Tire Taping ?
 

So I just put a set of badlands on my erevo. Lots of traction, but they do balloon quite a bit. I currently have maximizer beadlock wheels and the proline molded foams.

Shough I wrap tape on the tire, or the foam? I have read that some turn the tire inside out and wrap it a few times with tape, or should I leave it right side out and put the tape in that way?

Also what tape should I use?

Thanks guys.. I need to go back to a 17t pinion, as the 19t is pulling a few more amps with these tires compared to my mtr bowties...

i used duct tape on my badlands and it completely STOPPED the ballooning, yes wrap the tire

one turn of duct tape with about 1/2 inch overlap

I turn inside out and use the extreme packaging tape - it is glass reinforced... seems to do the job well

http://www.staples.com/office/suppli...&ci_sku=489132

http://www.staples.com/sbd/img/cat/std/s0081250_std.jpg

I have to agree with Arct1k. They do the job very well indeed.

Thanks guys, I will try to scare up some of the tape arkt1c linked to....

Funny to see the tires grow, and they are way off balance. What does everyone use to balance the tires? I have heard of modeling clay being used cause it is sticky, but is there anything better? I have a prop balancer so I can do it properly...

You could try this
http://www.holabirdsports.com/cgi-bi...product=060975
http://www.golfsmith.com/ps/products...c3f37d7a5dc441

Thanks, hopefully I can find something like that locally...

I have the same tire and wheel combo and I know what you mean by the ballooning I have been thinking about doing the tape mod and the glass enriched tape looks good and I have thought about applying some sort of glue or other hardening agent to the tire to keep it from ballooning

linc you pulled the thoughts right out of my head.

Last night i got my maxx setup and drove it for the fist time in ages with my MMM and i too am running maximizers on badlands because i liked the look and they are all terran. after driving a few questions came to my head

1.) what do i do to stop the balloning
2.) why are they so unballenced
3.) why did i rip the tires right out of the beadlock

so to prove that i am not joking heres a pic of my tires laying in the floor ready for taping to be done.

[IMG]<a href="http://s116.photobucket.com/albums/o6/GorillaMaxx360/?action=view&current=P1010001-2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o6/GorillaMaxx360/P1010001-2.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>[/IMG]

thanks for the thread as it will be very useful to me

the tape does wonders,I have used duct tape and the reinforced packing tape.
Both get the job done

Yep, I have the same wheels and tires! They do look good and seems to grip well. I will lower the top speed a bit and try my hand at balancing...

I will post back here when I get all of the materials and get some in-progress pics!

James the PRO's vent ther tire with a leather punch instead of taping . Your tires are going to ballon some what Know matter what you do . There is a reason the PRO's dont tape there tires .

I would suspect the Pros would use the correct tires for different scenario also. Tape adds weight in the worst place, in the rotating mass.(A bad thing for the pros) Is it not centrifugal force multiplying the tire weight that balloons tires? (not trapped air) They would look like over sized donuts not pizza cutters. What is the weight of air? About .075 Lbs a cubic foot depending on the density. How many cubic feet of air is in a badland tire? less than one. IMO. Around 36-39MPH is when mine start swelling.

Just thought you might be interested to read this as Centripetal and Centrifugal forces are often mixed up...

http://mechanical-physics.suite101.c...vs_centrifugal

And that reason is????? I always figured it was a combo of the soft sidewall and lack of sidewall support that caused ballooning. That and the weight of the tread pulling outwards as the tire is spun faster. My beadlocks are not vented, so the air inside is pretty much fixed. I always thought that racers punched holes in the tires to allow water out that got in thru the wheel vent holes?

Thanks for the clarification Arct1k. Me two Lincpimp water and fine grain dirt that centripetal:smile: forces cram in wheel vents.

My understanding is:

Air has very little/nothing to do with ballooning at all... it is just the centripetal force of the rotating tire mass.

Venting the tire I'd understood was more about how the tire compresses on landing etc

Punching the tire on the outside vs the rim helps water/dirt get out

LPRs versus taping to avoid imbalance, rotating mass, uneven performance


Also I would note that generally racing is geared to I would say max 40mph ish depending on the track - I think the discussion here is for running at higher speeds and with tires you would never take to the track... just 2c

This all sounds good to me.

I will drop a few teeth on the pinion before I do much else and see how it does. I had smaller diameter mtr bowties on it before, and wanted a bit more speed so I geared up. The taller badlands with the previous 17t pinion should be about correct. I will still balance the wheels, as I and sure that they need it, and I need the experience!!!

James i dont know what the reason is . I just know that if it was benificial that they would do it . There are several factory team pros that race at my local track, & none of them tape there tires. They all vent there tires .

Some of mine were way out of balance. Does your tires have that little tab thingy on the bead from the tire mold? I trimmed mine off. Anyways are not most pros all stuck with sponsors that have to much invested in nitro and nitro RC magazines ads to consider anything else, so they don't know of the power problems that plague us sparky guys.:party:

One thing I had read somewhere about the issue of ballooning did mention drilling the vent holes in the plastic wheels to help with ballooning. Like you guys have said it doesn't make too much sense - but in some ways it also does.

If the air inside the tire is trapped and air can not get either in or out, then when the tire starts to expand it is is restricted to expansion with the limited volume amount of air in the tire - I think this would lead to a tire that balloons with a sharper edge from the center out (ie: a pie-cutter formation starts faster than if the whole tire could suck in air and expand more naturally with an increased internal volume).

