Old School and in need of help!!!!
12-28-2011, 04:26 PM
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Old School and in need of help!!!!
Hello All,
I am new to this place and new to R/C. I am 37 years young and recently purchased a bunch of R/C trucks from my youth. I am living an old dream I guess you would say. Never had one as a kid, and now I have a 9 yr old son, thought this would be a good start. I recently purchased a King Blackfoot, an Original Blackfoot (x2) and a Lunchbox. The Lunchbox is a kit the myself and my son will build together. Plan on keeping it stock until his skills progress. I have noticed the difference in the two different styles of trucks already. Mainly the suspension. Now I know these are outdated. And I know somebody out there has more experience than I do. So my question is this: I know there has to be upgrades to these foundations. Can I get some help please? And where can I start to find them?
Thanks
I am new to this place and new to R/C. I am 37 years young and recently purchased a bunch of R/C trucks from my youth. I am living an old dream I guess you would say. Never had one as a kid, and now I have a 9 yr old son, thought this would be a good start. I recently purchased a King Blackfoot, an Original Blackfoot (x2) and a Lunchbox. The Lunchbox is a kit the myself and my son will build together. Plan on keeping it stock until his skills progress. I have noticed the difference in the two different styles of trucks already. Mainly the suspension. Now I know these are outdated. And I know somebody out there has more experience than I do. So my question is this: I know there has to be upgrades to these foundations. Can I get some help please? And where can I start to find them?
Thanks
12-31-2011, 08:07 AM
#2
RE: Old School and in need of help!!!!
Well I'll tell you this. All these trucks were designed to be more for fun than racing and they are all extremely good at doing so. The original Black Foot used the same chassis as the Tamiya Frog, Monster Beetle, Mud Blaster and a whole bunch of other cars an trucks. The good news is that chassis is still in production and parts are available. At one point in time there were a ton of hop up items for this chassis. Today those parts are hard to find and expensive when you do.
The lunch box is a great truck to go out and have fun with and over the years i've found a few ways to make mine handle a whole lot better. I had to do some hacking and slicing but the first thing I did was fit T-Maxx Oil filled shocks all around. This got rid of 90% of the hopping and bouncing the truck did. The rears are a direct bolt on but the fronts required some creativity to get them to work. The reason being is the T-Maxx shocks are shorter than the stock setup and lowering the LB too much causes massive amounts of positive camber (top of wheels pointed at each other). While some camber is good, too much is a bad thing. From there I did the 3rd shock mod (good lunch box 3rd shock mod and you'll see it). I used an old touring car shock I had laying around and it worked great. Swapping shocks also lowered the truck about 1/2 inch which is just about right. The next thing I did was swap the stock hard plastic body for a Lexan version. It's made by Parma and costs $20. This mod made the biggest improvement in how the truck ran. No more flipping over, Wheelies were harder to do etc. Now with all that being said and done the truck did handle a whole lot better and I spent a lot less time running to turn it back over. Problem is these mods took away a lot of the reason a lunch box is so much fun.
As for the King Blackfoot. I believe that was based on the Frog chassis as well. There are a few things you can do to any RC to make it better. First is replacing any plastic or brass bushing with honest ball bearings. No sense in buying the expensive ones. A $10 set off ebay work just as well. Next is oil filled shocks. This gets ride of the bouncing around. You can also look for ways to lighten the truck up. Tamiya's are built tough but that sometimes means a whole lot of stuff that doesn't need to be there. Ditching those hard plastic bodies are also a great way to lower the center of gravity. It also goes without saying that stronger motors and better electronics are great upgrades as well. If by chance these trucks are still running the old mechanical speed controller swap it for an ESC immediately.
Do the trucks one at a time and you'll have better results. If I can help you feel free to ask me any questions you like. I've been a tamiya fan since I got started in this hobby 25+ yrs ago.
The lunch box is a great truck to go out and have fun with and over the years i've found a few ways to make mine handle a whole lot better. I had to do some hacking and slicing but the first thing I did was fit T-Maxx Oil filled shocks all around. This got rid of 90% of the hopping and bouncing the truck did. The rears are a direct bolt on but the fronts required some creativity to get them to work. The reason being is the T-Maxx shocks are shorter than the stock setup and lowering the LB too much causes massive amounts of positive camber (top of wheels pointed at each other). While some camber is good, too much is a bad thing. From there I did the 3rd shock mod (good lunch box 3rd shock mod and you'll see it). I used an old touring car shock I had laying around and it worked great. Swapping shocks also lowered the truck about 1/2 inch which is just about right. The next thing I did was swap the stock hard plastic body for a Lexan version. It's made by Parma and costs $20. This mod made the biggest improvement in how the truck ran. No more flipping over, Wheelies were harder to do etc. Now with all that being said and done the truck did handle a whole lot better and I spent a lot less time running to turn it back over. Problem is these mods took away a lot of the reason a lunch box is so much fun.
