Newby with a madrat!

[Barney448]

Hi All, complete newby here and was looking for some advice on setting up a Madrat that I've just bought from e-bay.

I was on a bit of a budget and the reviews for this buggy looked good and for just over 60 quid I bagged myself a mad rat in good condition with everything needed to take it out for a play!

However, before I start playing with my new toy I figured it will be sensible to give it a bit of an overhaul first and check all the suspension works smoothly and the screws are not loose or spun.

Now what I know about RC racing can be written on the back of a postage stamp but I'm aware this is a budget model and was wondering what I should be thinking about upgrading on the buggy in order to make it handle better? My intention is to play about with it at a park or bmx track first (basically anywhere that I can mock up a little track) but then I'd like to take it racing at a couple of local clubs when I'm more confident.

Being a newby I'm not to fussed about putting a powerful motor in there as it will probably just make it even harder to handle, so I'm thinking I should concentrate on getting the suspension and geometry right? It has already got the ballraces on all four corners, is it worth putting some better shocks on the buggy? does it matter what make of shock I should get as I've read that some people use shocks from an Associated B4 - do these shocks simply fit straight on to the madrat?

Apologies for the waffling e-mail and barrage of questions, any advice will be most appreciated.

[ConceptRacing]

Have a read through some of the older posts regarding set up and what people use on thier Rats, some very good advice and ideas. I know thats not very helpful but it does save everyone repeating everything thats already posted.

[Mad-Wolfie]

the set-up from the manual (as in if you build the car how the manual suggests) is very good. As a rule of thumb though (if you haven't already) fit a bearing set instead of the brass bushes. if you haven't got a manual as you got the car off the bay of E, you can download one from the Ansmann website

IMHO the kit shocks are awful, the tops pop off on landings so consider an upgrade. the B4 shocks "should" fit but a lot of people are running Losi shocks. On mine though (as i'm also on a tight budget) i've upgraded to the Ansmann alloy bodied shocks (Fastrax do pretty much identical shocks) but put the kit internals & springs on them & they are a huge improvement i.e. replacing the horrid & feeble plastic bodies for metal ones. Also the holes in the pistons have been bored out to 1.6mm which you can do on the kit shocks which means the damping action is a lot smoother which is good if you are chucking the car about a fair bit

The only other changes i made was to add lead weight around the Servo & put some 2mm spacers under the ball-studs located in the nose of the car so the camber link bars are level with the wishbones which calms the steering down, from there it's just a case of learning the car & what the changes to things like shock position, tyre choice & link & tie-rod dimensions etc do to affect the way the car behaves on different surfaces or finding what would suit you.

Other than that, what Eric says is spot on.

Hope this helps

[minke]

Order in which to upgrade ( my opinion)

Fully ballraced
ceramic balls and thrust bearings for the diff
shocks - xpro,B4, xxxcr, or big bores if you have the budget, just dont skimp on cheapo ones
Steel screw kit
Motor mount
Aluminium rear wishbone mounts
Aluminium servo mounts (if you add a powerful servo)
Adjustable turnbuckles

I've not found that any of the other aluminium upgrades arent really necessary, but certainly wont hurt. The plastic parts break that infrequently, to me at least it dont justify the cost.

get a spare kit for parts.

some lead or r/c weights will help with balance, mine used to lean on jumps till I balanced it out and still tinker with weight under the servo depending on the track.

[deano261]

i was in the same position as you i boutght a standard mad rat and i upgraded the motor to a 6.5t with esc and a lipo (the lipo is a must) and put race bearings in. i then bought a set of B4 v2 shocks (the v1 are the same with a few minor differences) and they fit straight on. but thats what i did and it is pretty damned quick now

[Barney448]

Thanks very much for the tips guys.

I have been reading through all of the older posts with great interest. Thankfully the rat has already been ball raced but I shall also be checking to see if it has the bearings in the diff. I think I'm going to get a set of B4 shocks aswell and see how they work. And I'll also look at adding weight under the servo

I'd definitely like to get a brushless motor and esc set-up in the car but that will come as and when I have the money and have honed my driving skills! One thing I'm concious of is that my local club run size limits on the motors that you can use (27t b or 13.5t bl). However, I'd definitely like to switchover to lipo's and was wondering whether I need to change anything on the buggy in order to use them instead of the nimh batteries with the existing brushless set-up? Do they just use the same connectors as the nimh?

Do you suggest getting the steel screw kit as the existing ones are soft and very easy to overtighten? I'm thinking a bit of threadlock wouldn't go a miss either.

Thanks again for your advice