Has anyone had problems with the stock tires getting hard and brittle? :confused: soiuysgtl Sundance

Yep...
Anywhere near any kind of oil turns those puppys hard and crusty over time...
But you know what really cheeses me off?
The front tires of the cars splitting in the box.....

Ah, welcome to the age old dilemma........What to use for tire compound!?!



Silicone: is great for traction, but stretches easy, tares, breaks down or chunks with hard use, and picks up every piece of dirt, dust etc. your track has to offer.



Sponge: gives absolute awesome traction, but starts to deteriorate seconds after it hits the air....not to mention works best with traction compounds applied to the track, but this is what hard core racer in all scales use....cutting fresh tires just seconds before a race.



Vinyl: Great for short term use, easily molded, and CHEAP.....but over time it tends to split and or starts to break down to it’s natural oily state.



Natural Rubber: Probably best for long term use, fairly easy to manufacture, but has a high cost when compared to the other three.



All of the above have been used for as "stock" equipment by slot manufactures....pick your poison.


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What compound is used on the JL car tires?

Are there any sources of uncoated sponge tires other than the AJs donuts? I remember running sponge slip-ons on TJets. I can't recall if the Wild Ones cars came with a pair of sponge tires in the package or if they were part of a hop-up kit. Keeping them on the hubs was a bit of a challenge, but the guy who had the sponge tires usually kicked butt over the stock tire equipped cars.

AJs (Twinn-K) used to sell an aftermarket silicone replacement tire for the AFX cars that was a nice compromise. I think it was the 007 model. It had a molded in flange cutout and was not too soft and not too hard. Aurora may have put it in the AFX hop-up kit too. It looked like the stock XT rear tires look today, only softer and made of a silicone compound. I've had several sets of these tires for 30+ years and they look and perform today exactly like they did when new - not bad. The same goes for the AJs silicone tires that were molded on aluminum hubs. They last forever. Some of the better pre-mounted silicone tires I ever found were the ones scavenged from Oscar the Track Cleaner.

The TycoPro RTV silicone white boots were the first tires I remember being super soft and sticky and dust magnets. I'm willing to give up a little of that "shiny new silicone" traction that lasts for the first 20 seconds of a race for better traction for the rest of the race. I always scuff the shine off of silicone tires and it helps with the dust.

Hey Sundance!
Glad yer around again. Our club basically uses 3 types of tires. Silicons we use are PVT01s, 02s and 10s all from Wizzard, and PVT 04(tuff one size also from Wizzard. Then AJs sponges some magnet cars like, glued to the rim carefully. They are easy to sand to get the magnets down to the track. I clean them with baby oil now and then and they will last for years that way.
Some of the magnet cars and tjets like the ajs sponges coated with flowable windshield silicone. Then some cars like em left shiny and some seem to like em scuffed a little. As AfxToo said the shineys will pick up lots of dirt, but we keep the tracks very clean but you still change your drivin thruout a race to compensate for the car gettin looser. Guess there is a lot of experimentation.
If these are for racing and the JL tires can be replaced within the rules, they should go to the junk tire drawer like mine do.
I like rules that limit rear tires to the slip on silicones as the easiest way to eliminate the work of building tires, and it levels the playing field IMO. We dont have those rules except in stock tjets(narrow tire) but they are escalating too.

Later --- Circle Track DAC

AFX TOO, those tires you mentioned that are like the XTraction tires are my favorite for racing Magna-Traction cars. I've got about 6 sets and wouldn't trade them for anything. I was told that they are called "Panthers". I ordered some from REH through the hobby store I race at. When we got them, they weren't the same. Too small and the sides too square, not rounded like the ones you mentioned. Randy.

If these are for racing and the JL tires can be replaced within the rules, they should go to the junk tire drawer like mine do.

Later --- Circle Track DAC

Circle Track,

Don't throw them in the junk drawer cut them in half and paint them white and use them for sceanary

Roger Corrie

Tomy, Lifelike, JL tires are all made of vinyl as best I can tell....Tyco is rubber or sponge depending on which type tire you get.

As for the OLD AJ's stuff....it was al molded to the rim, which is a different type compound then the current AJ's tires which is why they don't perform the same.

To be honest, quality control is what forced us to sell exclusively "Weird Jack" brand tires. Jack makes a extremely nice press on tire for just about ANY 1:32 or HO scale slot and they are very consistent in quality and sell for less then most any other brand!

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i REALLY like weird jacks tires, esp the one he makes for SCJ, the rounded edge AFX/XT tires are really, really good. alot of silicones have really sharp profile edges that should be sanded for maximum performance.

I couldn't agree more with AFX too, some of the old AJ's I have are the best tires day in and day out and I think that they look great too.

I like the super tires too, but once they get dirty they get real slippery.

I just purchased a bunch of weird jack products. I think that his JLTO set is an instant upgrade on the stock JLTO's. The AFX Butt Uglies (lower profile) are great because they fit the AFX rim but don't interfere with the wheel well as much as stock AFX tires. His white wall tires are pricey but really look sharp (although he does some blems on ebay, right after he did my order I might add!). The skinny tjets are not too bad and keeps the wheels under the body on T-jet lincolns, etc.

If I can't get my hands on AJ's of old, I recommend Weird Jack's Rocket Science tires.

Jim

Circle Track,

Don't throw them in the junk drawer cut them in half and paint them white and use them for sceanary

Roger Corrie

Now there is a nice idea!
Scott

Circle Track,

Don't throw them in the junk drawer cut them in half and paint them white and use them for sceanary

Roger Corrie


No, no, no......take a dry wall screw, paint it silver (so it looks like a Mag wheel) and the stack tires on the threads. Then screw it into your track table.....do it enought times in a group/row and you've just made yourself a "real" tire wall just like the big boys have!

:)

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What I think Roger was refering to was the way that race tracks had rows of tires
buried halfway in the dirt with the top painted white.
This was usually on the inside radius of the turns...
But strangely enough, I can't find any pictures of this...

What I think Roger was refering to was the way that race tracks had rows of tires
buried halfway in the dirt with the top painted white.


Yes, I aggree...this is what oval (dirt mainly) and a road course or two used to do in the 50's and 60's.

I was describing what tracks do now a day....look at any road course and some circle tracks and you'll see massive piles of old tires as crash barriers. Mostly in the corners and or run offs....the 24 at Daytona even uses them for a chicane on the back straight a few years ago. You can make a very realistic looking barrier using only a drywall screw and some ol unwanted tires.

Either way it's a good use for old tires.


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It's funny, I know they did this (the ones stuck in the dirt), but the only vivid memory I have is from the movie Herbie The Love Bug, when he gets drunk and bounces over them...

--rick

I found a picture from the 60's with the tires put at the inside of the turn. Take a look a few pics down.


http://www.coldplugs.com/thompson_raceway02.htm

Jim

Thanks for the pictures! I save them to my PC and copy them into Webshots so they'll come up randomly as my desktop wallpaper.

I think the dirt track at Boone Iowa still uses buried tires to keep the guys from cutting into the infield. A few years ago the Boone-IMCA supernationals was on TV and the fastest line around the track was puttin the left front over them tires and hangin er out! Thats the biggest dirt modified race of the year with 4-600 cars tryin to qualify. If I remember right Mark Noble won that year.

Later---Circle Track DAC