Crawler Innovations Single Stage Double Duece's

[helhedded]

I was given the opportunity to drive and review some new prototype foams from Crawler Innovations. This foam was designed to be used with a wheel that has an inner support ring such as the Mayhem UCW wheel. The UCW inner support rings eliminate the need for a stiff foam so from day one I have ran a very narrow inner foam in my dual-stage Novas. Eddie is always coming up with new ideas and I was excited to hear that a new soft foam was going to be introduced. I ordered up a set along with the new "no glue" dual stages. These foams are prototypes so the holes are hand cut and he final product will be machine cut.





The new foam has the same density as the outer foam of the dual-stage foams and it is 5 3/4" tall. I figured that since the foams were so soft an inner channel wasn't needed. I slapped them up in my Wicked J UCWs with the HB Sedona tire with no problems. I felt the combo was too soft for my rig so I added a Crawler Innovations tuning disc to each side of the foam. I plan on experimenting with them to see if I can get different results.

[wrightcs77]

Interested in these. I love the UCW rims and have wanted to try the CI foams.

[helhedded]

I am running this setup in the front and dual-stages in the rear.

Here are a few pics of the new foams in action

[Nova's Ark]

Nice review Ashton. Thank you. I am glad you like the DD SS foams and that you made good use of the tuning discs. The tuning disc's are cut in both 5.5 tall and 5.0 tall sizes. If someone wanted more forward bite they could run the 5.0 tall tuning disc. Since these single stage foams are so soft, they are taller than 5.5 to help fill up the tire which you can see in your picture. Nice review and thank you.
Eddie

[redbaron]

Nice! Any projected release date Eddie?

[4xFord]

I have a good amount of time with a similar setup and it gives killer forward bite over anything else I have tried!

[helhedded]

Originally Posted by Nova's Ark

Nice review Ashton. Thank you. I am glad you like the DD SS foams and that you made good use of the tuning discs. The tuning disc's are cut in both 5.5 tall and 5.0 tall sizes. If someone wanted more forward bite they could run the 5.0 tall tuning disc. Since these single stage foams are so soft, they are taller than 5.5 to help fill up the tire which you can see in your picture. Nice review and thank you.
Eddie

I am loving the foams! I believe the discs that I already had were 5.0 to begin with, but I have since then removed the discs. I think I like them without discs

Thanks Eddie!

Originally Posted by 4xFord

I have a good amount of time with a similar setup and it gives killer forward bite over anything else I have tried!

No kidding.... I pulled the tuning discs out just to see what would happen and I was surprised at how well the support ring worked with the single stage nova. I plan on hitting the same lines that I did in the pics above later today or tomorrow to see if things got better or worse.

[JeremyH]

Looking good! Got any pics of how you channeld the foam (if you did)??

[helhedded]

Originally Posted by JeremyH

Looking good! Got any pics of how you channeld the foam (if you did)??

The channel isn't needed!


From my knowledge Eddie likes to have "drop in and go" foams. His dual stages were just like that for most setups, but that was without a inner support ring wheel.

[JeremyH]

That's what I thought.....that is good news!

[4xFord]

I channeled mine for the rings, they work awesome, I am setting up some spare wheels with that setup again this weekend, I will post about it then.

[helhedded]

Originally Posted by 4xFord

I channeled mine for the rings, they work awesome, I am setting up some spare wheels with that setup again this weekend, I will post about it then.

After running them without any tuning discs I found the need to channel too. I just cut a large slit in the foam rather than channeling it. I think the traction was great with no discs, but the tire almost has no support in some situations.


I could not make this line clean without the tuning discs. (I was running them in this pic)
http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/q...2381Medium.jpg

[helhedded]

We had a comp on some super smooth creek rock and I was very pleased at how my tire and foam set-up worked. I ended up with 2nd place for the day. There were a few lines that this set-up just devoured.

Here are a few action pics that rottenbelly took.


http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/q...s/DSC_0152.jpg

http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/q...g?t=1275930019

http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/q...g?t=1275936152

[Szczerba]

Watching this setup this weekend makes me think twice about selling the sedona's to Ashton. His tire/foam setup was working good, I guess enough to edge 2nd place from me. This comp had a good bit of slick rock and water hazards. Traction was only on some mossy areas but his setup was working..

I was running the Dual Stage DD's and Super soft leopards from CI and they worked great too..

[helhedded]

Originally Posted by Shane_744

Watching this setup this weekend makes me think twice about selling the sedona's to Ashton. His tire/foam setup was working good, I guess enough to edge 2nd place from me. This comp had a good bit of slick rock and water hazards. Traction was only on some mossy areas but his setup was working..

I was running the Dual Stage DD's and Super soft leopards from CI and they worked great too..

Well if you makes you feel any better I was running a new pair up front. The set you sold me was the set that I ran at ECC this year, and that sandpaper rock just ate them alive