sounds like I made the right move.

plastic has more elasticity than metallic objects. This can make up for rigid strength but not always. That was my line of thinking at least.

I also got my hands on a X7 housing for free and I drilled a lot more ports into it. Saved me some money

Now all I need is squishy paddles. That way i won't end up with a cyclone blender

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A5 Super Response Trigger Owner.
Autococker Tactical Trilogy Owner
X7 E Trigger Owner
Woodsball. Recon/Scout Sniper/Designated Marksman/Sabre/Tactical Specialist

I actually have a Rap4 complete kit on the way...for $49, I can afford to play around with it a little. I'll post my thoughts once I get it installed and tested.

Taking a Cyclone apart is really not that hard to do. I bought the Cyclone upgrade from RAP4 and it works great. Nothing wrong with it. Putting a Cyclone back together isn't hard either. I don't understand why people hate RAP4, everything I got worked swell for me, not to mention they are cheaper than other brands and work just as well too.

Their customer service sucks. They acted like it was MY fault that the parts THEY sent didn't fit. I bought the 22" Sniper barrel from them and it works good, but the guy on the phone barely spoke english. Then instead of help me out with it they just told me "WATCH THE VIDEO". That is not customer service. RAP4 is lame.

The price was sure right...$49 for all of the cyclone upgrade components. Less than half the price of the TechT kit.

To be honest, I might have even gone with the TechT kit if it were $20 or even $30 more...but $60 more for what? If the Rap4 kit is really that bad, I'll eat my words. But the people who've posted that they've actually installed the kit say it operates fine, even at high ball speed.

Don't forget the Lapco ratchet. I think (having not tested any) that this is the best option, as it comes with threaded pins for easier install.

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Ok, got the Rap4 stuff in the mail today. I watched their little installation video, which was a waste of time. If you've disassembled/re-assembled your cyclone, it's a no-brainer. The only instruction they missed in that vid was to remove all of the 'made in china' stickers from the parts first. Does anyone else but me find it ironic that they supply gear to the US military and law enforcement agencies, yet all of their parts are made in China?

Installation:

Straight forward. The kit came complete - in fact, it even includes an extra pin for the long-side of the ratchet assembly (there's one with the ratchet and one with the rod). You can push the pins out of the old rubber part with a paperclip, and seat the new ones with your philips screwdriver and some palm pressure. Assembly took less than 10 minutes, start to finish, and that was taking my time.

Quality:

Let me say that I haven't seen the TechT kit in person. I have seen the Lapco ratchet kit in person. That said, the kit is of adequate quality...there was a little 'chad' in the ratchet holes that was easily knocked off with my pin extractor (aka paperclip), but the pieces are nice-looking without obvious defects and the anodizing is perfect. What else can I say? I did not notice a definitive quality difference between the Rap4 parts I received today and the Lapco parts I held last weekend.

Performance:

I'll have to get back to you on this one...sorry. The cyclone cycled just fine for about 20 test fires while I checked everything prior to loading it - and then I ran out of air. D'oh. Forgot to have the tank filled again before leaving last weekend. I blame the heat exhaustion. Manually feeding the cyclone is very smooth.

Edit: I have had a chance to fire the marker, and the upgraded cyclone works very well. It fed as fast as I could pull with the r/t, I have no idea how many BPS I was getting from it.

Bottom line:

I'm extremely happy with this kit for the money. It appears to be well-made, installation was a snap, and it is turning my cyclone as advertised (ha). I do keep my equipment up meticulously, so we'll see how long one of these kits lasts when properly cleaned and lubricated. When I can cycle a couple of hundred paintballs through at speed (I'll try to get an air fill tomorrow morning), I'll update again.

Edit: One more thing...hypothetically, if you happen to have moderate-to-severe A.D.D, and you absent-mindedly put the old paddle machine screw into your aluminum ratchet for 2-3 turns before you realize it, and it tears up the threads and damages the screw that comes with the kit, and you're hating yourself and cursing the day you were born...the thread is 6-32 and you can just chase it with a tap. All is well.

Last quick update...I don't have a chrono that does a bps measurement, so I did it the super-scientific way: shot two hoppers worth of paintballs and timed it.

First, I adjusted the r/t to dry fire as fast as I could get it to go while still maintaining a sweet-spot that I could consistently maintain.

The first hopper emptied in just under 18 seconds. Roughly 11bps, including a couple of stutters on the trigger. So my max is (I'm guessing) a few bps higher than that...I'd be comfortable calling it 15bps. The second emptied in 20 seconds, but I was at the tail end of the tank and it wasn't feeding well for the last ~20 balls or so. This was on a freshly-filled 47/3000 hpa tank...so I answered another question for myself - I can get around 380 decent shots out of that tank.

No chops at all, just a couple of barrel breaks because of old paint.