Mad Bull.... Opinions?

[ALEXKYRIAK]

Thanks Dangerseeker, very useful.  

(Love your driver...!)

[wilsonian]

after my question about grass buggys I decided to order one of these for the wife to bash up. Hasn't turned up yet (Royal mail... looking you!) but already got the metal wheel bearings waiting. As I haven't got the kit yet, can people confirm if the shocks are 75mm all round?

[TurnipJF]

I can't confirm that, sorry. I can however confirm that they are 75mm front, 95mm rear.

 

(Well, strictly speaking they are a smidgen under 75mm in front. 75mm shocks built with a ±2mm internal spacer seem to be best.)

[wilsonian]

Thanks for the sizes, might as well get them ordered before we start building it :-)

[ALEXKYRIAK]

6 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

I can't confirm that, sorry. I can however confirm that they are 75mm front, 95mm rear.

 

(Well, strictly speaking they are a smidgen under 75mm in front. 75mm shocks built with a ±2mm internal spacer seem to be best.)

Awesome, thanks.

[Buggyjam]

Hey Alex

I can't say I know anything about mad bulls but I like the look! I am totally with you with what you said about not getting the monster truck thing. Me too, but I was a convert. I was always into the buggy looking kits. But then I got a lunchbox. And now a sort of Clod. For me it was seeing the big tyres. 

What I quite like is they're so large and chunky, working on them, feels more like a blank canvas to play with. Plus with the Clod I like it's all nuts and bolts, virtually no self tappers. Sure it's no Avante, but feels more mechanical. 

 

Mad Bull looks interesting.

[ELEPHT70]

On 03/04/2017 at 2:37 AM, ThunderDragonCy said:

Just checked the Aqroshot manual online vs my Racing Fighter manual and the rear driveshafts are identical, so no option for lunchbox wheels. It would have to be something 12mm Hex for the rear.

Wild Willy II wheels fit perfectly. 

I have a Fighter Buggy RX (there's an intro thread that seems to have turned into a build thread lol - my only thread check it out) 

All I had to do was get Mad Bull uprights (longer axle to the Fighter Buggy RX) to make it all work! 

Chrome too, so they look killa 👌 

Only trouble I'm having is finding decent, non-Wild Willys/Mad Bull style monster truck tyres... The rims are 1.9" high and 2.25" wide lol... 

[ALEXKYRIAK]

So I just finished my Mad Bull. Might post a few of my build pics on a build thread if I have the time. However, a few first impressions (without having run it, or finished the body):

 

Suspension

 The suspension is so squishy! Keep thinking 'did I build this right??'...  I had been planning on putting some better shocks on - oil filled as a minimum, maybe some aluminium. Just need to order something. Feels bizarrely plastic-y and cheap.

 

 Steering

The steering feels unbelievably sloppy. Again, 'did I build this right??'. Need to improve this somehow. Tiny little thin rod between servo and the steering arms - what gives?? Watching some YouTube vid of this car landing jumps shows some massive wibbly-wobbly shock waves going through the wheels and the suspension... now I understand why...

 

 Looks

 It looks..... .just as awesome as it looks in the pics. Beautifully chunky, low, wide stance. I love it. Literally cannot wait to run this thing. I stuck some WW2 silver wheels on and will probably finish in a black / silver / red scheme. This thing is gorgeous. Want to get a Mad Fighter body also.

 

Hop-up / upgrades / modifying:

It looks and feels like it could be an amazing car if hopped up, upgraded, or simply modified to be stiffer,  tighter steering, tighter suspension / improved shocks. Presuming power upgrade will make it more awesome-er (so have put in a Sport Tuned for now, and all metal ball race set).

 

Drool. Will update with any developments, am super excited about this car, but also a bit baffled / intrigued by it's relative basic-ness (is that a word?)... and it's potential.

[ThunderDragonCy]

So cool that you're so excited. You are right about the suspension. It is super basic on the basic kits. Spend £20 on the right Tamiya CVA shocks for your buggy and you can tune the handling with different pistons and oil. Fun stuff.

Search the forum for mad bull steering mod. Oddly enough an old thread popped up on this a couple of days ago.

[TurnipJF]

I had similar thoughts when I first saw mine fully built. I had ideas of hopping it up to the hilt and seeing how far I could push the platform.

 

However after driving it for a while, I realised that it is a big shaggy St. Bernard of a car, and therein lies its charm. Trying to train it to run with greyhounds will never work - it is better to just get a greyhound. (Which I did in the form of my F103.)

 

De-sloppifying the steering pushrod and adding oil shocks are worthy upgrades, turning a rowdy St. Bernard into one that is at least willing to try walking to heel, and the obvious bearings and steel pinion ensure robust good health. A Sport Tuned on 2S LiPo gives plenty of grunt, which can be put to good use if the diff is slowed with AW grease. But that is as far as I'd go really in terms of mods.

 

[ALEXKYRIAK]

Amazing description Turnip...! lol  

 I haven't run it yet, and am not needlessly wanting to hop it up just to hop it up (am guilty of that elsewhere), but my instinct tells me if this was a more rigid, more tight chassis and machine, it would be an amazing platform. Will try to find out, but thanks for your advice above, sounds like you been there and bought the t-shirt.

Note to self: add "de-sloppify" to personal dictionary of terms and expressions to use in polite conversation.

[TwistedxSlayer]

Love running the Madbull we have here. Ive put torque tuned motor in 2 of mine and a sport tuned in the other. 1 is running tamiya dt03 oil shocks. 1 is running the standard friction shocks and the other is running alloy oil shocks (unknown brand) got 2 running metal bearings and the 3rd on Tamiya bushes. The 3rd isnt fully built yet. The 2 that are running are just a huge laugh. They are great fun. Steering sloppyness is part of the fun but modding that awful steering link is a MUST.

 

Applying heat shrink to it will help massively.

[ALEXKYRIAK]

Thanks TwistedxSlayer, v interesting. Have read about the shaft and ballpoints mod elsewhere, I think I will give that a go first, however, what does the heat shrink do in removing sloppiness?

 

[TwistedxSlayer]

It doesn't, it stops the link jamming up when you bump the wheels.

[TurnipJF]

19 hours ago, ALEXKYRIAK said:

Thanks TwistedxSlayer, v interesting. Have read about the shaft and ballpoints mod elsewhere, I think I will give that a go first, however, what does the heat shrink do in removing sloppiness?

 

19 hours ago, TwistedxSlayer said:

It doesn't, it stops the link jamming up when you bump the wheels.

 

Methinks it does a bit to help the sloppiness too. At least that is what I have observed on mine.

A good bit of the slop comes from the Z-bends in the pushrod being able to move up and down in the servo saver and bellcrank holes before transmitting any pushing or pulling force. The heatshrink eliminates this up-and-down movement, so pretty much all the pushing and pulling from the servo is transmitted to the bellcank. (Minus the bit that is lost due to the small amount of clearance between pushrod outer diameter and hole inner diameter of course.)