HL Bulldog Problems
 

Had to buy 5 HL walker Bulldog tanks but ended up returning them all! Most woked fine S&S versions but main problem was poor fireing velocity. The Panzer III tanks I got for pals worked great, all fireing super fast & hard. 1 Bulldog seemed to have a good fireing mech so I attempted to swap turrets (all those inferior Bulldogs lying around to ship back, who could resist?) Almost completed til wires pulled free from solder points & I don't "do solder! Do I have to give up on the Bulldog, it's such a cool looking tank. I guess the German army will always win in my backyard. Any luck with the Bulldogs out there? Should I switch retailers as a possible "bad batch" problem? This supplier has been apologetic & great w/ service. Sent me pre paid package labels for all returns. Searching for answers & suggestions

RE: HL Bulldog Problems
 

Got mine from Mato, no problems with the tanks performance.

RE: HL Bulldog Problems
 

Man, thats no good, you really have to be careful, the halves can only be seperated enough to work on, any more and you could strain the wires or break they like you managed - was it a pull accident, or an series of tragic events that unfolded? ;)

Gun mechanism is fairly sturdy IF the rubber bung stays in place. Dunno if your pack of dogs (lol) had dud rubbers or what, but to have to buy 5 thats crazy. What was wrong with the rest of the Bulldog that fired well? I mean why did you swap the turret from the good tank onto another Bulldog??

RE: HL Bulldog Problems
 

If you "dom't do solder" then all of your tanks will shortly be static models. Don't waste the suppliers time and money sending them back either. You have to open them up and work on them, especially in the beginning to bring them up to minimum reliable standards.

A quick search will bring you to numerous posts on how to work on and service the airsoft unit. Quite a few on how to modify them for more power too. See my Walker BullDog build for some tips too. Mine shoots 205fps, nearly 3x more powerful then stock reliably.

RE: HL Bulldog Problems
 

I agree with Swathy. If you don't want to solder you have picked the wrong tank manufacturer. Every single Heng long tank I own would be a shelf queen if I never picked up the soldering iron. 5 bulldogs = 1 Tamiya Sherman. You might want to think about that, although it sounds as if the airsoft feature is important to you. The longer bbl Bulldog will not be as good as the short BBl PZIII. The PZIII out of the box is the best firing Heng Long available.

For me the best fixes I have come up with for the airsoft gun are.

1. Install spacer in spring chamber to cause the spring to be in more compression.
2. Lube the gun with a light silicone spray.

These two little fixes will allow you to break 6mm paintballs at 20 ft. Critical to the operation of the airsoft gun is the litte rubber grommet that provides a seal between the bbl and the "traveling ram". Very finicky and is easy to drastically effect the shot velocity with small changes to the compression this grommet is subject to.

RE: HL Bulldog Problems
 

I bought a couple spare guns from MATO just before Christmas. These are the blue ones, not the yellow. Without any mods, these things fire very, very hard. Of course you have to do the "solder thing" in order to swap them out and make them work, but they are so much better than the older versions.

RE: HL Bulldog Problems
 

Thanks for the quick response! I didn't mean to"offend" anyone with the :no solder" point. I guess I have to get over my fear of mechanical stuff to stay in this hobby! Thought they were just toys! er oops. did it again didnt I? I'll try 1 from Mato first. Fireing paintballs is paramount! Any preferences of paintballs? Can u send link foe fireing upgrade instructions?

RE: HL Bulldog Problems
 

Although it may seem to be a mysterious art, soldering, at least at a basic electronic wire-to-terminal level is very simple. Other than overheating sensitive components, which can be avoided pretty easily, there isn't too much to go wrong. I won't attempt a tutorial here, but if I did, it wouldn't be more than a few lines.

A soldering iron (my favorite one cost 99c) and solder are required, of course, but, it's about as difficult as gluing. In fact, because the joints set very quickly, it's often easier.

RE: HL Bulldog Problems
 

my bulldog came with some very poor soldering. A sound resistor leg snapped on the board and the sound kept coming and going when the tank bounced about. The motor wires also got caught on the airsoft gun and snapped off, this was a result of bad positioning on the builder i recon.