Losi Will

How do YOU racers take care of your foam tires?
As in traction compounds, soaking time, cleaning, storing, gluing, chunking, daily procedures, and truing...etc.
Thought this would be an interesting thread to start, maybe we'll all gain some valuable insight into the art of foam tires...

nmt6789

There is no procedure for me they last like 5 minutes.

koabich

Ahhh..foams...they can be a handfull.

As far as preventing them from chunking, that's easy, don't hit anything. I am not trying to be a smart ass either. Stop hitting stuff...I know, easier said then done. And make sure that the wheel wells of your body is not cutting into them or that the body is set too low on the car. If the body is set too low or the wheel wells are not cut correctly, when the wheels turn or when the car is leaning into a corner, the body can actually cut into the tire.

I have NEVER seen a tire chunk that wasn't cause by an impact, a poorly done body or something that wass on the track.

I use traction compund before every run and after every run I clean the tires with motor spray and wipe them off good (I also rotate the tires after each run...front left becomes front right then back to front left...etc..). I find this allows the tires to wear more evenly as not every track has the same amount of left and right turns. Some turns are faster than others as well causing more wear.

Depending on the grove on the track, the traction compound varies from none at all, to put it on and then wipe it off immediately to 15-20 minutes of soaking in. Full rears and anywhere from the inside 1/4 to inside 1/2 of the fonts.

I have never glued my tires so I cannot help you there.

I prefer the Corally "Jack the Gripper" sauce...I haven't tried them all but it is the best I have tried.

I store my tires in the old plastic containers that TRC tires used to come in and store them in a cool, dark place. The containers are perfect as they are air tight! I think Trinity or Epic sells a tire carrier that comes with these containers as well. A good investment for storage if you buy a lot of tires at once and store some. If you use then as soon as you buy them then this is not necessary.

As far as truing, I bought my own truer. The reason for this is the truer at my local track always has a line of people waiting, it does a terrible job, I hate using other peoples stuff and foam tires are expensive and I want to be able to take as good of care of them as i can...so I bought a Hudy Truer. A good truer will pay for itself very quickly. I start all my practice tires at 60mm. My fresh race tires are started at 58-56mm. You don't want to run them straight out of the box as they are very tall and will chunk easily this way. Also, depending on you car and it's setup, tall tires may not let you run the droop and/or ride height you want.

Remember, as your tires wear, all your cars setting will change...ride height, droop, camber...etc.

nmt6789

Yea, I guess the only way to stop chunking is to stop hitting stuff. Because my bodies never rub the wheels. The only problem is it costs me $40 every two weeks.

vtl1180ny

Larry, what tires are you using???? I can't understand why you are going through that many tires.... I chunked a set of CRC's, the culprit was the foam was coming off the wheel... Next time I put a bead of glue on CRC's.... May have just been a fluke, it happens.... The only other thing is because you tend to hack others, purposely or not it's going to destroy your foams....

I am one of those who glues every set of foams most of the time (didn't glue the CRC's).... I find they do last much
longer.... I can take a set of foams from just out of the package to the rim when I glue them.....

nmt6789

I use trc's because jacos crack too easy. I always glue the outside to the tire and they chunk. The other thing is my back tires usually last but I cant run em to the rim because I dont have the lowered pod plates.

koabich

The problem with gluing tires is that it changes the traction characteristcs of the tire. Gluing the outside edge stiffens the side wall of the tire. Depending on what you are looking for out of the tire, this may or may not be a good thing.

If you say that Jaco's crack too easily, I can tell you that no matter what you do, your tires (yours personally) will chunk. If your Jaco's crack, you definately need to improve your driving as the rims do not crack easily! Jaco's have a great rim and are hard to crack.

If a set of tires only last you only 2 weeks, the way I see it you need to worry about improving your driving skills and not worry about being competitive at this time.

I am not trying to bash you. I see it all the time at my track and I can understand the urge to go out there and run with the big dogs. After all, they are RC cars and it does look so easy.

Try to honestly run 20-30 packs through the car for the purposes of improving your driving skills only. Don't worry about lap times. Don't worry about keeping up with others. Do not worry about your set-up (start with a good one and leave it alone for this excersize).

DO WORRY about holding a good line. Do worry about not hitting any walls. Do worry about being consistant.

Slow it down and concentrate on increasing your skills. Baby Steps (watch the movie "What About Bob")

Granted it takes good drives years upon years to get that good and 20-30 packs of practice will not make you an A main driver, but, if you give it an honest effort, you will be a better driver afterward and you will see the benefit of working on your skills first and foremost.

vtl1180ny

I have no clue how you're chunking front tires, I run mine till they are so low I can't get ride height.... Rears, I wasn't so lucky with the last set....

Seriously... Stop worrying about your diff... Slow down... and drive the car.....