OS builds a CC02

[OSRC]

Finally got the chance to crack this open and start messing around. I'm a huge Tamiya fan, always have been. Was very much looking forward to this truck as I pretty much look forward to ANY Tamiya build. This one however has me shaking my head. I love the quirky factor of some of the kits, and there's a ton of fun to be had bouncing around the backyard in a DT02 with a bear driving or a 6x6 Konghead but when it comes to the scale trucks, the designers seem to be out to lunch. What do I mean? Read on friends.

Let's get some unboxing shots first. Picked up the kit and a bearing set. I plan to build it mostly stock to begin with, but no way I'm using plastic bushings. In this day and age, no kit should come with these anymore. Frankly, it's embarrassing.


A couple of box shots. No cool box art here, just some photos of the kit. I find it amusing that the CC01 Mud Block tires are listed as a hop up. Visual upgrade maybe. Certified Daimler holographic sticker in the box corner is pretty cool.




As usual, the body is a work of art. Perfectly molded, no thin spots, and looks better in person than it does in pics. No one does lexan like Tamiya. Looks like there is molded headlights and taillights as well. This kit does have the optional TLU-01 lighting kit included, though it says "not in kit" on the box.



Tires and wheels...Tires are of course rock hard. I'll use them elsewhere, they really have no place on a trail truck. The wheels are brightly plated and look very Mercedes-Benz-ish.


All the parts laid out...Nothing like the smell of a new Tamiya kit!


Usual CVA shocks. Not super scale, but great performers. I have some of these that are 25+ years old, still holding oil and working fine.


Directions and the usual decal set. 3 hours of my life that I'll never get back! It's 3 hours well spent however.

[OSRC]

First thing I do with any kit is play with the wheels are tires. I'll be using the stock wheels initially since they look great with the body, but I'll be putting on some MST tires that came in my CMX kit. Much more grippy and the perfect size but still have the scale look.


No ABS here, parts are molded in a composite for this kit, in a combination of gray and black. Feels very strong compared to the usual ABS parts. Very nice! We start off with the transmission...


You can flip 2 of the gears to alter the internal ratio of the transmission. There's a chart in the manual outlining all of the ratios available. Anywhere from 11.09 to 29.28. Personally, I like my trail trucks in the high 30's to low 40's so it's still geared a bit high imo....might be ok with the smaller tires, We'll see.



Gears are stacked in the transmission in the low gear setting. Nice wide Tamiya nylon gears with a steel input gear. No durability issues here.


Spur is mounted up...note the small set screw that holds the through pin in. Odd setup. Clearly a slipper option is on the way. You are also asked to "rubber cement" 4 3mm nuts into the transmission for mounting later. Very similar to how the CR01 transmssion mounts to the skid plate. I never understood why it was done then, and I still don't understand it now. I used some CA glue to hold the nuts in. (Actually, 2 of them are held in with set screws similiar to the spur pin...I thought that was frankly ridiculous overkill and just used a dab of CA)


Complete and breaking on on 3v. I used a 35t motor ilo the kit motor for a bit less wheelspeed.

[OSRC]

Moving onto the chassis...Lots of molded magic going on. More of the composite, this time in black. Very intricate molds, all crisp and clean. Very nice as always.


3 molded pieces make up the majority of the chassis. There are several spots where there's more CA/3mm nut drop ins on the chassis. I do not understand the logic of this at all. Why on earth design this way ilo simply threading screws into the plastic? The only thing I can think of is extra strength, but every other crawler kit, not to mention touring car and even monster truck does just fine with threading into plastic.


Here's where I'm going to rant a bit. What on earth is Tamiya thinking? There are several of these little inserts (part C3), that get a nut pressed in. Well, some do, some don't. Some get glued to the chassis rails, and some don't. Really? Fiddly is not even the word to describe it.


Chassis rails attached.


Chassis rails are for some reason a 3 piece affair per side, with the ends being metal parts. The shock towers attach to the metal extensions, with liberal use of the C3 nut insert thingies.


A closer look at the instructions - step 11 shows the dreaded C3 parts - 2 glued, 2 not.


Front and rear assemblies completed, and ready to mount to the chassis. You have the option of mounted the servo laying down or upright - I chose to mount it upright as it puts the arc of the servo in line with the axle.


And mounted up....


Transmission drops in from the top and is secured via 4 screws from the bottom coming up through the chassis into the glued nuts inside the transmission.


A closer look at the overly complicated extensions with all the inserts....


