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Zingfharn

Mad Bull tips

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Hello there,

I just bought a built a Mad Bull, and love it. Like, out of the box, it's just very, very fun.

(I also totally missed the high point calibration during setup after misreading the insert in the ESC, and did that later. Wow! What an improvement)

Anyway, some questions if I may (I'm aware some of these have been answered in the past, but I'm finding lots of conflicting information which I hope you can help me resolve).

First, what I've found, since I struggled to find some of this in once place.

The most essential (and cheapest) upgrades are a steel pinion and bearings, and so those are ordered.

So, the heatshrink steering slop solution is discussed in a lot of places, but I struggled to find pictures.  here is one from TurnipJF:

On the dampers - will the DT-03 CVA fit? I've managed to convince myself that they won't from looking at specs, but a few people have suggested them in other threads. Also, are they a bit soft? Would DT-02 springs help here?

On a new motor: the ESC with the mad bull is the TBLE-04S. It claims to support brushed motors 25T and over. The 540 sport tuned is 23T. I'm finding conflicting reports that it will work. Can someone confirm one way or another please? I definitely don't need to upgrade today, but it's something for the future.

For spraying the body - should I use a primer or can I spray the TS stuff directly on? (I've already scuffed an unpainted body from multiple flips and thankfully new ones are pretty cheap. Will let the kids colour in the scuffed one I think and put butterfly/dinosaur stickers all over it.)

Finally, what wheel options do I have? I hadn't even considered options until I came across an old thread with some amazing anodised red wheels from the Wild Willy 2 that seemingly fit the Mad Bull perfectly, but they appear to be very much unavailable now. Are there any other coloured aftermarket wheels? Pink? Blue? Green? Gold?

Thank you so much in advance for any feedback.

 

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For the wheels: red, blue, and gold were available. They are extremely hard to find for a reasonable price. They do look gorgeous, but also chip relatively quickly.

Another option I've seen proposed (but not tried myself) is to take the chrome rims and paint them with one of Tamiya's transparent colors. That's really all they did with the red/blue/gold ones. It wouldn't cost too much to try and if it works you can make your own replacements when they chip.

Technically you also have the option of black and white. The black are fiendishly hard to find. The white are often available on eBay and pop up in Pajero searches. Do check they have the hex rears and not the lunchbox style mounts.

I've had a partially built mad bull on the shelf for a good while now. Hopefully others will chime in with suggestions for all the other bits.

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On 7/28/2021 at 10:55 AM, Zingfharn said:

On the dampers - will the DT-03 CVA fit? I've managed to convince myself that they won't from looking at specs, but a few people have suggested them in other threads. Also, are they a bit soft? Would DT-02 springs help here?

The dampers fit fine, but articulation is not all that great if attached with the stock screws. If you use ball collars, they fit considerably better with improved articulation. The stock springs are great. You don't want anything harder, especially at the back.

 

On 7/28/2021 at 10:55 AM, Zingfharn said:

On a new motor: the ESC with the mad bull is the TBLE-04S. It claims to support brushed motors 25T and over. The 540 sport tuned is 23T. I'm finding conflicting reports that it will work. Can someone confirm one way or another please? I definitely don't need to upgrade today, but it's something for the future.

The sport tuned will probably thermal the ESC due to the Mad Bull's large wheels and resultant long rollout and the increased current draw it causes. If you want to use that motor, I would recommend using the ubiquitous Quicrun 1060 ESC. It gives you plenty of headroom and copes with the increased current draw easily.

 

On 7/28/2021 at 10:55 AM, Zingfharn said:

For spraying the body - should I use a primer or can I spray the TS stuff directly on? (I've already scuffed an unpainted body from multiple flips and thankfully new ones are pretty cheap. Will let the kids colour in the scuffed one I think and put butterfly/dinosaur stickers all over it.)

TS paint adheres to the body without a problem, so you can spray it directly without primer, however primer gives you an opportunity to fill any minor scratches or molding imperfections, so if you want it to look it's best, I would recommend going for primer.

 

On 7/28/2021 at 10:55 AM, Zingfharn said:

Finally, what wheel options do I have? I hadn't even considered options until I came across an old thread with some amazing anodised red wheels from the Wild Willy 2 that seemingly fit the Mad Bull perfectly, but they appear to be very much unavailable now. Are there any other coloured aftermarket wheels? Pink? Blue? Green? Gold?

The Mad Bull can use pretty much any wheelset with a 12mm hex fitting at the back and bearing-in-wheel at the front. Depending on the spacing between the bearings at the front, you might be able to use the stock axles, or you may want to use the shorter ones from the Mad Fighter instead. Personally, I am a fan of running it with standard buggy wheels, which use the shorter front axles.

