Duratrax Deep Woods - Lug removal mods?

[Stomp]

I just ordered a set of the Deep Woods 1.9 tires to try. I was wondering if anyone has modded these tires by cutting some of the center lugs. I did this on my Vaterra TSL Super Swampers and it help with traction quite a bit.

This is what I am thinking of doing . The picture has red dots on the lugs I was thinking of removing. What do you guys think?

[Brake Weight]

I have a set of these and the rubber compound is soft. Not like the RTR compounds. If you insist on cutting the after you get them I think some micro side dikes would be sufficient. Or a set of those flush cut side dikes. But be aware the carcass is very thin.

[soze]

On my terrain, the problem with these tires is that they lugs are too tall and soft, so they fold over. If the lugs were shorter, these might actually work out at my spots.

[Stomp]

Thanks for the replies. These will be mostly used in the woods at my place. Logs and stuff mostly. Maybe I should have bought the Showdowns, but it seems like more people liked these better. They might be too soft for my Ascender with SSD weighted knuckles and rear axle weights. We will see, I might have to change the foams.

[MaX-D]

Originally Posted by Stomp

Thanks for the replies. These will be mostly used in the woods at my place. Logs and stuff mostly. Maybe I should have bought the Showdowns, but it seems like more people liked these better. They might be too soft for my Ascender with SSD weighted knuckles and rear axle weights. We will see, I might have to change the foams.

Pick up some Proline dual stage Foams to put in the tires. You'll get better performance out of the tire then with the stock foam

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[HugoBiermann]

You WILL need dual stage foams with these tires. Stock foams are SOFT and with the super soft tires it can be a big issue unless your rig weighs less than 3kg’s... even then you’ll have them wrapping on climbs and folding on every turn.

With proper foams all their problems gets fixed and they basically go where hyrax predators go where I wheel.


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[Stomp]

So for the cost of the tires and new foams, it might have made more sense to just buy a different tire?

[HugoBiermann]

You’ll still end up buying foams...


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[MaX-D]

Originally Posted by Stomp

So for the cost of the tires and new foams, it might have made more sense to just buy a different tire?

Not necessarily. You usually have to put aftermarket dual stage foam in your tires anyway as the majority of stock foams suck that come with most tires.

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[RockCrawlingKid]

Originally Posted by Stomp

I just ordered a set of the Deep Woods 1.9 tires to try. I was wondering if anyone has modded these tires by cutting some of the center lugs. I did this on my Vaterra TSL Super Swampers and it help with traction quite a bit.

This is what I am thinking of doing . The picture has red dots on the lugs I was thinking of removing. What do you guys think?

Personally I would cut the opposite lug from what you have marked. I think it would clear better as well as have for scooping effect. Just my opinion, chop chop


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[themountain]

Try those foams-----> A.L.T. foams. they work perfectly with those tires

[Stomp]

Thanks for the replies. I will probably run them for a bit first and then worry about cutting later if I feel the need. First I need to probably look at finding new foams.

[Stomp]

Originally Posted by themountain

Try those foams-----> A.L.T. foams. they work perfectly with those tires

Where did you get those? I did not see a seller or link on that post. Have you tested with the same tire and different foams to see how they compare? Thanks!

[themountain]

I have them for the last two seasons and tested them on PL Hyrax , KLR and Louise Champs which is the exact same as Deep Woods . They are super durable , didnt change a bit with high temperature and look basically new even when used a lot in the wet. You can purchase them only here in Europe , unfortunatelly.
https://www.rc-hp.de/Crawler-Reifeneinlagen-/-Foams

[Dsdiesel]

I’m running these on my Gen-7 and they’re great with stock foams but if your rig is much heavier you may have to look into different foams.


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[dezfan]

I’ve run the Deep Woods.

Didn’t find a need to trim the lugs.

But they do need a good set of foams!

I think I used Crawler Innovation’s Lil Novas in my Deep Woods.

Best lower cost tire there is IMHO.

[Stomp]

Running the stock foams for the moment without cutting any lugs. In the woods they work much better then the stock Vaterra TSL Super Swampers. On the rocks they do not seem to stick as well as my modded Super Swampers. That might just be they need a break in period. The foams that came with the Deep Woods do not seem as soft as I see everyone saying. They do not even deform under the weight of the rig on a hard surface. Maybe this is because the foams as stiffer when new and will soften, or they changed the foams that they include to a stiffer foam. In the woods though, these are proving to do quite well in damp woods conditions with slippery decomposing logs and loose soil. Will report back after a get a few more packs run on them.

[Stomp]

Been running the Deep Woods more and they seem to be doing pretty well. The foams are still really stiff compared to what I see everyone else stating. My rig is only 6lbs 14 ounces so maybe that is why? Waiting to see if they break in and soften up more. Think the traction will get better as that happens. Right now though they do not deform at all when climbing or going over sharp objects.

[Stomp]

BTW, I was going back and forth between these and the Showdowns. I bought these because I was worried about clearance, but I think the Showdowns would have been fine. For my woods crawling they might have been better. I will say though that the Deep Woods have been a decent improvement over the Vaterra Supper Swampers.

[Stomp]

I finally decided to mod this tire. I ran it stock for about 6 hours before and then changed to the stock Vaterra TSL foams. This softened it up a little bit from the oversized stock foams that came with the Deep Woods. That made some improvement, but not enough. So I decided to go ahead with my original plan to mod the tire by removing some of the center lugs.

I did a bunch of the same lines after the mod and I can say that this improved the tire 100%. There were lines in my woods that I simply could not do with the tire as stock. After removing the center lugs this tire will go up things that it could not do before. Huge improvement. I would suggest this to anyone running these tires. It kind of looks like a hybrid of the Deep Woods and the Showdown now. I would be curious how these perform compared to the stock Showdowns. I might have to get a set to compare them with.