vr6

iTrader: (22)

just curious what everyone's thoughts are for racing on either of these surfaces running indoor.
if you had your pick, just 1 pick, would rather run off-road on carpet or turf and why?

with many tracks popping up running 1 of 2 surfaces mentioned above, there definitely seems to be a swing towards carpet.

i personally have never ran turf but carpet and all sorts of dirt, dirt/clay tracks.

Phugazi

Our indoor off-road track is a mix of both, turf as the base and carpet on the jumps and table tops. Makes for an interesting driving/setup challenge as the car can behave differently as it transitions between the two surfaces especially under hard cornering loads.

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)

I’ve only run carpet. Only crossed into off road racing in November. Missed my chance to run turf last spring/summer.

billdelong

iTrader: (33)

duplicate thread over here:
https://www.rctech.net/forum/chat-lo...rf-racing.html

vr6

iTrader: (22)

yup, posted in the chat lounge first then after a few hours, i thought maybe i should post in electric off-road since it was asked for opinions for off-road racing

morgoth

We have turf and carpet tracks and I want nice indoor dirt tracks like OCRC Were you can race with slicks and do a race or more then 1 race with 1 set of tires.
On carpet, you need new tires every 2-3 heats. I don't run a lot of 1/10 astro, but it's about the same I guess.

big ted

iTrader: (2)

Also here:

Carpet off-road thread

vr6

iTrader: (22)

this is strictly carpet only thread, i was asking preference and to see what stories people would share from there experiences.

Chonk

iTrader: (1)

Ours is the same. Might I ask what class and tires you run/prefer on this setup?

Johnoly99

good carpet and foam tires eliminates the tire issue 👍. I went to Larry’s performance RC in Michigan last week, and while it’s an awesome track! going thru 2 sets of tires for a club race is a bummer compared to my home track finishline in indiana where we run foams and they last a solid month or more of racing two nights a week

Phugazi

I run 17.5 buggy with a TLR 5.0 AC/Elite and will soon run 13.5 4WD buggy with a TLR 22X-4. On my 2WD buggy, I've recently tried the blue compound Schumacher Mini Darts in the rear and the yellow compound Schumacher low profile Cut Staggers in the front and found the combination to work extremely well. I find the blue rears are great for grip and wear and the yellow fronts provide excellent cornering. The blues also last me longer so I use about two sets of yellow fronts before I declare the rears unusable for practice, quals or race heats. On my 4WD, I might go with the Schumacher Cactus as I've seen several guys at the track run those on their 13.5 wheelers with great success.

Cain

iTrader: (294)

run in door carpet and outdoor astro. Common tires for the carpet are tires like the schumacher cactus and outdoor mini darts I like. One track that is older style grey ozite is limited in most classes to non-carpet pin tires so its common to use slicks or other clay tires sauced with sxt.

If tire wear is a concern relative to carpet / turf style tires, you may find benefit to seeing if others would try out slicks etc (clay compound works well, especially AKA tires). We seen very good wear, like a winter seasons worth or so.


As for the question of carpet versus turf, personally whatever gives you more tire life I'd say go with that. I haven't seen enough of a diff to have a preference to say "I like this surface more than the other due to surface", assuming the layer underneath is the same (smooth).