2nd Fury

[Skaxis]

I originally bought the Fury Mega to be a "loaner" truck. Over the year I've owned it, I've upgraded it to the point where I really don't want my sons friends or some noob driving it. I saw a NIB Fury BLS on eBay listed for $209 and got permission from the CFO (wife) to pick it up, with one condition: I leave it stock so it can be a true loaner.

So I'm going to move the Fury Mega body and stock wheels/tires over to the BLS. I've reinforced the Fury Mega body with fiberglass tapers tape and Shoe Goo and I don't use the stock wheels/tires but since they're blue they'll match the body. I'm not keen on the "factory preset" slipper clutch the BLS is sportin'. Has anyone swapped it out for a proper slipper? If so, which part numbers do I need? I don't view this as an upgrade. It's more of a correction to a problem. Has anyone opened up the diff? How is the fluid level and thickness? I discovered that my Fury Mega was wicked sparse with the diff oil when I rebuilt the failed diff a few months back.

 

[Unusual RC]

...and got permission from the CFO (wife) to pick it up, ....

Most of us have such a CFO

Anyway, which MEGA model do you have?
The second one with the metal gears and aluminum side plates?
Or the later one without the plates and composite gears?

 

[Skaxis]

My Mega Fury is the 2013 variant but I've updated the diff to use the newer, more rugged diff plates. The originals domed on me locking the diff within a year.

 

[Unusual RC]

Same as the Fury/Mojave I have here.
Indeed that upgrade is a cheap and good one. It is lasting on brushless power flawlesly.

There is a instruction manual for download from Arrma's website, where they show the exact level you have to fill the diff properly.
Fury MEGA 2013 manual > page 24

What about the slipper clutch?
I have both the 2013 (orange color) and the 2015 (green color) plates, and both work equally well?

 

[Skaxis]

Mine are the orange jobbers and so far so good with the slipper. I'm running the Castle Creations Sidewinder SCT combo with Neucastle 3300 kV 4-pole motor. Other than a dead power switch (I just soldered the wires together so am running it switchless) the thing has been great. It's a really wonderful hopup for the Mega. A very affordable combo which provides a ton of bang for the buck.
[DOUBLEPOST=1463691575][/DOUBLEPOST]I actually fill my diffs to "full" as per Ryan Lutz's instructions at the 3:30 mark here:

 

[Dreadstar]

Interesting...Ryan refers to the lightest shock oil as 100wt,strange,as over here our lightest is 10wt. Following that reasoning,then your 20k diff oil would be the same as our 2k,which seems rather light,I'm running mine on 7k.

 

[Skaxis]

Interesting...Ryan refers to the lightest shock oil as 100wt,strange,as over here our lightest is 10wt. Following that reasoning,then your 20k diff oil would be the same as our 2k,which seems rather light,I'm running mine on 7k.

He probably meant 100 CST. I prefer CST values rather than wt values because CST is a constant measure where as wt is a relative measure. With CST you can mix brands. 100 CST is 100 CST regardless of who made it. 32 wt Losi is thinner than 32 wt Associated. There are tables you reference that provide approximate conversions.

I currently have 1,000 CST in my Fury Mega diff. We have 5,000 CST in my sons Losi XXX-SCT.

 

[Dreadstar]

I must admit,that even with an engineering background,I've never heard of CST values,we only ever used wt nomenclature.

 

[TheJoker]

I never use weight value because of the differences between brands...i only buy cst valued oils

 

[Skaxis]

The BLS Fury arrived yesterday. Here are my initial thoughts about it vs. the 2013 version Mega Fury that I also have.

• Yay! The turnbuckles use captured rod ends instead of ball cups. 1 custom mod I don't have to do.
• The BLS body is less "blocky" than my Mega but, Arrma rims with Pro-Line Badlands SCT tires rub on the rear fenders under full suspension compression.
  
• The new "long" composite chassis lacks the aluminum TVR plates that the Mega has. I know that the newer version of the Mega lacks these plates too so it's not a major deal I suppose but those TVR plates set the Arrma apart from the rest of the 100% plastic chassis pack. At least they're an optional part which I would totally get if this weren't a loaner rig. On 2nd thought... Increasing the durability on a loaner rig might well be worth it.
  
