To BMax or not to BMax

[Speedy]

I started EP offroad this year and bought a Schumacher Cat SX to start with. The thing is i need a lot of time to find the right adjustments to get the car smooth for tracks. Yesterday i drove a Bmax for the first time and it felt great. Nice short steering on the income awsome :lol:.
The car had a just out of the box setup and it was smooth, easy handling and it forgives alot.
Now i want to know if the car has any problems in design or weak spots maybe any uncomfortable things i need to know.
Has anyone had problems with unusual wear? I just need to know if it's bulletproof because i drive every spare minute. :woot:
In other words "is it a car to race with the whole season"?
Are there any adjustments i have to do before i can race? Because that is one thing i don't like about my cat, there are a lot of improvements and changes done after the release so you have to keep buying and changing whiteout even knowing what you're changing :p

Kind regards

[ravens]

Im very happy with mine,did 1st race with bmax last Sunday and its an easy car to drive.Bumps n jumps are no problem for bmax.
Placed 2nd and havent broke anything yet
My only dilema is should i move to lipo or not,with nimh bmax feels so good that im afraid to unbalance it with lipo saddles.

[gazhillAE]

Speedy!

Il help you out here buddy :bored:

Right, great car, very smooth car too drive total opposite of the B44. Depends on your driving style i guess.

Cat SX i drove on sunday to have a play and was impressed, more slow speed turn in than the B44 i was running but sorted that problem now with a few more spacers under ball stud!

Right this is what you need to know!

1) Front wishbones and front mounts are in limited supply, so if you are a crap driver and brake them at the moment i wouldnt buy one! Ive only broke one thing on that car, sorry two! A front shock mount and wishbone but that was done in my house playing around whoops! Stone walls!

2) Central slipper housing is very tight to start off with. There is a post on here worth reading a to how to make this better. Basically you have to dremel a bit of the plastic away on the top deck and top plate that goes on last of all. You need to ensure that the slipper spins as loose as possible but not too loose that it moves up and down and side to side!

3) Dremel away the raised bit on the top plate so that the spur is exposed. This will help you mesh and also check after each race for damage if required. Also dont fully tighten the four screws either that gld it down, back off a tiny bit

4) Buy the champ kit

5) Buy Ryans front and rear shock mounts instead of the factory ones :drool:

6) Kit spur is 87t and champ kit is 81t! Both are not spot on! The 84t that is an option to order from shops is the one i will be trying next. The 87 has too much punch and not enough top end, the 81 has not enough punch and too much top end at the end of the straight where you need to brake which makes it a waste of time!

7) Replace the stupid Yokomo caps with AE Blue alloy ones

8) Also if you have going to go down the Ryan route and shock cap route you are best to convert to B44 Shock nuts, screws and alloy blue shock collars. The kit screws bend for england and if you are changing to ryans shock mounts the kit screws will be 1cm exposed not good!!!!!

9) Weight the rear down if using lipos! Im using 110g in the back! Using Tony evodkas RudeBits B44 battery straps (50g) and ive dremeled 12x 5g weights into the battery chassis slots. A bit of strong tape is worth whle underneath chassis to hold them in further aswell. I use duck tape "Quack quack"!

10) Bin the standard battery holders and straps and drill the chassis in 2-4 places from memory and use b44 blue alloy posts and the screws aswell and a 2mm spacer underneath them lift up abit.

11) Gearing with 5.5t 87/20 or 21 and 84 19/20.

12) Setups are reguarly available from a few people. Tom yardys are very good and mine are not to bad now either :p

13) Keep a stock off front outdrive bearing 5x10 same as b4 front wheels.

14) Keep a stock of slipper outdrive bearings also in case they go

15) Edit rear wing

16) Space out the front king pins due to up and down slop when fitted.

17) Rear anti roll bar 1.2mm all the time

18) 40w/25w most of time with Black/Orange Springs. Yok springs are exspensive so if you dont want to waste £60 or there abouts on them use associated. You will need Blue/Silver fronts and Silver/Green rears i think.

19) Use the Blue alloy 3degree rear block set, changes the kit 3.5degree inboard to 3degree. Ther not cheap, try mk racing for them and most of the other stuff.

20) Slipper adjustment, not the best slipper but works ok. Adjustment out of the car is best sometimes others it works for me try it! Allen key into the slot and all wheels on grass hold down and turn the spur gear with your finger left or right depending on which way you need to go!

21) Buy some metal polish and polish your driveshafts...shiny cvds here we come :lol:

Photos.....hell yeah!!!!!

[gazhillAE]

Pics!

