Granite What battery should I use for Granite 4x4?

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HectorLT

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Arrma RC's
  1. Granite
Hello everyone, I recently bought a Granite 4x4. The clerk at the store had recommended this one for a new commer like myself. I have no experience at all with RC cars and just want some helpful advice/tips.

The clerk also said that it would be best if I change the stock 2400mAh 8.4V NiMh battery with a LiPo battery, but I have no idea which to buy since there are so many out there. Same can be said with the charger and ultimately the engine which is a 12turn motor I guess.

Looking for some guidance on how to get the best use out of my new toy.
 
Read up on LiPo batteries as they can be dangerous if mishandled. That said, most modern battery chargers will handle LiPo chemistry. In chargers I usually recommend you make sure that your charger has a "storage charge" function, and can handle much bigger batteries than you currently have. My current Hobbyking charger is rated up to 10 amps of charging power, and can handle (supposedly) up to 6S (6 cells) LiPo. I only run 2 & 3S, so my charger can handle waaaay more than it'll likely ever have to. If you're going to stay with the brushed power system, pretty much any 2S LiPo batt should do ya. A quick LiPo primer:

Number of cells, expressed with a number followed by the letter S: 2S means two cells. Each LiPo cell is 3.7 volts. 2S=7.4 volts, 3S=11.1 volts, etc. 2S will be noticeably faster than the stock nimh batt. 3S faster still, but will likely burn-up your motor or ESC (on 3S, 2S should be fine).

mah, milli-amp hours. Amps. The higher the rated mah, the more "gas" you have in the tank, and the longer your run time between recharging. A 2000mah battery has 2000 milliamps (2amp capacity), and will run your car for around 10 minutes (give or take). A 4000 mah batt has double the above, and will likely run your car for 15 min plus.

C rating: discharge rate. How many amps your battery can supply consistently without severe voltage drop. Usually 20C to 100C. Also usually what drives the price of a battery up. The higher the C rating, the more "constant current" your batt can supply. C rating is important when figuring out which battery will power your brushless system safely. Most brushless systems list their current requirements, and the C rating is crucial to not underpowering your system. Current = C rating X amps. 2000 mah 30C battery makes 60 amps current (2X30=60). How does a 2amp battery deliver 60 amps? Got me, man...magic/science...all above my pay grade. With a brushed system, however, the C rating becomes far less important. My (albeit limited) experience is that when running a brushed system, any "car LiPo" will do, regardless of C rating. Brushed systems usually just don't have the demand of a brushless system, and waste enough power that if they did it wouldn't matter much. As a rule the higher the C rating, the more versatile your battery will be. If you invest in a bunch of cheaper 20C batteries, when you upgrade to brushless (everyone does eventually...no one fought harder against it than me), those 20C batteries that ran your brushed system like a champ will likely be too anemic for most brushless systems. I usually aim for 35C min to 50 or 60C. For my purposes these usually get the job done, and don't cost a fortune. Now, one thinks: "I'll buy a higher C rating to make my car go faster." Yeah, maybe...I don't own a radar gun or a gps I'm willing to strap down to my car, but I don't notice any difference between 20C and 60C when it comes to speed. Maybe some do, just not me.

Sorry for the length, hope this helps.
 
Read up on LiPo batteries as they can be dangerous if mishandled. That said, most modern battery chargers will handle LiPo chemistry. In chargers I usually recommend you make sure that your charger has a "storage charge" function, and can handle much bigger batteries than you currently have. My current Hobbyking charger is rated up to 10 amps of charging power, and can handle (supposedly) up to 6S (6 cells) LiPo. I only run 2 & 3S, so my charger can handle waaaay more than it'll likely ever have to. If you're going to stay with the brushed power system, pretty much any 2S LiPo batt should do ya. A quick LiPo primer:

Number of cells, expressed with a number followed by the letter S: 2S means two cells. Each LiPo cell is 3.7 volts. 2S=7.4 volts, 3S=11.1 volts, etc. 2S will be noticeably faster than the stock nimh batt. 3S faster still, but will likely burn-up your motor or ESC (on 3S, 2S should be fine).

mah, milli-amp hours. Amps. The higher the rated mah, the more "gas" you have in the tank, and the longer your run time between recharging. A 2000mah battery has 2000 milliamps (2amp capacity), and will run your car for around 10 minutes (give or take). A 4000 mah batt has double the above, and will likely run your car for 15 min plus.

