So, here it is, the one you've all been waiting for, the review of the A720 Big Bores from HPI.
Before I start, I just want to say that this is not an official guide, nor is it how you should do things, this is just a personal write-up and guide to help anyone looking to add these shocks to their ride, any damages or miscalculations whilst installing are down to you.
When I sent out to get some new shocks for my Savage XL, I looked to the A712 shocks, the purple ones, which are the same dimensions as the stock XL shocks, so this means that the difference between stock and new, would have been oil, and springs, meaning I didn't need a whole new set of shocks, I always thought the Big Bores looked fantastic, and very tough, so I decided that I would use these, although I never liked the four shock setup, one because if you break a shock, you are out of the game until you replace it, or fix it, also, I just don't think a monster truck really looks like a monster truck with only four shocks, some may agree, some may disagree, although you are only supposed to run four Big Bore shocks at any one time, me being a perfectionist, had to go that little bit further and get eight.
I'll just run over a few key points before I move onto the installation guide, which unfortunately, requires customized parts, and cannot be fitted with the stock parts provided with the truck, or even the shocks. If it can indeed be fitting with stock HPI parts, please do post up on how to do it, as this would save alot of people alot of trouble.
I'll start with price, now granted that these shocks are rather expencive, they aren't actually that bad, I got these for about $150 from Ebay, all eight shocks, along with the shipping, considering that from England, these shocks cost about £95 a quarter, its nearly £200 for the shocks alone, not to mention shipping, they are actually the same price as the A712 shocks, but then you do get eight shocks in the A712 setup, and not four, then you have to factor in the price of oil, which is only a few pounds, just make sure you get more than you "think" you will need, each shock holds around 8cc-9cc of oil, so a 60cc tub will not be enough, then you have to add the custom mounting fixings, depending on where you get these from, they can be rather expencive, but I personally found a great little website of a small company, which I will name later, and got a great deal on my custom fittings, so is it really worth the price? Honestly, I'd have to say, yes, and no, yes being, if you are going to run four of these shocks on your truck, then yes, the money is worth it, well worth it, not only do these shocks look excellent, they are a huge step up from the stock HPI shocks, if you are running eight, then no, simply because, you do not not need to run eight! I simply do, because I can.
So what do get for this added price tag? An easy way to think of it, as that you are getting four shocks designed to do the work of eight, and then adding a back up to every single one of them, if you need another way to look at it than that, you are just greedy. I was very impressed with the way the Big Bores were presented, they come in a very nice, well packed, and well protected plastic casing, with a foam protection around each shock, with a detailed instruction manual on the back plate, pictured here:
I'll move onto the installation now, which isn't all that difficult, but cannot be done with the parts that come with your truck, or the parts that come with your shocks, if it can, I was not able to figure out how, as the proper setup of these shocks are four, one on each corner, the mounting bar that goes through the shock tower is the same length as the stock version, and therefore, about 3mm-4mm too short to be used with an 8-Big Bore setup, before I purchased these shocks, I took alot of measurements and looked at alot of pictures to see whether eight would fit, and clear all moving parts, after finally deciding that they would, I went ahead and bought them, after you have constructed your shocks, and filled them with oil, which I will show a guide of how to do at the end, you will of course want to install them, now I had some real trouble getting the bottom swivels into the A-arms, it was just like one wasn't made for the other, after some "gentle persuasion" they finally popped into place, now you can use the standard cross head screw, or you can use the 2.5mm allen-head screw that came with your Big Bores, I personally used the 2.5mm allen-head screws, then you want to install the upper sections of the shocks, for this, you will need an M3 threaded bar, the length of about 60mm, you can make them down to about 55mm, but this makes it awkward to tighten both nuts at the ends, I found a very good little store in England that sold these parts online, the website can be found at the end of my review, how you setup the top section of your shocks is personal perference, but this is how I setup mine:
I'll move onto the installation now, which isn't all that difficult, but cannot be done with the parts that come with your truck, or the parts that come with your shocks, if it can, I was not able to figure out how, as the proper setup of these shocks are four, one on each corner, the mounting bar that goes through the shock tower is the same length as the stock version, and therefore, about 3mm-4mm too short to be used with an 8-Big Bore setup, before I purchased these shocks, I took alot of measurements and looked at alot of pictures to see whether eight would fit, and clear all moving parts, after finally deciding that they would, I went ahead and bought them, after you have constructed your shocks, and filled them with oil, which I will show a guide of how to do at the end, you will of course want to install them, now I had some real trouble getting the bottom swivels into the A-arms, it was just like one wasn't made for the other, after some "gentle persuasion" they finally popped into place, now you can use the standard cross head screw, or you can use the 2.5mm allen-head screw that came with your Big Bores, I personally used the 2.5mm allen-head screws, then you want to install the upper sections of the shocks, for this, you will need an M3 threaded bar, the length of about 60mm, you can make them down to about 55mm, but this makes it awkward to tighten both nuts at the ends, I found a very good little store in England that sold these parts online, the website can be found at the end of my review, how you setup the top section of your shocks is personal perference, but this is how I setup mine:
Note: The rear four shocks will clear all moving parts, even at full shock travel, the front two shocks, at the farthest part of the truck, will also clear all moving parts, but the two shocks closest to the steering turn buckles, will rub ever so slightly at some positions of shock travel, I've not yet found a way to remedy this, but in all honesty, the contact is very little, so I might decide to just leave it how it is.
