oeoeo327

iTrader: (75)

^^^This is the key to success with sugar water... The sugar needs to fully dissolve in the water to maximize its effectiveness.

Troy Carter

iTrader: (22)

Ah, OK.

Also, note that this track is sealed so I'm sure that matters.

chasingthepack

at our club in the uk we have just started to try the cola method,it was sprayed down today and i had a run,but it was a touch greay in the shaded areas,going back in the morning to see how it goes,anyone got pictures of there spraying machines,we have one designed to fit an atv with an electric pump,so we need to make a trolley to walk it around,we used a wheel barrow today but too top heavy

valk

iTrader: (13)

we use fountain pop syrup in our setup. not sure where you could get the stuff easily, but maybe corn syrup diluted in water could substitute. pretty much all the pop of today is highly concentrated corn syrup with some other bad things put in lol.

trackout

Don't know why but we seem to get better traction out of dissolving white granulated sugar instead of pop syrup or anything fructose based. We sweep/blow the dust off and walk around with a backpack weed sprayer with about 3kg of sugar in it.

samsking

iTrader: (16)

Dark colored fountain syrup seems to be the best option for you guys, we mixed the syrup with equal parts water. The dark color helps with the groove for some reason. It provides decent traction. We switched to VHT this season and will never use anything else. The grip is exponentially better.

Bishop

iTrader: (5)

In case anyone did not see it, Hudy Arena made a post on Facebook some time back, their first coating of sugar water is mixed at 1:1, then it's re-done after a couple of days, mixed at 1:1.7 sugar to water.

Seems wild, but I tested it at home, the sugar will fully dissolve in water at room temp in that 50/50 mix, although I have not gotten round to testing their mix on a track.

bpalmer

iTrader: (1)

we have tested many combinations and found grape soda ,sugar and very very hot water when mixing seems to work best

orcadigital

iTrader: (61)

We're pretty simple in GA. Blow the track first, then spray full strength off-brand grape soda. If we mix anything in it, it is black RIT dye so that we can see the driving line (as that is all we spray). Currently dispensed from a regular pump weed sprayer. Name brand grape soda does not work well. I have not been around for any other types, but traction is quite good considering the lack of use of this particular track and that we only have a couple cars running on it through the day. If we get really serious, we might do a second coat mid day.

YoDog

iTrader: (28)

If you guys have access to Sno cone syrup, it is highly concentrated and available in 1 gallon jugs. Mix this with water and soda and the grip will be quick setting and reliable. Of course VHT is the SH*T but is costly. I wish another company would make an RC specific formula for us and end the mad soda scientist approach. Lightbulb!!

Blui3

Try http://www.fultonhogan.com/Global/product%20sheets/Jet%20Black%20Product%20sheet%20%28screen%29.pdf

slotracer577

30 years ago we used sugar and water. As I remember I mixed it in the sprayer. If you want a higher concentration of sugar you have to use heat to get it to dissolve. I would try 10 lbs of sugar per 5 gal of water. That should be plenty sticky. 120 deg (hot tap water) should be hot enough to dissolve all the sugar.

vivo quevas

iTrader: (19)

[Take what I says JMHO I have 30 years of track prep from sugar water to VHT. VHT is the best but expensive also it is not effected by temp or moisture in the air as any sugar based products. As stated in a post above this one the surface dictates how much traction needs to be applied. Depending on the size of the track what type of sprayer you are going to use and how sophisticated your group of racers are. The key is consistency it needs to be the same grip level on every race day. This will take time to learn you need to read the weather, humity , temps and how many times you have applied traction to the surface between it being washed off or rained off.
I recomend snowcone concentrate in perticular some thing called Tigers Blood it is the most cost effective and easies to work with at $6 a gallon it dillutes in water mix it or dispute it to achieve the grip level you want. I can spry it down using a agriculture spraying system this is what i use it sprays down like you are painting the surface. Our surface is sealed and pretty smooth and it takes 12 gallons of water to 1 gallon of Tigers Blood to get good level of grip. That is the level where the car will slide if over driven but if the car is driven correctly it is hooked up. You can also spray it at level you can have traction roll issues.
It will take trial and error to get it right so I recomend you have tb e same guy or guys mix it and spray the track.Is INMHO
This is the track I prep we race almost every week we race .mini's, F1 VTA USGT 17.5 OPEN and Nitro touring on the same day. So to get enough grip to hold a nitro car and not traction roll a mini is an art!/B]

Al Sodano

iTrader: (7)

We use 4 4 lb bags of sugar
Heat 2 gal of water to 150deg
Mix the sugar in until you can see the bottom
Makes 3 gals of sugar syrup
Do not boil the water
Cost. $7.00 3 gal.

eR1c

iTrader: (2)

+1

We run on an outdoor asphalt track,
1) blow track really well w/ air blowers to remove all dust, dirt and debris
2) pour root beer into sprayers and lightly and evenly spray entire track w/ rootbeer. We spend about $10 on 10 2-liter bottles of rootbeer.
3) let sun do its thing. If its not sunny/warm out forget it, it will just be a slippery mess. You'll even see in turns where the sun hasn't really hit the track that the cars just slide. We don't start our races til late morning and w/ California sun we are usually good. The sun is as key as the rootbeer ...it becomes a nice gooey/tacky surface. YOu can feel it on your shoes if your turn marshalling.

Thats our process, works great. -washes off easily w/ a rain