• The ATX 100 transmitter (which I'm 99% sure is a rebranded FlySky unit) lacks throttle end point adjustments. Grrrrr! This is a very important feature to have on a loaner rig. There's no way I'm handing over a full power 4000kV brushless, 8.4V powered SCT to an 8 year old who has never driven an R/C vehicle. That's just asking for carnage. I'm going to swap out the Tx and Rx for Tactic TTX300 gear which will allow me to reduce the power with a simple button press. The integrated antenna on the receiver is just a bonus.
• I'm going to swap over the Mega body and wheels to the BLS because I've already used sheet rockers tape and Shoe Goo to reinforce it. No sense in taking the time or expense to reinforce the BLS body when I already have one ready to go. When I went to remove the rear wheels on the BLS, I had to go get a socket and ratchet. The rear lug nuts were on so tight that I couldn't remove them using a nut driver. Seriously Arrma? What did you use to tighten these things down with? I'm actually shocked that the wheels weren't cracked under the pressure.
• The BLS came equipped with alloy hexs, so there's another hopup I expected to do that is unnecessary.
• I'm not sure if these are the same shocks as the Mega but with red caps or if they're different. What I do know is that they were built horribly from the factory. They aren't even close to being equal left to right. The front-right and rear-left are obviously underfilled with oil so I'm going to have to rebuild them.

That's pretty much the good and the bad from what I noticed last night. I'm going to button up the receiver box tonight and rebuild the shocks. I'll also likely check the pinion/spur mesh. I haven't decided if I'm going to rebuild the diff just to be on the safe side or run it as is for a bit.

 

[Walter]

My advice is to do the diff... there is probably only a little bit of grease in there now. If it's going to be a loaner you probably want to check it out top to bottom, inside and out before you hand it over to someone else.

 

[Skaxis]

My advice is to do the diff... there is probably only a little bit of grease in there now. If it's going to be a loaner you probably want to check it out top to bottom, inside and out before you hand it over to someone else.

Yeah, that was exactly my thinking as well. I know that my Mega had maybe 1/2 the amount of diff fluid it should have, so what are the chances that this one would be any better? Especially considering the sloppy shock build. I'm thinking of using 3K CST in the diff. This is going to be run on a track as well as for bashing. I tend to go heavier for bashers and lighter for racers so I thought 3K was a nice happy medium. Any suggestions or experiences?

 

[Walter]

I used 10k in my Granite BLS and my son's Fury BLS.

The shocks will be the next thing. I popped all kinds of caps on my Granite... enough that I replaced my shocks and my son's with Traxxas Ultra's. He has had a few ESC failures, stripped a servo, (which Arrma upgraded to a 7M), and had a receiver go out as well (related to the ESC issues I think). Except for the he's broken absolutely nothing except for the red clip retainer for the battery door. It's a solid truck and a great choice for a loaner in my opinion.

I think you are right about the end point adjustments on the transmitter. We've handed ours over to newbies and seen some pretty nasty wrecks... while the Fury hasn't broken I think it's more fun for new drivers to drive slower but in control than it is to keep doing the walk of shame to flip the truck off its lid.

 

[Skaxis]

When the servo in the Mega died Arrma sent me an ADS-5 as a warranty replacement. There're like 42 screws to get to the servo on that thing so I bought an an ADS-7m v2 myself because I didn't want to have to tear it all apart again next year when the plastic gears on the ADS-5 stripped out. It's sad to see that the BLS has an ADS-5 in it. I fully expect that thing to shred at some point. When it does, I'll request an ADS-7m v2 as it's replacement. Thankfully the new chassis is much more forgiving to get to the servo!

I'm running Integy shocks on the Mega and I was afraid that Arrma was still using the same sad sack shocks on the BLS. From what you say, they are. I'd like to try the Traxxas shocks out. Do you have a part number so I can ensure I'm ordering up the right set?

 

[Skaxis]

Last night I tore down the shocks on the BLS and installed the aluminum rear tower brace #AR320162 on the Mega.

I can now confirm that the shock oil was low in one of the front and one of the rear shocks. The red caps on the BLS shocks are only color changes. They're the same crappy, leaky, prone to breaking jobbers that came on the Mega. The thing I don't understand is why Arrma doesn't offer an aluminum, threaded body upgrade shock kit.
A while back I had purchased some Atomik Ultra shocks intended for a Traxxas Slash. Using spacers I was able to get the eye-to-eye length correct on the front and they fit fine with no modification on the rear but the design is bad. They leak oil out of the weep hole in the cap until they're dry. I've complained to Atomik and they've sent shock rebuild kits. They didn't correct the problem.
So I've been running Integy MSR11 78mm shocks on the front which are working great despite some reports of weak shock shafts. I have bashed the hell out of my Fury and they are holding up very well for me.
I've moved the Atomiks over to the BLS as a temporary fix. As bad as the Atomiks are, I can't risk leaving the weak stock shocks on the BLS knowing that the caps might snap at any moment. Sure, the Atomiks might bleed out all their oil but the truck would at least still be drive able!
I've placed some Gmade XD 75mm and 93mm shocks on order. They're a little shorter than stock/MSR11s but they seem very robust! I plan to install them on the Mega and if I like how they fit/function I might order up a set for the BLS, or I might order up a set of 98mm MSR11s for the rear. I have been waiting months for a pair of blue 98mm MSR11s to show up on eBay, but so far no luck. The OCD in me abhors color mismatched shocks but the budget in me can't justify ordering a new set of front shocks just because of color. Once the Gmades come in and are mounted up I'll share my thoughts on them.

