How much to use? I start with a small drop on the toothpick. Let the drop touch the rotating driver. It beads around nicely, smooth it out some. I then consider the coverage and if needed I add a bit more. Looks 'fat' when it goes on. Let the engine run as it cures enough to loose the color - a few minutes. You'll see you get a tight thin tire. Very little change to the dimension of the wheel. Let the cure continue overnight - be patient, good things are coming. It's easy to overdo things, so start slow. Things vary - what's the size of your wheel? What do you consider a drop? You'll quickly get the hang of it. If you've got blobs in your brake hangers you've gone too far. Bill
Sounds somewhat like lubing a loco. Too much may be worse than not enough. I think I'll pass on the Bullfrog Snot. My only loco that needs help is the L-L 2-8-8-2 and I have the new Proto 2-8-8-2 that is an adequate puller. Ben
I've been thinking about this stuff and am starting to see some possible good uses. First though, about the price A traction tire equipped axle for a kato mike runs about $6 not including tax or shipping. This will only equip one loco. You can put 2 sets on the kato mike and make it pull even more, but that's half the price of the jar for only one loco. Then there's the fact that the 2-6-6-2 and older LL 2-8-8-2 have no TT upgrade. If one did exist and you wanted to put a TT on one axle of each set of drivers- at the Kato price, you're still at 1/2 the price of the bottle. Replacement TT's for my older ConCor 2-8-8-0 runs $9 - Just for the 4 rubber rings. In lite of this, the price of Bullfrog Snot is looking better. On to uses. The TT on the Bmann 2-8-0 tends to allow the loco to rock on the drivers because it can be too thick. This has caused it to derail on me through a turnout a couple of times. In addition the TT's tend to wander a bit on the wheel as there's no groove. This got me wondering about replacing it w bullfrog snot, or anchoring the existing tire with it. Hmmmm:wub: I also have the proto 2-8-8-2, and want to see how much of an increase I can get in the pulling power by putting the snot on the gear driven axle of the first driver set, which has no TT. I have one set of TT's on my kato Mike, what would happen if another set is coated with snot? (besides grossing out my wife by telling her I put snot on the locomotive to make it run better ) Then there's my Bmann 0-6-0, my LL 0-6-0, my atlas RS-1 and other lightweights with no TT. I also have some LL diesels that are heavy, pull like crazy, but have no TT's. What would happen with them? Wanders off muttering and thinking "what other possibilities are there?" I've offered to test this and do a full review. Your questions to Bill help me with additional areas to test. As you can see, I'm looking at trying things other than changing a non TT equipped loco to a TT equipped one with the Bullfrog Snot. It's Christmas and there's a lionel 4-4-2 under the tree that slips occasionally I'm going to try this with. I know it's oustside the scales mentioned, but what the heck, if it works, that will make one more thing you can use it on. Now if only I had a Z scale train to try it on.
Product Name... Ok...I think I figured out how Bill got the name for his product... Everyone start humming the song "Monster Mash"... " I was working in my lab late one night..." Bill was fevorishly working on his formula. Many failures and a few possibilties. One day he yells "EUREKA!" His wife/gf comes running in his lab/trainroom and asks "Whats so exciting?" Bill says " I did it...IT'S ALIVE!! and it works !!!" His wife/gf looks at the slimey green stuff and says... "Dang Bill...that stuff looks just like BULLFROG SNOT!" and thus Bills product was born ! TAADAA :tb-biggrin::thumbs_up: *All in fun Bill... I am sure your product DOES work...and I will let ya know for sure as soon as mine gets here :tb-wink: .
Actually is was stranger than that. I've done a lot of biz travel in China, my career being electronics and other things. My wife and daughter wanted to start a baby clothes biz they named Frogs Frills and Daffodils, so I talked with my China guys and we got a few sources going. From there I became the BULLFROG (or CEO). I was doing some material research on the super brew and in a meeting in China someone looked at it and said "Bullfrog Snot! Ha Ha" in a heavy Chinese accent. The name 'stuck'. It's made in the USA now (The great Mojave Swamp Works), and we no longer have the baby clothes made in China either. But our trains still come from there don't they? Bill
Ummm... Bill... umm, this is awkward, but I have to ask. This isn't out of your own nasal passages, is it?
:tb-biggrin::tb-biggrin::tb-biggrin: Ohhhhh THnxxssss. I am right in the middle of dinner...well...was anyways...LOL .
Nothing like three 100 lbs dogs running at 120 degrees apart, one of them trained as a dog sled puller. Hey, I'm down to 200 lbs these days, maybe even 195. Man, can she pull, and pull, and pull. So she's headed straight out in front, while the other two are headed wherever the scents take them. It's hilarious. My shoulders are barely in joint, but at least I haven't amputated any fingers on the leashes--yet. I think they all have Bullfrog Snot on their paws! When they decide to do a whirligig around me, it gets more comical,with cartoon physics coming into play as they wrap me up with their leashes. Back on topic, I await the reviews, as I have many steamers who could benefit from this product! I do know now what a three dog night means!
