Tire choices?
 

Hola amigos!

Been searching a bit and all Ive really found was this: http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/show...ight=savage+xl.

It seems that the XL tires are liked for their off road abilities... but for on road/high speed on grass they are not ideal - Ive found the same to be true. Way too flexible when turning.

So what tire would you chose for off road bashing and what tire would you chose for high speed driving (on road just sounds wrong)?

It seems that some of the rim/tire combos are pretty expensive... so if theres a budget solution and a best of the best please let me know both of them :)

Not sure about offroad choices, but for onroad I would go for the HPI Phaltlines- tape the inside to prevent ballooning.

Offroad tire choice depends alot on the terrain- hard dirt, gravel, sand, grass, loose soil- many possible options depending on what you're driving on really. I would say something like 40 series proline mashers for an all-terrain type design (chevrons basically), or maybe something like the bowties with small pins for grass.

Personally I dont race or desire maxximum performance, so I just go for good looking tyres (vain :mdr:)...

Onroad HPI Phaltline with tape on some nice Tremor wheels :intello:

Offroad is like neil said, depends on what you run on. I have a set BadLands and a set of Mashers. The Mashers are supposed to be one of the best all terrain tires out there (that's also the reason I bought them for my Rustler back in the days and they still look great). The BadLands perform better on some nice dirt or sand.

I still have a set of (4*) 40 serie Mashers (only tires with foam) lying here. I bought them for my Flux but then bought some rims and tires together so never used the 40 serie Mashers.

I'm a masher fan as far as a all purpose/season tire. I got some MT badlands but they just don't seem to fit the size of the Savage (too small for my taste) but they are some good tires also. The Moabs are real decent, traction isn't as good as the mashers, but on mine the sidewalls are a bit stiffer and they seem to wear real well. The mashers are the smallest in height for the tires I have tried and make the Savage XL a bit easier to handle on the high speed runs. The mashers and moabs needs some good tape to keep the ballooning down on them. The moabs rubber seems a bit thicker which makes the foams that came with them sufficent. The mashers foam is decent enough to get the job done for a decent length of time but some xtra firm foam inserts might be something to consider with the 40s mashers. The Hot Bodies came preglued and could of really uses a more solid foam base in them. They do real well on road but off road forget about it, especially if you loose your front drive line. Sucker just spins in circles even with an extremly light finger. You know about the Terapins, real fun to bash with but an elephant on stilts anytime else. Thinking long term the get the best tape your money will buy for taping. Moabs seem to wear the best, then the mashers, and badland do well but they wear faster then the others if you do a lot of onroad driving. I like the 23mm hubs on the savage xl. I couldn't find any decent 17mm hexes for the XL and the 23mm lets me crank them down tight.

Here's some pictures for a comparison on size of them.
From left to right:

Hot Bodies Quake on Slayer rims, 40s Moabs on 23mm wabash, HPI Terapins, 40s Mashers on 23mm wabash

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/c...Ltirecomp1.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/c...XLtirecomp.jpg

Mashers
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/c...ndMashers2.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/c...ndMashers5.jpg

Moabs
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/c...ge%20XL/04.jpg

What a reply, cheers mate! :)

Mashers look nice... I like the tractor look!

I found a section on savagecentral dealing with wheels and tires. It seems like most guys there are hot on Crime Fighter / Bow-Ties. Does look more buggy like than the Mashers tho ;)

Love your description of the Terra Pins! Feels like driving a sofa or an elephant on stilts :lol: Will go for some sort of 40 series low profile tire... but not road rage/phalt line!! Its a MT not a touring car mkay. Then I have the Terras for jumping / super bumpy ground.

My vote is also for the mashers. I have tried all kinds on my flux and keep going back to the mashers. They are the best all around tire I have found. They preform great on almost any surface. It is fun to put the phatlines on for speed runs and paved surfaces, but in my opinion the Mashers cannot be beat.

Paved or hard packed surfaces aside, the Badlands are great on just about everything.

The new tire purchase was put on hold... the missus had spend all of the $$:whip:

Now Im back at looking and have seen this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/BOW-TIE-Tires-40...item518d45bdf7

Seem like its a GPM product:

http://gpmracing.com.hk/catalog/prod...oducts_id=2082

Whats the general idea in regards to GPM? Ok quality or?

