Tire Taping ?

[E-Revonut]

Originally Posted by bdebde

hoovhartid,

Did you cut the badlands to fit them on the LPR rims?

I picked up some of that gorilla tape for the next set I tape up.

Someone really needs to start making belted tires in MT size.

Belted tires sound like a good idea!!! I have the same combo on my E-Revo as well, great minds think alike, I only have mine geared for low thirties, currently waiting on a pinion from Mike. Balooning is still apparent at this speed. Gonna get me some gorilla tape to try!

[lincpimp]

Ok, so I went to the local hardware store and picked up some supplies. Found some 3m clear duct tape that looked decent, and also some epoxy putty to use as "wheel weights". It is the 2 part kind that is in stick form, just cut off a section and knead it together until it is thouroughly mixed. Tape was $6 and the epoxy putty was $3.50.

Flipped the tires inside out and applied one wrap of the tape. I did about 1/2" overlap on the ends. Re-assembled the wheels and tires and put them on my prop balancer. Had to use a hpi 17mm hex adapter so that the al cones on the balancer's shaft would center the wheel properly. The hole in the center of the wheel is too big. The epoxy putty worked well, as I could push it into place, and then spread it out a bit to cover the inside of the wheel. I was supprised to see how much I used for each wheel, almost used 1oz of the 2oz packet on the 4 wheels.

For testing purposes, I added the tape and balanced 2 wheels/tires and put them on one side of the truck, left the other 2 without tape and unbalanced. Then I went out for some test runs. All I can say is that it makes a huge difference. Tires were pizza cutters on the stock side (easily 3/4" to 1" of balloning top and bottom) and about 1/4" of ballooning on the taped/balanced side. Went back and taped/balanced the other 2 wheel/tires and went out for another test. 44mph radar runs were sooooo smooth and controllable. Massive difference over the non-taped and balanced tires. Well worth the effort. I will do this to all of my tires from now on!