Posts: 5311
Score: 147 Joined: 12/8/2005 Last Login: 9/3/2010 From: Batavia,
IL, USA Status: offline
Hello reader(s),
For a few years now, I've owned a vintage Schumacher Bosscat 4WD buggy. It's time has just about passed with my ownership, so I figured it was time to share some info and pics about it, with some urging from a certain Mr. Lunchboxer.
As you may (or may not) have known, Schumacher crashed into the 4WD buggy racing scene around the mid 80s or so (not exactly sure, but I'm not worried). Their first venture (that I'm aware of) was the Schmacher C.A.T., which stood for Competition All-Terrain. I was just getting into the RC hobby back then, but this thing was the holy grail of RC to me. It was sleek looking, won a boatload of races, was belt-driven, high tech, and just too much $$ for my wallet. I had to pass on it, and instead got an Italian made SG Coyote 4WD buggy that (for some odd reason) my LHS stocked. Talk about impossible parts support. But alas, that is another tale....
Back to the Cat: so, Schumacher cranked out an extended chassis later called the Cat XL, then the ProCat, then the Bosscat, Cat 2000, Cat 98, then the Cat 3000. Don't ask me why the 98 came after the 2000. All were belt driven 4WD buggies, and the first few models had a "crashback" front end, which allowed the entire right or left side (wheel, uppper/lower arms, and telescoping CVDs) to be pushed back on a hinge type system, so if you whacked something and didn't get bumper, the car had give to it. Pretty cool. I'll try to provide pics later. Rubber O-rings held the front end together.
Schumacher stopped making the CAT 3000 years ago, and thus ended their reign of terror in the 4WD buggy scene. Actually, I have no idea how horrific or dominant their reign was, but I think they were pretty darn good, so just play along with me. Anyway, schumacher is based in the UK, but also seems to have a strong presence in Australia. You see Cats now and again in the US, but they're pretty rare since they were stopped being made. Parts are hard to come by.
My Cat So, enough background. Basically, after high school (and a long gap of no RC for me), I got back into the hobby. I finally had $$ to spend, and with the internet exploding, you could actually get this stuff online! So a few years ago I hit a few forums, and fell back in love with the Cat. Original C.A.T. parts are incredibly hard to find, and I really liked the Bosscat (whose parts were scarce, but could be found), so I swung a deal with an English chap displaced to Aussie-land, and got my very first Schumacher - a Bosscat.
Here are some pics of it, as given to me. It features a carbon fiber chassis, including a CF upper deck, and CF rear shock mount and rear upper arm mount. It has the crashback front end, is (of course) belt driven 4WD, slipper clutch, and belt driven transmission. Adjustable toe-in, F/R camber, telescoping CVDs, and adjustable shock mounts made it quite a gem in its day, around the mid 90s.
Posts: 5311
Score: 147 Joined: 12/8/2005 Last Login: 9/3/2010 From: Batavia,
IL, USA Status: offline
The shocks are "pro shocks" made of aluminum alloy, and oil-filled. Front and rear diffs are ball diffs, and you adjust the main belt (front to rear diff) tension by rotating the front diff. It's eccentric in shape, so by popping off the top of the front diff housing, you can rotate the diff and tighten/loosen the main belt.
Additionally, there are eccentrics on the rear diff too, so rotating them adjusts the belt tension inside the transmission itself. Pretty unique setup.
I don't have good pics of this, but here are some from the manual.
Posts: 5311
Score: 147 Joined: 12/8/2005 Last Login: 9/3/2010 From: Batavia,
IL, USA Status: offline
Here are a few more pics of the bosscat, as it arrived to me. 2 bodies and 2 undertrays were included (one says "Turn me Over"), and a few sets of wheels and tires. Interestingly, the bosscat wheels don't use a hex or axle/pin hookup to mate to the CVDs. Instead, they use a unique mating system. See the inside of the hub in one of the pics here. This, of course, makes finding spares a bit challenging, and I've never seen a wheel adapter that would work on this puppy.
The rear wing also mounts with an O-ring system, so it has give to it when you wreck/flip. Kind of nifty.
Posts: 5311
Score: 147 Joined: 12/8/2005 Last Login: 9/3/2010 From: Batavia,
IL, USA Status: offline
Well, I think that's enough blabbing for tonight. In a day or three I'll update with more info on the mods/personal touches I've done to the Bosscat, what electronics I've run in it, and the fun I've had. MOre pics too, of course.
Posts: 5311
Score: 147 Joined: 12/8/2005 Last Login: 9/3/2010 From: Batavia,
IL, USA Status: offline
quote:
ORIGINAL: Takedown
Schumacher just cant get enough of belt driven r/c's can they? Any way it goes, schumacher from all my experiences with them were fantastic.
