Wraith Foam Tuning - Setups and Tips

[Harley]

Foams: Crawler Innovations 5.5" w/Firm outer
Tires: Axial R35 Ripsaws
Wheels: Vanquish SLW's 1" Wide
Weight: Approx 11lbs

Spinoff from another thread...

The stock RTR Wraith comes with stiffer tires that actually perform pretty decent at speed even with a little weight behind the truck. As soon as you change tires out to get more grip, most people end up with a setup that is WAY too soft. The stock foams included with most tires are just not up to the task of performing all around. They are usually good at one thing only. This is mainly because you only see single stage foams. I have ran lots of sets of single stage foams in my trucks in the past, for the most part I just dealt with the downfalls of their performance.



My Wraith right now is tipping the scales at around 11lbs! I think Evol got some video several weeks back of my truck slow crawling on an off camber situation. I was pretty much running on the rims. So I got a bunch of foams from Eddie at Crawler Innovations. I stuffed my R35 Ripsaws with his 5.5” Closed Cell Foams with the Firm outers. After throwing the new foams in, the high speed handling was day and night different. I don’t slow crawl with my truck all that much but if I did I would probably go from the firm outers to the mediums to get a better balance.

Anyway, if you want to improve performance on your rig try just swapping foams instead of changing tires. It’s one of the more noticeable changes you can make to your rig.

I’ll likely add this section to the beginners guide as well.

[ESC]

What inner width did you use??

Any idea how much is the width of the stock xr10 wheels??

[JeremyH]

Great post Harley. I've been working on my foam setup lately as well and finally found one that works well in my 7lb 14oz truck.

2.2" Proline TSLs on 1.25" wide rims
CI 5.5 Closed Cell Inners
Firm Outers in the rear tires
Medium Outers in the front tires

This setup is a good balance between crawling and speed. There is VERY little tire roll at full speed cornering.

[Harley]

Originally Posted by ESC

What inner width did you use??

Any idea how much is the width of the stock xr10 wheels??

I am using the narrow inners, since I am running 1" wide wheels.

I think stock XR wheels are closer to the 1.25" wide range.

[t3yf5g]

Awesome Harley

I was thinking I had to run a low profile tire to get stiffer sidewalls.

[ittybitty]

I'm running 1" VP SLW's with the RC4WD 2.2 IROK tires with Crawler Innovations 6.0" foams with the narrow inner and firm outers WITH the tuning ring still intact. I have no weight added to the truck, but everything has been moved as far forward as possible under the hood. Not sure what my rig weighs right now, but I'll update this later...

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by ESC

What inner width did you use??

Any idea how much is the width of the stock xr10 wheels??

About 1.4" iirc, these have been working well for me.

[Soulo747]

My wraith is fairly heavy as well and as you can see with just a little resistance, the sidewalld completely fold on stock Proline swampers and foams.



That's with no battery up front. As you can see my sidewall damn near becomes my contact patch. This leads to many pulled beads and a lot of jerk and shock on the drive train.

This is something I've been struggling with since day one. I personally feel that the stock wheels/tires/foams are too bouncy but everything aftermarket is too soft.

I should've thought to hit up Crawler Innov. But it didn't cross my mind.

[BC Racing]

Have to agree the closed cells do wonders....just switched out all my rigs as well. Will say though, wish I would have went with the 5.25's on the JK (specs below). I do more slow crawling with it and feel they would benifit with just a touch more squish. But all in all just can't beat how much better it will side hill.

Foams: Crawler Innovations 5.5" w/soft outer & tuning ring-F, medium outer -R
Tires: Rok Lox
Wheels: Vanquish SSZ-11's
Weight: Nothing approx about it....11lbs

[ik632]

I've got a set of those foams as well. I'm stuffing them in some Proline TSL's on some Proline 8 hole revolvers. Now to decide, black or chrome centers?

[SwampDawg]

i just grabbed 2.2 mud slingers and wheels today, how are these tires/foams?
my wraith is fairly heavy with alot of alloy upgrades, i like both worlds of crawling aswel as speedruns

[Harley]

Originally Posted by SwampDawg

i just grabbed 2.2 mud slingers and wheels today, how are these tires/foams?
my wraith is fairly heavy with alot of alloy upgrades, i like both worlds of crawling aswel as speedruns

Old school mud slingers from RC4WD? I don't remember for sure, but unless they updated them I believe they use the old harder compound. They may hold up well for speed but they wouldn't crawl very well back in the day.

Got a link?

[SwampDawg]

Mud Slingers 2.2" Tires (1x Pair)

[Harley]

Originally Posted by SwampDawg

Mud Slingers 2.2" Tires (1x Pair)

Ok, so they did release those in a soft compound. You'll have to see when they come in but like I said, most foams that come with tires need some tuning/replacing.

Watch for tire roll at speed, if you get a lot, then a stiffer center would really help.

If you aren't getting much forward traction when crawling, then a softer outer may help quite a bit.

With a heavy rig you will likely need to do some work.

[SwampDawg]

thanks harley!

ill be mounting the tires/wheels midnight tonight as i am running to work here, it is the soft compound mudslinger.
ill let you guys know how it pans out!

[BikingViking]

How did you end up venting, if you did? Closed cell inners plug wheel vent holes and wont allow them to breathe, so did you vent the tires themselves?

[XJkid93]

Originally Posted by BikingViking

How did you end up venting, if you did? Closed cell inners plug wheel vent holes and wont allow them to breathe, so did you vent the tires themselves?

Most people do a small hole in their tires, well usually 2 holes 180 degrees from each other. Crawler innovations does it to all their tires and I love it

[Harley]

You can also put a couple holes through the closed cell inners to vent through to the inner side of the wheel. I haven't had any issues with this on mine.

[XJkid93]

If you drilled into the foam doesn't that require you to drill the rim also? I run VP rims and they cost too much to drill lol.

[ik632]

I drilled holes in the rim. With the revolvers, there's a channel all the way around the center section and it does a nice job giving the air some room to vent. I like the setup with the TSL's. It's very soft for the initial distance then firms up as it hits the inner. I was running Proline Chisels with stock foams and they squash pretty good, but I also don't have them vented well. I have holes in stock XR10 wheels, but the memory foam keeps plugging the holes. I guess I could notch the foam in that section or poke a hole in the tires, but hadn't done that with the Chisels. I sorta like them like that.

Edit: I used the open cell inners in high density (gray) and outers in soft (white)