When it comes to A5 upgrades the usual opinion is don’t waste your money, save it and buy a better gun. Let’s leave that sentiment outside in the cold where it belongs. I’m curious who has used parts from techt, jcs, etc, and what, if any benefit you noticed. I feel like aluminum replacements will at least out live their stock plastic counterparts. But then you’ve got stuff like the zero kick hammer, qeph, hair pin trigger kit…the list goes on. So who has pulled the proverbial trigger? What’s legit, what’s snake oil?
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I deal with a lot of tippmanns and their associated "upgrades" here's a short list
I'm not sold on aluminum power tubes. I actually have had more problems with aluminum aftermarket ones than the stock plastic
Leave the stock bolt. I have yet to find an aftermarket one I thought was better
Expansion chambers of pretty much any kind are typically beneficial
I haven't messed with too many aftermarket valves so can't say much there
Polish the internals and the hammer, better than buying a replacement hammer
Do NOT get an LP kit. They cause way more problems than they are worth
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Back in the tippmann hay days. I pimped my a5 out. I will say the squishy paddles helped paint. The metal cyclone upgrades did make the cyclone action smoother when manually actuating it, but I'm not sure they added any performance value. The plastic ratchet has never broken in my friend group. In all cases you have to regularly clean and grease the system which is a lot of work over time.
The hair pins are cool, but you can shim trigger pins with straws or shrink tubing and or spacers.
I did have a metal power tube that lacked the velocity screw. The idea was I wanted a unobstructed jet of air from the valve. Then I used a regulator to adjust velocity.
On that note an RVA is a huge help imo. Skip the regulator, leave the factory velocity adjuster loctited flush and tune with spring tension.
Performance wise. They need a barrel. Owning an a5 is honestly why I have bought into the barrel snake oil over the years.
The only bolt I'd get would be one with an internal o ring that rides the power tube in hopes to get better cyyclone and or rt performance.
Imo, though I cant bring myself to buy one, the best upgrade for your a5 today would be a python pb helix feed neck.. ditch the cyclone all together for an aluminum feedneck and jam your favorite hopper on it.
I'm otherwise a sucker for the spec ops horizontal grips. I have an a5 in my room of doom, And Ive gathered a bunch of bits for it. I'll be making it into a super rt set up some day.Comment
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Good stuff here thanks. I’ve definitely got straws and shrink tubing kicking around. Can’t use an rva because I’m going the spec ops route too. If I wanted it light I’d use something else, haha. What do you have in the doom room for the super RT? I know they aren’t field legal, but getting that rate of fire without batteries is definitely intriguing -
Right on. Delete the cyclone to focus on rt. Makes sense
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This thread is making me regret selling my A5 !Originally posted by BrickHaus View Post
I pimped out mine as well before selling. I did the tech t fang double trigger, which I liked better than the stock plastic single trigger. I put Dead On RVA which was pretty handy like Brick said.
My biggest mod was the Flasc A5 Rip Clip adapter
This part was awesome, or rather once the rip clip ( i had the first gen on there) was installed , the rip clip was awesome. I rarely (maybe never) had a misfeed in this gun , and obviously this loader had no problems keeping up!
I wish I had tried out a RT trigger with this setup before selling , as I imagine it would have absolutely "ripped" << pun intended! >>
I ended up selling due to the already unbalanced front heavy ergos of the A5 , which were made worse by the heavier rip clip loader'96 RF Mini Cocker, '95 RF Autococker, 68-Automag Classic, Banzai Splash Minimag, Gen-E Matrix, Shoebox Shocker 4x4, Montneel Z-1, Tippmann Pro-Carbine, Tippmann Mini-Lite, Tippmann Model-98, Tippmann 68-Special, Spyder .50 cal Opus/Opus-A , Tippmann .50 Cal Cronus , Gog Enmey .50 cal , Tippmann Vert ASA 68-Carbine, Bob Long Millennium, ICD Grey Green Marble Splash Alleycat Deluxe (runs liquid co2) , Halfblock 2K4 Prostock Autococker , 2K RF Sniper II
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Oh and feel free to eliminate your regret by purchasing a new a5. Consider yourself enabled haha -
Yep , the BT RIP Clip apparently has the Halo guts inside, so the flasc adapter would basically make the A5 look like a BT TM7 with rip clip installed.
so my A5 ended up looking like this https://pbsports.com/products/used-empire-tm7-black
Another interesting fact is the flasc adapter is a permanent destructive mod, meaning you need to snap off the cyclone feed hook off the A5 right hand shell....
Yes! maybe another A5 is in order for next season!
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What kind of problems does the LP kit cause? I’ve always kind of wanted an A5 with the LP kit 🤣Originally posted by Trbo323 View PostComment
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I’ve had an A5 in my collection for a long time, only sold it once I got an Emek. I have. Karni reg, an R/T trigger and cyclone mods.