[Yardeeee]

Speedy!

Il help you out here buddy :bored:

Right, great car, very smooth car too drive total opposite of the B44. Depends on your driving style i guess.

Cat SX i drove on sunday to have a play and was impressed, more slow speed turn in than the B44 i was running but sorted that problem now with a few more spacers under ball stud!

Right this is what you need to know!

1) Front wishbones and front mounts are in limited supply, so if you are a crap driver and brake them at the moment i wouldnt buy one! Ive only broke one thing on that car, sorry two! A front shock mount and wishbone but that was done in my house playing around whoops! Stone walls!

2) Central slipper housing is very tight to start off with. There is a post on here worth reading a to how to make this better. Basically you have to dremel a bit of the plastic away on the top deck and top plate that goes on last of all. You need to ensure that the slipper spins as loose as possible but not too loose that it moves up and down and side to side!

3) Dremel away the raised bit on the top plate so that the spur is exposed. This will help you mesh and also check after each race for damage if required. Also dont fully tighten the four screws either that gld it down, back off a tiny bit

4) Buy the champ kit

5) Buy Ryans front and rear shock mounts instead of the factory ones :drool:

6) Kit spur is 87t and champ kit is 81t! Both are not spot on! The 84t that is an option to order from shops is the one i will be trying next. The 87 has too much punch and not enough top end, the 81 has not enough punch and too much top end at the end of the straight where you need to brake which makes it a waste of time!

7) Replace the stupid Yokomo caps with AE Blue alloy ones

8) Also if you have going to go down the Ryan route and shock cap route you are best to convert to B44 Shock nuts, screws and alloy blue shock collars. The kit screws bend for england and if you are changing to ryans shock mounts the kit screws will be 1cm exposed not good!!!!!

9) Weight the rear down if using lipos! Im using 110g in the back! Using Tony evodkas RudeBits B44 battery straps (50g) and ive dremeled 12x 5g weights into the battery chassis slots. A bit of strong tape is worth whle underneath chassis to hold them in further aswell. I use duck tape "Quack quack"!

10) Bin the standard battery holders and straps and drill the chassis in 2-4 places from memory and use b44 blue alloy posts and the screws aswell and a 2mm spacer underneath them lift up abit.

11) Gearing with 5.5t 87/20 or 21 and 84 19/20.

12) Setups are reguarly available from a few people. Tom yardys are very good and mine are not to bad now either :p

13) Keep a stock off front outdrive bearing 5x10 same as b4 front wheels.

14) Keep a stock of slipper outdrive bearings also in case they go

15) Edit rear wing

16) Space out the front king pins due to up and down slop when fitted.

17) Rear anti roll bar 1.2mm all the time

18) 40w/25w most of time with Black/Orange Springs. Yok springs are exspensive so if you dont want to waste £60 or there abouts on them use associated. You will need Blue/Silver fronts and Silver/Green rears i think.

19) Use the Blue alloy 3degree rear block set, changes the kit 3.5degree inboard to 3degree. Ther not cheap, try mk racing for them and most of the other stuff.

20) Slipper adjustment, not the best slipper but works ok. Adjustment out of the car is best sometimes others it works for me try it! Allen key into the slot and all wheels on grass hold down and turn the spur gear with your finger left or right depending on which way you need to go!

21) Buy some metal polish and polish your driveshafts...shiny cvds here we come :lol:

Photos.....hell yeah!!!!!

Yeah BUT a lot of what you've done is out of choice, it isn't all necessary...

The car is really good straight out the box, my car is just a standard B-Max with the champ pack fitted. If you do run lipo in it, you will need to replace the kit battery straps though as said, you can use B44 ones or yokomo BX posts and straps.

One thing that I feel, and so do many others who have one is that its a really simple car to drive, and to maintain. In addition, it's a really versatile car in terms of track surface, a basic standard setting like Gaz has mentioned in his post works pretty well everywhere, there are a range of set ups available in this section but you will note that they are all pretty similar from track to track.

Its a great car, give one a whirl!

[Speedy]

Thx for the quick replies!
There are indeed some things you can change about the car such as shock caps and steering blocks etc. But these are not required as yardee says it's you're own choise. Here in Belgium we have pretty short technical tracks so i guess the 87 spur is a good point to start from.
I have ordered my Bmax champ kit in our local model shop now and it's supposed to arrive from CML by next friday. I'l give it a shot!

Thanks for ur advises!!

[traffman]

I just went with the champ kit and took it from there.;)

[sime46]

I just modded mine for lipo ie; posts, straps and ballast. All else is champ pack standard and a mix of Toms set-up and my own little changes. Car is awesome to drive and very easy to live with.