The wheels are pretty ugly... but 55$ for four "40 series" wheels with tires is damn cheap... approximately ½ price compared to pro line :yipi:

I've used the following tires on my Flux, each with their own pluses and minuses

Stock HPI GT2 tires

Pluses: Decent looks, traction and performance over all

Minuses: Chrome rims sucks, chrome falls off. GT2 lack tread for major dirt biting

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...shocksocks.jpg


Proline Badlands with Proline LRP Velocity Rims

Pluses: Major dirt traction, looked great. Never ballooned

Minuses: Couldn't run badlands on concrete with out shredding them, oversized sized rim gave no shock absorption and made truck slide alot, especially on firm dirt

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...rontangle2.jpg


HPI GT-S with Axial retro rims

Pluses: Great jump shock absorption. Large tread and soft rubber bite well into the dirt. Trucks bounces during crashes. Ability crawl over anything and looks completely kick ass

Minuses: Heavy, tires roll on edges, balloon easily. Axial rims stripped easily, paint easily flakes off.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...glemonster.jpg

Proline MT Mashers with HPI Dish Rims

Pluses: Proline tire foams rule. HPI dish rims look nice and cheap

Minuses: I hated the way they looked on the truck so much, I didn't bother to run them even once. I immediately sold them.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...lux/masher.jpg



And coming soon, HPI GT-S with HPI Dish Rims.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...x/lasttime.jpg

Do you tape the inside of your tires to prevent ballooning? As much as you swap tires might be a good investment to consider some beadlocks... My favorite tire on my Maxx is the Losi ZombieMaxx... Great all around tire IMO...

Yes, I use strapping tape to reduce ballooning. I did beadlocks once, never again. Too much money only to get trashed and damaged while bashing. And too much farking work and time to get them installed.

just get some proline mulchers, losi zombie maxx, or some losi super bolt ons and youll be fine with either one of those. best tires out there!

Me personally am a fan of the Mulchers.
I had a set of reg and moded them to a 40 series.
I then sent a email to proline and shortly after the 40 series was out.
They are a great tire to me. :smile:

Just ran the stock tires initially. Was fun for a while but the handling was a bit wild and inconsistent with the tires ballooning. Offroad grip wasn't great.

After reading some forums i went to the Proline Badlands(MT size) on 17mm 1/2 offset Maximizer beadlocks. These tires have a phenomenal amount of grip offroad. Some of the hill climbs i've done with them have really suprised me. Looks wise the tread pattern suits well but they appear too small on the truck for my taste.

I put 3 1/8 inch holes in each Badlands tire and strapped the inside with Scotch\3M Strapping tape. It lasted for about 6 ~45min runs on gravel\dirt before the rears let go. The outside of the foam was fairly dusty when i opened them up.

The Maximizers look great. They have been useful for experimenting with tires\strapping. The Badlands are a very tight fit on them though and i stripped a couple of screws getting the four tires on. It does get easier and quicker though once you have taken them off\on a few times. On the last two runs the bead on one tire pulled out just a small bit from the wheel and i had to loosen and refit it.

I am about to try HPI GT S tires on the Maximizers. They look awesome. I've ordered the firm HPI foam (4667) for them. The stock foam seems a bit plush. The GT tires aren't as tight a fit as the Badlands, much easier to get on. Hopefully this doesn't mean the bead will pull out easier. I'm going to find some gaffa type tape to try with these in the hope that the dust affects it less. It should be wider too so probably 2 strips instead of 3, less joins for the dust to get into.

Wheel\tire combo weights:
Stock - 299 gm
Badlands\Maximizer - 325 gm
GT S\Maximizer - 386 gm (bit heavy, if i like the tires i'm thinking i will glue them to some dyed black JConcepts Rulux wheels)

There doesnt seem to be an ideal bashing tyre atm suited to 1/8 scale brushless trucks. I'd like to see something like a larger diameter Badlands (with some sidewall support) with slighter wider tread width that was belted to fit standard MT size wheels. Or may a same profile Badlands but larger inner diameter to suit the larger diameter low profile type wheels (again belted). A harder compond tire would also be interesting to try. Moulded closed cell inner foams would be great too.