A few thoughts on the chassis. The same company that gave us the Avante, Bruiser, and other incredible designs somehow dropped this turkey on us. I do not understand why this chassis is so incredibly over-engineered. There's simply no purpose to it at all. It's like they took the things that were annoying about the CR01 (which I like quite a lot,) multiplied them x3, and stuffed them in a smaller frame. I'm assuming that the chassis can be re-configured for various wheelbases, but it seems to have been done in the absolute most complicated way possible....even for Tamiya! The nut inserts are what drive me...well, nuts. Adds a ton of cost and complexity for no reason whatsoever I can fathom.

OK, I'm done my rant. Now that I've got that out of my system, moving to the axles..

[txbart]

I’ll forgive some of it’s over complicated-ness if they have a IFS variant in the works. The lack of a pan-hard mount and the lack of a clear option to put the servo on the axle is particularly frustrating though.

[OSRC]

There is no IFS version coming. The CC01 will be sold next to the CC02 for the next 20 years probably.

[OSRC]

Wow, looking back at some of the pics, my camera does not like the black on white shots at all.. I tried to adjust a bit for better shots going forward.

Just one more chassis addition before moving to the axles - the lower link mounts. Both upper and lower link mount to a single bracket, of which 4 are attached to the chassis. They are offset slightly, and have 2 mounts so they can be mounted 4 ways. Lots of wheelbase options.



Time for the axles! Same gears as the rear of a CC01 so the axles are 12/22 geared for a 1.83 ratio. Of course they can be built with the diffs open or locked (locked in the same manner as well as a CC01 with plastic inserts) - since I'm building for the trail, I locked up both front and rear.


No bearings needed in the axle housing here for shims, the gears fit nice and snug. I didn't shim a thing.


The knuckles are designed different, but use the same axle and bearings as the front knuckle of the CC01. I didn't test fit, but I'd be willing to bet the CC01 knuckle will bolt in here, though the steering geometry might be a bit off. If that bolts in, then Dynahead portals should bolt in as well. Hmm....


Front built and ready to go. About 34 degrees of steering... hopefully some CVD's are in the works.


Moving to the lower links. One thing I was absolutely not a fan of is the plastic pivot balls. They are attached to the sprue right smack in the center of the pivot ball. They need to be trimmed very carefully to pivot properly. Eventually, these will get a metal replacement of some kind.


Nice to see a proper rear axle. Unlike the TLT, CR01, and F350 there's no steering knuckles out back, and no lockout required. If you like 4 wheel steer, you'll have to purchase a complete front axle.


All links made, and both axles complete... something looks off up front...


Yup, that can't be right.


Turns out I was not paying attention as well as I should have and bolted in the front axle upside-down. I had to remove all the link mounts and steering links, flip the axle and re-mount. Whoops!! After some re-assembly, we're looking much better!

[OSRC]

Time for some shocking developments...

Shocks are tried and true CVA's - full size, not even mini CVA's, in gray flavor. I'm a bit disappointed in the fixed pistons, but there should be enough adjustability in oil viscosities to tune the truck as needed. Super soft oil (20wt) is included. And the red tinted oil matches the O-rings and bladders. I got excited over details like that for some reason.


Shocks are built with the small spacer inside, and very quickly we're done. Built out, they are about 86mm from pivot to pivot.


Mounted to the chassis...really starting to look like something here!



Of course, I always do some break-in on the moving parts. About 5 minutes on 3V in both directions to seat the gears, spread the grease and check for any issues. Driveline is smooth and silent, as expected from Tamiya. Couldn't resist bolting the wheels on check it out.


Standing on the wheels.... Chassis has a lot of flex, more so than my CMX and CFX twins. Suspension feels great on the bench, oils and spring rates are spot on.



If CVD's are eventually an option for more steering, Some narrower shocks will be needed. Everything just clears as-is.

[JatoTheRipper]

That is annoyingly over-complicated.

The composite plastics was a cool addition. I've never seen that on a Tamiya kit except for my TRF801XT.

The plastic links everywhere is also annoying - as bad as the plastic bushings. Tamiya is better than this and their kits and their fans deserve better. I'd love to see them really try to make a high performance trail rig. And that steering, or lack thereof, is crazy.

The larger shocks are surprising as well.

The resultant truck looks pretty good though. I'm sure you'll get it to perform if anybody can.

Those Tamiya shock oil bottles make me smile every time I see them. They take me way back to my first RC build. My dad and I built my Hornet together when I was about 8 years old.

And the no-trash symbols molded into Tamiya parts always crack me up.

