ARRMA Granite BLX 2WD MonsterTruck

We had a bunch of vouchers from our Local Hobby Store and fortunately the price of the ARRMA Granite BLX has been reduced a lot – so we had to buy one. We heard a lot of good things about the ARRMA trucks so we had high expectations on that Truck.

After unboxing the Truck looked awesome. A nice blue, the paintings and stickers were great and it seems that the truck would meet our raised expectations. We just had to tighten most of the screws because they seemed to be a little bit too loose.

The first run was awesome. The Arrma Granite BLX handled nice – with a huge amount of oversteering on sandy and dusty surfaces. It was fast on 2S Lipos and a beast on 3S. The bashing was without any crashes just minor flips. Therefore we had no broken parts or problems with the truck.

The next day we headed to our local BMX track where we already bashed the most of our other offroad trucks and cars. This should proof the durability and the toughness. The Truck handled great on the track, jumped great and was a lot of fun. We just recognized that the motor doesn’t have enough power to do a 360 flip on 2S and had some rough landings on the back. The body broke where it was attached to the rear body posts – nothing really bad 🙂 The last jump over a 1,5m ramp killed it after the first lipo pack. The truck landed on the rear tire on the right side and broke the rear hub. and the wheely bar. Bashing and jumping had an end. After ordering the rear hub it took 2 weeks until it arrived. While replacing the broken rear hub we saw why it broke. The material if very stiff, too strong, withough any flex – therefore it can break easily. Unfortunately there are no upgrade or tuning parts available.

After the broken parts were fixed we headed out for a speed run. ARRMA sais that its at least 60+ mph fast. For sure on 3S and with another pinion gear. We tried it stock on 2S and it was not that bad. The ARRMA Granite BLX topped out at 59.4 kmh (37,13 mph). Not bad but still plenty of room for aprovements 🙂 Watch the 2s speed run here!

Doing a 3S speed run with the ARRMA Granite BLX just didn’t work really good for us. We could bash it on 3S but couldn’t do a speed run. The truck accelerated really nice but when pulling the trigger to full throttle the ESC just switched to safe mode and the truck didn’t want to go faster than walking speed. Switching the ECS off and back on solved the problem until we went full throttle again. Then the ESC switched back to safe mode. We tried several different 3S packs but the problem couldn’t be solved. The ESC and the motor were very cool – so no signs for overheating.

After putting back the 2S Lipo packs into the ARRMA Granite BLX the truck worked as usual. We started to bash the truck again until we landed onto the body after a very small flip. Both body posts at the front as well as at the end broke! S**t – guess what? The body post set is on back order everywhere and will be available in 1,5 month. That was a bitter ending, my friends.

RÉSUMÉ

We like the truck, we like how it handles, how it looks like and how it feels in general. But if you are a „newbie“ we’re not quite sure if this is the right truck. ARRMAs slogan is: „DESIGNED FAST, DESIGNED TOUCH“ – which we actually cannot agree for 100%. It’s not tough enough to be a great basher. We bashed a lot of other trucks much harder without any broken parts. Parts availability is not that good too. Who wants to wait months for a part? A time frame where you cannot drive your truck. It may be that the chassis is designed tough but hubs, body posts as well as the ESC do not really meet the expectations. We’re a little bit sad that we had to downscale the expectations for the ARRMA Granite BLX 2wd Monstertruck and that we had to fix things after a short driving time. Some tuning/upgrade parts like aluminium hubs would make the truck a more durable truck.

What are your experiences with the ARRMA trucks and cars? Tell us what you think about their RC’s! Thanks.