Monster Truck Madness – Little Monster Truck, Scale Tires

Hey folks and Happy Thursday! I hope wherever you are reading this, that the weather is as nice as it is where I’m at – high 70’s and sunny. It’s prime “get back outdoors with your r/c’s” weather!

I’ve got a couple e-mails to get through this week, so let’s do it.

Good afternoon,
I have seen a lot of your articles lately and how you have been
featuring a good amount of rc monster truck content. First, thank you.
The additional exposure to the hobby is outstanding! I thought with
those feature being more prevalent as of late, you might be interested
in taking a look at the new BlackMarket RC Fighter chassis. Jake has
done an amazing job designing it and it still utilizes the Losi LMT
drivetrain. He’s on Facebook if you’d like to take a look. Thank
you for considering,

David Heimbigner
Wine Country

Hey David, thanks for the e-mail. I’ve actually not tried any of the BlackMarket RC options, but I wanted to post this here to give a boost to them as I’ve seen the stuff they are doing and it looks solid. I am hoping to try out some of their wares soon!

Hi Doug from Madrid, Spain!
First things first, sorry if my English sounds a little funny, I´m a Spaniard, you know…
Well, I´m thinking in getting a new rig, and the Granite/Big Rock BLX is one of my favourites, with the Rival MT10 really close (less power out of the box, but also very durable) and far off, a 4WD Slash/Stampede (really expensive here).
But I can´t help loving and watching the JConcepts suspension set for Traxxas –you´ll know what I´m referring to- and this set is what made me think about adding real big macho wheels to an “OEM monster truck”…
My main goal is to add “real” or “scale” monster truck wheels (JConcepts-Proline-Clodbuster size) to the one I finally get, or maybe to my beloved and upgraded 2WD brushless Ruckus. When surfing the internet and your nice articles about monster trucks, I saw you were trying to do the same, and that´s the reason I´m writing you right now.
Please note that I still don´t have the car (except the Ruckus) but I´m in touch with several RC forums and I´ve read some posts that may help. Also some Youtube videos and things like that.

Keep it on all 4´s, and cheers from Madrid, Spain!

-Anthony

Hey Anthony, thank you so much for the e-mail!

So from what I gather here, you’ve got a basher type monster truck and you are wanting to run some solid axle style scale kicks on it?

First off, given you are mulling over some 1/10 sized options, I’ll throw my opinion in for the Granite BLX. Had mine for years and love it. While I’m a solid axle guy, I love throwing a 3S battery into the Granite and going to town. Simple, rugged and fun.

Ok, so assuming you have an ARRMA Granite sized monster truck, I would strongly recommend that you focus on adding a set of 2.2 sized JConcepts Midwest wheels and one of the tire types they make in that size, as it will be A LOT simpler and probably more fun that adding full size Clod wheels/tires to a relatively small truck.

I’d go with a set of gold compound JConcepts tires, regardless of model, because you will go through a super soft blue compound tire quick if you run it on hard surfaces. The golds will last you!

You will have to change your Granite hexes to 12mm (ARA310816 is the part number) to fit the Midwests. You also may have to open up the axle stub hole in the wheel slightly with a drill as well. I say “maybe” as I’ve actually not done this on my Granite, I’m still running the stock wheels and tires.

That’s the big advantage of the Stampede- it has 12mm hexes and you can just use the Midwest wheels from the get-go with no modding needed.

Let me know what you go with!

If you have a question, feel free to shoot it to me- doug@bigsquidrc.com. Until next time keep it on all 4’s!