What new foams for the Gen8?

[Jim85IROC]

For those of you who don't live in tropical climates, you've no doubt noticed that the Gen8 foams are bricks in cold weather. My garage is about 35 degrees and it's almost comical how hard the foams are. For those of you who have to deal with colder temps, what foams are you running with the stock tires? I'm assuming that CI Lil Novas are the right answer, but I'm a bit unsure of whether I should be looking at mediums or softs. On my Gen7 Sport I'm running the stock foams which are the "throw away" cheap foams, and honestly, I think they work great on the truck. This makes me think that a Lil Nova Soft would be a good choice, at least up front, and maybe a medium in the back. What does the peanut gallery think?

[mgputer]

Sounds like you have a good plan. The only thing I do different is I like to run the same foams front and rear. But typically that's what everyone else runs for foams I'm just an odd ball.

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[brimdogg]

I will agree that the Gen 7 sport foams are the better bet in the winter months.
I've been happy with Proline dual stage foams in past experience, but not sure if you can get them in the right size.

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[DukeMinnix]

Originally Posted by brimdogg

I will agree that the Gen 7 sport foams are the better bet in the winter months.
I've been happy with Proline dual stage foams in past experience, but not sure if you can get them in the right size.

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you can, the gen 8 tires are 4.75 so same as any of the XL proline 1.9s.

That being said, I have run the CI dual stages on mine. They work as they should. I don't think you can go wrong with the dual stage prolines either, especially if running proline tires. I think either will work. I currently have the stock RC4WD foams with the 4.75 MTRs in mine, work awesome also.

[allanon1965]

I am running the lil nova foams, mediums in front and firms in the rear since the scout weighs 8 pounds...

[Jim85IROC]

Originally Posted by allanon1965

I am running the lil nova foams, mediums in front and firms in the rear since the scout weighs 8 pounds...

Do you get any tire compression with the medium/firm combo? I know the Gen8 is heavier than the Gen7, but my Gen7 does great with the stock "junk" foams. I suspect that the stock tires have a bit firmer sidewall than most aftermarket tires.

[DukeMinnix]

Originally Posted by Jim85IROC

Do you get any tire compression with the medium/firm combo? I know the Gen8 is heavier than the Gen7, but my Gen7 does great with the stock "junk" foams. I suspect that the stock tires have a bit firmer sidewall than most aftermarket tires.

I can tell you this, we did a ton of foam testing on my buddy poochies. We ended up throwing some old 2.2 stock wraith foams in his. His tires have the absolute perfect amount of sidewall deflection in my opinion. It sidehills beautifully with no rollover. I think they perform as well as my XL TSLs with dual stage CI foams, I'm running medium outer front and rear.

[monsterz]

Just put in some Nova 4.5, standards with soft in front and medium in rear. Works very well, even in temps in the 30's.

[Jim85IROC]

Nova 4.5s? I thought the stock Swampers were a 4.75 tire?

[DukeMinnix]

They are 4.75 tires, some people like air space. Some don't. I'm running foams for 4.75 tires in mine.

[Jim85IROC]

Good to know. Maybe I'll try the 4.5s. I'm running a "large" set of foams in my 2.2 Rock Beasts and I feel like they fill the tire a bit too much. Maybe a small gap would be a good idea for these tires.

[Browneye]

Originally Posted by monsterz

Just put in some Nova 4.5, standards with soft in front and medium in rear. Works very well, even in temps in the 30's.

^^This. Going to work well in any climate.



CI has plenty of 'how-to' available. The 'outers' are all the same size, it's the inners that are different, and you pick one that matches your INSIDE tire diameter, not match the tire spec. The 4.5 works exceptionally well in a 4.75 tire. I have some 4.5's that also work just as well in a 6lb rig.



For crawling, Nova says get the comp-cut for more tread deflection. They were DESIGNED for crawling.



Never before have foams made such a huge difference in performance for me as the Lil Nova's. They are now standard fair for my rigs.

[Jim85IROC]

Just ordered up some Comp Cut 4.5 Nova mediums and softs. Thanks for the advice!

[monsterz]

You'll be happy!

[allanon1965]

Originally Posted by Jim85IROC

Do you get any tire compression with the medium/firm combo? I know the Gen8 is heavier than the Gen7, but my Gen7 does great with the stock "junk" foams. I suspect that the stock tires have a bit firmer sidewall than most aftermarket tires.

yes I do get compression on both ends...so far it seems pretty close to perfect, time at the course will tell though

[coffeeaddict17]

I ran my stock foams for about 3 and a half hours and suddenly they are incredibly soft. Almost like they lost the memory retention. I'm not sure why, or the science behind it but thats what seems to have happened.

[Jim85IROC]

Originally Posted by coffeeaddict17

I ran my stock foams for about 3 and a half hours and suddenly they are incredibly soft. Almost like they lost the memory retention. I'm not sure why, or the science behind it but thats what seems to have happened.

What are the temperatures where you're at? They're below freeezing here, and in my 40 degree garage, I can crack sheetrock with the foams.

[Browneye]

I have NO idea why anyone thought memory foam was the ticket for RC tires. [shrug]
Crawler Innovations has this challenge very well covered with their product line up. Amazing that the tire sellers aren't smart enough to include his product with theirs, but as long as we can get them for an upgrade we're golden.

[Jim85IROC]

I find the memory foam curious too. This foam is a carry-over from the GEN7 Pro, whereas the Gen7 Sport used a "standard" foam in the tires. Back then the difference was likely to help restore stability to the Pro which added a bunch of weight up high with the body cage and the spare tire mounted to the roof rack. Even then, using memory foam instead of a firmer normal foam was odd.

Interestingly, the preliminary Gen8 manual shows the tire/foam part number as 13811, which matches the Gen7 Sport, but the production manual is changed to 13852, which is the same as the Gen7 Pro.

[Gramps]

My Gen 7 without the tire weighed just over 7 lbs. I think the Gen 8 is pushing 8 lbs depending on the battery. That might be why Redcat went to the stiffer foams. I ended up putting CI Lil’ Novas on the Gen 7 & it made a world of difference. Even with that it appeared to me that my buddy’s Sport crawled better for the most part. I do have to agree though why memory foam. From what I’ve seen in general memory foam breaks down over time.