Granite New Arrma Granite Mega 4x4

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VMan

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Arrma RC's
  1. 4x4-Mega
Hello everyone

New to the forum and new to Arrma and well, new to the hobby RC world in general

Anyhow, I have a Granite Mega 4X4 and looking to do some upgrades, so I came across the forum and decided to check it out and get some reading done.

Currently, it fully stock and the first thing I want to do is at least get a longer lasting battery, probably keep a NIMH before venturing to a LIPO, which I have read can be tricky. Then maybe I may decide to go brushless and lipo but for now, I just want to get a hang of it.

Will post up some pics later

VMan
 
Welcome to the Forum and the hobby!! Loads of info and some great help around here!! Can't wait to see pics of the rigs playing!!
 
Welcome to the Forum!

My Granite started out as a Mega, it makes a nice starter RC.

If longer run times are your priority, look in to higher MAH packs. 7-cell 5000mah Nimh packs are a bit pricey, though, which is one of the reasons many of us run lipo instead. A cheap 20c 5000may 2s lipo pack is only about $20. However, know that with longer run times, it gets easy to run into heat issues on the stock brushed system. Lipo makes the heat issues worse, as the power does not drop off during the run like Nimh does. (power = heat, sort of)

If you start upgrading, I would start at the Ebay kit breakers, and get the BLX3s slipper, motor mount, and diffs (with diff input). The Mega slipper and diff input have issue with strong brushless systems. If you feel you are mostly happy with the way the truck runs with the stock motor, and just want longer runs with more reliability, you can look into a F540 motor. These make less torque than "regular" brushless motors, but still have a decent power bump over the stock 12t 550 brushed motor. Plus, they will last almost forever, with very little maintenance.

Here is something I wrote years ago about F540 motors -
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2713040-Racerstar-F540-45A-ESC-combo-Review
 
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Welcome to the Forum!

My Granite started out as a Mega, it makes a nice starter RC.

If longer run times are your priority, look in to higher MAH packs. 7-cell 5000mah Nimh packs are a bit pricey, though, which is one of the reasons many of us run lipo instead. A cheap 20c 5000may 2s lipo pack is only about $20. However, know that with longer run times, it gets easy to run into heat issues on the stock brushed system. Lipo makes the heat issues worse, as the power does not drop off during the run like Nimh does. (power = heat, sort of)

If you start upgrading, I would start at the Ebay kit breakers, and get the BLX3s slipper, motor mount, and diffs (with diff input). The Mega slipper and diff input have issue with strong brushless systems. If you feel you are mostly happy with the way the truck runs with the stock motor, and just want longer runs with more reliability, you can look into a F540 motor. These make less torque than "regular" brushless motors, but still have a decent power bump over the stock 12t 550 brushed motor. Plus, they will last almost forever, with very little maintenance.

Here is something I wrote years ago about F540 motors -
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2713040-Racerstar-F540-45A-ESC-combo-Review
Old enough that I don't know the links still work or not...
Link is still active!

I personally think @VMan if you're really wanting longer run times, even with the stock motor, you'd be better off with a 2s Lipo battery as well. Stock motor won't run through the Lipo near as fast. Also, while your bashing, just bring the car to ya every once in while and you can do the touch test on the motor to verify its heat!

Edit: Damn good review I must say, very surprised it did as well as it did.
 
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Welcome to the Forum!

My Granite started out as a Mega, it makes a nice starter RC.

If longer run times are your priority, look in to higher MAH packs. 7-cell 5000mah Nimh packs are a bit pricey, though, which is one of the reasons many of us run lipo instead. A cheap 20c 5000may 2s lipo pack is only about $20. However, know that with longer run times, it gets easy to run into heat issues on the stock brushed system. Lipo makes the heat issues worse, as the power does not drop off during the run like Nimh does. (power = heat, sort of)

If you start upgrading, I would start at the Ebay kit breakers, and get the BLX3s slipper, motor mount, and diffs (with diff input). The Mega slipper and diff input have issue with strong brushless systems. If you feel you are mostly happy with the way the truck runs with the stock motor, and just want longer runs with more reliability, you can look into a F540 motor. These make less torque than "regular" brushless motors, but still have a decent power bump over the stock 12t 550 brushed motor. Plus, they will last almost forever, with very little maintenance.

Here is something I wrote years ago about F540 motors -
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2713040-Racerstar-F540-45A-ESC-combo-Review
That F540 motor is really cheap I just checked it out on eBay, $33.80 including esc wow, would it be a bolt on upgrade for a Arrma mega? (I own the senton) would the slipper clutch and diff hold up the motor?
 
