Lets talk tire stick, does it matter?

[Ditchrat]

I have a pretty solid background in slot car racing, enough that I can actually make tire compound changes based on temperature, track material and track conditions.

So I was playing with some axial r35 tires, and pitbull rockbeasts.

The new r35 were nice an sticky the used rock beasts not so much. After a good cleaning the rock beast were back to sticky.

So I was thinking, silicon tires on slot cars are super sticky and wicked fast on a CLEAN track, on a dusty track they are so sticky they pick up the dirt and get slick and slow.

Urethane tires are not as sticky and not as fast, but they maintain their speed over a longer period of time, which makes them faster overall.

Back to crawler tires, those rock beast were covered in fine dust and were not particularly sticky in that conditions.

I can not imagine a condition, past running a creek, where clean is the usual.

So the discussion is, exactly how important is stickiness. I would think that soft and tread pattern, so it conforms to the terrain, is much more important then sticky. Sticky would actually be detrimental in dust, and dry conditions.

What are your thoughts?

[Brake Weight]

Depends on location and conditions.

[AWraith build]

The new Rc4wd mtrs are really soft but not sticky. They are working really well in the wet and dry over my sticky tires. (Proline g8 krawler and pitbull rockbeast xl) in my house on a setup I have when you wash the sticky tires they do a bit better but quickly fade even just driving on clean carpet. It is interesting!!

[JDIDING]

sticky helps in rocks when its dry and not dusty, in dusty conditions a soft compound, the right foams for your truck the right tread pattern are the most important factors IMO

[sawhead]

I totally agree Ditchrat and also have a similar experience with slot cars...foam, urethane and silicone. I didn’t mess with liquid compounds much though except on the foams. Of course I could be wrong, but being the outdoors as much as possible guy that I am...I don’t see any scenario that is dust free. I feel very strongly that the pliability (rubber compound flexibility including foams) and tread pattern of the tire has the most impact on performance. I of course am no competitor of any sort and just trail truck these tiny toys. I am just giving my opinion with a lack of knowledge, but some strong common sense regarding outdoors and 1:1 off road experiences.


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[ScottDFW]

I recently bought a new, built rig that had been sitting on the hobby shop display shelf for a long time. The tires have a slight white chalky dry film on them and are not sticky at all. Is that normal or concerning?

[Brake Weight]

Normal. Get a spray bottle of Simple Green and spray them real good. Wait 15m, an hour, or whatever and rinse them off. They should be good to go. But I wouldn't worry with it myself. It'll wear off.

[WHITE-TRASH]

Temperature plays a huge role in tire performance. Dust not so much but wet rocks or mud do play a big role. Butnon dry rock a soft tire shines in the cold and sucks in the heat. Of course the same goes for the flipside of rhat too.

There is a reason companies like proline have charts for their tire compounds that list temperature as a big factor.

I just made these front tires the other day and took them out on their maiden voyage yesterday in 20* temps. The rocks were dry and the rig drove like it was summer time. Pure point & shoot. That is ottsix 4.19" 1.9 red compound tread and voodoo gold pin sidewall with gold pins on the rear. Gawdammed silly.

[ferp420]

When your tirez are churning slowly on a rock the dust comes off real quick i waz crawling a large granite rock the other day it wouldent climb with dry tires but once it took a dip in the creek and went up the rock straight out of the water it would climb but if it had any dirt or were dry no climb in this case sticky wins out

[Ditchrat]

Originally Posted by ferp420

When your tirez are spinning on a rock the dust comes off real quick i waz crawling a large granite rock the other day it wouldent climb with dry tires but one it took a dip inthe creek and went up the rock straight out of the water it would climb but if it had any dirt or were dry no climb in this case sticky wins out

Don't take this the wrong way, but my tires don't spin on rocks. Even on 3s most of my crawling is slow churning allowing my tires to bite and eat its way up. My style of driving, is very much like driving my 1:1 and not wanting to do make a repair because of a stupid throttle mistake.

So with the exception of a blip here and there to clear out mud, not much spinning occurring.

[WHITE-TRASH]

I crawl when I can or blast full throttle when needed. Same as my years of 1:1. Sometimes you just gotta heat 'em up and hammer down.

[Sneetches]

I think it always depends on the conditions. Dry, mild day on the rocks, I think just about every tire works fine. Wet but mild day, I avoid my R35 treps because in my experience they spin more than other tires in those conditions. Wet, cold, or both, you probably need something like Voodoo Gold (haven't tried the red yet) or Pitbull Alien thats way softer than usual. Depending on how much dirt or mud is involved tread pattern might be equally as important along with compound.

[rockhugger]

I statically charge my tires to stick to everything.

[Inspector86]

I also used to race slot cars years ago but at the track I raced on we had much better luck with foam tires. I remember we experimented with silicone tires but as I recall they tended to chunk out. But that is a discussion for another time.

IMO, sticky is not an important quality of a crawler tire due to the environment they operate in. I think the more important crawler tire quality is soft compliant rubber, combined with an appropriate tread design and proper foam, which allows the tread to conform to the surface. I'm running Pit Bull Growlers in Alien compound with custom CI foams. These tires were sticky out of the bag but as soon as they hit the trail the sticky is no longer part of the equation. The soft compliant rubber however continues to allow the tread to conform to the irregular surfaces and allow those tires to bite. The foams support the tire carcass but still allow the tread to do it's job. Even after washing my PB Growlers with soap and water they are never like new sticky again. So, IMO, sticky is a non-issue with crawler tires.

However, I would like to offer another observation with respect to soft tires which is that of tread blocks rolling under on the tire carcass. I worked for John Deere for many years and we would occasionally encounter situations were a tractor tire carcass was too light to support the tire lugs and the lugs would actually lay over under a heavy pull due to the carcass flexing. This generally happened when a customer would mount lighter tires in an effort to save money. Tractor tire manufactures sometimes offer tires with different ply ratings for different HP tractors. I mention this because I have noticed under extreme loading my PB Growlers tread blocks tended to roll over in a similar manor due to the soft tire carcass. To an extent I have been able to mitigate this with foam tuning which seems to have a similar effect as adding plys to the carcass while still allowing the tires to conform to the surface. Anyway just something else to think about. IMO, proper foam tuning is much more important than how sticky the tire is new.

[sawhead]

Originally Posted by Inspector86

However, I would like to offer another observation with respect to soft tires which is that of tread blocks rolling under on the tire carcass. I worked for John Deere for many years and we would occasionally encounter situations were a tractor tire carcass was too light to support the tire lugs and the lugs would actually lay over under a heavy pull due to the carcass flexing. This generally happened when a customer would mount lighter tires in an effort to save money. Tractor tire manufactures sometimes offer tires with different ply ratings for different HP tractors. I mention this because I have noticed under extreme loading my PB Growlers tread blocks tended to roll over in a similar manor due to the soft tire carcass. To an extent I have been able to mitigate this with foam tuning which seems to have a similar effect as adding plys to the carcass while still allowing the tires to conform to the surface. Anyway just something else to think about. IMO, proper foam tuning is much more important than how sticky the tire is new.

Yep, I tried out a set of RC4WD BAJA MTZ and the tread just folded over on itself. It was terrible.

[WHITE-TRASH]

Originally Posted by sawhead

Yep, I tried out a set of RC4WD BAJA MTZ and the tread just folded over on itself. It was terrible.

Welcome to rc4wd tires. They're terrible, every single one of them are absolute crap.