[hardrider]

BMax rocks!
Handles great and has good attitude in the air.
The only issue I had was the rather fragile front end. Wishbones and shock tower in particular.
Then again that was due to some spectacular crashes I pulled off.
Everything has its breaking point.

I ran mine with lipos from day 1 with the BX posts and straps.
No issues with handling whatsoever.

[sime46]

Ive ran mine at 3 outdoor big meetings and broken nothing at all. Its a very strong and great handling car.

[Gonky]

All the breakages i've had have all been on the right front of the car... 3 wishbones and 3 shock bottoms i think is the total so far.

The shock popping out was the most annoying thing! :mad:

No problems with the shock towers as using the carbon ones from Ryan.

[traffman]

Now that ive posted this my car will end in a massive an humongous crash ....however up til now ive suffered zero defects through crashing.

[hardrider]

A buddy has ordered the carbon shock towers for me.
I reckon once they're installed, my Bmax will no longer be perceived to have a weak front end :)

[Speedy]

Last saturday a race against time to assemble the car and test it.
I drove like 2 packs and the car felt ok on the track for me.
Sunday was a big day, first race with my new Bmax.
The first two qualifs the grip level of the track was insane like 200% (lucky i got a stabi from the champions pack :lol:). The third qualif no more grip in the front bye bye steer pfff. By the first final i managed to get some grip in the front but what i didn't know was that i lost all of it in the back now, it was like racing on ice! Then after some new rear tyres the car was handling fine. The grip level of the track changed fast during the day, what made it difficult to keep a consistent drive.
After all i started the B finals 1st to end 3 times on second place what i think is a good result for me with a new car :thumbsup:.

Up to the next race!!

[discostu]

Speedy!

Il help you out here buddy :bored:

Right, great car, very smooth car too drive total opposite of the B44. Depends on your driving style i guess.

Cat SX i drove on sunday to have a play and was impressed, more slow speed turn in than the B44 i was running but sorted that problem now with a few more spacers under ball stud!

Right this is what you need to know!

1) Front wishbones and front mounts are in limited supply, so if you are a crap driver and brake them at the moment i wouldnt buy one! Ive only broke one thing on that car, sorry two! A front shock mount and wishbone but that was done in my house playing around whoops! Stone walls!

2) Central slipper housing is very tight to start off with. There is a post on here worth reading a to how to make this better. Basically you have to dremel a bit of the plastic away on the top deck and top plate that goes on last of all. You need to ensure that the slipper spins as loose as possible but not too loose that it moves up and down and side to side!

3) Dremel away the raised bit on the top plate so that the spur is exposed. This will help you mesh and also check after each race for damage if required. Also dont fully tighten the four screws either that gld it down, back off a tiny bit

4) Buy the champ kit

5) Buy Ryans front and rear shock mounts instead of the factory ones :drool:

6) Kit spur is 87t and champ kit is 81t! Both are not spot on! The 84t that is an option to order from shops is the one i will be trying next. The 87 has too much punch and not enough top end, the 81 has not enough punch and too much top end at the end of the straight where you need to brake which makes it a waste of time!

7) Replace the stupid Yokomo caps with AE Blue alloy ones

8) Also if you have going to go down the Ryan route and shock cap route you are best to convert to B44 Shock nuts, screws and alloy blue shock collars. The kit screws bend for england and if you are changing to ryans shock mounts the kit screws will be 1cm exposed not good!!!!!

9) Weight the rear down if using lipos! Im using 110g in the back! Using Tony evodkas RudeBits B44 battery straps (50g) and ive dremeled 12x 5g weights into the battery chassis slots. A bit of strong tape is worth whle underneath chassis to hold them in further aswell. I use duck tape "Quack quack"!

10) Bin the standard battery holders and straps and drill the chassis in 2-4 places from memory and use b44 blue alloy posts and the screws aswell and a 2mm spacer underneath them lift up abit.

11) Gearing with 5.5t 87/20 or 21 and 84 19/20.

12) Setups are reguarly available from a few people. Tom yardys are very good and mine are not to bad now either :p

13) Keep a stock off front outdrive bearing 5x10 same as b4 front wheels.

14) Keep a stock of slipper outdrive bearings also in case they go

15) Edit rear wing

16) Space out the front king pins due to up and down slop when fitted.

17) Rear anti roll bar 1.2mm all the time

18) 40w/25w most of time with Black/Orange Springs. Yok springs are exspensive so if you dont want to waste £60 or there abouts on them use associated. You will need Blue/Silver fronts and Silver/Green rears i think.