I have had ratchet issues. Had a plastic ratchet break and ended up with an unknown metal ratchet but it was made wrong and simply shredded paint. I believe I had a zero kick bolt as well. How well it worked? Not sure. 🤔 I have a ripclip adaptor for an A5 but never used itComment
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Not for an A5 but I've got a TechT zero-kick hammer in my 98C. Everthing else stock, you have to use the heavy drive spring with it to reach field velocity which makes the trigger pull heavier and makes the hammer cycle faster. This in turn makes the shot quality (at least to me) harsher. Sure, the recoil is technically less but the gun feels like it's hammering the crap out of itself.
What I did to fix this was get a RVA, techt drive spring kit, techt light valve spring, and mill the valve for more flow. Now I'm getting in the 280's on the lightest drive spring and the gun is much more pleasent to shoot. I also added a VASA and a gas-through grip for more air volume.
Was it worth it? Eh, maybe. Spent way more on it than I wanted to and it is nicer than stock but it's not a massive difference. Unless you know tippmanns well, most folks probably wouldn't notice. But I notice and love the way it shoots. I wouldn't do it all over again though lol.Comment
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They were designed around high pressure so none of the air passage ways are designed to have high volume low pressure going through them.Originally posted by Blackmagic71 View Post
Problems can include but are not limited to
Problems recocking
Low velocity
Poor life choices
Cyclone issues
Low self esteem
Inconsistent velocity
Empty wallet after buying other parts to try and fix the side effects of the LP kit
I don't think I've ever seen an A5 that only had an LP kit installed. I really doubt the stock barrel could get up to velocity with a LP kit.
Other things I didn't have time to write down last time,
Squishy paddles. Mixed bag, typically people move to these because they have having problems with paint breaking in the cyclone, thing is when they bend they also have to return to their normal shape and when they do that it flings the paint into the breach. So you often move paint breaking in the cyclone to paint breaking in the breach. I've also had some indexing problems with squishy paddles, I had a set that wasn't lining up right so there were no cyclone fingers holding paint in the breach.
As for stuff I WOULD suggest,
Barrel, something cheap as the a5 has uncommon threads
RVA. RVA should be how the tippmanns adjust velocity from the factory. The flow control they use wastes a lot of air but does make them recock in pretty much any situation. It can also make them dangerous as there are situations that a tippmann will NOT shoot under 300fps because of this
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Okay my a5 showed up yesterday. Cyclone wouldn’t advance, but luckily I had a new gen spare in my closet of doom. Everything is stock from what I can tell except for the J&j barrel which absolutely shoots darts. Neighbors were probably rolling their eyes as I shattered the beautiful snowy silence with my shovel clanging reactive trigger. It shot so well I’m inclined to leave it alone.
From my internet searches and the response to this thread, I figure we’ve got lots of anecdotes about what does and doesn’t work for people, but no real data. So from this point on I’m going to start keeping tabs on things. I’ll get a baseline of performance recorded from my current setup, and then start testing with “upgrades”.Comment
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I tend to agree with what's been posted.
#1 barrel. I like a slightly shorter barrel on tippmanns; 10-12in is a good size IMO just cuz of how long the gun is already.
#2 polish the internals. Simply the best upgrade you can make to any tippmann, really. Hammer, receiver halves, linkage arm.
#3 RVA/spring kit. WIll probably make the gun a bit more finicky, since the gun uses the FVA to help direct air to back of the valve. But if you really want to improve performance, that's a good way to go.
#4 trigger mods. Double trigger if you want it, shims if you so desire, and a lighter trigger spring. Most common is a cut down spring from a clicky pen.
#5 metal ratchet for the cyclone. The plastic ones are a ticking time bomb. Sometimes they last a long time, sometimes they don't.
Just about everything else is snake oil. Metal power tubes are fine, especially if you're using CO2. Bolts tend to be a bigger issue. Stick with the stock bolt. Most cyclone upgrades are to increase feedrates. Unless you intend to push 20+ BPS, there's no nead.
Oh, I just saw you have an R/T. There's an "upgrade" "Low Pressure" hose kit out there somewhere, that enlarges the R/T and cyclone hoses. Originally made for LP, s the name suggests, but when running full tank pressure it just speeds things up. Your R/T can 20+ with that. At that point, you will want some of those cyclone upgrades.
A lot of people like double triggers with R/Ts, and they'll set it up so the single trigger part won't bounce but the double trigger part will. Or maybe it was the other way around, lol. EIther way, with some tuning it can make it easier to single shoot or R/T on command.Comment
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A5s really get to the point where it's not feasible to keep spending money on them.
Look at it this way, stock a5 was around 250 if my memory is correct, $80 for an rt kit and let's say $20 to get the parts to get the cyclone to actually feed. So $350ish
Right now you can get a etha 3m with a speedster loader and speed feed for $390. Throw PEs full auto magiger in there ($25) and you are at $415.
It just doesn't make sense to buy an a5 because in most people's opinion there is way more than a $65 performance difference in those two setups
Now all that aside, even if you already have the a5 I still have a hard time justifying many upgrades. Basic stuff, cheap barrel, polish the internals, maybe an on/off ASA (I would make sure and get one that uses a standard mount so it's not a5 specific unless you can get it for like $10) and call it good
But honestly if you start encountering issues, just put it down. That's your sign that it's time to stop throwing money at it.
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