Quote: This write up was done my a friend of mine in from the UK.
Before I start, I just want to say that this is not an official guide, nor is it how you should do things, this is just a personal write-up and guide to help anyone looking to add these shocks to their ride, any damages or miscalculations whilst installing are down to you.
When I sent out to get some new shocks for my Savage XL, I looked to the A712 shocks, the purple ones, which are the same dimensions as the stock XL shocks, so this means that the difference between stock and new, would have been oil, and springs, meaning I didn't need a whole new set of shocks, I always thought the Big Bores looked fantastic, and very tough, so I decided that I would use these, although I never liked the four shock setup, one because if you break a shock, you are out of the game until you replace it, or fix it, also, I just don't think a monster truck really looks like a monster truck with only four shocks, some may agree, some may disagree, although you are only supposed to run four Big Bore shocks at any one time, me being a perfectionist, had to go that little bit further and get eight.
I'll just run over a few key points before I move onto the installation guide, which unfortunately, requires customized parts, and cannot be fitted with the stock parts provided with the truck, or even the shocks. If it can indeed be fitting with stock HPI parts, please do post up on how to do it, as this would save alot of people alot of trouble.
I'll start with price, now granted that these shocks are rather expencive, they aren't actually that bad, I got these for about $150 from Ebay, all eight shocks, along with the shipping, considering that from England, these shocks cost about £95 a quarter, its nearly £200 for the shocks alone, not to mention shipping, they are actually the same price as the A712 shocks, but then you do get eight shocks in the A712 setup, and not four, then you have to factor in the price of oil, which is only a few pounds, just make sure you get more than you "think" you will need, each shock holds around 8cc-9cc of oil, so a 60cc tub will not be enough, then you have to add the custom mounting fixings, depending on where you get these from, they can be rather expencive, but I personally found a great little website of a small company, which I will name later, and got a great deal on my custom fittings, so is it really worth the price? Honestly, I'd have to say, yes, and no, yes being, if you are going to run four of these shocks on your truck, then yes, the money is worth it, well worth it, not only do these shocks look excellent, they are a huge step up from the stock HPI shocks, if you are running eight, then no, simply because, you do not not need to run eight! I simply do, because I can.
So what do get for this added price tag? An easy way to think of it, as that you are getting four shocks designed to do the work of eight, and then adding a back up to every single one of them, if you need another way to look at it than that, you are just greedy. I was very impressed with the way the Big Bores were presented, they come in a very nice, well packed, and well protected plastic casing, with a foam protection around each shock, with a detailed instruction manual on the back plate, pictured here:
I'll move onto the installation now, which isn't all that difficult, but cannot be done with the parts that come with your truck, or the parts that come with your shocks, if it can, I was not able to figure out how, as the proper setup of these shocks are four, one on each corner, the mounting bar that goes through the shock tower is the same length as the stock version, and therefore, about 3mm-4mm too short to be used with an 8-Big Bore setup, before I purchased these shocks, I took alot of measurements and looked at alot of pictures to see whether eight would fit, and clear all moving parts, after finally deciding that they would, I went ahead and bought them, after you have constructed your shocks, and filled them with oil, which I will show a guide of how to do at the end, you will of course want to install them, now I had some real trouble getting the bottom swivels into the A-arms, it was just like one wasn't made for the other, after some "gentle persuasion" they finally popped into place, now you can use the standard cross head screw, or you can use the 2.5mm allen-head screw that came with your Big Bores, I personally used the 2.5mm allen-head screws, then you want to install the upper sections of the shocks, for this, you will need an M3 threaded bar, the length of about 60mm, you can make them down to about 55mm, but this makes it awkward to tighten both nuts at the ends, I found a very good little store in England that sold these parts online, the website can be found at the end of my review, how you setup the top section of your shocks is personal perference, but this is how I setup mine:
I'll move onto the installation now, which isn't all that difficult, but cannot be done with the parts that come with your truck, or the parts that come with your shocks, if it can, I was not able to figure out how, as the proper setup of these shocks are four, one on each corner, the mounting bar that goes through the shock tower is the same length as the stock version, and therefore, about 3mm-4mm too short to be used with an 8-Big Bore setup, before I purchased these shocks, I took alot of measurements and looked at alot of pictures to see whether eight would fit, and clear all moving parts, after finally deciding that they would, I went ahead and bought them, after you have constructed your shocks, and filled them with oil, which I will show a guide of how to do at the end, you will of course want to install them, now I had some real trouble getting the bottom swivels into the A-arms, it was just like one wasn't made for the other, after some "gentle persuasion" they finally popped into place, now you can use the standard cross head screw, or you can use the 2.5mm allen-head screw that came with your Big Bores, I personally used the 2.5mm allen-head screws, then you want to install the upper sections of the shocks, for this, you will need an M3 threaded bar, the length of about 60mm, you can make them down to about 55mm, but this makes it awkward to tighten both nuts at the ends, I found a very good little store in England that sold these parts online, the website can be found at the end of my review, how you setup the top section of your shocks is personal perference, but this is how I setup mine:
Note: The rear four shocks will clear all moving parts, even at full shock travel, the front two shocks, at the farthest part of the truck, will also clear all moving parts, but the two shocks closest to the steering turn buckles, will rub ever so slightly at some positions of shock travel, I've not yet found a way to remedy this, but in all honesty, the contact is very little, so I might decide to just leave it how it is.
Quote: This write up was done my a friend of mine in from the UK.
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