What tires?
 

I don't race, but I drive a Nitro 1/10th scale car around for fun. I have it as more a fun thing than a serious hobby.

Anyway, I need some tires that grip better to the road. What I have is a Traxxas Nitro 4tec 3.3 Now I know it's not what pros use, and I know people would tell me to buy something else, but I do enjoy it and think it was a good buy compared to some other R2R kits. Needless to say the stock tires suck. What is out there that can provide better grip for pavement/asphalt running? I'm driving on mostly Asphalt here in FL. I'd just like more grip with adequate wear, don't need race tires...but the car does seem to slide around on the stock stuff and I have no idea what compound was used. So if a race "slick" or something is better then let me know. That's all I'm basing my experience on. Someone told me to get foam tires, but for where I run I think that wouldn't be the best and they'd tear up right? Any brand suggestions and perhaps a link to an online site so I can get an idea of what I'm looking for?


Thanks for any help

Ok. What you probably have are rubber tires that come stock with the 4-tec.
Correct me if I'm wrong.

Dred. If you are going to stick to Asphalt/tarmac. Then get some foam tires. They will grip alot better than the rubbers.

BUT... if you think you'd like to throw the car around on some loose stuff or on flat grass. Like drifting of rallying. Then go with some soft , treaded rubber tires. When I say 'soft'. I mean the rubber is soft. The tire pressure if you like should be reasonably hard.

There are some no's you nead to know depending which way you go.
If you nead any more help let me know.
Or your local hobby shop may be able to point you in the right direction.

Good luck and lots of fun.

Menace

Ok well, what about if the street isn't exactly clean? I mean it's like around the street by my house where there is some dirt and it's obviously not kept up. Would I be better off with rubber then? As I understand it, foam tires are best when you are running on a rather smooth and kept up surface? Otherwise they don't grip on the loose stuff and may even chunk up? Am I right there?

The streets can be a little on the rough side too, the main road is newly paved but pretty busy so I can't rely on that all the time. Thanks again for your assistance so far!

Actually I'm using my very old HPI Racing slicks for now using the Pro Molded Soft foam inserts. They're old so I don't know how much wear they have left.

edit: I do try to keep the car out of the dirt/gravel/grass as much as I can. So take that into consideration I suppose.

Unless you have a tire truer its probably not the best idea to get foams for rough asphalt. If its really flat , smooth , not bumpy street. Then yes you can. But youll still have the rears wearing faster and by the end of the tire youll be spinning out all over the place. So I really wouldnt reccomend it. But it doesnt hurt to try a set once and see how it fairs with you. Just keep an eye on the diameters. You might want to get like two 26mm sets or fronts for the front and rear so you can rotate the tires and equal out the wear.

But most likely what you want is a team sorex pre-assembled or any other companies pre-assembled slick tire. The wider the better. Purchase a few different grip levels (you can pick and choose grip over wear). Then invest some time and testing in grip sauces. Theres the homemade ones I do like after-run oil on the tire , rub it in and let sit the night before in a zip lock baggy. Open up the zip lock baggy when your ready to run and youll have grippy tires like no other. This will keep that ultra high top speed car more solid and safe. I think the treaded design is completley pointless. They go very quick , dont have as much rubber on the ground and even thgouh dirt will stick to a slick , it will also stick to a treaded tire. Which is usually of a poorer quality rubber.

Most slick tires are good and react well to traction sauces. You could even probably find someone on ebay selling a good lot of them at a low price. With the grip trick I just told you , you will get as good if not better than new traction.

Its as simple as that. When it comes to bashing on the street , its the way to go. Especially with the used lots, very good price per play deal. Also there are a ton of grip products out there , try towerhobbies.com they have a ton of stuff. I also use tire tweak from trinity , death grip , red dot...theres tons of stuff out there and if your looking for quick and easy grip. I even found simple green worked pretty well. Anything thats an oil is worth a try...except for like vegetable and cooking oils. As well im sure motor oil wouldnt be good.

Keep it cheap and fun.

Get these:
http://www.myhobbydepot.com/servlet/...res/Categories

firm for front and medium for rear

thanks for all the suggestions so far. Very interesting stuff. Are those Medial Pro tires sold as pair or individual? I didn't see anything listed to show this.

Dred,

I would go with the Rubber Tires then. Get some with tread on as Artificial-I has said. Those on the link posted above by garen look ok.

Bear in mind that they will give alot better grip while they are brand new. This will ware off somewhat.
If you don't want to get the grip compound sources then try to keep the tires clean. Washing them in normal dish soap and water.Rinse them off well. Let them dry natrually and they will give very reasonable grip. Putting the grip compounds will give slightly more grip.
It's up to you how far you want to go.

I hope you have fun.

Menace

Those medialpro tires has to be the best that I've use. (see link above). Shop around and you can get them for 20 bucks a pair. They are pre-glued, well balanced, and have varying insert firmness. Go with the soft rears and medium fronts. You may need to experiment with tire combinations as all asphalt are not made the same. They are great for street and parking lot bashing and will last alot longer than foams.

The Medial Pro tires are sold in pairs.

Correction in the inserts: There are no inserts. The 'insert' is a honeycomb that is molded into the tire, and therefore the same shore as the tire itself.

For nitro cars I would suggest going with harder tires, i.e. hard front/, medium rear, or medium front/intermediate rear, based on my experience. When the car hits second gear, the acceleration and high speeds cause the soft compound tires to expand sligthy. Otherwise dnitro is right, experiment and figure out what is best for you. You might find that soft rears work just fine.

ok cool...i'll look around and see what I can find. Alot of good suggestions here.

Ok I got some HPI Belted Racing Slicks and the pro Molded Inserts. I glued them to the rim as the instructions say being sure I got every spot on one side and held them together with rubber bands for 10min before doing the other side. Now I test them by pulling the rubber from the rim to see if I missed any spots and it holds. They hold firmly, so I leave them overnight (12+ hours) to cure. Now I put them on the car and run a little bit. They grip excellently, but one of them rips off the rim after a few high speed passes to warm up and tune the engine. What happened? Anyone have any suggestions that could help me out? The rubber is seperating from the plastic rim either at high speed, cornering, or hard braking.

I love the grip, hate the glue lol.

Thanks again

what kind of rim you have? is it chrome? is or is not, you have to clean the rim first before glued them, use thinner to clean first. i'm using YOKOMO cement, needed not 12+ hours to cure.

You might want to sand them (the rim) slightly before you glue them also.
Use only a small amount of glue but do try and get all the way around the tire/ rim. :nod:

Are you making sure that the glue goes into the tire bead? Dont just put glue on the outside, it needs to go into the place where the tire meets the rim. I've never had any problem with tires separating from the rim.

I got some hpi chrome rims for my mini.
the first thing i did was put them on my tyre truer and using some 180-240 grit sandpaper turned the truer on and removed the chrome where the tyre would be glued to the rim.
The tyres haven't even looked like coming off the rim since!
I also have tried gluing tyres on chrome rims before without removing the chrome and got the same results that you have had :(