Homemade Tire Soaking
 

Has anybody did any experimenting with tire soaking. What chemicals to use. I know in fullsize race cars we have used kerosene, or toulene and xylene. Has anybody tried any recipes on rc tires?
Thanks

I tried Xylene and it did nothing but make the tires stink. While they were wet it seemed like it was going to work, but once they dried they were just as hard as ever. It's not something that I'll ever try again.

offroad, use either simple green, or kindwald grip ;-) all the other stuff either smells really bad ... or just isn't worth it ;-)

What exactly does the simple green do to the tires?...make them stickier? We thought about WD-40 coating them to limit the clay clogging the tread when it's really wet and sticky.

Haha, man we used to soak 1:1 tyres in kero/petrol to get them ready for burnouts. They smoked up a treat. Never tried them in a performance situation tho, does it bring up grip on a real tyre?

Ive played around soaking 2.2in truck tyres with WD40. Soak em and leave em for 24 hours.

Noticeably brings up traction - permanently. Noticeably increases wear tho... which is a problem for me with a 6.5t brushless in the truck.... it already strips the middle row of pins out if you're not careful with the throttle.

Have had good results using WD40 on the front tyres tho.

WD40 seems to work well to soften up rubber if its left for a while

+1 to RCmits

Back before there were 30 different tire compounds we used to use Turpentine and that would soften them up great, only takes like 5 mintues or so. Havent tried it since 1994 though so I couldnt tell you what it will do to these new tires. Dont leave them in for too long or your tire will come out twice the size it went in.

So do you just soak the tire (before mounting) completely covered up or just roll in around the tread like car tire soaking machines work??

Turpentine
 

raceman17 - There are many ways to go about it, you can soak the whole tire prior to mounting it, but like it was said before not to long or you'll end up with a huge gummy tire. I had best results by lightly applying the turpentine once I mounted the tires and then washing it off. I used to use a toothbrush to apply it....it did soften the tires though, worked pretty good.

Thanks Doug

Yeah my tyres are usualyl mounted before i treat them (i usually just do it to, say, a set of holeshots that are on their last legs... try and get another 5 min heat out of them).

But yeah - i just spray the tyre and rim with WD40 and leave it outside on a rag overnight. I dont rub it on or wash it off, just douse the whole tyre in WD and then leave it.

I can understand that you wouldnt want to leave the turps on tho!!

do you soak half a tire at a time or... man thats alot of wd40!
http://www.jmindsupply.com/WD40.h10.jpg

I've used PB Blaster for a tire soak w/ great results. Coat the tires and store in a zip lock back so it won't evaporate. You might have to resoak them if stored for a while. Hope this helps.

Turpentine!!! Mount the tire, brush it on the tire before the run (like traction compound) Ultra sticky tires!! Don't use too much though.