are your toughboxes loud ?
our toughboxes are rather loud compared to other years bot gearboxes.
did you guys add grease to the gears. we can hear a little grinding noise but i think thats just normal from the gears meshing but it shouldnt be that loud.
we did add grease and it is still loud
how loud on a scale of 1-10?
like a 7 or 8 compared to last 3 years
Even with grease, our Toughboxes sounded pretty loud when we first ran them. We’ve spent a lot of time letting our drivers run laps, though, and they seem to have quieted down as they wore in.
Remember that clear lexan plate basically turns the gearbox into a speaker box and amplifies all sound, compared to the (almost completely enclosed) cast metal boxes of years gone by.
Replacing that plate with a metal one proves that statement, and solves other problems you may discover down the road as well which are far more important than how loud it is.
i agree they get way better when you wear them in.
To add to what Jeff said…
I think the Toughboxes are louder than the 2005/2006 KOP transmissions because of a few design differences.
First, I think the Lexan side plate “resonates” a bit and just makes it sound louder even if the internal conditions are the same as the old boxes.
Second, the internal conditions are different from the 2005/2006 KOP boxes. The older ones used thicker gears and had spacers to locate the gears on the shafts. The Toughbox has a thinner gear face, and the spring pin that locates the gear on the shaft allows it to “flop” around a bit which adds more of a ringing sound.
Do not trivialize grinding sounds however…I would open the box, look for burrs or misalignment anywhere, grease it with lithium grease and reassemble.
A good way to break in your boxes is to run them off of a bench top power supply that shows current draw. Look at the free current of your motors and if the setup you have draws significantly more that you expect, then you should break down and rebuild the transmission.
The lithium grease is also thick and can help dampen sound. We greased our gearboxes and ran them on the bench for about 20 minutes each to break them in. They sounded alot better after the break in period, but are still louder than the 2005/2006 KOP transmission or the AM 1 speeds we used last year.
Remember, it is really worth taking your time to get it right here…your drivetrain will be the most critical system on your machine!
Good Luck,
RAZ
As others have said,
do not trivialize a grinding sound in a gearbox. check it out, look for visual signs of wear and tear (aka metal filings/ burrs on gear teeth). If you do see stuff like this, break that transmission down, clean it out and rebuild and retest, if it continues to happen, you may have much bigger problems than loud trannys.
They are Loud… But are A lot better once you grease 'er up it… atleast for us!
i know this post is about toughboxes, but does anyone know why the anymark supershifters are loud enough to hear accrost a parking lot?
they’re lowder in high gear, and we greased them alot, and checked that all the gears and bearing were installed properly, and not grinding,
any ideas,
our bot works fine, and drives 4311ishly fast :-):yikes: 
As others have said, make sure you check ALL the bearings. We got an AndyMark supershifter (uses some of the same bearings as the kit boxes). It was dragging and hard to turn - imagine our surprise when we found a totally bound up bearing inside it. Luckily we were able to replace the bearing with one from the kit transmissions and we’re driving again.
It was very curious when the bot kept wanting to turn right 
One issue I think people have is there basis for loud.
Fact is, spur gears make noise. Lots of spur gears make lots of noise.
Break them in and use grease liberally, but you will never get them to be quiet. A lot of people are used to their previous robot in competition (where the stadium drowns out any gearbox noise) and are shocked to hear their new robot.