Palmer Stabilizer - IN-LINE

To a point.

The gun itself will work down to somewhere around there with stock internals, I'm not sure about the cyclone, that is usually the first to stop working.

Try these for directions.

With air unattached look in the end of your A-5 without the barrel, you should see the Velocity adjustment screw sticking into the end of the tube, slowly back it out until it's no longer obstructing the air flow.

Put your barrel/air/paint back ready to fire, start at the 500ish preset

if the Cyclone isn't working:

slowly turn the air up until it does. Once it's working turn it up just a little higher (50 psi ish) for some safety margin.

Check your velocity, if it's higher then were you want, adjust down with the velocity screw, if it's lower then you want, turn it up with the stabilizer.

If the Cycle is working:

Check your velocity, if it's to low, up it with the Stabilizer

If it's too high, try to lower the pressure and watch the cyclone to make sure it works, if it stops working put it up a bit and just use the velocity screw to drop it down.

Are you saying mine isn't standard!?   

One quick warning/word of advice. When you back the adjuster out that far, the set screw will start pulling back into the body and you will not be able to field strip it.

You can get around this two ways that I can think of, either a shorter set screw, or if you are daring and you've found out that you can run with it flush, you can do like I did and pull the screw out and just cover the threaded hole. Though depending on how you do this, you may end up with a modification that is hard to reverse.

The below is the best article on how to setup a Palmer Stab on an A-5. Its written by FreakShow at www.pbownersgroup.com

DISCLAIMER: This post is not about the LPK, but the info presented herein will work with the LPK too. Just might take a minor tweak here and there.

Lots of people have been asking questions as to how the Palmer Stabilizer should be setup to work best on the A-5. Taday's your lucky day!

For those of you who just want the down n' dirty, here's the Bottom Line Up Front:

--Palmer Stabilizer
--RVA (Rear Velocity Adjuster)
--Red Maddmann Spring
--FVA (Forward Velocity Adjuster) Mod


First off, realize it does not matter which Stabilizer you have, they all work the same.

Secondly (and I'm gonna catch flack for this) a gauge is not necessary and I'll explain why shortly.

Realizing what the Stabilizer does and how the A-5 works will be your best first step in understanding how/why the above setup works best.

First, how the A-5 works as it is stock:
Air/CO2 enters the marker via the ASA. As you pull the trigger, the rear bolt is released which causes two things to happen: a paintball is chambered and the rear bolt hits the valve pin, opening the valve propelling the paintball out of the marker and into your opponent's googles.

Now, as the gas is propelling the paintball it is also recocking the marker, cycling the next paintball into the chamber, and closing the valve.

So how do you adjust velocity on the stock A-5? The FVA. This is merely a setscrew which creates turbulence in the powertube. The more it is screwed in, the more turbulence and therefore the less velocity and gas efficiency. The further out it is screwed the less turbulence and therefore more velocity/efficiency--generally speaking. If the FVA is screwed out so far as to create a cavity in the powertube, that cavity will also create turbulence and you may actually see your velocity drop. Regardless of the velocity of the paintball, the same amount of air/CO2 is used shot after shot. This is a terribly inefficient and not too consistent method of adjusting velocity.

So what to do about this? Add an RVA. It really doesn't matter which RVA you use since they all work on the same principle. An RVA adjusts rear bolt spring tension thereby adjusting the amount of air/CO2 allowed into the marker. The valve is either open or closed, but the amount of air is what matter.

Okay, so now you've got two velocity adjusters; an RVA and an FVA. Now it's too much goofing around, right? Wrong. That's where the FVA mod comes into play. What is the FVA mod? Simply put, in order to make your RVA work most efficiently we need to completely do away with the FVA. Many people simply screw the FVA out until it is flush with the inside of the powertube, and this works quite well. However, the minute you need to field strip your marker you'll understand why this is such a pain in the buttocks. (The mod is to use a shorter set screw).

Okay, now you've got your FVA modded, and your RVA installed. What does all this have to do with the Stabilizer? Plenty. A regulator can only lower input pressure; it can not increase it. Meaning if you've got a Crossfire HPA cylinder with a preset reg set at 850 psi, you can not raise that pressure with another reg. You can only decrease it.

That being said, your Palmer Stab comes preset (but it's adjustable, not like a nitro preset) at approximately 500 psi. Add your Stabilizer to your marker and it's time to chrono, right?

Wrong. First off, your Stabilizer needs to break in. Palmer's says 2-3k rounds, but could take up to 4k according to some folks. During this break in period, you will get velocity fluctuations that are fairly severe. You can use the reg during the break in period while playing if you do one or two things. First, chrono before each game and make sure that you are well below the field limit. If the limit is 280, go for 270. The second thing you can do is use a Flatline barrel--they work best at lower velocities so you really don't ever have to worry about shooting hot if it's set up right. But that's another post.

So, we covered the FVA, RVA, and Stabilizer. Why the Red Maddmann spring? Because of the particular issues that we'll run into with efficiency and shot-to-shot consistency. Specifically, the Stab will only reduce input pressure, right? So how do we reduce pressure as much as we can and still keep our velocity up? We got to increase the amount of air/CO2 coming into the marker to make up for the lower pressure. We do this by switching out the stock rear bolt spring with a stiffer spring--the Red Maddmann Spring.

Now, I said I'd explain why a gauge isn't necessary. If you have an FVA mod, a Red Maddmann Spring, and an RVA screwed all the way in (highest velosity setting) without a regulator you'll be shooting in the 300+ fps range, guaranteed. You have to drop the pressure in order to get that sucker field legal and safe. How to do it? First find the velocity you want to shoot at. For our purpses we'll use 280 fps. All I need to do is adjust my regulator down. But wait a second, earlier I said the Stabilizer was preset at about 500 psi, and we all know the A-5 won't operate that low, right?

Right. Screw the adjustment screw in the bottom of the Stabilizer way in (increasing input pressure). Now chrono. Okay, that shot was 340 fps. Adjust down until you are shooting 10 fps higher than your intended velocity, in our case we're now shooting at 290 fps. Remember to shoot a few clearing shots (about five) between chrono reads.

Now adjust the rest of the way (fine tune) to 280 fps using your RVA.

As for me, with my FVA mod, RVA screwed all the way in, Red Maddmann Spring, and Flatline barrel, my Palmer is set right at 600 psi input pressure.

How do I know? Ummmm. Well, I have a gauge. But remember, it's not the gauge that determines the pressure. Is it useful? Yes. Is it necessary? No. If you follow my instructions above you will get the most benefit from the Stabilizer by dropping your input pressure significantly. In other words, don't arbitrarily choose a pressure, follow my steps to find out the best pressure for you to use.

Finally, if for some reason you're shooting too hot and have to drop your regulated input pressure down to a point where your marker won't cycle, switch out your red spring for the blue one. You'll see immediate results.


Hope this helps.