Heh, yeah, they love the belts. Ever since I got into the hobby (20+ years ago), folks continuously argued that belts were weak, would stretch, break, etc, and shaft was the way to go. Yet here's Schumacher, churning out buggy after buggy that's belt driven, and they all performed very well.
Posts: 5311
Score: 147 Joined: 12/8/2005 Last Login: 9/3/2010 From: Batavia,
IL, USA Status: offline
Not only did Schumacher do the 4WD buggy thing, but they ventured into 2WD buggies as well, starting with the TopCat if I recall correctly. The TopCat was interesting, in that the front shocks were inboard. This was pretty unique for the time, I believe (again, in the mid 90s or so).
It was later determined that the inboard front shocks resulted in undesired handling characteristics, so they went with the typical front shock setup for future 2WD buggies, like the Cougar and Fireblade.
Here are some pics of the TopCat, Cougar, and the original C.A.T. (just for fun).
Posts: 44836
Score: 325 Joined: 3/10/2006 Last Login: 9/5/2010 From: Longmeadow,
MA, USA Status: online
Very cool.. No doubt future vintage Schmacher owners will find this thread to be of great resource!
I can't wait for you to get the Durga so you can compare them side by side (not physically, I know the Cat will most likely be sold by then, but you will no doubt still remember the design of it very well..).
Posts: 4526
Score: 105 Joined: 2/26/2007 Last Login: 9/5/2010 From: Owensboro, KY, USA Status: offline
Time to move on to something else eh? That is a very nice chassis and I would hate to get rid of a gem like that. No doubt you'll get plenty of money for it. Did you sell the elite batteries to it yet? Because they dont make the 3600 packs anymore, so I'll be upgrading to a new charger in the next year or so.
< Message edited by B44&501xRacerEX -- 8/19/2008 10:10 PM >
Posts: 5311
Score: 147 Joined: 12/8/2005 Last Login: 9/3/2010 From: Batavia,
IL, USA Status: offline
quote:
ORIGINAL: B44&501xRacerEX
Time to move on to something else eh? That is a very nice chassis and I would hate to get rid of a gem like that. No doubt you'll get plenty of money for it. Did you sell the elite batteries to it yet? Because they dont make the 3600 packs anymore, so I'll be upgrading to a new charger in the next year or so.
Yeah, time to move on. If I keep it, I'll just keep running it. If I keep running it, I'll keep breaking it. Not worth it to me.
I still have the batteries to it - 6 cell IB 4200 saddle pack, actually. I ran the Elites in some of my other vehicles (Stampede, TA05-R, etc).
Posts: 5311
Score: 147 Joined: 12/8/2005 Last Login: 9/3/2010 From: Batavia,
IL, USA Status: offline
So, once I acquired the Bosscat in the above shown condition, I found it to be in good shape, with everything functional. But as any self-respecting RCer knows, you just can't let it be like that. I had to customize.
I started by simply putting in my own electronics - I put in a 6 cell NiMh IB 4200 saddle pack, a Trinity Chameleon2 Pro 19T x 1 motor, a Futaba S3010 high torque servo, and an old LRP F1 ESC. See pictures. The old ESC did its job just fine, and the 19x1 motor was pretty darn snappy, I must say. My first impression was: this thing is quick! The belt drive makes it a smooth accelerator, and pretty quiet too. I immediately fell in love.
I abandoned the stock nylon battery tie-down straps, and went with some velcro (see the funky black/blue combo). It worked. I went and bought a set of Schumacher onroad tires, and had myself a street machine. I initially had them on the white dish wheels, as seen, and ran spikes on the 5-spokers.
Posts: 5311
Score: 147 Joined: 12/8/2005 Last Login: 9/3/2010 From: Batavia,
IL, USA Status: offline
I ran it like you see above for a bit, then decided to take it a few steps further. I started with a brand new Bosscat body (Schumacher still sells them), and a plan - I wanted a tiger-striped Cat. So I bought some liquid mask, and painted the whole inside with it. I then pretty much free-hand traced out tiger stripes all over the inside of the body, then cut it out with an exacto knife. I then proceed to go with the bengal tiger orange/black look, and the result is below.
Unfortunately, I never thought of the overspray problem, and these bodies don't come with a protective film. Thus, I ended up with a few black overspray areas near the bottom...but I was still darn proud.