C rating: discharge rate. How many amps your battery can supply consistently without severe voltage drop. Usually 20C to 100C. Also usually what drives the price of a battery up. The higher the C rating, the more "constant current" your batt can supply. C rating is important when figuring out which battery will power your brushless system safely. Most brushless systems list their current requirements, and the C rating is crucial to not underpowering your system. Current = C rating X amps. 2000 mah 30C battery makes 60 amps current (2X30=60). How does a 2amp battery deliver 60 amps? Got me, man...magic/science...all above my pay grade. With a brushed system, however, the C rating becomes far less important. My (albeit limited) experience is that when running a brushed system, any "car LiPo" will do, regardless of C rating. Brushed systems usually just don't have the demand of a brushless system, and waste enough power that if they did it wouldn't matter much. As a rule the higher the C rating, the more versatile your battery will be. If you invest in a bunch of cheaper 20C batteries, when you upgrade to brushless (everyone does eventually...no one fought harder against it than me), those 20C batteries that ran your brushed system like a champ will likely be too anemic for most brushless systems. I usually aim for 35C min to 50 or 60C. For my purposes these usually get the job done, and don't cost a fortune. Now, one thinks: "I'll buy a higher C rating to make my car go faster." Yeah, maybe...I don't own a radar gun or a gps I'm willing to strap down to my car, but I don't notice any difference between 20C and 60C when it comes to speed. Maybe some do, just not me.

Sorry for the length, hope this helps.
Thank you for the advice. It helps tremendously. So my best bet is to upgrade the stock battery to a LiPo battery and get a charger for it. I'm looking at a Venom 5000mAh and 50c 2s LiPo battery. Would you recommend changing the motor or keep the one I have?
 
I upgraded to a brushless motor 2 days after I bought the truck. But I had previous experience running rc trucks and the stock motor was too slow for my liking. I'd suggest running the stock motor until you are 100% comfortable with the truck.
 
Great question! If I were you I would go out and buy two of these Spektrum Smart Technology 5000mAh 30c / 3s Lipo Battery's! My Truck screams and its capable of hitting speeds of up to 45 -50 MPH! They are not cheap batteries there is no doubt about it but if you have the smart technology charger and power supply I would HIGHLY Suggest the Spektrum batteries!

Spektrum 5000mAh bat.jpg
 
Would you recommend changing the motor or keep the one I have?

Hi
My daughter runs a basic Traxxas 12T 550 + 2s RC King Lipo 7400 Mah and works ok;

42233


Hitec 4x Charger;

42234


We use the stock 8,4V for spur-spinner test only… :)
PL
 
Don’t worry overly much about C rating for a stock Mega 4x4. The stock electronics only handle 35-40A, so just about any LiPo will be more capable than the electronics. Now, if you want a battery that will still be good on brushless, feel free to get something a bit more capable, but you still don’t need to go crazy. As for an exact battery: I’d say something in the 4000mah-5000mah range (C rating is unlikely to be a problem at that size) will be more than enough and still ok if you upgrade to a brushless motor. gensacearespammers is a pretty safe brand that can be found many places. Venom is ok battery-wise, but I don’t like their universal connectors. Plenty of other option out there if you buy off the internet.

Also, with the stock system and any LiPo over about 3000mah, you will need to stop driving and let things cool before the battery runs out. If you try to keep running till a LiPo battery is done, you will be overheating things to the point of thermal shutdown every time. Might not be uncommon to get two full runs out of a LiPo before you need to recharge it. If you can restrain yourself from running till the truck shuts down, the motor will last a little longer. It’s easier to do on the stock battery because it doesn’t last nearly as long.

Lastly, if you don’t want a big investment, it doesn’t take much of a charger to handle a 2S LiPo battery. For example, if you got a beefy 8000mah 2S battery, charging it at the common 1C rate would only take 67.2W of charging power. If you get anything smaller, that max number just goes down. Basically, any wattage-rating is good enough to charge 2S. Amp ratings may still matter, but all but the most basic chargers are still gong to handle up to 5000mah without any trouble. You can absolutely get away with a very low watt-rated charger to get started. You probably still want one with a decent set of features, it just doesn’t need to be super powerful.

