Positron Design
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I was watching British YouTubers at ROSSA, setting speed records.
A common problem was a lot of tires were exploding. Especially the foam tires. As an engineer I saw this as a 'using the wrong material for the job' problem.
First thought was - use a skateboard tire. So I fired up CAD and designed a R/C wheel with a urethane tire.
When I priced getting this prototyped in 3D printed rubber it would cost over $400!
Hmmm... What else is like rubber and shaped like a donut? A Hose!
I found that a 3" I.D. 4-ply 5mm thick reinforced silicone automotive Turbo tube is a perfect fit for my 3"/2.2" wheels.
A 4" hose will fit 4" 1:8 scale wheels. It is is best that the wheels have minimal ribs or are flat.
$25 for a 6" long tube. Then It was easy to slice the tube into 4 x 1.5" rings / tires with a utility knife. But it's hard to cut it in a perfect straight line.
Cutting the ribs is easy, but be careful. The wheel plastic is very thin. I made a few mistakes so go slow.
You can see that my wheels are 3", but the outside bead is 2.2". A wheel with different inside and outside bead diam. is best.
It makes the tires go on easier if you don't need to cut many beads / ribs.
Be sure to roughen the wheel and tire with sandpaper before gluing. I forgot and the first time I crashed, the tire popped off of the wheel... no damage. Then I checked the other tires, peeled the rubber back a bit and used more tire glue.
Glue the wheel and slide on the tire. I Zip tied the tires tight to the wheel while curing. I slid the 1.5" wide tire tight to the inside bead and left about 0.25" of tire sticking out wider from the wheel. So a sideways crash hits the tire before the wheel.
It took a while to scrub the shine off of the silicone tires and adjust the springs. At first the tires were very squirrelly.
Then I found they are excellent for high speed 4WD drifting. Not the best lateral grip but very controllable in a slide.
I think my experiment is a success, but I don't happen to have a car capable of testing my tire at 200MPH ATM.
P.S.
I showed Kevin Talbot my idea and he liked it so much, he used the idea to make a video about solid rubber R/C tires he could find online. He got the same results as my DIY tires. but my experiment is waaaay cheaper.
A common problem was a lot of tires were exploding. Especially the foam tires. As an engineer I saw this as a 'using the wrong material for the job' problem.
First thought was - use a skateboard tire. So I fired up CAD and designed a R/C wheel with a urethane tire.
When I priced getting this prototyped in 3D printed rubber it would cost over $400!
Hmmm... What else is like rubber and shaped like a donut? A Hose!
I found that a 3" I.D. 4-ply 5mm thick reinforced silicone automotive Turbo tube is a perfect fit for my 3"/2.2" wheels.
A 4" hose will fit 4" 1:8 scale wheels. It is is best that the wheels have minimal ribs or are flat.
$25 for a 6" long tube. Then It was easy to slice the tube into 4 x 1.5" rings / tires with a utility knife. But it's hard to cut it in a perfect straight line.
Cutting the ribs is easy, but be careful. The wheel plastic is very thin. I made a few mistakes so go slow.
You can see that my wheels are 3", but the outside bead is 2.2". A wheel with different inside and outside bead diam. is best.
It makes the tires go on easier if you don't need to cut many beads / ribs.
Be sure to roughen the wheel and tire with sandpaper before gluing. I forgot and the first time I crashed, the tire popped off of the wheel... no damage. Then I checked the other tires, peeled the rubber back a bit and used more tire glue.
Glue the wheel and slide on the tire. I Zip tied the tires tight to the wheel while curing. I slid the 1.5" wide tire tight to the inside bead and left about 0.25" of tire sticking out wider from the wheel. So a sideways crash hits the tire before the wheel.
It took a while to scrub the shine off of the silicone tires and adjust the springs. At first the tires were very squirrelly.
Then I found they are excellent for high speed 4WD drifting. Not the best lateral grip but very controllable in a slide.
I think my experiment is a success, but I don't happen to have a car capable of testing my tire at 200MPH ATM.
P.S.
I showed Kevin Talbot my idea and he liked it so much, he used the idea to make a video about solid rubber R/C tires he could find online. He got the same results as my DIY tires. but my experiment is waaaay cheaper.
