CC01 Pajero Rally!

[andymac0035]

I waited for this one quite a while as it got caught up in customs. I had already bought all my hop-up stuff and been impatiently waiting to get going on this, and now I'm finally there.



The build started the usual way, although I cheated and just bought an extra locker set for the front diff. On the rear diff I used the included locker and I think tamiya changed something because there was not much play in the rear diff when I put it all together. There were 2 plastic shims used near the outer bearings, which I swapped for some 5x8 bushings (since I put all bearings in the kit) and with a shim/washer added to those, it was all pretty tight. I remember doing the bushing/shim mod (the one just to one side of the diff) last build like shown on the youtube vid from the "LED wheel-guy, but it wasn't needed this time.


The 1st brick-mod I ever did I got lucky (free-hand) (with a back saw) but this one wasn't going straight so I had to get a heavy file out and shaped it the hard way. Then I cut, bent, and shaped this team durango skid to fit. That part came out better this go around I think.









Then in went the hot racing steering kit. I made sure I thread-locked the screws even using thread locker in the boss areas for the upper/lower pieces as that worked for me last time around to get rid of all the play in that spot. I did use the stock tamiya connectors, but I'm sure I'll change those out eventually. I trimmed the inside of the tray/skid to clear things as the linkage was hitting.



Steering stops ground down and tamiya CVD's. Also used those flat-topped king pin screws as I planned on using axial bead locks on this.






Added some reinforcement for the body with hard foam, as I'm sure it will take some hits.





Then came the part I struggled with to figure out. I planned on using 3S shorty soft case lipo's and they were a little tight in the stock tray because of their wires coming out the corner. I ended up going for the front location and made this tray out of an axial wraith battery tray. I shaved everything off the sides and cut it a little more than in half. I made some stand-offs for mounting it up front using the stock countersunk holes in the tray. That rested pretty good between the wheel wells. Then I drilled in from the side and into the sides of the tray and used some long grub screws to secure the other end of the tray. These were just right to thread through the plastic of the chassis and the tray but not poke through. Then a long strap goes under and around length ways and holds the battery to it. There is a piece of foam in the tray to make sure the front screw heads that stick up a hair don't wear into the battery.










And here it is all laid out. ESC is from my CMX Bronco, servo is a stock SCX10 tactic, motor is an "old-I-don't-how many-turns-but-it's-slow" motor I had handy.
I may just take the electronics plate out of there and mount stuff in the stock battery tray, but I was using the stock antenna mount and didn't want to change it.......

[andymac0035]

......and here it is, getting ready for it's first scuff on the trail.
Wheels are axial and I sanded the outer rings as I was going for the old-school trim-ring look. I think the black wheel and the chrome wheel nut sets it off pretty good.







I liked most of the Tamiya stickers/graphics, but the big splash stripes on the sides just were not working out, but I found a spot for one of them on the roof.







Tires are some RC4WD mud slingers, but I had to trim them (and the fenders) to make it all fit. They worked pretty well. There's 1.5oz of lead in each wheel and that's the only added weight on the truck. Truck weighs 4 lbs w/o battery. Weight and COG was very good. When it rolls/flips it tends to go back on it's wheels and is easy to self-right if it lands on it's side.

Oh wait... that is NOT the only weight added to the truck... there's a lead square stuffed inside each of the front lower A-arms....it's your fault OSRC.... I saw that on one of your builds and I had to do it! (I did it on the last one I built too)

[andymac0035]

[andymac0035]

Motor was getting a bit hot and drag brake didn't seem to hold very well. I'm going to try and stuff a 550 drill motor I have in there as well as a SV2 esc and see what that does. I've been reading about GRU's again as I think that would solve a lot of problems and since my battery is up front cutting into the battery tray area is no big deal. I am concerned about some posts saying if you run a GRU at higher speeds for very long that they get really hot. I was looking at the RC4WD 3:1 and also the china 3:1 on ebay. The china one actually looks better to me as the pinion gear that goes inside it is a lot wider.

[OSRC]

Originally Posted by andymac0035

Oh wait... that is NOT the only weight added to the truck... there's a lead square stuffed inside each of the front lower A-arms....it's your fault OSRC.... I saw that on one of your builds and I had to do it! (I did it on the last one I built too)

Ha! Great little trick. Very nice build, the battery tray is a pretty slick setup!