Man...I really need to learn to shorten these posts up!
 
Read up on LiPo batteries as they can be dangerous if mishandled. That said, most modern battery chargers will handle LiPo chemistry. In chargers I usually recommend you make sure that your charger has a "storage charge" function, and can handle much bigger batteries than you currently have. My current Hobbyking charger is rated up to 10 amps of charging power, and can handle (supposedly) up to 6S (6 cells) LiPo. I only run 2 & 3S, so my charger can handle waaaay more than it'll likely ever have to. If you're going to stay with the brushed power system, pretty much any 2S LiPo batt should do ya. A quick LiPo primer:

Number of cells, expressed with a number followed by the letter S: 2S means two cells. Each LiPo cell is 3.7 volts. 2S=7.4 volts, 3S=11.1 volts, etc. 2S will be noticeably faster than the stock nimh batt. 3S faster still, but will likely burn-up your motor or ESC (on 3S, 2S should be fine).

mah, milli-amp hours. Amps. The higher the rated mah, the more "gas" you have in the tank, and the longer your run time between recharging. A 2000mah battery has 2000 milliamps (2amp capacity), and will run your car for around 10 minutes (give or take). A 4000 mah batt has double the above, and will likely run your car for 15 min plus.

C rating: discharge rate. How many amps your battery can supply consistently without severe voltage drop. Usually 20C to 100C. Also usually what drives the price of a battery up. The higher the C rating, the more "constant current" your batt can supply. C rating is important when figuring out which battery will power your brushless system safely. Most brushless systems list their current requirements, and the C rating is crucial to not underpowering your system. Current = C rating X amps. 2000 mah 30C battery makes 60 amps current (2X30=60). How does a 2amp battery deliver 60 amps? Got me, man...magic/science...all above my pay grade. With a brushed system, however, the C rating becomes far less important. My (albeit limited) experience is that when running a brushed system, any "car LiPo" will do, regardless of C rating. Brushed systems usually just don't have the demand of a brushless system, and waste enough power that if they did it wouldn't matter much. As a rule the higher the C rating, the more versatile your battery will be. If you invest in a bunch of cheaper 20C batteries, when you upgrade to brushless (everyone does eventually...no one fought harder against it than me), those 20C batteries that ran your brushed system like a champ will likely be too anemic for most brushless systems. I usually aim for 35C min to 50 or 60C. For my purposes these usually get the job done, and don't cost a fortune. Now, one thinks: "I'll buy a higher C rating to make my car go faster." Yeah, maybe...I don't own a radar gun or a gps I'm willing to strap down to my car, but I don't notice any difference between 20C and 60C when it comes to speed. Maybe some do, just not me.

Sorry for the length, hope this helps.
Your advice is very helpful. It is well appreciated...
Thanks!!!
 
I ran for a full 40 minutes on a HOOVO 8000mAh, 2S, 80C hardcase pack this weekend doing 75% short-track laps, 25% bashing. Punch on 4, brake on 6.

In addition, I got about 30 minutes on a Zeee 7200mAh, 3S, 80C hardcase pack. 50% speed runs on asphalt, 20% grass, 20% cornering practice (hard accel, hard brake, turn and punch it), and 10% punching for wheelie control and trim testing. Punch was on 3, brake was on 7.

Get the highest C rating you can find/afford (30-40C minimum) at anything above 5000mAh and you will be happy... 3S or 2S, doesn't matter. You'll get at least 20-25 min of solid run-time. The higher C rating is best for the battery itself... doing a ton of punching the throttle, back flips, high speed run, etc... on a 20-35C battery will take it's toll and eventually shorten the life of the battery, and potentially cause a hazard to the car, or yourself in the process. I always recommend 40C and higher for high-discharge applications in RC stuff... quadcopters and RC cars especially.

The packs I run are all between $25-50 on amazon.

All runs on a band new, bone-stock, Arrma Granite 4x4 BLX with the STX2 radio.
 
