Alien Owners Group - New Ram and Solenoid for the Independence

Alien Paintball has released information regarding an improved ram setup that uses an SMC solenoid with much higher pressure tolerances. Following is the exact post to the PBN Alien forum from Jack Rice.

We have the new ram bodies and solenoids. They cannot be over pressurized in normal use (you would have to really try). Yes to masterkey who (I believe it was) guessed it was the SMC solenoid. It has a 150 lb rated operating pressure (the operating pressure of the LPR can be lowered to less than half that. They flow more air than either solenoid we have used before) and 450 lbs max pressure. This should eliminate any blown solenoids. Players will also notice even less kick

This modification now comes on all Independence shipped. A few guns have been backed up waiting for shipping. They will be shipped right after NPPL in Buffalo (maybe soemone will take a picture there and post). Sorry for the delay in getting you your new guns.

Ram body and solenoid I am paying for. To any who have purchased their guns in the last few weeks their trigger frames have been mill already. If you want your gun upgraded we will do it for a small handling and shipping fee of $25. For any others who may want their guns modified I have to pay the shop to mill the trigger frames, therefore the fee will be $75. While you can keep you old ram body and solenoid the LPR internals are swapped out.

I have found that the efficiency of the guns varies. The SoftTouch bumper can affect the ball speed and efficiency. If you have too thick a front pad on the hammer the ball speed goes down - too little and you lose efficiency. They are very close but I have found that a 5 thou shim will change the ball speed by bout 10 fps. That's not quite the thickness of two hairs. This is why some are saying they are getting almost a case and some are saying shins If the SofTouch bumper is missing the efficiency goes down by about 30%!

The shims are a punched plastic sheet and I will happy to send some to any that send a self addressed stamped envelope to us -Alien, 685 Placerville Drive, Placerville CA. 95667. Those who send their guns in for new solenoids - we will adjust the bumper spacing for you. Dwell is time consuming and paint consuming (reballs don't work) so you will have to maximize dwell yourself for optimum efficiency (for those with a thicker wallet you can contact my son)

This was to be the main upgrade for the '09 Independence, however it seems right that all should have the opportunity to have the better reliability and performance this offers.

Again this is for the Independence only - Ceptors and Remains cannot use the Ram body from the Independence and it is not economically viable to retrofit those guns.