Freeze's Savage Flux "Frostbyte II" build thread

Those would fit just perfectly actually, hmm.......

Part 5: Wheel/tire prep and assembly


Next on the agenda is to get my wheels and tires prepped up for mounting and gluing. After much research and thinking, I decided to go with the stock HPI GT-2 tires. I have found the traction to be all around decent with these on my first Flux and they are fairly light weight, especially in comparison to the larger and heavier GT-S tires. Due to the fact that "Frostbyte II" will have an widened wheels base, this will create higher pressure points on the axles, hubs, bearings, arms and turnbuckles. As such, I wanted to keep the weight down as much as possible to prevent overstressing arm components. I also went again with the original HPI dish wheels as used on the original "Frostbyte" I They worked well last time, they look good and are very light weight yet strong. a perfect combo all around with the GT-2 tires. With that settled, it's time to get some CA glue on my fingers! *always happens*



Lets go over my tire mounting supplies and tools that I use. We've got our light CA glue of course, 91% rubbing alcohol to clean the anti-aging powder and dirt off the tires, rubber bands to hold the tires in place during glue setting, sandpaper to rough up the edges of our rims to help the CA glue bond better and our first attempt with using Gorilla tape to reduce tire ballooning. In the past, I have used strapping fiber tape.





I start with removing the inner tire foams and flipping them inside out to wipe out the inside thoroughly with rubbing alcohol and shop towels. This helps clean and preps the rubber to help keep the tape attached to the tire.




I also do the same with the outside rim of the tire that will be glued to the wheel. Again, cleaning the surface of dust, dirt and contaminates will help the glue bond better to the tire and reduce the chance of tire shredding at high speeds. You can see the yellow/greenish anti-aging powder coming off in this picture on the towel. That's what we want as it reduces the ability for both the CA glue and tape to attach to the tire if its not cleaned off.




With the tire's inner rubber prepped, it was time to give this Gorilla tape a try. I never have used it personally up until I few months ago when I helped my father in the garage and he was using it to attach a few pieces of carpeting together. I was simply amazed at how incredibly sticky the stuff was as it took a good amount of muscle to pull off sections of tape! It also was very hard to rip and tear. Duct tape might as well be desk clear tape in comparison to this stuff!




Using a long, single strap, I slowly wrap it around the middle of the tire and overlap it about one inch before I cut it off and press it firmly down all around with my fingers. This Gorilla tape is pretty damn sticky, I'm pretty optimistic that this will help reduce ballooning even more then the strapping tape and hold better under high tire stress.





With the tires themselves prepped, it was time to give the rims some attention. This may be considered overkill to some people, but after you see the amount of force applied to RC car tires under brushless, lipo power and turning regular wheels into high speed, expanded rubber discs of self destructive energy, I prefer to go the extra mile to help make sure my tires stay together and get my money's worth. It's a simple matter of taking some medium grit sandpaper and lightly roughing up the outer and inner edges of the tire rim.




The small scratches and grooves in the rim will help the CA glue bond even better to the rim and tire, therebye reducing the chance of a high speed tire explosion. I consider that well worth the extra 10 minute prep time. Afterwards, I wipe down the rims with a wet cloth to clean off any residue, sand particles plastic filings so its a nice clean and rough surface.





After all that prep, its time to get these bad boys assembled. Its a simple matter of GENTLY inserting the wheels and slowly nudging them into the tire without tearing the foam.




With the wheels and tires installed and checked over to make sure there are no uneven seems, I slowly began adding CA glue in small drops, peeling back the tire from the rim in 2" increments. Afterwards, I wrap several rubber bands to help keep the tire tight against the wheel. I then run small bead of CA glue between the tire and wheels seamand rotate the tire so I basically "seal" the tire and rim together with a thin layer of glue on the outside. I then let them sit for an hour, remove the rubber bands and repeat on the flip side




After a few hours of curing, I remove the rubber bands and give the tires once over. They look firmly glued in place and feel nice and bouncy without being too heavy but have a nice monster truck look to them. Were done here!





Stay tuned for my next section as we begin final re-assembly of "Frostbyte II's' main chassis, axle and tranny upgrades!

[_dV]

Nicely done and they look good, a couple of points though if i may.
- With a high profile tire like those that are mounted normally (ie not on inner bead of larger diameter wheel) you will get a fair bit lateral roll. HPI firm inner foams might have helped with that.
- Also, using a single strip of tape that doesn't cover the entire flat area of the tire will usually allow the edges of the tire to still balloon a bit.

I'm not looking forward to gluing my set up on the inner bead this weekend. It's a PITA. If only a manufacturer would get around to making a decent MT tire for brushless we wouldn't have to jump through hoops just to put a tire together.

[JERRY2KONE]

Freeze, silicone does not expand with heat, neither does standard oil. The less air the better, just an FYI.

CORRECTION. standard oil does expand with heat. I worked onboard ships for many years and supervised transfering gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, and lude oil from one ship to another and I can assure you that petrolium products do expand as the temperature rises. If you put any oil product into a container and change the temp of that substance the level will change accordingly. Hotter will make the level rise, colder will make the level drop. I remember how surprized I was when seeing just how much the levels of tanks would vary in changing temps. Maybe you were thinking about how you cannot compress oil. It is not compressable.