People have been asking since the beginning about how to narrow a wheel and how to attach my Rock Rings. So I decided to make a thread about the topic. I've taken some recent pics and I'm use some old ones to complete the story. First off, lets talk about why we narrow a rim or wheel. There can be a few reasons to narrow a wheel.
1: for looks, I like the look of a tire on a narrow rim.
To compare it to a 1:1 vehicle it's like a 35" tire on a 10" rim versus a 8" rim. The 10" rim ballons the tire too much in my opinion. But on an 8" rim it looks better and the tire can be aired down to lower pressures because the tire naturally site off a rim with around 8-9 between the beads. Where as a 10" rim needs the air pressure to keep it on the rim.
2: for performance, a narrow rim pulls the sidewall of the tire to the edge causing the corner of the tire to become useable tread. It also narrow the tire adding PSI to the contact patch of the tire, adding traction.
Here are some #'s regarding rim width and effective tire width. Now I used multiple rims in different widths but the same tire a IMEX Swamp Dawg 2.2
NOTE: all rim widths from inside of outer tire beads
Full width Stampede wheel
rim width 1 3/4"
tire width 2 7/16"
Single narrowed (in the style explained below)
rim width 1 1/2" (just under actually)
tire width 2 5/16"
Double narrowed
rim width 1 3/16"
tire width 2 1/4"
Full width HPI SS Deep
rim width 1 7/8"
tire width 2 7/16"
Double narrowed HPI Split 5 spoke
rim width 1 3/8"
tire width 2 5/16"
Now running Pro-Lines 2.2 MOAB tire on narrowed wheel makes a bigger difference because the tire is so much narrower.
On to narrowing
Here's an uncut (yet marked to cut) Stampede wheel, which is probably the easist wheel to narrow.
Here's the same wheel with one bead cut off.
Now reverse the bead and slide it over the wheel until it stops, then glue it on.
You can do this to both sides and get a double narrowed wheel. Here you can see the differences between all the wheels, uncut, single & double narrowed.
Now, there are some wheels that don't let you cut off the entire bead due to the wheel design. For example all the HPI wheels I've used. Here's a double narrowed Split 5 spoke wheel that has had the outer bead removed to install the 1st generation Rock Ring. Removing the bead allows the rock ring to sit almost flush in the tire.
Here you see a single narrowed HPI SS deep dish with the outer bead removed for the same reason as above.
One of the benefits to rock rings is that when you cut a wheel you can lose some of the design of the wheel well rock rings can cover up the cut. Especially the 2nd generation rings shown
here's another example of a rock ring covering up that cut mark with a CA.
before
and after the rock ring gets glued on(2nd generation)
and after the rock ring gets glued on(1st generation)
Finally here's a double narrowed Duratrax wheel at 1 1/4" width, outer bead removed next to an uncut on and then mounted up with a 2.2 MOAB by Proline.
I hope this helps some of you guys out when deciding what to do with your tire & wheel combo.
1: for looks, I like the look of a tire on a narrow rim.
To compare it to a 1:1 vehicle it's like a 35" tire on a 10" rim versus a 8" rim. The 10" rim ballons the tire too much in my opinion. But on an 8" rim it looks better and the tire can be aired down to lower pressures because the tire naturally site off a rim with around 8-9 between the beads. Where as a 10" rim needs the air pressure to keep it on the rim.
2: for performance, a narrow rim pulls the sidewall of the tire to the edge causing the corner of the tire to become useable tread. It also narrow the tire adding PSI to the contact patch of the tire, adding traction.
Here are some #'s regarding rim width and effective tire width. Now I used multiple rims in different widths but the same tire a IMEX Swamp Dawg 2.2
NOTE: all rim widths from inside of outer tire beads
Full width Stampede wheel
rim width 1 3/4"
tire width 2 7/16"
Single narrowed (in the style explained below)
rim width 1 1/2" (just under actually)
tire width 2 5/16"
Double narrowed
rim width 1 3/16"
tire width 2 1/4"
Full width HPI SS Deep
rim width 1 7/8"
tire width 2 7/16"
Double narrowed HPI Split 5 spoke
rim width 1 3/8"
tire width 2 5/16"
Now running Pro-Lines 2.2 MOAB tire on narrowed wheel makes a bigger difference because the tire is so much narrower.
On to narrowing
Here's an uncut (yet marked to cut) Stampede wheel, which is probably the easist wheel to narrow.
Here's the same wheel with one bead cut off.
Now reverse the bead and slide it over the wheel until it stops, then glue it on.
You can do this to both sides and get a double narrowed wheel. Here you can see the differences between all the wheels, uncut, single & double narrowed.
Now, there are some wheels that don't let you cut off the entire bead due to the wheel design. For example all the HPI wheels I've used. Here's a double narrowed Split 5 spoke wheel that has had the outer bead removed to install the 1st generation Rock Ring. Removing the bead allows the rock ring to sit almost flush in the tire.
Here you see a single narrowed HPI SS deep dish with the outer bead removed for the same reason as above.
One of the benefits to rock rings is that when you cut a wheel you can lose some of the design of the wheel well rock rings can cover up the cut. Especially the 2nd generation rings shown
here's another example of a rock ring covering up that cut mark with a CA.
before
and after the rock ring gets glued on(2nd generation)
and after the rock ring gets glued on(1st generation)
Finally here's a double narrowed Duratrax wheel at 1 1/4" width, outer bead removed next to an uncut on and then mounted up with a 2.2 MOAB by Proline.
I hope this helps some of you guys out when deciding what to do with your tire & wheel combo.
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