Stock Flux, HPI GT S On Maximizer beadlocks, Proline Badlands on Maximizer beadlocks
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/...x/IMG_0091.jpg

Smaller diameter and width of the Badlands
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/...x/IMG_0093.jpg

Remains of the strapping tape and dusty foam
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/...x/IMG_0088.jpg

Remains of tape still stuck to the tire. It appears as though the dust stopped the adhesion working
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/...x/IMG_0090.jpg

How the tape looked before
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/...x/IMG_0095.jpg

Test fitting the new wheel\tire combo on the truck
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/...x/IMG_0085.jpg

I first clean the inside very throughly with rubbing alchohol to get rid of the antiaging powder, otherwise the tape just wont' stick. You can see the crud that comes off in the photo. I also do this to the rubber lining before I glue the tires on to make sure it makes a good bond to the plastic rim. In my case, I also take my dremel and rough up the plastic rim to make sure the CA glue has some extra "grip" to the surface.

I then use straping time and slowly go around each wheel and do a 1" overlap. Sometimes the rubber still has to much rubber "residue" and it wont' stick very well the first time. I usually have to take off the first tape job and then the second one sticks on much better. Softer tire compound wont' make the tape stick as as well as harder rubber compound, it also depends on what type of tape your using. Some guys use duct taper, others have used Gorilla tape. And no, you'll NEVER get the tape perfectly even and straight, just not gonna happen on a ovalong and curved surface :P

I also highly suggest using wider tape as the more wraps you do with smaller tape, the more likely it will come off.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m.../cleantire.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m.../straptire.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...cleantires.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...insidetape.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...x/cleanrim.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m.../complete1.jpg

Freezebyte: Your pics and procedure are virtually identical to how i did my badlands except of course i used beadlocks.

Did you use air holes in the wheels or tires?

Whats the longest you have had your strapping work for?

No, I did not punch any holes in the tires, the rims where already holed out for me and that allows plenty of air movement for my needs. I've yet to have a strapping job go bad, but I haven't run these tires for very long either...

I am digging the hpi gt-s tires!! I have to say the rob really relies prob with the wider tape. Plus only one solid pass and only overlap what is needed to make a good hold. The thin strap is prone to pulling easier.

IUse the same technique except for one thing: using hardcore duct tape eliminates the need to wash the tires. The adhesive on good 3M heavy duty duct tape has no problem at all sticking to tire rubber even with the anti-aging crap still on them.

I have a hard time believing that, but whatever works for you.

It's Mold Release , should still clean tire prior to glueing for the best job possible and better adhesion.

im currently using HPI's Supper Mudder tires on maximizer beadlock wheels. i love them work excellent on pavement or grass dirt seems to be a pretty versitle tire.

Kinda looks like Proline Mashers ... only different :lol:

did you happen to weigh them before you mounted them?

lot larger diameter\profile then the mashers. 165mm diameter vs ~147mm

no i didn't i don't have that kind of scale.

Couple of quick pics. Just finished putting this combo together. HPI GT S tires, HPI firm foam, JConcepts Rulux 1/2 offset half ups (3.7 inch diameter) dyed black. Tires are mounted on the inner bead of the wheel and strapped with tape. I glued both on the inner bead and the outside edge of the wheel. This gives the GT S tyre roughly the same profile as an MT sized Badlands.

Combo weight is ~360gm (wheels are 60gm). Also, i'm not sure how i got the GT S\Maximizer 386gm weight in prev post. When i reweighed it was ~400gm which seems right as the maximizer wheel weighs in ~100gm.

http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/...0/IMG_0135.jpg

http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/...0/IMG_0129.jpg

Few more pics here

Looks good! Are those LST shocks you have on there? How are they holding up with bashing?

They are the all plastic Aftershock LST type shock with Hot Racing shock cartridges\boots and Raven dual rate springs. Haven't had them for long but they are standing up ok so far. I popped a cap and bent a shaft on one after a rather high nose dive off a bmx jump with 40 centistoke oil but apart from that all good.