2019-09-26_03-00-11

 

This thread may be useful to you:

 

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On 7/29/2021 at 1:24 AM, isomer1 said:

Another option I've seen proposed (but not tried myself) is to take the chrome rims and paint them with one of Tamiya's transparent colors. That's really all they did with the red/blue/gold ones. It wouldn't cost too much to try and if it works you can make your own replacements when they chip.

All of this is amazing, thank you so much.

21 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

The dampers fit fine, but articulation is not all that great if attached with the stock screws. If you use ball collars, they fit considerably better with improved articulation. The stock springs are great. You don't want anything harder, especially at the back.

Thank you for all the advice. I'll be researching ball collars today then! (Secretly I was hoping to need more colourful springs ; )

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@TurnipJF Apologies for the followup questions - I should have done my research first.

So to clarify on the ball collar - I saw a post from you suggesting 50591 so they're ordered. Is it just on the back? And on both ends of each shock or just one? And! Which screws would be needed? Presumably the existing ones won't work.

Thank you so much in advance.

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BigT sells a DF02 spring set that comes with red and blue springs…

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Ball collar:  it’s an M3 tube with a bulge in the middle. You can fit a tapping or machine M3 screw through it.  You might need a longer screw than standard.  If you don’t have a longer tapping screw, you could drill out the hole in the mount and run a machine screw through it (back with washer and nut).  But looking at Turnips pix, it looks like the black tappers will work.

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Yeah, I think I'm going to need some longer screws, to be honest. I'll see. I've ordered the ball collars, and if the screws don't fit, I can always refit the old shocks in the short term and order more. Thank you.

 

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1 hour ago, Zingfharn said:

Yeah, I think I'm going to need some longer screws, to be honest. I'll see. I've ordered the ball collars, and if the screws don't fit, I can always refit the old shocks in the short term and order more. Thank you.

 

I like a good bit of screw biting into the shock mount, so with ball collars I use Tamiya 18mm long 3mm self tappers, part number 19805575.

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So I've fitted the dt03 shocks to the front and they don't really return in the same way as the friction ones. It's like they remain only half extended. 

This is fully extended (I was trying 2 different springs)

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This is after I push the bumper down and allow them to return. 

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Whereas the friction shocks would fully extend after compression.

Is this something that won't actually be a problem when in motion or have I messed up somehow? 

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You ought to be fine with the vehicle in motion. Give it a try and see!

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Just thought I'd follow up with my results. Thank you to everyone who's helped me out.

I ended up going red springs (soft) on the back and blue springs (hard) on the front with the max spacers on all four from the DT02 spring set (53832) on the DF03 CVA dampers. I also attached the front shocks to the inside mount point (default is the outside) to compensate for their slightly shorter length. The front sticks to the ground like glue now, while the back bounces around like a rabbit. It's a lot of fun.

I used the ball collars as recommended on top and bottom for the back shocks and they're much more secure than just flapping loosely (I'd have needed to shim them). The front ones are fine with the stock screws.

The front shocks sit a little low, but they pick up once the thing is on the move and it swallows big jumps, crashes and flips with consummate ease.

I sprayed the shell in two-tone. It was first time spraying and masking, and I used whatever tape was lying around the house, so the lines aren't as clean as I'd like (there's some bleed and some gaps). If I try this again, I'll buy some proper masking tape, and maybe try for a checkerboard on the back. Plus, I'd spray the entire thing in silver first, then do the orange over the top.

I'm still tempted to pick up some WW02 chrome wheels and candy coat them with tamiya transparent orange, so that might be my next purchase, but wheels get dirty fast.

Alternatively, I might pick up a brushless sensored 15.5 T TBLM-02S (because the TBLE-04S won't take much else that's exciting). For my first foray into brushless, I think I'd like to stick to sensored, and as far as I can tell, buying a sensored 3500 motor (which is the sort of speed that the Mad Bull seems to be able to handle) and a corresponding speed controller is going to cost as much the tamiya motor alone. I've also been struggling to find a good range of motors from UK stockists, but maybe I'm looking in the wrong places. If anyone has store or motor recommendations, I'd welcome them. I've read GregM's brushless setup too.

Finally, I've been looking into LiPo, and might upgrade my charger to a B6AC v2 (which would improve LiMH charging times if nothing else and give me future options). Again, I can't find any great UK stockists for 2S 5000mah hard LiPo cases, but that's a problem for another day.

Anyway, pics below. Bonus picture for the kid's shell.

 

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