I noticed that the lower suspension arms on the BLS are now solid. Arrma has "filled in" the spaces which the Mega has. I assume this is for added durability. There's been zero issues with the suspension arms on my Mega but this BLS loaner rig can use all the beefing up I can muster. I anticipate a rough life is ahead for it.

I also noticed that the BLS has a natural color aluminum rear shock tower brace vs. the Mega which has a black, hard plastic brace. The hop-up part #AR320162 is likely unnecessary on the BLS but it would benefit from the front tower brace #AR330148.

I do plan on breaking down the diff in the BLS and filling it with either 3K or 5K diff oil. I've read that it comes with plastic diff gears. If that's the case, I might just order up the metal gears like I have in my Mega. I just need to find a part number...

 

[Dreadstar]

The diff gears in the Mega are metal,I think it's the gearbox gears that are composite. I went for 7k oil in the diff on my Fury. My Fury also came with the aluminium rear shock-tower brace as standard. The arms on my Fury are solid too,your original Fury must be one of the older ones then.

 

[Skaxis]

Yep, my Mega came with metal gears in the diff. When the diff locked up I did the upgrade to the newer, stronger diff gears. I thought I read somewhere that the BLS and current Mega were sporting plastic diff gears. I'm going to break it down and see.

 

[Unusual RC]

I thought I read somewhere that the BLS and current Mega were sporting plastic diff gears

That's correct!

 

[Skaxis]

I've fully gone through the Fury BLS now. I've created a blank setup sheet if anyone is interested. Click here to download it. I also made a setup sheet for how I have this loaner Fury setup, using all the stock parts in case anyone wants to configure theirs or revert to a known good setup after making tweaks but getting lost. Not that I've ever done that myself mind you. But it's always nice to have a known good configuration to fall back on. Click here to download my loaner configuration.

Things I've noticed so far. The stock shocks are poorly constructed (we knew that) but it's not just the materials used in them, but they're built very amateurish. Not only were all the shocks filled to varying levels with oil, but the o-rings in the shocks were totally dry. I drained them and then built them back up. I used Associated Green Slime on the o-rings and the crush spacer as well as on the shock shaft and piston. Even still, I have one shock that isn't even close to smooth. I tore that one back down and tested the shaft movement in each o-ring and the crush spacer and the movement was fine. I think the piston is not round, or the shock body isn't but whatever. Their el cheapo stock shocks. What I'm saying is don't put a ton of effort into trying to get good movement out of them because that's not going to happen.

The only thing I have left to do now is tear down the transmission so I can rebuild the diff and fill it with 3K diff fluid.

 

[Skaxis]

I did a short test on the Fury BLS out in the street today. We used my sons Losi XXX-SCT as the benchmark. The Losi was running the stock motor (Dynamite 3800 kV brushless) and stock ESC (Dynamite Fuze 70A). Info about them here. I have the Losi set to 65% power via the remote. That's about perfect for the track we run on.

The BLS blasted past the Losi which was to be expected since the Losi was only at 65%. Using the Tactic remote I depowered the Fury by 8 clicks which brought it exactly in line powerwise with the Losi. Which means it's now tuned for the track.

As a comparison, the Losi is smoother and cogs less than the BLS. The BLS is also louder. The cogging really isn't an issue for a basher, and likely not for a beginner racer either. If anything were to happen to either the motor or ESC beyond the warranty period I'd probably replace it with the Castle Sidewinder SCT combo. That's what I have in my Fury Mega and it's better in all ways compared to either the BLS electrics or the Losi electrics.

The BLS ESC was a little confusing to program but I eventually got the hang of it. I altered from the stock setup by disabling reverse and adding in 10% drag brake. Speaking of brakes, he Fury is a smooth braker! At top speed, in a straight line on tarmac, I hit full push brake and the truck veered not an inch. It just nosed down a little and stopped straight as an arrow.

The last comparison I made was suspension. Both trucks are setup with the same shock oil in the front and rear. Dropping from knee height, the Losi just smooshes quietly and smoothly where the Fury does a bit of a belly flop and bounces a very little bit. Again, for a basher this will be perfectly fine but on a track (NOT where the Fury was meant to be run but I'm going to run it there anyway) it might be a bit skittish. I may have to increase the viscosity of the oil I'm using in the Fury shocks to 500cst front and 425cst rear.