As for the King Blackfoot. I believe that was based on the Frog chassis as well. There are a few things you can do to any RC to make it better. First is replacing any plastic or brass bushing with honest ball bearings. No sense in buying the expensive ones. A $10 set off ebay work just as well. Next is oil filled shocks. This gets ride of the bouncing around. You can also look for ways to lighten the truck up. Tamiya's are built tough but that sometimes means a whole lot of stuff that doesn't need to be there. Ditching those hard plastic bodies are also a great way to lower the center of gravity. It also goes without saying that stronger motors and better electronics are great upgrades as well. If by chance these trucks are still running the old mechanical speed controller swap it for an ESC immediately.
Do the trucks one at a time and you'll have better results. If I can help you feel free to ask me any questions you like. I've been a tamiya fan since I got started in this hobby 25+ yrs ago.
12-31-2011, 04:33 PM
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RE: Old School and in need of help!!!!
For the Lunchbox, DEFINITELY consider purchasing the ballbearings. I am not sure if they make such an impact in terms of ride and performance, but they should in terms of longevity, especially considering that they are an optional replacement for the plastic bushings in the gearbox.
If you ever upgrade to a more powerful motor, you will need to consider making sure you have ballbearings in your gearbox and not the plastic bushings which wear out a lot sooner. If you buy the ball bearings before you build the van, you will save yourself the hassle of rebuilding the gearbox in order to replace with those ball bearings.
I noticed that with ball bearings, if you spin your wheels, they keep spinning and when they finally lose momentum, they start rolling in the opposite direction. With plastic bushings, you get some spin but obviously a lot more resistance.
Ball bearings (full set for the Lunchbox) will cost you as low as $5.50, as it did for me through an ebay seller.
I do recommend oil filled shocks. The size for them are 85mm or 80mm (eye to eye, not full length) for the rear, and 80mm or 75mm (again eye-to-eye length)for the front shocks.
The stock pogosticks on the Lunchbox make a lot of chassis noise due to its design. They are not bad. But a stiffer suspension should make the LB handle much better, a lot quieter, and funner to drive especially on jumps.
I purchased 4 shocks for $10.56.
For durability and maintenance stuff, know that for the LB the parts that are bound to break are the plastic body mounts and the wire springs.
A great mod for the body mounts, is to purchase aluminum mounts for the Tamiya F1 and then buy small l brackets at a hardware store to fit them onto your LB. This, as it turns out, is a great solution considering that aluminum mounts mounted directly to the LB break the chassis itself on a hard impact. Here's a video about it:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAY99..._order&list=UL
For the wiresprings, the simplest thing to do is to be creative with a metal clothes hanger. I have that setup. It's not pretty but it works fine.
Finally, know that the part that will get the most and obvious damage is the body. So consider getting a lexan body instead.
The Lunchbox is a great truck and fun to drive - and fast if you want it to be. With a better motor, however, it requires an experienced driver.
You and your son will love it. Great in the snow and fun if you have an empty soda can or two for your LB to kick around.
If you ever upgrade to a more powerful motor, you will need to consider making sure you have ballbearings in your gearbox and not the plastic bushings which wear out a lot sooner. If you buy the ball bearings before you build the van, you will save yourself the hassle of rebuilding the gearbox in order to replace with those ball bearings.
I noticed that with ball bearings, if you spin your wheels, they keep spinning and when they finally lose momentum, they start rolling in the opposite direction. With plastic bushings, you get some spin but obviously a lot more resistance.
Ball bearings (full set for the Lunchbox) will cost you as low as $5.50, as it did for me through an ebay seller.
I do recommend oil filled shocks. The size for them are 85mm or 80mm (eye to eye, not full length) for the rear, and 80mm or 75mm (again eye-to-eye length)for the front shocks.
The stock pogosticks on the Lunchbox make a lot of chassis noise due to its design. They are not bad. But a stiffer suspension should make the LB handle much better, a lot quieter, and funner to drive especially on jumps.
I purchased 4 shocks for $10.56.
For durability and maintenance stuff, know that for the LB the parts that are bound to break are the plastic body mounts and the wire springs.
A great mod for the body mounts, is to purchase aluminum mounts for the Tamiya F1 and then buy small l brackets at a hardware store to fit them onto your LB. This, as it turns out, is a great solution considering that aluminum mounts mounted directly to the LB break the chassis itself on a hard impact. Here's a video about it:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAY99..._order&list=UL
For the wiresprings, the simplest thing to do is to be creative with a metal clothes hanger. I have that setup. It's not pretty but it works fine.
Finally, know that the part that will get the most and obvious damage is the body. So consider getting a lexan body instead.
The Lunchbox is a great truck and fun to drive - and fast if you want it to be. With a better motor, however, it requires an experienced driver.
You and your son will love it. Great in the snow and fun if you have an empty soda can or two for your LB to kick around.
01-02-2012, 05:34 PM
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RE: Old School and in need of help!!!!
Awesome!!! Thanks to both of you so much. I am sure I will be back in contact. We actually started going through the box tonight so we could get what we needed to do the project. As it is my sons he has picked out a radical paint job for my to do somehow. Four different colors but its his. So I want him to make the way he wants. Silver, Yellow, Orange and Black. Oughta be interesting.
Thanks again....
Thanks again....
