ARP9 upgrades - teenage edition

[Davet]

I haven’t been doing this airsoft lark long enough/need to do more research to understand the point of the whole raft of upgrades eldest is asking for, for his 16th birthday, to his G&G ARP9 so after some guidance…

 

List as follows:

Gate Titan

RetroArms CNC anti-reversal latch

Prometheus non-linear spring MS170

Prometheus EG 16:1 hard gears

Maxx CNC double o-ring air seal nozzle

Maxx CNC M4P hop-up

Maxx CNC steel aluminium spring guide thru hole

Maxx CMC stainless cylinder

Maxx CNC alu double air seal & damper cylinder head

Maple Leaf super macaron hop rubber

 

I appreciate some of it will affect performance and some of it will be purely cosmetic but, when asked, he’s not been able to define what he wants to get out of the upgrades - ROF, burst, consistency, etc. He is, after all, a teenager and therefore thinking with my wallet and his mum’s bank account…

 

What’s everyone’s thoughts/advice?

[Skara]

Gate Titan - Perun Hybrid does the same job for half the price, it's good if your son is after very fine tuning of the electronic part (Advanced and Expert versions, the basic is meh);

 

RetroArms CNC anti-reversal latch - Unnecessary;

 

Prometheus non-linear spring MS170 - depends on the inner barrel, cylinder, number of teeth shaved off the sector and target energy output;

 

Prometheus EG 16:1 hard gears - Wouldn't spend that much on Prometheus gears, SHS sets are infinitely cheaper. Also there's not much difference between 16:1 and 18:1 in terms of RPS, so might as well leave the original G&G gears in there;

 

Maxx CNC double o-ring air seal nozzle - nope, aluminium nozzles cause more issues than benefits;

 

Maxx CNC M4P hop-up - I run the previous generation of Maxx units (ME, both Pro and Sport versions), they're generally really good but require some fettling in most builds, also they want a defined nozzle length otherwise they won't feed or seal;

 

Maxx CNC steel aluminium spring guide thru hole - seems decent enough, maybe a little too expensive for what it is;

 

Maxx CMC stainless cylinder - probabily unnecessary;

 

Maxx CNC alu double air seal & damper cylinder head - NOPE, NOPE and NOPE again. These are known for destroying gearbox casings because they're off spec. Also aluminium cylinder heads in general transfer much of the impact from the piston head towards the gearbox shell, whereas polymer heads tend to absorb some of the energy;

 

Maple Leaf super macaron hop rubber - This, paired with a good hop unit and decent barrel, will considerably improve range and consistency.

 

 

[Skara]

Let me elaborate:

 

Except for a couple of (at least to me) mandatory parts like hop rubbers and such, every "build" needs to have a goal:

 

I modify guns to make them reliable and efficient, someone might go for raw performance, other for more "realistic" stats like realistic ROF and such.

 

It all depends on what your son wants from his gun, is it a CQB shooter? does it get used in the woods as well? What's the target energy (in Joules) and ROF?

Ask him these questions and come back with answers

[BigStew]

Just putting parts won't make it a good gun and Maxx hop units are over priced crap ( well they are not craply made they are built to too high a tolerance and so won't work in most airsoft guns with out modification and the stock G&G plastic hop unit is a good hop). 

Edited April 9, 2023 by BigStew

[Davet]

48 minutes ago, Skara said:

Ask him these questions and come back with answers

??? do you have any teenagers?! Already tried, answer “good innit”. Ok I paraphrase but he has no idea what he’s trying to achieve, he just thinks shiny = betterer.

[Leo Greer]

Overall, in terms of actual noticeable performance, most of those parts will do nothing, as well as being purty dang expensive for the whole list.

 

I'll second Skara and suggest avoiding the purchase of any internal "upgrades" until your son can define what he wants to achieve. (I'm a teenager still myself, so don't worry I know how we can be. ?) Ultimately, if he can't define what we wants out of upgrades, the upgrades likely won't mean anything to him besides being able to say "It's upgraded!" in the staging area before games.

 

Another great question to ask is who's going to install and tune the upgrades. Good techs are both expensive and rare, and doing any kind of gearbox work yourself without prior experience is difficult at best, much less tuning to actually gain a performance increase.

 

In my opinion, two of the best "upgrades" for any airsofter are a high-quality 11.1v LiPo battery and some high quality, heavier than normal BBs. If your son plays CQB he may not need heavy BBs, but few airsofters would turn those two things down, as well as both providing a noticeable performance increase, if he doesn't have those things already.

 

[Steveocee]

Good luck, you crack open a perfectly fine ARP9 to install those bits, unless done by a really good tech you'll have months of issues and ultimately end up replacing it. Even then, a good tech will advise against most of them.

 

Those parts are shiny to attract the unsuspecting youth magpies.

Heres actually a better idea - get him a polarstar jack and HPA setup.

 

Power will be adjustable, ROF will be crazy if it's tuned by even a simpleton, has the cool HPA factor and will be a lot more reliable than a teenagers pick list of shiny bits.

[Guest]

Lie.

 

It’s all about boasting to his buddies or on line. Take his gun a way for two weeks, tell him all the upgrades have been done by (insert currently on trend tech “expert”), print him out a fake receipt, and let the placebo effect do it’s magic.

[Rogerborg]

4 hours ago, Steveocee said:

has the cool HPA factor

 

Only if bustin' makes you feel good.