[OSRC]

Let's just say I'm very underwhelmed.... knew it was never going to be a serious crawler as that's not who Tamiya is, but there's some serious question marks on this chassis. Gluing parts? Nut inserts everywhere? Why?

Currently cross posted this over on Tamiyaclub and the mods have not yet approved the thread....it's been days. Wonder if it is because I'm being critical.... but hey, someone needs to say it.

[OSRC]

OK, the little guy is now standing on 4 wheels... There's some little bolt on wings to the chassis rails and that's where the electronics get mounted. Fairly clean setup. Tamiya gives a little radio box, though I chose not to use it.


I chose to mount the servo upright and had to use the servo spacers to lower it a bit. The steering rod did not have enough vertical reach to reach the servo horn, so I had to add a spacer. Not a Tamiya problem, I used a solid servo horn ilo of the kit servo saver and it's not nearly as tall. On the bench when new, there's already a bit of play on the front axle due to the 4-link... since there's no panhard bar, that play affects the steering. Already, I can see it's going to be a bit vague.


Front and rear bumper (more nut-serts!) The front bumper has 3 height and 2 length options.. seems to work well. The kit for some reason has 5mm ball ends attached to the rear bumper at the bottom. I have no idea why, I did not install them.


Rear bumper installed. I did leave a few parts out in the battery area, I'll be running smaller 2.2 packs, so I don't need all the parts to mount a full size pack. I'll make something custom later.


Front bumper installed. Pretty nice to be hiding under the body.


Just for giggles, I put an FJ body on... wow, frankly it looks great.


Kinda leads me to a dilemma. I was planning to go stock, but boy, the FJ body looks great. And I have a CC01 here whose suspension matches the G500 perfectly.... hmm....what to do??

[58_Willys]

Great right up. It won't deter me from getting one, but at least I know what to look out for.

I like where you're going with this and the FJ. Switch the wheels around and plop that FJ onto the CC02.


The G-Wagon in black, on the CC01 and these rims

...oh yeah!

Now that this is out, I think we need a new topic section for the CC02.

[JatoTheRipper]

It is a total bummer to be underwhelmed by a new RC kit. Reminds me of my experience with the TF2.

Gluing parts seems very 80’s when hobby grade RC’s we’re in their infancy. Definitely not cool in 2019.

Did the Club ever approve your thread?

[OSRC]

No, TC is still sitting on it. Not even sure who to contact actually.

[OSRC]

I'm not sure what's going on with this truck, but I have to say I'm not feeling it. This is very un-Tamiya... I'm not sure that if I drill out the body holes at the suggested spots that the wheels are going to be centered in the wheel wells. Hard to take pics of, but here goes.

First off, the manual shows what holes to drill. Double checked, and made sure the body mounts were in the right spot as well.


Body for sure looks like it's going to be sitting too far forward. Look at the wheel nut compared to the fender arch. Same with the rear, it'd kind of hard to get a picture of, but it's very noticeable when you drop the body on.


If I line the wheel up, here's where the body mounts sit - slightly forward of the marked dimples. Would have been very ticked if I had drilled the holes already.


Directions show the front body mounts in the first set of holes, but seem to me they'd be better in the second as it would line up with the dimples..


Same out back... if I line up the body so that the wheels are centered....


Body posts are off slightly, same as the front. Body posts are mounted as far back as they can be however.


Honestly, I have such faith in Tamiya's instructions that I'm convinced I am doing something incorrect or just missing something, but I have no idea what it could be.

I solved the problem by mounting the Mercedes body on my CC01. Can see it in the background below if you look hard enough. More on that later.

Just messing around, I took a spare Tamiya Jeep, adjusted the WB of the chassis and dropped it on. Not a bad way to go.


Front of the jeep keeps the body from dropping low enough imo, it's already shaved quite a bit, but still sits on the bumper support.


Think if I remove the bumper, it'll drop down. Not sure what I want to do here yet...


I will say I don't know what is the deal with Tamiyaclub, but they will not apparently approve my build thread. Can't message a mod, that's disabled. Can't do a damn thing, it's been posted since 12/2 but never approved by the mods. I assume it due to me being fairly critical of the design, but hey - sometimes it needs to be called out. Gluing chassis parts with rubber cement, nutserts, and plastic bushings have no place on a kit in 2020, Tamiya charm or not. I frankly expected better.

[SFC K]

It looks like you can move the front mounts back to the next hole in the shock tower to line up, but for the back there is not more holes to move back too.