19) Use the Blue alloy 3degree rear block set, changes the kit 3.5degree inboard to 3degree. Ther not cheap, try mk racing for them and most of the other stuff.

20) Slipper adjustment, not the best slipper but works ok. Adjustment out of the car is best sometimes others it works for me try it! Allen key into the slot and all wheels on grass hold down and turn the spur gear with your finger left or right depending on which way you need to go!

21) Buy some metal polish and polish your driveshafts...shiny cvds here we come :lol:

Photos.....hell yeah!!!!!

hey

is the highlited in bold correct does the standard b max come with 3.5deg of rear toe in

[woOdy]

Best 4wd car I have ever driven!!! and I have driven a few.:woot:

[mikeyscott]

I too am looking at one of these now to replace my Cat SX with one.

I love my Cat SX for what it is, but I'm not skilled enough to get what I need out of it.

I really struggled at Petit and it was down to:
a) I'm rubbish
b) I ran a 6.5 and should have run an 8.5+
c) The Cat was hard work..

I'm constantly struggling to get the right balance with it. Shocks front or rear etc etc and so on.

The Cat is such a tunable car and I think that's the problem with it for me.

[cragstar]

great car ! run mine at two meetings out of the box the only problem i have had is the slipper bearings but sorted now , first meeting c final, after a little play with set up and change of springs to associated 3rd in A :thumbsup: and that is with the plastic shocks

[mikeyscott]

great car ! run mine at two meetings out of the box the only problem i have had is the slipper bearings but sorted now , first meeting c final, after a little play with set up and change of springs to associated 3rd in A :thumbsup: and that is with the plastic shocks

Sounds good, but I know I'd want the big bore shocks etc.

What electrics etc are people using in their Yoks? Which LIPOs fit best etc. and I assume Rudebits parts are used?

[CODMAN]

I expected that the plastic shocks would work at least decently, especially after seing the very high quality of the other plastic parts of the kit... The basic kit really is one great deal in a 4wd buggy, for someone on a tight budget...:)

great car ! run mine at two meetings out of the box the only problem i have had is the slipper bearings but sorted now , first meeting c final, after a little play with set up and change of springs to associated 3rd in A :thumbsup: and that is with the plastic shocks

[Gonky]

Sounds good, but I know I'd want the big bore shocks etc.

What electrics etc are people using in their Yoks? Which LIPOs fit best etc. and I assume Rudebits parts are used?

Using a Losi combo and vampire LIPO's in mine... looking at other motor/ESC's for the upcoming season though.

Not aware of any Rudebits parts for the BMax and the car seems fine without any extra weight added to it.

[mikeyscott]

Using a Losi combo and vampire LIPO's in mine... looking at other motor/ESC's for the upcoming season though.

Not aware of any Rudebits parts for the BMax and the car seems fine without any extra weight added to it.

Sounds promising.

I'd be running a Tekin RS Pro in it and not sure what LIPOs as I have Nosrma 5300 40Cs at the mo for my Cat SX.

Anyone running Losi shocks as I have loads of these

Can you get one way diffs and layshafts with the BMAX?

[CODMAN]

No Oneways or layshafts available... yet...

I haven,t run mine yet (:(), have setup a Castle MM with 5700Kv motor (used a 6900 Kv in my B44, and that was way too fast a motor) with Hyperion Swift 4200 mah 30C Lipos. I didn,t want to go higher on the Lipos since I didn't know how bigger ones would fit under the lid, but now I have the kit setup I figure I could have gotten away with 5000-5500 mah for sure under there.

I'm running about 70g of lead stuck under the Lipos (35g each) to bring it up to around 1800g. Tom suggested even more (he says it runs better at Nimh weight) and I trust his oppinion. It's a great start from which I can easily increase or decrease to my own preference afterwards... But the car was designed around Nimh, so it does make sense...

You could use the Losis I'm sure. People like them a lot. Why not give the kit shocks a go and see? You might be surprised... If you really want the Bigbores, I would suggest getting the factory team kit since the Bigbore shock seem to be sold out at many places...

Sounds promising.

I'd be running a Tekin RS Pro in it and not sure what LIPOs as I have Nosrma 5300 40Cs at the mo for my Cat SX.

Anyone running Losi shocks as I have loads of these

Can you get one way diffs and layshafts with the BMAX?

[discostu]

Sounds good, but I know I'd want the big bore shocks etc.

What electrics etc are people using in their Yoks? Which LIPOs fit best etc. and I assume Rudebits parts are used?

why would you use rude bits parts the car is heavy to start with no need for chunks of brass every were.