Posts: 5311
Score: 147 Joined: 12/8/2005 Last Login: 9/3/2010 From: Batavia,
IL, USA Status: offline
Now that I had a new tiger body, the classic white wheels would not do. I took my 3 and 5-spoke rims and dyed them black. I sent some springs (remember all the extras I had?) to a friend and had them powdercoated orange, along with another set coated black. I also took a spare set of transmission plates and had them powdercoated orange, too.
Interestingly, the tolerances on the Cat are pretty tight. Little did I know that powdercoating adds juuust a touch of thickness to the object. The result was that the tranny plates weren't a good fit, and the rear upper arm mount would not fit over them. So I went back to the stock black plates. Oh well.
I put it all together, and had a mean looking Bosscat!
Posts: 5311
Score: 147 Joined: 12/8/2005 Last Login: 9/3/2010 From: Batavia,
IL, USA Status: offline
So...after some time running the tiger striped body and the chameleon2 Pro motor, I got the brushless bug. So...I ordered myself a Mamba Max 5700 system. I decided on the 5700 instead of the 6900 or 7700, mostly because this is an offroad basher. The "faster" motors seemed like they'd be overkill. And by overkill, I don't mean that I don't want speed. I do. But I wasn't shooting for "uncontrollable", and I heard that the 5700 is a good fit for a 4WD buggy.
So I took my 15 year old belt driven buggy, upgraded exactly nothing, and slapped in the 5700 system. I had confidence, as I had read about other vintage bosscat owners (well, at least 2) that put Novak 5.5 systems in theirs, and had no issues.
The buggy held up fine, and was stoopid fast. This being my first brushless experience, I was blown away. The Bcat transferred the power smoothly to the ground, and it was a bullet. I ran it like this for a pretty good amount of time.
See installed pics. Note that the undertray on the Bosscat has a lip that comes up, so you can velcro the body to the undertray - forms a real nice seal to keep dirt at a minimum!
Posts: 5311
Score: 147 Joined: 12/8/2005 Last Login: 9/3/2010 From: Batavia,
IL, USA Status: offline
So...I ran with the MM 5700 for a while, and just a bit of wear and tear began to show. Transmission was fine, diffs were fine, CVDs were fine. But, the funny little end of the CVDs (don't know the official term) where they mate with the wheel to drive them were starting to wear down/out. I had some spares, so no big deal, but it was enough to cause me to think. Then, a buddy of mine was running it and did a nice powerslide into a parked car, and ripped one of the rear a-arms out of the tranny housing.
That put it down for a bit, and I decided to back down on the power to save time/$$/stress, and went back to the Chameleon.
I then decided to swap out the stock steering setup with a few leftover parts from Tamiya, and got the ball/socket setup you see here.
I also decided to rebuild the buggy - my belt covers were worn and cracked, and a ton of dirt got all in the system. So I tore the bosscat down, and rebuilt it from the ground up. I serviced the diffs, put some new belts on the tranny, got new (rubber shielded) bearings all around, got new belt covers, and put hex screws in almost everywhere. I cleaned it up, and this is how it stands today.
Posts: 4526
Score: 105 Joined: 2/26/2007 Last Login: 9/5/2010 From: Owensboro, KY, USA Status: offline
Did you paint the tiger style body yourself? I try to clean my cars when I'm finished with them also. I bet that is a fun car to drive. Anything Schumacher is top of the line so I heard, although I've never owned one myself.
Posts: 5311
Score: 147 Joined: 12/8/2005 Last Login: 9/3/2010 From: Batavia,
IL, USA Status: offline
So conclude this thread (from my end anyway), the Bosscat is on the chopping block now, and a new Tamiya Durga kit is coming my way very soon. Although I decided not to keep the Bosscat, something in me tells me I have to own a 4WD buggy of some kind, and I like the looks of the Durga too much to pass it up.
Hope you enjoyed reading! Not many Schumacher offroad threads in here....
Posts: 44836
Score: 325 Joined: 3/10/2006 Last Login: 9/5/2010 From: Longmeadow,
MA, USA Status: online
Mistake #1.....
Got any pic of the worn CVD little end thing?!
quote:
ORIGINAL: Eman77
So...I ran with the MM 5700 for a while, and just a bit of wear and tear began to show. Transmission was fine, diffs were fine, CVDs were fine. But, the funny little end of the CVDs (don't know the official term) where they mate with the wheel to drive them were starting to wear down/out. I had some spares, so no big deal, but it was enough to cause me to think. Then, a buddy of mine was running it and did a nice powerslide into a parked car, and ripped one of the rear a-arms out of the tranny housing.
That put it down for a bit, and I decided to back down on the power to save time/$$/stress, and went back to the Chameleon.
I then decided to swap out the stock steering setup with a few leftover parts from Tamiya, and got the ball/socket setup you see here.
