Question about Fat Tires and Fast Cars

[grecinos]

I've been wondering about this for a while. As the RC cars get faster and faster, I've noticed a good majority of the "fat tire" cars balloon their tires because of the tremedous rotational speed. Why do people accept this as normal? It's sort of fun to see them deform like that, but it's horribly bad for handling. This should NEVER happen. If I were an engineer designing fat tires, I would be working Night and Day to make those tires rock solid under high loads.

Ah well, just wondering. Any comments are welcome

[fisheydude]

Duct tape.....

[ducati777]

I agree that tires still balloon quite a bit, but the engineers have been working. Stock tires are much lower profile now than in years past. Look at the SC trucks with the inside rim being bigger.

Thats a brilliant design move that gives the performance of a low sidewall with the scale appearance from the other side.

Tire design is all about compromise. Tire has to be soft, but then wear well, not baloon, have a durable tread, etc etc etc.

[Maxson11]

Duct tape.....

Like he said before inserting the foam into your tire Duck Tape the inside and it will prevent your tire from ballooning. If you buy the tire pre glued then you are out of luck.

Here is a link to weather its Duct or Duck Tape (Off topic info)

http://www.octanecreative.com/ducttape/duckvsduct.html

[Over_revO]

Most offroad cars are not meant to be used at high speed, you can do it, but at your own risk with the stock tires...

Big tires help absorb hits from jumps etc..

[gittyup]

Well on the real cars what you are seeing with a tire that is ballooning is simply the fact of the tire being a bias-ply tire. Example,the top fuel dragsters and such. A radial tire has less tendancy to do this...which is why rc guys duct tape the inside of the tire. The threads embedded in the tape mimmic the action of a full scale radial tire. If the manufacturers made a tire that didn't balloon at all it would be as hard as a rock, and then all you would have is basicly a drift tire with very little traction.

[gittyup]

I agree that tires still balloon quite a bit, but the engineers have been working. Stock tires are much lower profile now than in years past. Look at the SC trucks with the inside rim being bigger.

Thats a brilliant design move that gives the performance of a low sidewall with the scale appearance from the other side.


Tire design is all about compromise. Tire has to be soft, but then wear well, not baloon, have a durable tread, etc etc etc.

The inner diameter being bigger is an advantage to helping with ballooning, but it's a side effect that comes with the original intent of the design. Traxxas went to the 3.0 inner/ 2.2 outter simply because of the Slayer. The slayer and the slash had the same style tire but different size rims(2.2 inner/outer) on slash. Because of the differences in suspensions between the two, they were having to build two different sets of wheels and tires for the two trucks, (2.2 outter/3.0 inner) for slayer. By moving to one design of rim and tire for both, they save a boatload on production costs.

[gittyup]

The only differences now between the Slayer/Slash style rims are the hexes, being the slayer runs a bigger hex. I'm sure there is a slightly bigger cost in the production of those wheels, but I'm also certain it's a much better alternative to producing two totally different tire and wheel sets for the same basic appearence.

[grecinos]

Well on the real cars what you are seeing with a tire that is ballooning is simply the fact of the tire being a bias-ply tire. Example,the top fuel dragsters and such. A radial tire has less tendancy to do this...which is why rc guys duct tape the inside of the tire. The threads embedded in the tape mimmic the action of a full scale radial tire. If the manufacturers made a tire that didn't balloon at all it would be as hard as a rock, and then all you would have is basicly a drift tire with very little traction.

I see your point. It definitely depends on what type of RC car you have and what you use it for. You definitely don't want rock hard tires for the Slash 4x4. Speaking of which, I've never had problems ballooning on those tires even when it got up to 53 MPH. I would think Rock Crawlers have the worse ballooning but then again they weren't meant for speed. The Emaxx and Revo Brushless have ballooning problems from what I've seen in Youtube videos. Thus far I'm really happy with the quality of tires on my 4x4.

[madkawi650]

Is there anywhere I can see instructions for Taping tires?

I understand the theroy, but do you use one wrap? 2, maybe 3?
Do you turn the tire inside out first?
Should I be concerned with the tape comming off?

You know.. the usual questions..

TIA

[madkawi650]

I just found this... Its great...

http://www.rc411.com/pages/howto.php?howto=15&page=1

One question though...

Why would you trim the edge of the foam ?

[grecinos]

I just found this... Its great...

http://www.rc411.com/pages/howto.php?howto=15&page=1

One question though...

Why would you trim the edge of the foam ?

Great find. I think I remember this one article I read that said to trim the outer edges of the tire to help steering. I'm not sure exactly how it works. My guess is that it will reduce the friction on the outer edges leading to less roll overs.