wtcc's CC-02 Stroller: Report from Rock Ocean

wtcc5 · May 24

For about three years now, the gang and I want to go for a stroll with our Crawlers. The harsh reality is, that we never found a date to make it happen. So I was crawling with CR-01 I bought for this event once and then lost interest. Recently Mario and I got the stroll fever again. As I am more and more into realistic looking cars, the CR-01 is kind of ugly for me. I also don't want a car that can just climb everything. In the Tamiya range the CC-02 comes closest to my actual desires. The Bronco instantly caught my eye. I am also a fan of the old Camel Trophy (loved the articles and advertising in the 80s Playboy magazines). A chinese manufacturer offers very realistic cars for about 1000$. That is a bit much, so I leaned towards a CC-02 chassis with Hop-Ups... and OOPS! that would be a 1000$, too That kind of pulled the wind out of sails.

A used one should be alright for my tasks, right? So off to the german-local-offering-site. There I found a nice specimen of the CC-02 Defender. Generously equipped with aluminum bumpers, winch, petrol canister, tough boxes, a large roof rack, lights, heavy duty hooks, sand sheets, nice wheels & tires and electronics. Additionally some Hop-Ups were added by the owner like the Tamiya CC-02 Aluminum Dampers, Yeah Racing High Clearance Lower Links, Upper Links and JunFac Steering Links. All RTR with battery and charger for half the price of my shopping basket.

I got a CC-02

You know me, I couldn't stop there. Some more stuff will go in:

A quick picture on the balcony:

The car has a bit of dirt on it and as it was driven and build by someone else, I will break it down and reassemble while cleaning and looking for mistakes/damage. And adding the Hop-Ups

wtcc5 · May 25

First step, taking it apart:

Second was washing every part (no pictures). Then with everything clean again, the fun part could begin: Assembly and tuning. And it started tasty with Yeah Racings steel spur gear and Tamiyas Aluminum Spur Gear mount:

Not sure if this Hop-Up is really necessary. Seems kind of overkill to have a steel spur gear. Did somebody here ever destroy his plastic version?

Looks heavy duty though.

The Carson Poison Truck motor had to leave. The previous owner told me this motor was better suited for this car, as it makes it slower more Crawler like. Carson on their website says the opposite. But 6500 U/min at 165 N/mm is just half the RPM of the standard Tamiya can. Doesn't matter for this build. I will use Tamiyas CR Tuned motor. Also the aluminum kit pinion will leave for a steel version and the mount will be toughened further with Tamiyas Motor Mount Bridge Spacer:

Spacer installed:

Motor installed:

ADRay1000 · May 25

On 5/24/2025 at 2:52 AM, wtcc5 said:

(loved the articles and advertising in the 80s Playboy magazines).

I don’t remember Playboy having either 😉

good looking CC02. I really like taking my stock-except-for-bbs FJ40 along for walks in the woods and in the back yard.
I set mine with low gearing and locked both diffs, and found it’s still a little speedy at full throttle.

Frog Jumper · May 25

Its good to know the metal spur gear works with the Tamiya gear mount thingy.

wtcc5 · May 26

@ADRay1000: Thank you! Is the turning radius still good with the front diff locked?

While disassembling the chassis, I recognized some of the nuts in the frame were glued with superglue. And it wasn't a problem until I tried to remove the servo mount from the damper mounts.

I wouldn't have noticed, if it weren't or the aluminum Hop-Up. One screw immediately lost its head. The second didn't move at all.

I had to sacrifice the plastic mount and cut the nut in two pieces... You never know in full detail what you bought until you disassemble it completely.

It was a happy end after all:

I continued on the opposite side with the upper frame. Tamiya delivered another aluminum part:

This time the screws were glued again, but could be removed with a bit of force without damaging other parts.

Before that Hop-Up, the battery mount and the rear frame with bumper had to be installed:

For latter the previous owner redesigned a billet aluminum part to make it fit for the CC-02. He did a great job to make this car look as great as it does!

Then the new subframe was installed:

I understand the color choice from Tamiya, but it could be a bit more noticeable for that price :rolleyes:

ADRay1000 · May 27

@wtcc5 hard to tell bc I haven’t tried it with it open. can’t complain too much about the turning radius. not great but not horrible, and I don’t ask much of it.

I did have the servo installed in horizontally (because I thought it looked better), but found out it functions better with the servo mounted vertically.

wtcc5 · May 27

@ADRay1000: Good to know! Thanks again!

With the chassis frame done so far, the next steps are all about the axles. Much too expensive Hop-Ups were prepared:

Two of the steel propeller shafts replace the plastic kit versions (which show no sign of wear :rolleyes: ). A proper grease and loctite session started:

The rear axle completed:

The front was more work. I want to try the geardiff in front first. The car came with a locked front diff. A good way to check the build quality of the first owner. Additionally I invested in the universal shafts for the front axle. All in all this then "forced" me to disassemble the whole thing:

In the first step, I build the universal shafts:

Then I disassembled the axle (no pictures). The previous owner made a god job and used grease galore. Except for the outer opening, that pulled a bit of gras in, everything else was sealed against the dirt. That made my job easy:

When the first owner and I telephoned before the purchase, he proudly told me, that he had installed rubber sealed ball bearings everywhere in the car. To my surprise I found not one of those "just" normal metal sealed versions. So discovering those bearings in the front hubs was uncool. I already hate Tamiya for cheaping out of ball bearings. So these had to leave immediately:

Better:

wtcc5 · May 29

More aluminum goes onto the car with Tamiyas super expensive arm pivots:

Beautiful machined.

Axles added (here I have one link mounted upside down...) :

Going to the last steps now... dampers and tires added:

Overview of the achievement o far:

Then I took my time with the electronics layout. The car came with a bit of cable salad:

I stripped away every unused cable, especially from the winch-electro-box, shortened and rearranged the esc cables and put the esc in front of the motor. Like that both electronic boxes can sit on each side:

And that is it for the rebuild! In a last step, I went through the galore boxes and accessories the previous owner added and decided for a steel rope and a long chain with hooks to go in two boxes. Furthermore a ground anchor and post went in two more boxes for when me or a friend gets stuck and needs help to get out of a miserable situation in the woods.

JimBear · May 29

What a bundle of joy, the little one!

Now get out in the woods with the stroller.

GToddC5 · May 29

I came to see a R/C baby stroller :lol:

TwistedxSlayer · May 29

Very nice, very nice indeed

wtcc5 · June 22

Michi and I were strolling today at the Wental Felsenmeer (Sea of Rocks or Rock Ocean... is the word for word translation). It doesn't have as much rocks as the name suggests, but the area is unbelievable beautiful. We took it easy in the first minutes, but got cocky very fast. Michis Traxxas was superior in size and functions. So my CC-02 had to stretch its legs. In hindsight the open front diff definitely cost performance in the steep or loose underground sections (more than I thought). Also the weight distribution of the CC-02 seems off for those strolls. In the end I did the hill climbing backwards, because that was much easier and the car was capable of nearly matching the climbing performance of Michis TRX-4. So I will have to look into it, maybe relocating the battery to the front...

Long story short: Perfect location, sunny weather, meeting my good friend --> Today was a good day!