That F540 motor is really cheap I just checked it out on eBay, $33.80 including esc wow, would it be a bolt on upgrade for a Arrma mega? (I own the senton) would the slipper clutch and diff hold up the motor?

$22 60a esc 3650 3100kv (full 540 motor not a 390 sized rotor in a 540 finned can) motor combo right now from this seller the motor alone is worth $22 IMHO. Same combo I had in my Mega Granite and had put in my Senton. The esc is the same as the Racerstar just not branded they use the same style program card also no way to change settings without one.
 
That F540 motor is really cheap I just checked it out on eBay, $33.80 including esc wow, would it be a bolt on upgrade for a Arrma mega? (I own the senton) would the slipper clutch and diff hold up the motor?
Yes, it will be bolt on. And yes, the slipper will hold up, as the F540 only makes a bit more power than the stock 550 12t. But know, with these uber-cheap combos, they have a pretty high failure rate. Some DOA, some die first run. Those that make it thru the first run normally last a while. Because of this, I STRONGLY advocate buying from a known seller with a known good return policy.
$22 60a esc 3650 3100kv (full 540 motor not a 390 sized rotor in a 540 finned can) motor combo right now from this seller the motor alone is worth $22 IMHO. Same combo I had in my Mega Granite and had put in my Senton. The esc is the same as the Racerstar just not branded they use the same style program card also no way to change settings without one.

Yes, that motor will be much more powerful. Enough so that the mega will need to upgrade the slipper and diffs to be reliable. This is the point of the F540, it is more of a reliability upgrade vs a power upgrade.
Edit: Damn good review I must say, very surprised it did as well as it did.

Yeah, that little motor really surprised me. In a 2wd SCT it feels only a bit less powerful than a 3650. But, the torque is noticeable lower. In a 2wd, this just make it smoother to drive. In the heavy 4wd Granite, the little motor is pushed to it's limit, but still pulls thru. With the huge fins, you can gear it up more than I would expect.

Not in the review, I also ran that motor in a M.Rage - a 1/12 scale AWD touring car / road car. Thing was a ROCKET! But, that car was really light, and had tiny tires... LOL. not much torque needed.
 
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Thanks all for the warm welcome
20200109_214828.jpg


Here is a pic of her...in stock. don't mind the mess, I am working on my basement so I have alot of tools and material down there

I will have another question in regards to steering and keeping her straight while running, but will post that in another thread
Welcome to the Forum and the hobby!! Loads of info and some great help around here!! Can't wait to see pics of the rigs playing!!
Will do! Probably not for a couple of months as its pretty cold in Toronto at the moment and don't want to take the unit outside...maybe if it snows enough and above 0 celcius i may decide to take it out
 
Welcome to the Forum!

My Granite started out as a Mega, it makes a nice starter RC.

If longer run times are your priority, look in to higher MAH packs. 7-cell 5000mah Nimh packs are a bit pricey, though, which is one of the reasons many of us run lipo instead. A cheap 20c 5000may 2s lipo pack is only about $20. However, know that with longer run times, it gets easy to run into heat issues on the stock brushed system. Lipo makes the heat issues worse, as the power does not drop off during the run like Nimh does. (power = heat, sort of)

If you start upgrading, I would start at the Ebay kit breakers, and get the BLX3s slipper, motor mount, and diffs (with diff input). The Mega slipper and diff input have issue with strong brushless systems. If you feel you are mostly happy with the way the truck runs with the stock motor, and just want longer runs with more reliability, you can look into a F540 motor. These make less torque than "regular" brushless motors, but still have a decent power bump over the stock 12t 550 brushed motor. Plus, they will last almost forever, with very little maintenance.

Here is something I wrote years ago about F540 motors -
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2713040-Racerstar-F540-45A-ESC-combo-Review

Dang...wish I would have realized this before we burnt up my sons Granite Mega last week. It was probably after running it pretty wide open for about 25 minutes on a 2s LiPo. I’ll make sure we don’t do that again, especially on my other sons Granite Voltage where we were running 2s Lipo.

I didn’t think about the issue of heat when pushing the run times on these brushed motors. I’m not too upset about it though, he’s getting to work on it with me right away and Horizon accidentally sent us the brushless motor as a replacement. Need to figure out if we are going to install it or just get the regular brushed motor. Didn’t really want to swap ESCs.
 
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