Originally posted by RC Driver Gary
It's not a magic insert thing or tire of the week deal like it used to be. By not being able to run on asphalt year round like the SoCal guys, there is some experimentation. Last year I experimented with 3 different combinations, and they all worked. One worked better than the other two and that's what I ended up running.
What are GQ tires? I'd be interested to find out. Here's how I justify saying for week in, week out racing foams are more expensive:
Jaco Foam Tires: $19.29 per pair per Tower Hobbies x 2
Tire Truer: $199-$399 depending on how high tech you want.
True those tires down to say 2.25". Now if you don't chunk a tire or have it pull off the rim I am sure you could get a good 3 weeks out of said tire, and I will give you that the foams with maintain pretty much the same traction throughout their useable life.
I'm not going to bring Spec tires into this....$25- $30 for a set of 4, they last forever, but they do slow down a bit and give up grip over time...
Lets take a Tamiya race as an example. Ok, for carpet you run A-Compound tires. $15.19 @ tower x 2 for front and rear. $6.49 for a set of white dish 0 offset rims, and $4.79 x2 for a set of HPI Inserts. you're at $46.45 for a set of 4 tires versus $38.58 for those Jaco's....but don't forget to ammertize the cost of a truer like I mentioned.....I can get 6-10 weeks of racing out of those tires on carpet before I feel that I would be considerablly faster with a brand new set. My roll out won't change, ride height, droop, etc.
You are more likely to chunk a foam than crack a rim on a rubber tire....
Batteries and motors become much more important with foam than rubber because every ounce of power NEEDS to go to the ground because foam is much more of a motor and battery war....
Now at a large event, if rubber tires are open I will give you that the cost is about the same or higher for rubber. It killed me to cut open 1 run tires at Nationals this year because new tires were .1-.2 faster and the car handled better. But for weekly club racing, rubber tires are cheaper in the long run.
Dude, avoid tower at all costs!!!!
WWW.SPEEDTECHRC.COM Jaco's and TRC's are $13.99.... then goto
WWW.Teamintegy.com get the manual truer for $139..... now let's see once you get to 7-8 sets of foams the truer has paid for it's self.... and your savings start adding up.... remember I buy a truer once you buy rims forever.... and my mounted foams still cost less than your unmounted, insert, and glue free rubber tires.... not to mention I can true those foams down in 5 minutes.... try glueing those rubbers in under 5 and tell me what they look like!!! HAHA RCDRIVER GARY just got his fingers glued into his hair...or worse now his fingers are glued to his...... all I can say is ouch!!!! ....LOL
BTW: I like racing either/or whatever the rules allow/call for.... But I will say for slower spec style racing (mambuchi, tamiya classes) rubber tires will probably be cheaper in the long run, but prostock or open mod... foams will most likely run away....
However all of this is a moot point because he's asking about 1/12th scale foam and I must add the point that 4 cell 1/12th scale foams will last much longer than any TC foam, and possibly even rubber TC.....