Unrelated but some corrections to SWDW's statements....... The Bachmann 2-8-0's have a groove for the tire. The cure to a loose tire on the Bachmann, for that matter any other TT of any scale, it so clean the rim and tire, reinstall, lift the tire slightly and apply some black paint (color really doesn't matter) under the tire. Work it around the rim under the tire before it dries and you are done. The paint adds zero thickness and dries slowly so you have time to get the tire back in place before it "glues" itself in the wrong place. I have yet to see a Bachmann 0-6-0 without a TT. The tire has moved around a bit over the years but every version I have has TT's. Early versions had the tire on the #1 axle, later it was on the #3 axle and now they are on the #2 axle. The newest versions benefit from swaping the TT'd #2 axle to the #3 axle and just with that swap will pull 14 cars on level, up from 8-9 before the change. As far as the Bullfrog Snot is concerned, I am taking a wait and see stance. It sounds very interesting though. Keep in mind on short and low wheel count loco's like the LL 0-6-0T, you may be compromising electrical contact.
Bill, I just thought of something we all have to clean the wheels of built up gunk so they will reliably pick up power. I use rubbing alc. to clean mine. what affect does this have on Frog Snot? How about mineral spirits, etc.? Three Dog Night...HeHeHebiggrin: Thats Good! Ben there!!
I'm holding a Bachmann 2-6-2 mechanism, which is basically just an 0-6-0 mech with pony and trailing trucks, without TT's in my hand as we speak, maybe some 0-6-0's were produced with this mechanism. You don't know what Bachmann gets up to. I was looking through my junk drawer to find an 0-6-0 but I must have junked the two or three I thought I had. I found an old Arnold GP30 but I don't think snot would improve it much.:tb-biggrin: I've been skipping over this thread but curiosity got the better of me and I thought I'd have a look. If this stuff works there could be a bottle on every N scalers workbench, with the side effect of ending the old "TT's good/TT's" bad debate, if you want them you just add them yourself. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread now waiting for the reviews to roll in.
BULLFROG SNOT will give you a traction tire where it couldn't be previously. Application use will have many variables you can only begin to ponder. From my experience (and it's been only me so far), I'll only ever want a loco with solid wheels and do my own tires. It resurrected the shelf queens and expensive roundhouse scenery and changed the way I run my trains. I don’t see how any model railroader could be without it. But that’s just my humble opinion. Test it and see if it’s SNOT for you.
I thought I had all the variations, I just checked Mark's site and saw the first generation 0-6-0's with no tender pickup and no tires. I have 6-7 of these things, all versions 2, 3 & 4. The best fix for a generation one unit is to replace it. It's cheaper than buying the BullFrog Snot.
There are just going to be some things BULLFROG SNOT can't fix ........they were beyond help to begin with.
All my Bachmann 0-6-0's and 2-6-2's have been without tender pickup, it's been a while since I bought one. I've been pondering the best way to use Bullfrog Snot on 4 axle diesels: - - - - - - - - or - - - - - - - - or - - - - - - - - TT's are more effective on the trailing axle of a truck and the second method would give this in both directions and maybe spread pickup out more, the third using one axle on each truck would probably loose too much pickup on a four axle unit. I guess with Bullfrog Snot you can take it off and experiment if it doesn't work. It'd be nice to watch my Atlas VO1000's drilling long cuts of cars in the yard like the prototype instead of half a dozen or so. One other question I haven't seen asked, (there are probably more). How fast do the wheels have to be spinning when you apply the snot? I imagine not fast enough and it wouldn't apply evenly, or too fast and snot would fly everywhere. I take it that it will be easy to clean up the bits that will inevitably get into mechanisms.
Westfalen, if all the 0-6-0's you have are the first generation without tender pickup, you need to treet yourself to a new one. They run quite respectable. We are on our 3rd loco in 4 years on our display layout at the Hobbyshop. They will run about 9 months straight, 10 hours a day, 7 days a week before finally wearing themselves out. None of the similarly priced diesels that I have tried last half as long. In that time, I may take it off and clean maybe every other month or two.
My input should be taken with a large grain of salt, (the size of the Rock of Gibralter), but I've always felt the solution to pulling power for an N Scale loco was cheater box cars. I also feel the best solution to short wheel base pickup is being permanently wired to a short tender / caboose / box car. Still - since I don't face these issues the solutions could be invalid.
From all the pros and cons I've read in this post I don't plan to buy or recomend it to anyone. For me the possable loss on conductivity and no matter how thin it's applied other wheels will be lower. Now this is just my opinion. I'm not knocking the guys product and I wish him luck with it. Maybe those who try it will come back in a year or so with their results. BTW: The name is rolleyes:laugh:arghh: See ya Ron