How's the air control with that taped GT S'? I taped my 3.7 road rages and air control was terrible so I sold them. (on the erevo) Don't want to screw up again, but I don't think there would be so much ballooning on 4S.

V0RT3X: Took the new wheel\tyre out for the first time yesterday for a short run. It was only on flat ground though, no jumps.

I have run with these tires taped briefly on smaller diameter wheels and air control was fine. A little more sensitive than other wheels i have run which was probably due to the higher relative mass of the tires to the truck. I've also run taped badlands and air control was great.

What happened when you taped your road rages that made air control terrible?

There is a lot of ballooning on 4S with the Flux.

Don't know, probably the ballooned radius was too small and it didn't provide enough punch, I couldn't do backflips on the skate ramps and diving/lifting sucked too. No problems with the stock Talons though.

Update on how the HPI GT S tires, HPI firm foam, JConcepts Rulux 1/2 offset half ups combo went.
I have about 8-9 runs up on this combo so far and im pretty impressed. I've driven on various dirt surfaces, skate parks, skate bowls, grass. This was mostly bashing, some jumping and even some track racing(:lol:). They have held up really well, lotsa grip, very little lateral tyre roll, enough cushioning for landing high jumps and cartwheels. Strapping tape is also holding up so far(probably because i only vented the wheels). Gluing is also still holding which i'm happy about as it was my first effort.

If a manufacturer starting making a 'medium' profile tyre to suit a 3.7 inch wheel that had built in belting and was a little lighter than the GT S i would love it

Just some info.
 

Just an added trick that really helps with handling issues. After putting all of that work into putting your wheels and tires together you might want to balance your wheels for better performance. If your wheels are out of balance even just a little bit it can cause allot of vibration, which slows your top speed down quite abit, and also retards your accelleration. Once you test the difference between a set of balanced wheels and an unbalanced wheels the results are amazing. It really does help even if your just bashing. Unbalanced wheels take more effort from your drivetrain and powerplant, which shortens your run times and affects your overall handling. Not to mention shortens the life of your bearings. Just my 2cents. Good luck with that.

Check it out
 

check this thread out. It is about taping, balancing, beadlocks, or gluing.

http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/show...highlight=GLUE

The wheels are balanced, although it's with blutac atm. Suprisingly it hasn't come off once. Certainly makes the truck run smoother at speed.

If i remember the largest blutac chunk was 11gm and the smallest was 6gm. The 11 gm one is reasonably large and you can see it easily through the wheel but once it gets dirty you don't even notice it all while driving.

I was trying to devise a way to double sided tape a plastic cable holder to the inside of the wheel and then put various small lead sinker weights inside it. Just seemed too dangerous though even if i glued them in so i have just stuck with the blutac.

Weights
 

I just use modeling weights with double sticky tape, and then once I have a full set of wheels properly balanced I use the hot glue gun to make sure they will not come undone. Yea they do run allot smoother balanced for sure at higher speeds. Once you do the first set the process becomes fairly easy to do.

'modeling weights'? have they ever come loose with the hot glue?

Nope
 

No the hot glue sticks very well on the plastic rims. Plus remember that the weight also has double sticky tape under it. No way it is comming loose. Hobby wieghts like the ones that are used in the pinewood derby cars. I have different weights from a few manufacturers that are 3gms to 7 gms. They work pretty well for doing wheel balancing. I use a dubro prop balancer, but had to mount it on one of my truck stands, because it was not wide enough for MT wheels. Plus I had to make up my own custom balancing shaft using a 17mm adapter for the Maximizer wheels. Like I said it is a bit of work getting it setup, but once you do the first set it is easy from there on. I have balanced a half dozens sets of wheels now.

I balance all my tires also, I found the lead weights work very well and I secure them w/Med CA and accelerator.
Heres the balancer I have, zero set up needed. It's for 17mm hubbed rims but I can also do all my 23mm rims. I do this by adding some 1/4" tape around the hub to bulk it up for the 23mm rims .

http://www.redrc.net/2007/10/ultimat...tire-balancer/

Weights like these? They seem like a nice solution. They look thin enough that you could hack them in half or quarters to get the weight you want.

Bondonutz: Did you use the double sided or just CA the weight directly to the rim? accelerator?