johninderby

Tamiya Ford Ranger CC-01 (aka LandFreeder) Build Recently picked up one of the Tamiya LandFreeder CC-01 kits and here's my version of it. Everybody knows it's really a Ford Ranger pickup body but I guess no licensing fees from Ford meant Tamiya had to give it another name, but why oh why that rubbish LandFreeder name. I could see it maybe if the body was a Land Rover clone. Not much to say about the CC-01 chassis really as probably everybody has one or has had one. I didn't do much to it other than fit a GPM steering kit and 4 link kit and used a HD Futaba servo that I already had. The motor is an Etronix tuned 50t. Good torque and decent speed as well. I'd highly recommend this motor to anyone with a CC01 as it's pretty cheap but still reasonable quality. I got a set of the Absima (formerly Ansmann) Steelhammer 96mm crawler tyre & wheel sets. Boiled the tyres off the rims and fitted them to the kit rims and used a set of soft Losi foams. Biggest improvement you can make to these tyres as the standard foams are way to hard. So much more grip now! The tyres are as big as I'd want to fit to this kit. Any bigger and it's monster truck teritory. I thought the chrome roll bar looked cheap so I de-chromed it and painted it satin black. The lights are a Fastrax set with roll bar and I cut the roll bar part off and just kept the mounting plate and lights which fitted the top of the Tamiya roll bar perfectly. Easy job too. At the front I used one of the new RadshapeRC CC-01 Bull Bars and one of their skid plates. Only problem with the Bull Bar was the mounting tabs meant it fitted too low so I cut the tabs off and bolted the Bull Bar side plates side directly to the chassis sides. Just need to drill four holes and use some washers as spacers. Real solid and fits in just the right position now, and yes just enough clearance for the body to lift straight off. If anyone wants more info I'll post details. The body colours are Tamiya Dark Blue Metallic and Bright Silver with a red/orange stripe in-between. I'll really happy with the way it all came out. Only thing wrong with it now is it's too clean. but I'll soon fix that! John PS I have one of the new Pro-Line Ford F100 Stampede body shells on backorder and was intending to replace the stock body with it but it's turned out so well the stock body is staying!!! I suppose I'll have to find something else to stick the F100 body on when it eventually arrives.

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Pro-Line Rock Rage 3.8 Tires & F-11 MT Wheels Height: 7.15" (182mm) Width: 3.76" (96mm) I was looking for some new tires for my clod and came across Pro-Lines's new Rock Rage 3.8 tires. They're a bit narrower but a bit taller than the stock clod tires. I got the pre-mounted ones with the 1/2" offset F-11 wheels. While they do fit directly to the clod using 17mm replacement hex adaptors the tires do hit the suspension links at full steering travel so I used a set of 1" wheel spacers that I already had. Now everything fits perfectly. Actually 1/2" or 3/4" spacers would be enough. While they look great on the Clod more importantly it's how well they work. So far I've only had the chance to run them in the garden but first impressions are what a great bashing tire. Great grip and handling on grass. Climbed a slope with longish wet grass as though it was a paved surface. Climbed well over concrete blocks without the tires slipping (in the wet). On smooth wet concrete traction wasn't as good though with some slipping (wheelspin). I'd imagine these tires would struggle crawling over wet smooth rocks. The rubber is a relatively hard compound and the foams are also fairly hard. Fine on something heavy like a Clod but if I was using them on something lighter I'd get the unmounted tires and some softer foams. Conclusions: A great basher tire. Not so sure about them for rock crawling but then the Clod isn't a real rock crawler anyway so no problem. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone for bashing, and they do look great !!! John Last photo shows comparison with stock Clod tire and 2.2 Sedona. http://www.msuk-forum.co.uk/gallery/image/25843-/ http://www.msuk-forum.co.uk/gallery/image/25842-/ http://www.msuk-forum.co.uk/gallery/image/25841-/ http://www.msuk-forum.co.uk/gallery/image/25844-/ http://www.msuk-forum.co.uk/gallery/image/25840-/