Last edited:
Read up on LiPo batteries as they can be dangerous if mishandled. That said, most modern battery chargers will handle LiPo chemistry. In chargers I usually recommend you make sure that your charger has a "storage charge" function, and can handle much bigger batteries than you currently have. My current Hobbyking charger is rated up to 10 amps of charging power, and can handle (supposedly) up to 6S (6 cells) LiPo. I only run 2 & 3S, so my charger can handle waaaay more than it'll likely ever have to. If you're going to stay with the brushed power system, pretty much any 2S LiPo batt should do ya. A quick LiPo primer:

Number of cells, expressed with a number followed by the letter S: 2S means two cells. Each LiPo cell is 3.7 volts. 2S=7.4 volts, 3S=11.1 volts, etc. 2S will be noticeably faster than the stock nimh batt. 3S faster still, but will likely burn-up your motor or ESC (on 3S, 2S should be fine).

mah, milli-amp hours. Amps. The higher the rated mah, the more "gas" you have in the tank, and the longer your run time between recharging. A 2000mah battery has 2000 milliamps (2amp capacity), and will run your car for around 10 minutes (give or take). A 4000 mah batt has double the above, and will likely run your car for 15 min plus.

C rating: discharge rate. How many amps your battery can supply consistently without severe voltage drop. Usually 20C to 100C. Also usually what drives the price of a battery up. The higher the C rating, the more "constant current" your batt can supply. C rating is important when figuring out which battery will power your brushless system safely. Most brushless systems list their current requirements, and the C rating is crucial to not underpowering your system. Current = C rating X amps. 2000 mah 30C battery makes 60 amps current (2X30=60). How does a 2amp battery deliver 60 amps? Got me, man...magic/science...all above my pay grade. With a brushed system, however, the C rating becomes far less important. My (albeit limited) experience is that when running a brushed system, any "car LiPo" will do, regardless of C rating. Brushed systems usually just don't have the demand of a brushless system, and waste enough power that if they did it wouldn't matter much. As a rule the higher the C rating, the more versatile your battery will be. If you invest in a bunch of cheaper 20C batteries, when you upgrade to brushless (everyone does eventually...no one fought harder against it than me), those 20C batteries that ran your brushed system like a champ will likely be too anemic for most brushless systems. I usually aim for 35C min to 50 or 60C. For my purposes these usually get the job done, and don't cost a fortune. Now, one thinks: "I'll buy a higher C rating to make my car go faster." Yeah, maybe...I don't own a radar gun or a gps I'm willing to strap down to my car, but I don't notice any difference between 20C and 60C when it comes to speed. Maybe some do, just not me.

Sorry for the length, hope this helps.
Well said thanks for this advise im new to the hobby and I have the same monster truck. I hope many new starters read this and get something out of it cause I sure did again thanks for the length it was well worth it?
 
Hey there, fellow noob! I'm new to the hobby too and learning, thanks to the super cool people on this forum. I like these guys. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T9DWMDN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I got the two-fer, at 70 bucks. I feel like that's pretty good value. Also, MAKE SURE to get a lipo case. If something were to happen with the batteries, the fireproof case will contain it. They're pretty cheap too, around 10-12 bucks. Good luck, whichever way you decide to go!
 
@ridgehead44 Did those batteries you got fit the granite? The size seems to be bigger than what granite can take.

is the max battery dimension on the Arrma site accurate? Or there is wiggle room for 0.5mm over?
 
No, there a little to long but if you look in the battery slot there's a peice you can take out thats held with one screw and it fits a 4s batt great. No I did the to my upgraded granite mega 4x4 my blx im leave it alone to just 3s and run it till it breaks then upgrade it. But yes if some haven't notice that little piece on the battery slot in the corner it comes out and you can fit a bigger battery.
 
Hi chaps, I have some spare 3S 2200mAh 25C from another car that's now dead. They are softcase.
From the above, some say that 3S will burn out motor, and others suggest it's really fine. What's the correct answer?
Also is softcase really going to be so bad?
 
Arrma recommended hardcase in these because these are advertised to bash all day. If you don't do jumps and flips, softcase is ok.
 
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