When is a tire worn out?

[RetroThutmose]

I have a couple sets of tires for my SCT and they feel very different. Both are bald eagle clay compound. Both have been used a similar amount but one set feels very different. It feels like the foam isnt fluffy enough for the rubber. I know tires are supposed to be soft and pinchable but I think this set might have worn out the foams? Is this a sign the foams are shot? Or is this ideal? They seem to track pretty well but I haven't done back to back comparisons yet. The other set has a firmer feel to the foam and a little less pliable rubber.

Where are these at in the lifecycle of a tire?

 

[bill_delong]

Not enough information to provide a meaningful answer.

1) Are you bashing around on random surfaces or club racing on a prepped race track?
2) Are both sets identical brand/compound rubber?
3) How are you maintaining the tires?
4) How much run time are you at so far?

I have had bad experience with AKA foams which would tend to crack and split if they get wet and you continue to drive with wet foams. I learned to run a different set of wheels every run and to wash all my wheels at the end of the race day to give plenty of time for the foams to dry out before next race day. My foams would tend to last 2 hours of run time with this method as opposed to 1 hour of run time before splitting foams.

I often burn through a set of tires with as little as 30 min run time and I will recycle the inserts until I hit the 2 hour mark which is typically when the inserts get too soft and break down not offering enough support.

I tend to run older recycled inserts for softer compound tires on low grip conditions and I always run newer inserts with harder compound tires on high grip conditions.

 

[RetroThutmose]

Not enough information to provide a meaningful answer.

1) Are you bashing around on random surfaces or club racing on a prepped race track?
2) Are both sets identical brand/compound rubber?
3) How are you maintaining the tires?
4) How much run time are you at so far?

I have had bad experience with AKA foams which would tend to crack and split if they get wet and you continue to drive with wet foams. I learned to run a different set of wheels every run and to wash all my wheels at the end of the race day to give plenty of time for the foams to dry out before next race day. My foams would tend to last 2 hours of run time with this method as opposed to 1 hour of run time before splitting foams.

I often burn through a set of tires with as little as 30 min run time and I will recycle the inserts until I hit the 2 hour mark which is typically when the inserts get too soft and break down not offering enough support.

I tend to run older recycled inserts for softer compound tires on low grip conditions and I always run newer inserts with harder compound tires on high grip conditions.

All good questions. Let me demonstrate the difference. And let's assume the tires have been treated similarly. I think the yellow wheels have been sauced a few times more than the black wheels.

The yellow wheels are much softer. I can easily create an air gap between the rubber and foam in the yellow wheels. With the same effort you can see the black wheels aren't nearly as supple.

 

[tntpoof]

tire foams due wearout ..replace tire foam

 

[bill_delong]

Since you're running on a high grip clay track, it all comes down to the level of traction you need and aggressiveness of the sauce.

As the foam inserts break down and soften, you'll get more grip which can start to cause traction rolls. If you want to get more life out of the tires, then you can experiment with using less aggressive tire sauce and/or sauce the inside half of each tire. Some will put a thin layer of CA on the sidewalls to help prevent traction rolls as well.

Ghosted treads tend to have thinner carcass and will have more flex in the rubber, treads that are slicks out the bag tend to have a thicker carcass so the inserts will last longer, but it may take longer for them to break in.

I personally would save the more "broken in" wheels for times when grip is down and run the firmer wheels when grip is up. Run them until you burn a hole through the rubber or split a foam insert

Run newer wheels in the mains so you don't risk a DNF

 

[luke66]

tires are worn out when they've got holes in them. At least that's what a basher would say. That's me.

 

[HunterRc]

tires are worn out when they've got holes in them. At least that's what a basher would say. That's me.

Lol I ran down my Bandit Vxl tires down to the foam almost all the way around lol

 

[RetroThutmose]

Thabks

Since you're running on a high grip clay track, it all comes down to the level of traction you need and aggressiveness of the sauce.

As the foam inserts break down and soften, you'll get more grip which can start to cause traction rolls. If you want to get more life out of the tires, then you can experiment with using less aggressive tire sauce and/or sauce the inside half of each tire. Some will put a thin layer of CA on the sidewalls to help prevent traction rolls as well.

Ghosted treads tend to have thinner carcass and will have more flex in the rubber, treads that are slicks out the bag tend to have a thicker carcass so the inserts will last longer, but it may take longer for them to break in.

I personally would save the more "broken in" wheels for times when grip is down and run the firmer wheels when grip is up. Run them until you burn a hole through the rubber or split a foam insert

Run newer wheels in the mains so you don't risk a DNF

Thanks I kind of thought these might be ok to run since the mod buggies sound like rubber bands snapping around the track