I also decided to rebuild the buggy - my belt covers were worn and cracked, and a ton of dirt got all in the system. So I tore the bosscat down, and rebuilt it from the ground up. I serviced the diffs, put some new belts on the tranny, got new (rubber shielded) bearings all around, got new belt covers, and put hex screws in almost everywhere. I cleaned it up, and this is how it stands today.
Posts: 5311
Score: 147 Joined: 12/8/2005 Last Login: 9/3/2010 From: Batavia,
IL, USA Status: offline
Unfortunately, no.. I could snap a pic of a good one though, to clarify what I'm talking about....hrm....
quote:
ORIGINAL: Lunchboxer
Mistake #1.....
Got any pic of the worn CVD little end thing?!
quote:
ORIGINAL: Eman77
So...I ran with the MM 5700 for a while, and just a bit of wear and tear began to show. Transmission was fine, diffs were fine, CVDs were fine. But, the funny little end of the CVDs (don't know the official term) where they mate with the wheel to drive them were starting to wear down/out. I had some spares, so no big deal, but it was enough to cause me to think. Then, a buddy of mine was running it and did a nice powerslide into a parked car, and ripped one of the rear a-arms out of the tranny housing.
That put it down for a bit, and I decided to back down on the power to save time/$$/stress, and went back to the Chameleon.
I then decided to swap out the stock steering setup with a few leftover parts from Tamiya, and got the ball/socket setup you see here.
I also decided to rebuild the buggy - my belt covers were worn and cracked, and a ton of dirt got all in the system. So I tore the bosscat down, and rebuilt it from the ground up. I serviced the diffs, put some new belts on the tranny, got new (rubber shielded) bearings all around, got new belt covers, and put hex screws in almost everywhere. I cleaned it up, and this is how it stands today.
Posts: 5311
Score: 147 Joined: 12/8/2005 Last Login: 9/3/2010 From: Batavia,
IL, USA Status: offline
So....I finally got moving on assembling the Tamiya DB01 Durga recently. Progress is slow, but I'm working as time permits. I do have a few observations to make, in comparison w/the Bosscat (just for fun - vintage 4WD racer vs. new 4WD buggy).
So, a few observations from someone who truly loves both Tamiya and Schumacher products (as a basher):
1) I really love the enclosed belt drives on the Durga. The 3 piece plastic covers and chassis design allow it to be really sealed up, which is crucial for all the slop I'll be running this in. It's nifty, and I like it better than the traditional "lexan belt cover" design used a lot (like on the Bosscat). This just seals up better, and more securely.
2) #1 comes at a cost - getting to the motor is a pain, esp that lower set screw you have to get in nearly blindly. The TA05 chassis is like that (mid-mounted motor, 2 belt system). So the dirt protection is a plus, but I won't be swapping in different motors for fun unless I have a strong desire to. Maybe I'm lazy like that.
3) I don't mind that the Durga kit is more of a base kit (no bling, mostly plastic, etc) - in fact, I kind of like it (the price was right). However, I do prefer the plastic telescoping drive shafts on the Bosscat compared to the dog bones on the Durga. I know it's plastic vs. metal, but dog bones seem so old school, so it's funny seeing the new buggy w/them compared to the vintage.
4) I like the way the Durga captures hinge pins w/overlapping screw heads, or by floating them in between suspension parts (TA05 does this as well). Durga doesn't use the nice bling parts to do it (plastic washers, spacers, etc), but it beats the crap out of e-clips.
Posts: 5311
Score: 147 Joined: 12/8/2005 Last Login: 9/3/2010 From: Batavia,
IL, USA Status: offline
Another random observation - the Tamiya instruction manual is superior to Schumacher's. It's not that Schumacher's is bad, but the Tamiya manuals continue to impress me w/their detail. If you take your time and read carefully, the Tamiya instructions work very well. The Schumacher instructions just seem to be lacking a bit...hard to describe, could just be some detail not quite there.
Posts: 44836
Score: 325 Joined: 3/10/2006 Last Login: 9/5/2010 From: Longmeadow,
MA, USA Status: online
Yes, Tamiya simply has the best manual out there. I remember building them when I was very young (3rd grade? 4th? Or younger?) and can't read Japanese nor English.. and basically building up them kits with just following the picture and #s. (well, and basic alphabets, like "A-13", "B-4", etc.)
Search This Thread
Printable Version
All Forums >> RC Cars, Buggies, Trucks, Tanks and more >> RC Electric Off-Road Trucks, Buggies, Truggies and more >> Ode to the Schumacher Bosscat 
Ode to the Schumacher Bosscat - 
