks), but I'm working on it. When it's all done, it won't look like such Frankenstein mesh of wires, and it'll be waterproof and activated by the 3rd channel of my transmitter. I took some circuitry and logic courses in college, and have been using that background as a guide.




All in all, I was expecting to shelf-queen my gold LB. But now it's growing in scratches and I, like the rest of you, am now seeking the best balance of durability, power, fun, and handling. As it is, it's crazy fun and very fast. It flies on asphalt and seems to have real power. With the stock silver can, it's peppy and aggressive. With the BZ, it's fast, peppy, and powerful, like there's a real force behind the speed, and driving that is addicting fun. But I try to do it smart. I've got my 2.4 ghz Flysky controller set up to 50% throttle response speed, and I often make use of the DR steering option which shortens the steering endpoints at the push of a button, so that when I am on asphalt I can quickly switch to that mode and drive better.

My LB has broken two body mounts, two wire springs, and, one time, the rear wheel fell off (I guess the BZ puts off too much power that the wheel lock nuts start to untorque themselves.) Luckily, I was able to track down that nut in the grass. It does have a slightly cracked shell now (passenger-side upper corner of the van body) and it is slightly cracked in the window. But it's not noticeable at all.

To my dismay, the rear shock mount almost came completely loose and one of the hex screws on the steering knuckle was also just about ready to come off, hanging on the last thread. I'm always perturbed to inspect my LB and find such things. I'd like my bashing to be as low maintenance as possible.

Anyway, thanks for reading this long post. What do you guys suggest for gearbox grease? I've been using some wheel bearing grease (the automotive kind that is red in color), but don't like it. I can tell it's not as good as the Tamiya brand considering the zippy noise I'm starting to hear. Do any of you regularly squirt wd40 or silicone spray into the "oil" cap of the gearbox? I've been doing that in the meantime just to avoid that zippy noise and associated wear before I rebuilld the tranny again and give it a proper lube.

Lunchboxer

Welcome.. glad that the thread is still attracting new owners of LBs!!

The body mount mod video you posted seems to move the body up by 1/4" or so.. probably not a big deal.. but just pointing that out.. you can take the same F-1 aluminum body mounts and shave it down and mount them directly on the chassis.. that would allow you to keep the original position.. !

Scratch2k

Welcome to the world of Lunchbox, it looks like you have some big plans!

As an alternative to the body posts you are doing (which will do the job just fine I'm sure), I used these:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXZHE6

They also bolt directly on to the existing chassis and don't change the position of the body at all. I think maybe your method may be a little mor durable, when I was running a brushless system I ended up breaking the chassis where my mounted were bolted on (some sheet metal and epoxy soon fixed it permanently though!).

Have fun wtih your lunchbox, looking forward to the first running video!

Hwa224

Thanks guys. 

Hwa224

I've installed the new shocks for the rear. They are considerably stiffer, so much so that they make the car a touch more (not a lot more, although at first it felt like it) wheelie-happy. It's more difficult to turn over the car now whenever I hit the brakes. When I do hit the brakes, the car tends to spin 180 flat, which makes it rather fun to brake now. I haven't tested it yet without the ABS braking function.

Bootnut

I have got 85mm shocks all round on my lunchbox and my pumpkin, drive okay in my opinion, however I am probably going to get a different length for the 5th shock, as it is way stiff up the back, I would like softer springs too, but I am using the softest I can find at the moment.

Hwa224

kistner

My Feedback: (10)

Hey, Bootnut, did you try the silver springs that the lb came with? I use those with a set of stampede shocks in the rear. I use the white stampede springs with shocks up front (and a spacer to counter the camber).

Bootnut

I will give that a go, thanks.

Hwa224

I added the front shocks and they turned out to be wayy too long. They are 85 mm from eye to eye and about 90-something from tip to tip. Long shocks in the front make the LB look mean and aggressive, but the van will turn over and wheelie at about quadruple the rate. 

Hwa224

One more thing. Instead of gluing tires, one thing that can be done is to fit the flange or bead area of the wheels with fat rubber bands. I haven't tried it out, but I read about it elsewhere. And users say that it's just as effective. If so, then I'd agree that that would be a much brighter thing to do than using krazy glue. 

Bootnut

I had a knock in my lunchbox and totalled the steering so i used the fast motor i had on that on my pumpkin, i also made a support for the wheelie bar, out of a spare steering arm, as seen on here, works great.

Hwa224

^ How does one total the steering on a LB?

There was one time that I was driving down a driveway and bumped against a wall at an angle which in effect broke the plastic gearing in my Futaba servo. It was bad driving on my part and on the fact that I was using such a basic servo.





I have a Parma body coming in. But I've been quite satisied with a beanie on the LB. It covers about 80% of the body so bashing around is now viritually worry-free and maintenance-free. The only thing I worry about now is rear wheel nuts and the hex screws on the steering knuckles. I just inspect those every now and then make sure they are tight. The body mounts are doing a fine job and L-brackets absorb all of the uglier hits.

I also switched to the Venom Racing 13t motor. I wish I had purchased this instead of the Super Stock BZ considering how much more SATISFYINGit is in terms of speed and considering that it's less than half the price of the BZ, at 20 dollars. Although, whereas I got about 35 minutes runtime with the BZ (and over 40 minutes with the silver can), I now get about 20 to 25 minutes with the Venom 13d. So far the motor is holding up good and the ESC and motor don't heat up more than warm to the touch.

I just wish my LB could handle jumps or all the uneven bumps on rough terrain better. Perhaps a softer suspension in the back? Besides the body, I feel like I'm reaching the terminus to what I want to do with the LB. From here on out, it's all about charging and recharging the battery.

Onto to my next RC, then! The Blitzer Beetle:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O15FSCejCu0[/youtube]

Bootnut

full speed into the door frame, 100% bad driving, its not too much bother to fix, just waitng for some parts to come.

I like the sound of that motor, Iv got that BZ in mine, im sure its that one, what ESC are you using? the stock one?

magic2002

finaly got myself a lunchbox.. My daughter has one for a while now, and I just needed to get one too. So this week i discovered a friend of mine was selling his, so I just had to get it. It has some experience but it still is the fastest LB I know.