Originally Posted by
T-BirdJunkie
Again, bake your tires and reglue them. It's not that hard. Beadlocks add rotating mass which means you're pulling more amps through your ESC and your motor's getting hotter.
Ten sets of wheels? 4wd SCT is already dead in ThunderbirdJunkie's area, and his 2wd SCT and bugyg are easy on rubber...ThunderbirdJunkie has MAYBE five sets of 2wd buggy rears and 3 pairs of 2wd buggy fronts...per car, he MIGHT go through a pair of tires on his 2w stuff a SEASON...and that's mostly REARS.
Yeah, ten sets, at $20 a set...K? Worth burning up a $120-$250 speedo over? Is it worth a DNF because of a bead coming off?
ITBJHO no. If you're cool with it, and spending $50 on a set of wheels so you can take forty five minutes to swap PL-only tires on your PL beadlocks when AKA Gridirons or (blech) Jconcepts Barcodes are the tires at the track simply because the tires you normally run at the track where you only race nights aren't hooking up quite nicely for the big race being held there during the day, go for it. ThunderbirdJunkie's post was not for or against beadlocks. There is a reason Associated quit using that stupid 3 piece rim crap on gas trucks and electric trucks...beadlocks have their place, again, ITBJHO, but it's not on a race truck. If you want to run them, go right ahead, but the convenience of already having a set of tires in the pit box ready to rock and roll is quite nice. Swapping tires on beadlocks on race day to experiment? Pfft, F that. ThunderbirdJunkie races toy cars to relax, not to do extra, unnecessary work. He can see changing a camber link, or even shock oils, at the track...but spending an hour mounting and dismounting tires? Pfft. Screw that, that's too much like work. ThunderbirdJunkie works enough between his full time job and his full time classes. Toy cars are for playing.
Everything old is new again
Let's all rush to buy the hot new Associated 3 piece wheels for our RC10s! 2.2s? That's new, that's stupid...let's stick with 1.5" ProLine Waffles, they hook up GOOD ENOUGH.
I run Grid irons when it's required, I run barcodes/subcultures - All on PL beadlocks. With a handy Lipo Drill, I can swap the tires in 10 minutes. Is that 45 seconds for plastic rims, no. Each new tire purchase+$18.00-10minutes=Win.
If I think about my ESC drawing extra amps: seeing as how I barely get over 130 degrees on my Speedo, and 165 on my motor, So I don't have that issue, 1415 castle, MMP. I'd really like to see a Castle Chart Log for this because I honestly think that's being overplayed a bit. But either way.
And as far as that rotating mass, my car is planted with them in the corners and down the rough straightaways. the extra weight makes the car travel under it's own weight farther than the plastic. Acceleration is completely null with or without them. I use the 1415 Castle, I won't put up an argument for a smaller can, but " I " do not have an issue.
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I don't want to argue the fact too far either. I just want people to see both sides of this "Taboo possibility" and not be blinded by the "do what the Pros do" thing and just accept spending more money. This "IS" a viable option if you take care of the beadlocks and have your truck set up with a good power system.
(the 9-10 sets i've gone through have been PL m4 compounds at local 8th scale tracks, some Gravel and street running, and 1 race season. -about 15 months) It really doesn't matter because 4 sets paid for the beadlocks, after that it's all savings. Anyway. Dropping Topic.~
Bottom line is I completely disagree with "Beadlocks have their place, but it's not on a race Truck."