Granite Is it worth starting out with a Voltage?

[Mainah]

So I have a 5 year old that's interested in RCing and I am too for the most part. The initial plan was to get a decent truck for myself, leaning towards a Big Rock, that he could bash around with a bit too and then maybe pick up a Granite Voltage or two for him, and his 4 year old brother, to mess with and learn. The thing is I feel like the Voltage is really limited and he may get bored with it quickly, especially with me ripping around with something like the bigrock.

So if we try to upgrade it basically everything needs to be replaced right? So now I feel like I'm getting towards the price of a Mega if I do that and you get everything that comes with that, 4x4, better chassis, easier upgrade path but also a fair bit more money.

So the real question here is there a relatively cheap way to upgrade the Voltage to at least a decently fast truck and not completely overwhelm the chassis because most of the videos Ive seen appear to be putting very high powered brushless motors in them and turn them into basically undrivable wheelie machines. I like the idea of putting a brushless setup in one but I would line something thats still relatively drivable afterwards too.

I'll toss my thoughts as I was in a very similar situation. My son just turned 6 and I wanted to get him and I RC vehicles. I spent a bunch of time mulling over a bunch of different ones....I ended up getting him the Granite Voltage and I got the Vorteks.

The Voltage is an excellent truck for a kid that age. It looks really nice....a 5 year old will think it's super cool. On NiMh, it's reasonably quick and somewhat controllable for a young kid. On 2s LiPo....it's actually pretty quick. I couldn't imagine giving my son anything faster. The nice thing is that it's quick....but not so fast that it will break all the time when they hit stuff. Speed-wise it's very slightly slower than the Vorteks on 2s set at 75%.

I ended up buying the front bumper from T-Bone which is certainly worth doing. Like most Arrmas, the shocks are nearly empty....I added 50wt all around. The diff also had nearly no fluid in it (after a few runs it was basically a completely open diff to the point of one of the tires spinning fast enough to balloon when doing a donut), so I put some 10000 in it. The transmission is a single wide plastic gear and the diff itself which is also a wide plastic. The gears within the diff are metal. The transmission looks like it would stand up to quite a lot of abuse. It's a pain to get to it....you need to disassemble the entire truck, though that's actually pretty simple as it's all held together with identical screws.

Overall, the Voltage is a very simple and sturdy design. A couple bonuses are that on a 2s LiPo it has very long run times.....waaaay longer than the Vorteks. Longer run times is huge for a young kid. There's also little things like the body clips are easy to remove (get the little rubber teathers). My 6 year old could never remove the ones on the Vorteks.

For the Vorteks....it's fast. On 3s it's nearly uncontrollable if youre doing much of anything besides going in a straight line. You need to have the AVS turned up a bit or you'll traction roll quite often. It also will over heat after a while if you spend a lot of time at full throttle. It also goes through 3s batteries at a crazy rate. It's incredibly stable in a straight line, and easily does the claimed 60 mph. Unlike the Voltage....it's fast enough to break when you hit something. I've broken a shock shaft already.

The Voltage is a no-brainer for the 5 year old....just buy it. For yours....Big Rock vs Vorteks....that comes down to the type of driving you'll do. The Vorteks is faster and handles better..,.the Big Rock would be a better basher.

 

[arrmaab]

I got the Granite 3S for myself and a pair of Voltages for the boys. Picked up a few extra sets of diff cups and a spur gear just in case and have been letting them rip on 2S. So far so good. It's as big as daddy's but costs significantly less. Even on 2S they are quite peppy. You could buy some of the slightly cheaper no name stuff on Amazon but at least with the a Voltages, replacement parts are available.

 

[loki993]

The Voltage is a no-brainer for the 5 year old....just buy it. For yours....Big Rock vs Vorteks....that comes down to the type of driving you'll do. The Vorteks is faster and handles better..,.the Big Rock would be a better basher.

Yeah I think Im definitely more in bashing for the time being and likely lots of yard running. Ive even got a couple skate parks near me if I feel like eventually releasing my inner duperbash.

 

[Enferius]

My first RC was actually a Granite Mega. It's true, the motor does run hot for It's weight, but I installed a heatsink and rocket fan on my motor and slapped another stand alone rocket fan on my esc. Now it runs as long, if not longer, than my Big Rock. Upgrading to brushless down the road will be costly depending on what motor you pick, but look at it this way; both of your son's will be able to learn and understand how the truck works as things break and you upgrade parts. For a kid that young, I'd personally say the Voltage would be a solid foundation to build upon. Especially since you won't need to add fans and whatnot right out of the gate. But I'd HIGHLY recommend getting a good balance charger and a 2S lipo battery. The batteries these low end trucks come with are absolute garbage. They take hours to charge. My 3s 5200's take 30 to 45 minutes to charge. I have a 2x100w charger so I get a lot out of if.

 

[Davetheboy]

Get any 3s blx, voltage isn’t fast even gearing up with 2s lipo. No where near what the 3s line up can do.