Tamiya Lunchbox Upgrades?
 

When I was young my parents got me a RC offroad truck Vanessa's Lunchbox made by Tamiya.

I haven't used it in years and today took it out of storage. I am really interested in fixing it up and possibly putting some upgrades on it to make it faster with better/stronger parts. Does anyone know if this is possible? It has a stock motor in it now and I'm not sure if there are better motors out there that would make it better. Also are there any other parts that would make it better? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

Jonathan Thrasher

Man, I had a Lunchbox like 15 years ago, what a blast they are to run! You're probably not going to find many Lunchbox specific hop-up parts, or even replacement parts anywhere other than e-Bay. The good thing is that a couple of the easiest and more effective upgrades still bolt and strap right in. Buy a set of bearings first of all. This'll get rid of the slop from the old bushings, and free up some horsepower. My personal opinion is that even a ROAR stock motor would provide more than enough speed and torque to make the Lunchbox a blast. If you absolutely HAVE to have more motor, look at a 19 turn spec motor. Keep in mind that you may have some tough to find parts on the vehicle, and more horsepower will increase the likelyhood that you'll break stuff. You may want to look at the parts for the newer variations of the Grasshopper - the transmission parts may drop right in.
In addition, pick up a few new battery packs. For sport use, 3000's are getting really cheap, and provide great power with tons of run time. Check out cheapbatterypacks.com. And if you don't already have one, an electronic speed control would vastly improve performance over the stock mechanical unit.

the BEST thing you could do to that is put a stock motor or spec motor or whatever motor ya want in it (depending in you speed control) and put a 17 tooth pinion on it. i did that to a midnight pumpkin i had and OH MY GOD... what a difference. it'll also help keep the front end on the ground cause of the gear ratio but it'll raise top end. i really don't know if they make any upgrades for them or if they ever did. but give that a try.

Cory