Introduction

Remember the Fast and the Fury-ios? I think the movie is called “The Fast and the Furious”, but we are trying to make a Fury Fast. I really wanted to prove that you could hit 40 MPH with a brushed motor and a small budget. Spoiler: I maxed out at 24 MPH in 25-degree weather. Here is the story on what happened, and what I learned or am learning.

The Back Story

I bought a bone stock brushed Fury from the Tower Hobbies scratch and dent sale some time back. I then found another truck on eBay that had a burnt-up ESC/TX. I wanted to see how much faster the truck could go if I upgraded the brushed motor. The story is here. I left the blue one stock, and I have been upgrading the red one. My Arrma Fury journals are here.

The plan is clear, but I continue to have setbacks.

What setbacks?

The first thing was resolving a warranty issue for the stock Fury. Horizon totally kicked butt getting that covered. I guess that was more of a distraction rather than a setback.
The red one needed new brushes, which I replaced from A Main (Holmes Brushes here). Replacing brushes is really pretty easy and quick.

Replace brushes in brushed RC 550 Spectrum Firma motor. This is a motor upgrade for Arrma or any Short Corse Truck (SCT) with a brushed motor — 1) Push on the top part of the spring.
2) Lower part of the spring will release the brush
3) Slide the brush out
4) Unscrew the terminal
5) Do the process in reverse

Mounting the different spur gears has a bit of a challenge. Arrma does make mesh safe plates, but they only go up to a 20t pinion gear. I want to go to a 21 or a 22t pinion gear. I want to swap pinion gears easily and so I removed the mesh safe plates.

Image of Arrma Fury mesh plate. A screwdriver is placed under the plate. The plate is removed — If you want to use the mesh plates you can just replace the plates by putting a screwdriver under the plate, pop it out, and then replace it.

Picture of motor mounted in Arrma Fury without mesh plate to change pinion gear — Now you can slide the motor around to put in different pinion gears. You simply slide the motor back and forth when you loosen the screws that hold the motor in place.

The Test…. FAIL!

I mounted a mount on each truck using servo tape (description here). My goal is to make sure that the GPS is on both trucks in the same place. This way, I can see how much an upgraded brushed motor will impact the truck. I am pretty sure that we should be able to do it.

I slapped in the new brushes, and now we are ready to get the test going. Let’s see how fast this thing rips!

The first run with stock gearing, which is a 15t 32 pitch or .8 pinion gear, I hit: 22 mph. I am guessing that if the air had been a little warmer, we could have hit maybe 25mph, but 22mph was the best I could do.
The second run, we changed the pinion gear to the biggest one, which is 16t (most teeth) that I have handy. The best I could do was 24 MPH. It was 25 degrees outside. The snow/ice created a bit of a problem for a high-speed run. I think it could do better with a fresh battery and above 40 degrees. I am not sure I will hit 40MPH, but I think I can get close to 30 MPH.

I do not have other pinion gears with the correct pitch, and so I am going to have to keep playing with the gearing. I ordered this pinion set from Amazon so I can swap pinion gears and continue to experiment with gearing. Clearly, we are a ways off from the 40 MPH mark with the top speed @ 24 MPH.

Whatcha learn?

If you want speed, then I am raising my white flag and affirming that this is a fool’s errand. I am a fool. I run errands. So, I am a fool running a fool's errand, so it fits. Tragically, I think I have to break it to the newbie that 40 MPH might be possible, but you are going to be rebuilding a motor often. I would encourage someone to buy the brushless fury for only about 30 bucks more. The downside is that you will have to buy a battery and a charger. This is another 115 bucks if you stay inside the Spektrum camp.

Wrenching is therapeutic. The brushed version of the Fury will do about 20 mph in the best conditions. Realistically, figure about 18 MPH in stock brushed configuration. That is not fast, but it is a great entry speed. The chassis is great so adding a new motor is pretty easy. Think of upgrades as an opportunity to learn and redeem rather than cast away.

Penny-wise/Pound-foolish really is a thing. I wanted to see if I could save pennies and compete with the pound investors. The reality is, if I want to run with the fast trucks, then I have to go brushless. So, if you want to buy one to race it, then buy it right, but make sure you have a battery and a charger. An important lesson is to go into a situation with your eyes wide open regarding costs. Buy brushed if you want a fun basher and you like upgrading. Count the cost if you want to race this thing.

Conclusion

If you buy a brushless truck, you are out $259 plus battery/charger. With all the effort and time that I put into this truck, it is worth the price of $259: I would tell someone to buy the brushless truck. I will be swapping my red one to brushless and upgrading the blue’s brushed motor for when I have people who want to dabble with RC trucks. Speed is fun, but it can be overwhelming when starting out. I do wish that Arrma would continue producing the brushed truck and keep the price point around 200 if possible.

Overall, I still recommend this truck. This is a great beginner truck that will grow with you. I think my new advice is: save up a little longer if you are new to the hobby, buy once, cry once, and then have the joy of driving the truck. Seriously, this will give you a ton of fun.

However, if you can score a brushed truck for under $150, buy it and upgrade it. The chassis is pretty amazing right out of the box.

Thanks for reading. Remember to use social media to be social!

Tried for 40, but Missed the Mark