[andymac0035]

Thanks! I was driving myself nuts trying to figure out a tray for up front. I searched for other builds doing something like this but didn't find any. Surely other's have done this and I just missed it.

I did a bunch of stuff to the CC01 today. I'll start with the little stuff first.

With as paper-thin as this body is, I figured I'd best take some shoe goo and drywall tape to the front and rear bumper areas.








One of the last things I did I thought was pretty clever. I cut a piece of hard foam to shape and glued it in place to cover up the stock battery hole.

[andymac0035]

I started this one off by just moving the upper rear shock mounts to the LWB position to try and get them to not be so stiff as for some reason, when they sit for a minute, it's like they want to stick, but after you compress them a time or two they free-up. I never understood that, as I made darn sure to get oil all in the o-rings when I built them. The fronts are fine, but the rears always stick initially.

Anyways, this wasn't really the solution (it was better though), so I was looking through my shock-collection and found a set from an old arrma raider 1/10 buggy I used to have. The fronts were a little linger when extended, but the same as the CC01 shocks under full compression, and bonus, the springs on these are softer.








I mocked one up and was impressed:









Happy with what I was seeing I did the other side, and after some shimming on the upper mount it was done. Pics are with a battery in place for proper stance.






There's a little bit of rake to the stance, but if it drives my too crazy I'll just go up a post hole on the front/body. I thought this was a clever way to show before/after:






I didn't measure stock articulation before I got going on this, but looking at yesterdays pics I'd say it's a pretty good improvement and I can't wait to try it out!

[andymac0035]

......and now for the reason I started modding on my truck in the first place today! It's basically the age-old idea of replacing a small-block with a big-block. I pulled the mystery-turn 540 slow motor out of there and started making room for a 550-sized drill motor I've been hanging on to. It's another mystery-turn motor, but I used to run it in a wraith on 3S and I know it's slow and has good torque. It was close, but all I needed to do was take a small part of the battery wall out and skim a little bit of material away with a dremel.






This motor had a flux ring on it, and I really wanted to keep it, but I got some bad gear-mesh noises when I tried it with it in place. Once I removed it everything fit right and sounded normal. It's soo neat seeing that 550 fit in there. ESC is a sidewinder SCT (same as SV2) put in brushed/crawler mode. I ditched the electronics tray and I mounted it all in the stock battery tray and cleaned up my wires. Testing on the floor seems good, but the final word will be once I get it out on the trail.

[OSRC]

My Pajero Rally body cracked up front in that exact spot on the first run. Granted, it was a rally truck with a 3300kv BL system in it, but it didn't last long. Good move firming it up.

[andymac0035]

Originally Posted by OSRC

My Pajero Rally body cracked up front in that exact spot on the first run. Granted, it was a rally truck with a 3300kv BL system in it, but it didn't last long. Good move firming it up.

I'm curious, since I still have another CC01 to build, and faster motor systems I can use, did your rally truck have open diffs? or locked?

[OSRC]

Open diffs. It was the low ride version so it had the 'jero rally body and those wide wheels. It was seriously unstable at speed...the short WB meant rollover city and the the vague steering didn't help. I could have tuned on it some more, but I never tried. I still have it, though it has a Mercedes CC02 body now and the stock silver can.

[andymac0035]

Hmmm... that unstable huh? Well the kit in question I'm building next is the HiLux which is the LWB one, so I wonder if that will be any better? I have a 13.5 I could toss in there and also thought about tossing a 17.5 in with the stock tamiya esc.

As for this build here, has anyone else used a 550 sized motor like what I got here? If so, how was it?

I like that I didn't have to make the hole for the GRU, but I'm still willing to do it if that turns out to be the way to go.

Hopefully I can get some good run times in with it over the long weekend and evaluate the 550.

[andymac0035]

So I went out to Mt. Cardigan to give the Parjero it's 1st run with the 550 drill motor and also see how the new shocks worked. The new shocks were great. Articulation was much smoother. I had to raise the front of the body as the front tires were rubbing. I didn't want to do what amounted to a front-only body lift, but it did make the wheel arches look "right" and got rid of the raked look. The motor and castle esc were smoother and drag brake was a little better, but not really what I would call good. It was more of an issue rolling backwards for some reason.