[mikeyscott]

why would you use rude bits parts the car is heavy to start with no need for chunks of brass every were.

That sounds great as it mean extra money saved :D

[grapejuice]

I'm running a Reedy 5100 lipo in mine, car has the B44 carbon lipo tray in it w/ the B44 carbon straps, everything fits perfect. Also running the LRP SXX TC esc with X-12 6.5. Haven't added any weight (yet) but it drives really good, so much more planted than my old B44!

[discostu]

dont forget the carbon towers which is a must have on the bmax the standard are a little weak theses are good http://www.oople.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36065 (http://www.oople.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36065) and a very reasonable price. pm me for more info.

stu rand

[STP]

dont forget the carbon towers which is a must have on the bmax the standard are a little weak theses are good http://www.oople.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36065 (http://www.oople.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36065) and a very reasonable price. pm me for more info.

stu rand

never broke a tower at my ride since 9 month. so no must have for me... :woot:

[discostu]

cool thats good if you do you got my details:thumbsup:

[matdodd]

I've ran my Standard BMax 09 4 times now and have to say its already one of the best 4wd cars I've ever driven! :thumbsup:
I was going to try Losi shocks on it but the kit ones seam very good so id stick with them for now, then maybe look at getting the big bore ones further down the line. I don't feel there are any upgrades you must have on top of the kit other than some battery posts & straps if your running lipos.
The car in general seams very strong and the only thing I have broke so far is wishbones in sub zero conditions and they were the old style ones!

Mat

[CODMAN]

I must admit Stu, I don't remember reading a single thread mentioning broken towers. If they are that weak, where are all the people talking about it? I don't mean to dish your towers. They are beautifull parts!:thumbsup: But essential??

I say this, and watch me break a tower on my first run with it...:D



dont forget the carbon towers which is a must have on the bmax the standard are a little weak theses are good http://www.oople.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36065 (http://www.oople.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36065) and a very reasonable price. pm me for more info.

stu rand

[CODMAN]

Well I dirtied my B-max4 FT for the first time this week-end and am very satisfied with it!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

It's just as fast as anything out there, was very stable, jumps very well, perfectly silent... Nothing broke, despite all my unvoluntary efforts!!!!:p The only thing that came undone was the screw from my servo horn. Unfortunate thing is practice time is very limited at the track I race at during the winter + I'm very rusty. So all I was able to get down as setup (play with) was diff and slipper adjustment, as well as spring preload on the shocks. The rest of my efforts was getting 2 of the very tricky jumps down well (which I managed by the end). The car went great, but I need a lot more time driving and tweaking her. I know I can get a lot more out of her with a bit of time...:thumbsup: I qualified 1st in the Bmain and was in the lead of the first 3 minutes of the 5 minute heat, until I was robbed by poor marshalling... I had a 10 second lead at the time... but when the marshal finally got to me, I was 4th... :cry: I don,t know how it is in your clubs, but here we have a real problem with marshalling... Too many people think it,s a social event and no need to take it seriously... Then they are the first screaming on the stand at others to get to their car faster...:p Anyways...

It was great to have a change from my old B44. No regrets whatsoever with my choice!

Cheers!

[grapejuice]

Well I dirtied my B-max4 FT for the first time this week-end and am very satisfied with it!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

It's just as fast as anything out there, was very stable, jumps very well, perfectly silent... Nothing broke, despite all my unvoluntary efforts!!!!:p The only thing that came undone was the screw from my servo horn. Unfortunate thing is practice time is very limited at the track I race at during the winter + I'm very rusty. So all I was able to get down as setup (play with) was diff and slipper adjustment, as well as spring preload on the shocks. The rest of my efforts was getting 2 of the very tricky jumps down well (which I managed by the end). The car went great, but I need a lot more time driving and tweaking her. I know I can get a lot more out of her with a bit of time...:thumbsup: I qualified 1st in the Bmain and was in the lead of the first 3 minutes of the 5 minute heat, until I was robbed by poor marshalling... I had a 10 second lead at the time... but when the marshal finally got to me, I was 4th... :cry: I don,t know how it is in your clubs, but here we have a real problem with marshalling... Too many people think it,s a social event and no need to take it seriously... Then they are the first screaming on the stand at others to get to their car faster...:p Anyways...

It was great to have a change from my old B44. No regrets whatsoever with my choice!

Cheers!

Good to hear it went well! And, there are people at my track like that, just don't understand what they are thinking.....it always should be marshal how you would like to be marshaled...