If you missed our build up of this truck, please check it out HERE. This is our review of the Tamiya CC-01 Mercedes-Benz Unimog. The truck is 90% stock, as it was intended out of the box. I swapped out a few things, and those will be listed below. Most of the items I upgraded were basic upgrades that I knew I’d want down the road. I decided to save myself some headache and install them from the start. Here’s my setup:

Electronics:
Tekin 45t brushed crawler motor (Felt the stock 27t would be too fast)
Spektrum SR300 receiver to use with my DX3R
Traxxas 2075 High Torque Steering Servo
Sky Lipo 2200mah 2s 30c soft pack

Other Upgrades:
RC4WD 1.9″ Trail Busters
Bearing set from Fast Eddy Bearings
Robinson Racing 16 tooth Metric Pinion (RRPC1116)

We did our review session with the help of a couple locals, Aron Smith of AJS Machine, and Jarodd Goedel of Canalside Racing Products. Both of them have Axial SCX10’s. The red Cherokee you’ll see in the pics below and in the videos is Aron’s. The Blue Rubicon is Jarodd’s. Having them there alongside gave me a baseline to compare the CC-01’s strengths and weaknesses. It was a very fun outing. I also have to thank Aron for taking all the photos and video for this review, they came out AWESOME. Check out the action shot below!

Where to begin? Maybe we’ll start with the looks. The CC-01 Unimog is pretty scale looking in that it has a short wheelbase and is a pretty compact truck. It is one of my favorite looking r/c’s I’ve owned over the years. The mirrors on it will likely get torn off eventually by a bad tumble, but right now they add a sense of realism. The included LED light set is also a HUGE bonus in the looks department.

The stock tires left me with something to be desired, just from the photos online. After a ton of research and looking at other Unimogs I settled for the RC4WD Trail Busters. They are a tall, narrow tire that is made of a soft, sticky compound that is perfect for crawling. After actually receiving the kit and checking out the stock tires, I am definitely glad I made this decision. I cannot imagine getting a lot of traction with the stock hard compound tires.

One of the other things I dismissed from the start, was the stock Tamiya 27 turn motor. For a scaler, 27t is much too fast. I opted for a used Tekin 45t to try to slow things down. It turns out, it could actually be slowed down A LOT more. The CC-01 was obviously designed pre-rock crawling craze and is geared like a normal play-truck. With only 2 pinion options, there isn’t a whole lot you can do to slow down the truck mechanically other than install some sort of gear reduction system (and from what I read, none of them are direct drop in). If I had to do it over, I’d opt for a slower 55 or 65t motor. The 45t seemed at least 2 times as fast as the 45t in Aron’s SCX10, and this is mainly due to the way the transmission is geared I’m sure. It was helpful when you needed wheelspeed to get out of a tricky situation though. I will leave that motor in there for now. I’m known to like my trucks to be a little over the top.

The included electronic speed control is the Tamiya TEU-104BK. It is a basic ESC with reverse that comes wired with a Tamiya battery connector and bullet plugs for the motor. I removed the Tamiya connector in favor of a W.S. Deans plug. Of any of the negatives I’ll mention in this review, the stock ESC is the most glaringly obvious, at least in the capacity of trying to use this truck as a scaler. One of the most common features of any good crawling ESC today, is Drag Brake. The stock Tamiya ESC does not have this feature.

Drag brake is essentially motor braking when you let off of the throttle. For example.. you have your truck on a high incline.. if you let off the throttle with an ESC with drag brake, the brake is applied and your truck stays put.. without drag brake, your truck rolls backwards. While still drivable with the stock ESC, the lack of drag brake was greatly hindering my ability to make the same moves the other guys were doing with their SCX10’s (both running the Novak Rooster Crawler). Even on a simple decline in the trail, the unimog would just roll downhill unless I applied brake, and then it sometimes kicked into reverse. It was a little frustrating watching how much control Aron & Jarodd had over their trucks, where the CC-01 kind of felt like it was an On-Off switch.

My next upgrade for this truck is a new ESC. I plan on running something cheap and reliable, something like the Castle Sidewinder SV2. While it’s nice of Tamiya to include an ESC, for my plans for the truck, it just does not work as I would like it to. If you were to use this truck in your backyard just for playing around and not hitting any difficult trails or rock formations, then the stock TEU-104BK ESC should suffice just fine.

Another thing I didn’t like was the CC-01’s turning radius. Granted that any truck with fully locked differentials (especially front) will have poor steering, this felt a little ridiculous. I’m not sure if it is from the bellcrank’s design or the limited movement of the steering links that causes this. I believe there are some modifications you can do to make it turn a little better, but I have yet to look into them. Either way, the steering is pretty poor, even with a decent torque Traxxas servo.

Before I get accused of being “Negative Nancy” regarding this truck, I’d like to talk about the positives. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE this truck. I realized going into this build/review that it is not your cookie cutter scaler. This was built long before the “scalers” like the Axial SCX10, and is therefore limited in it’s capability simply by design. It may sit lower, have smaller shocks, less suspension travel, shorter wheelbase, etc, but it actually is still quite a capable truck. In fact, I don’t remember a situation where the SCX10’s overcame an obstacle that I simply could not. Not to say that those situations do not exist, just our simple trail run and rock crawling venue doesn’t have all that challenging of an environment.

Let’s talk about ground clearance for a second. The CC-01 has independent front suspension and a solid rear axle. That said, those front A-arms do in fact sit a little low and I did get hung up on them once or twice. I believe a solid front axle would have slid over the rock instead of getting hung up. The center of the truck is also lower then that of the SCX10, making that another area that can potentially get you stuck. Adding the larger diameter tires like the Trail Busters did help gain some clearance that it otherwise would not have had. In general though, these are just minor observances.

While it is not an SCX10, the CC-01 is still capable and very enjoyable. There are plenty of upgrades available for it if you know where to look (AsiaTees, Junfac). The best upgrades though will be home-brewed. If you check out the CC-01 forum on RCCrawler.com you will see what I am referring to. There is a lot of innovation over there with ways to gain suspension travel, increase steering response, gain better approach angles, and all sorts of other ideas.

Check out page 2 for some videos and our review summary.