To BMax or not to BMax
 

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

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.

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!!!!!

Pics!

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!

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!!

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 :)

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!!

hey

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

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

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.

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?

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...:)