The Jeep body looks right at home on it. Might be the way to go and save the Merc for a CC-01…

[58_Willys]

Ooh, I like the Jeep on there. It would great if you could replace the end cap on chassis with the bumper that's below it.

[ShouryLiu]

I'm happy that the ABS bathtub finally gone and new nylon(seems) parts came in. And no more grinding of pinion and spur, no more cracking of rear axle housing, great improvement compared to CC01 I guess, but today is not 90s anymore, that's what I wanna say...

[krapulax]

Great idea to use portals. I just built a CC02 from parts with Dynahead portals and it all fits very nicely.

I think Tamiya should have a kit like that and a Unimog body since they have portals anyway.

Four problems I found with my build. The steering servo needs to be on top of the axle, otherwise with the long droop I have (I used CR01 shocks) the steering would be all over the place. Easily done with three standoffs on the axle casing bolts and a small CF plate. The only drawback is that I can't use the front bumper as is because the servo needs the room at full suspension compression.

The second problem was that there are no soft CR01 coilover springs, so I made my own from .8mm piano wire. 14 coils uncompressed length exactly from top of shock to bottom perch. Very nice, actually.

I would still like to somehow move the steering servo on the chassis and use some bellcrank linkage to relay motion to the knuckle but it may take a while to engineer that. Or Tamiya could step in and do it all for us. It would be a cracker kit.

Third problem was steering angle, which I found to be rather limited with the portals so I machined away some of the plastic of the portal arm to regain some throw. I've got a rather decent angle now.

Lastly, I wanted more caster on the front. The standard front axle has very little positive caster at normal ride height for the CC02 kit and with my extended suspension travel at full extension all of that was lost and well into negative territory. Well, beyond what I consider acceptable. I replaced the top axle links with shorter ones to give me some caster back and I am quite happy with it. Now at full suspension travel I have only a bit of negative caster, enough that the car can handle it (think bogging down and flipping end over end when descending a steep slope or at the bottom of a step). Not sure how long the links are now, they are the stock links used on the CR01 chassis.

One advantage is that because I had to use a front CC02 axle in the back to be able to use the G6-01 portals, I now have toe adjustment on the rear. Not sure if it helps or not, but I gave it a couple of degrees negative (TC habit).

Quite capable little rig out of the box so to speak.

I like the virtually infinite adjustability of the wheelbase and body posts, I dislike the fit of most of the parts especially gear casings. They could do a better job of the molding process. Too many distortions and clearance issues. The portal casings are good and they tried to help in sealing them with locating fences. They go together well, but are far from sealed. I used Threebond to seal mine and silicone O rings on wheel axles.

Portals also need a lot of careful shimming to make sure the gears don't interfere with each other inside.

[OSRC]

Frankly, I've lost all interest in this kit. It pains me that the biggest issue I wanted to see fixed from the cc01 - basically, the weak and floppy steering - is exactly the same in this version. Ridiculous. I used to be a huge Tamia fan but lately their releases have me shaking my head. They are just stuck in a box.

[krapulax]

Yeah, I hate that too, but you can easily address that with this chassis. All the balljoints I used are Yokomo (I think) large ball and cups (6mm balls), not sure what kit, I bought these as spares yonks ago because of how smooth and tight they are. I am sure you can still find similarly good ones today maybe in airplane/heli shops? I think Dubro has some nice balljoints in a good size for this. That and an old JR servo (8915) and the steering is pin sharp.

The CC01 was a lot more problematic, I agree, I had to make my own parts, but I think you can buy upgrades if you can't machine stuff yourself. That transforms the car. I also modified the front suspension to give me more travel, I used HPI RS4 arms and C-hubs and gained about 1cm extra travel. Much more involved.

Tamiya is like that. Slop is part of it and most of the time you can live with it, it's just a toy. But they too have good no slop cup/balljoint setups, check out TRF buggy spares for those.

As for the CC02 suspension links, the plastic balls are quite slop free, I left them like that with the exception of the front upper link I changed to gain more caster, where I used the same Yokomo cups/balls that fit right in the brackets/supports.

Take it for what it is. Tamiya never intended it as a serious trail rig (though I am sure you can get it to perform with some work). I like that you can mix and match parts from their kits and make it what you want. I too gave up buying Tamiya kits. Now I have a huge stash of spares dating back over two decades and if I see they bring something new interesting I buy only the parts I need to make it into what I want with bits from my parts bin. My 2 year old son is very happy with this car that can follow him around in the playground through sand, rocks, sticks, mud and so on. It's like his sidekick. Brilliant.