rubber tires on carpet
09-28-2006, 02:33 PM
#1
rubber tires on carpet
I know absolutely nothing about running rubbers on carpter, I was wondering if anyone could help with tire choices, inserts, etcetera. There are a couple of tracks I am going to visit this winter that only allow rubber tires. Also how much difference is there between rubber and foam setup. I have only ran foam tires on carpet and was wondering if I chose to run rubbers at my local club, where they all run foam, how much of a disadvantage I would have. Also do I need tire warmers and how long do rubber tires last. Thanks, sorry for posting but I did a search to no avail. I need to learn how to use the search better.
09-28-2006, 05:03 PM
#2
Last year, we ran a rubber 27t stock class at our club. Here are some things that I figured out over the year - hopefully this helps:
- Sorex 24's & 28's, CS-22's and 27's all worked well on the carpet. Wear was not as much of a factor as asphalt although I do find the constant saucing takes it's toll on the rubber. If you're not super-competitive, you can use sets of tires for multiple days of racing.
- I experimented a lot with inserts on the non-premount tires, I ended up liking a harder insert in the front than in the rear. For the most part, I ran Sorex 28's with Green HPI inserts in front, and Sorex 28's with Red HPI inserts in the rear.
- Rubber setup generally needs to be a bit softer than a foam setup. On our track, I still had problems with too much grip just like with a foam tire. Softening up the setup generally helped. Guys in the club were 50/50 between just running a setup similar to what they ran outside for rubber and adjusting it, versus running a foam setup and softening it. I don't think there's a silver bullet there. You need to experiment. My biggest observation/theory was that it's really important to let the chassis roll a bit with the rubber. Any time my car was set up too stiff, I got instant traction rolls.
- Speed/Competitiveness-wise, the foam guys will be quite a bit faster. We tried to run a 19t class with both tires a couple of times, but the level of grip and corner speed for foam was way greater than the rubber. This is not to say that an excellent driver on rubber can't keep up with the field, but in general, the foam is quicker on carpet.
- Tire warmers help quite a bit on the first few laps. It takes a little bit for the tires to get up to temp on their own. You can take it a bit easy for the first few laps out, or warm your tires before you get out. Depends how competitive you plan to be.
Hope that helps - I'm by no means a rubber tire on carpet expert, but those are some things I now believe.
- Sorex 24's & 28's, CS-22's and 27's all worked well on the carpet. Wear was not as much of a factor as asphalt although I do find the constant saucing takes it's toll on the rubber. If you're not super-competitive, you can use sets of tires for multiple days of racing.
- I experimented a lot with inserts on the non-premount tires, I ended up liking a harder insert in the front than in the rear. For the most part, I ran Sorex 28's with Green HPI inserts in front, and Sorex 28's with Red HPI inserts in the rear.
- Rubber setup generally needs to be a bit softer than a foam setup. On our track, I still had problems with too much grip just like with a foam tire. Softening up the setup generally helped. Guys in the club were 50/50 between just running a setup similar to what they ran outside for rubber and adjusting it, versus running a foam setup and softening it. I don't think there's a silver bullet there. You need to experiment. My biggest observation/theory was that it's really important to let the chassis roll a bit with the rubber. Any time my car was set up too stiff, I got instant traction rolls.
- Speed/Competitiveness-wise, the foam guys will be quite a bit faster. We tried to run a 19t class with both tires a couple of times, but the level of grip and corner speed for foam was way greater than the rubber. This is not to say that an excellent driver on rubber can't keep up with the field, but in general, the foam is quicker on carpet.
- Tire warmers help quite a bit on the first few laps. It takes a little bit for the tires to get up to temp on their own. You can take it a bit easy for the first few laps out, or warm your tires before you get out. Depends how competitive you plan to be.
Hope that helps - I'm by no means a rubber tire on carpet expert, but those are some things I now believe.
09-28-2006, 06:40 PM
#3
Our Stock Class have been running Sorex 24R's up front with Hpi red inserts and use Sorex 20R's in the rear with Hpi red inserts. Some racers run 24R's all the way around. There's a trend here now that the majority of our racers are switching to Takeoff 27's premounted. Hope this helps.
09-28-2006, 07:47 PM
#4
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I know absolutely nothing about running rubbers on carpter, I was wondering if anyone could help with tire choices, inserts, etcetera. There are a couple of tracks I am going to visit this winter that only allow rubber tires. Also how much difference is there between rubber and foam setup. I have only ran foam tires on carpet and was wondering if I chose to run rubbers at my local club, where they all run foam, how much of a disadvantage I would have. Also do I need tire warmers and how long do rubber tires last. Thanks, sorry for posting but I did a search to no avail. I need to learn how to use the search better.
Like already said, foam has more corner speed and will just be faster, in general.
Rubber tires really only seem to stay "competetive" for about 6-10 runs for me...after that they really fall off. Everyone has their own opinion on this, and it does depend a lot on your driving style and the car setup. One advantage of rubber tires is even if your set is blown, if you don't have the cash to buy new ones you can still techincally run where as with foams you can't since you've got nothing but plastic hoops when you've ran them to death. I've ran rubber tires hundreds of times, and in the end they really really sucked but I could still drive.
IMO car setup can be harder with rubber as you have to be more subtle with your tuning to keep traction yet not have too much more too little .. foam is more forgiving setup wise, in general.
09-28-2006, 08:08 PM
#5
trilerian, for a speed comparision:
Last weekends Las Vegas IIC:
TQ, 19t Fubber,
Weylin Rose, 26 laps @ 5:10.175 fast lap 11.778
TQ, stock foam,
Travis Schreven 26 laps @ 5:06.072 fast lap 11.470.
PS: I called it 19t Fubber cause thats what Weylin must have been using, he was just so much faster than the guys running rubber tires.
Fred
Last weekends Las Vegas IIC:
TQ, 19t Fubber,
Weylin Rose, 26 laps @ 5:10.175 fast lap 11.778
TQ, stock foam,
Travis Schreven 26 laps @ 5:06.072 fast lap 11.470.
PS: I called it 19t Fubber cause thats what Weylin must have been using, he was just so much faster than the guys running rubber tires.
Fred
09-28-2006, 09:41 PM
#6
thanks for the input guys, looks like at my local club I will continue to run foams (I need all the help I can get), but I will definately be going to some rubber tracks this year. How about the numbers, are they like the shore with foam, the higher they/it gets the harder the tire. And it does make sense to run a harder insert up front, I run harder foams in the front. Thanks again.
09-29-2006, 03:36 AM
#7
Try this thread. Lots of good info on rubber tires for carpet etc...
Rubber Tires For Dummies
Later,
Rubber Tires For Dummies
Later,
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