So the trail head starts out with a series of rock stairs buried into the dirt and I usually try to navigate them if possible, and go around the ones that are just too big. I can usually get most of them. Last go at this was when the 1st motor got pretty hot. The drill motor got I think even a little hotter. When I took the body off to check it I wasn't getting the "burnt-smell-of-death", but I swear I smelt a hint of melting plastic. I decided to press on as I figured the motor heat would lessen once on more trail-like terrain. This would not be the case however, and it stayed pretty hot. I just stubbornly decided as long as I wasn't getting burnt motor smell I would just see how far I could push it. It seemed like the gears were getting noisy but I thought it was just twigs dragging under the truck as that happens all the time on this trail. Then I was just about to the spot I stopped on it's 1st run (1/8 mile in)... I pick it up to check the motor and it's still pretty dang hot! I blipped the throttle and the gears started skipping. ... well... that's the end of that... carried it back down and grabbed my back-up (vaterra ascender) and made my summit-run.

So, I'm wondering what I did to it, I was concerned I melted/warped all the plastic around the motor, or at the very least got the screws so hot they melted out of the plastic motor mount. Upon tear down..... my set screw for my pinion gear backed out and came right off. It was sitting in the channel next to the spur gear. No damage to the motor mount (or gears) at all. So now I'm not sure if the drill motor isn't up to the task, or if the pinion backing off was the reason it got so hot.


On my way out to the mountain I had stopped at the post office and one of the things waiting for me was a tamiya CC01 aluminum motor mount. I decided this was a good time to add it..........I was sooo wrong! ... but of course once I got going ... I decided it was either going to fit or I'd destroy it in the process. So yeah, it didn't fit... it was too fat so out came the metal file and the dremel. I worked on the stupid thing for quite a while but I finally got it filed/dremelled/sanded down so that it fit in the slot like it was supposed to. I've never seen such bad fit+finish on a tamiya part before. Anyways... I got it in there and it's a good fit now. Hopefully I can give the pajero a good run tomorrow and make a decision on whether the drill motor stays or goes.

[andymac0035]

The Pajero made it to the top of Mt Cardigan!

It's 1.5 miles up the main trail and it got to the top on it's own. I flipped it back on it's wheels a few times, but it made it's own way, no placing it past something it had trouble getting over. I either drove it through, or found a way around everything.

The motor didn't get as hot, but it still ran pretty hot the whole way up... well till the top, as I had it zooming around some in the open areas and that seemed to cool it off pretty good. I think if I mounted a fan on it I could fix the cooling problem, but I would still have drag break issue's due to the high gear ratio of the truck (drag beak just seems so weak, even though it's set for 212%), so as much as I really like the power of the 550 that's in there, I think a GRU is the way to go. At least then I can always put a faster motor in if it's too slow. I'm planning to get one of the china 3:1 units.

[andymac0035]

Got this 3:1 GRU on order. https://www.ebay.com/itm/MagiDeal-Pl...uhyqbBdV6Z_55A


Plan is to put the 26t motor that came out of the CMX behind it and cut a hole in the chassis to clear everything. I really would have liked a 2:1 unit, but I don't see those anywhere. I'm hoping this GRU will fix the motor temp and weak drag break situation.

[andymac0035]

What the heck is going on here?!?






OOoo... The 3:1 GRU showed up!









Not sure why people are hesitant to cut the hole in the chassis, there's already 2 down there anyways.

[andymac0035]

OMG!
I wish I had done the GRU with the last CC01 I had. Wow!... just wow!
My 1st CC01 had an 80T motor with stock gearing on 3S and it crawled "okay" at best. This CC01, with 26T and 3:1 GRU on 3S has a similar top speed but that's where it ends. I drove the Pajero back-to-back with my OG SCX10, which sports stock gearing, a 45T and runs 3S.... and they were about the same!... actually the Pajero I think crawls slower, but top-end was pretty close to even. The other big improvement was now I actually had a drag brake that worked. I've just never had this kind-of hill-hold with a CC01. I've always had the drag brake maxed out, but the gearing would just overwhelm it.... not anymore!

[HumboldtEF]

I can fully understand, a GRU in the CC01 is huge

I just put one into mine and had the same revelation, control? Drag brake? what is this sorcery? I was so used to having to bash my way along

I came up with a similar front battery mount using some lexan, I thought that made a nice change to the balance.

[OSRC]

Absolutely! Adding in a GRU totally changes the truck. Well worth a little chopping of the chassis.

I've never tried a front battery mount... I'll have to whip one up and give it a shot.

[andymac0035]

Here's the 1st of a few new vids I made with the GRU.