I agree on the point of no venting will produce a bouncy landing impact (like a basketball hitting the ground - there will be no dampening response from the tire).

I would think that the venting process would be one where you would either put the hole in the wheel or the tire - not both.

As I have the same Badlands/Maximizers you guys have for my E-Revo - I can say one thing about the balancing that they were almost balanced when I put them one and maybe the foam has shifted around abit through tire flexing and ballooning, but they are much worse now after about 5 or so runs that when I first put everything together.

I shall give taping 2 tires a try and see how they compare to the other 2 that are not taped. I will also balance the wheels seperate from the tires.

I had badlands on 17mm offset mazimizers but just decided to glue them onto Ofna 17mm offsets as the just kept coming off the mazimizers no matter what i did...

When they make a rc tire out of one rubber compound, It looses its form all thru-out the tire when the forces become great enough. but take a dragster tire tread in burnout it maintains a good contact path while expanding. Belting and tapping changes the tires rigidity to resit irregular expansion. IMO

here is an article on taping for ya; (link)

Also, I have badlands on LPR 1/2" offset rims.;
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...m/IMG_1340.jpg
I taped mine because w/o the tape, they were as big as dinner plates over 50MPH.
Now, nothin. They are awesome. Mine are not balanced either. I tried to balance them using some hot glue on the inside of the rim, but that added too much weight and did not help with the wobble.

Now, I only notice an imbalance over 50 mph. But its much better with tape than without.

I used gorilla duct tape. That stuff is awesome. It could practicly stick to water.

hoovhartid,

Did you cut the badlands to fit them on the LPR rims?

I picked up some of that gorilla tape for the next set I tape up.

Someone really needs to start making belted tires in MT size.

Belted tires sound like a good idea!!! I have the same combo on my E-Revo as well, great minds think alike:lol:, I only have mine geared for low thirties, currently waiting on a pinion from Mike. Balooning is still apparent at this speed. Gonna get me some gorilla tape to try!

Picture Time!!
 

Ok, so I went to the local hardware store and picked up some supplies. Found some 3m clear duct tape that looked decent, and also some epoxy putty to use as "wheel weights". It is the 2 part kind that is in stick form, just cut off a section and knead it together until it is thouroughly mixed. Tape was $6 and the epoxy putty was $3.50.

Flipped the tires inside out and applied one wrap of the tape. I did about 1/2" overlap on the ends. Re-assembled the wheels and tires and put them on my prop balancer. Had to use a hpi 17mm hex adapter so that the al cones on the balancer's shaft would center the wheel properly. The hole in the center of the wheel is too big. The epoxy putty worked well, as I could push it into place, and then spread it out a bit to cover the inside of the wheel. I was supprised to see how much I used for each wheel, almost used 1oz of the 2oz packet on the 4 wheels.

For testing purposes, I added the tape and balanced 2 wheels/tires and put them on one side of the truck, left the other 2 without tape and unbalanced. Then I went out for some test runs. All I can say is that it makes a huge difference. Tires were pizza cutters on the stock side (easily 3/4" to 1" of balloning top and bottom) and about 1/4" of ballooning on the taped/balanced side. Went back and taped/balanced the other 2 wheel/tires and went out for another test. 44mph radar runs were sooooo smooth and controllable. Massive difference over the non-taped and balanced tires. Well worth the effort. I will do this to all of my tires from now on!

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...p/DSCF2432.jpg

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...p/DSCF2433.jpg

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...p/DSCF2431.jpg

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...p/DSCF2434.jpg

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...p/DSCF2436.jpg

sorry man, I just realised I didnt answer you. I gotta read more:rules:

maybe someone else asked me this:neutral:

anyway, no I didnt trim anything at all.
I just kept pulling until they were on:whip:

the gorilla tape is strong, but i think now it may be on the heavy side compaired to that transparent tape lincpimp is using. I may try that next time and see how it compairs.:yes:

belted would be huge! I would buy those with a quickness.

Linc- thanks for the write up. So many people just repeat what they've heard, you went and did an a/b comparison and shared your results with us. Definately a worthwhile read, I've always taped monster truck tires, I'll probably balance my wheels now as well. I too have a couple of sets of maximizers. Popular wheel I guess...........

I tried quite some different methods, ductape is ususally the best. Make sure the tires are clean (on the part you apply the tape to)

tried all sorts of glue, but i had a hard time vulcanizing the rubber of the tires i tested it with (mulchers)

Ductape, two layers should do the trick..

http://rc.stuurmijmail.nl/Balloon%20...ent/index.html

Excellent thread guys thanks for all the info!

Very welcome, I had always wondered how to do the taping and balancing and can recommend the process. I will do it to everything I own!

I took a couple of old arms and removed the shaft from the axle to use for a balancer. Some of us aren't as lucky as linc to have a prop balancer just laying around. Had a couple that were so out of balance I was about ready to give them away. Tried the golf tape and balanced them and they work great now. The epoxy putty is a good idea too.

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/c...r/DSCF4743.jpg

I like the clamp and table idea. My prop balancer is just big enough to do a std maxx tire. I was going to need something like this to do my lst tires...

I like the epoxy putty but wish it was a bit heavier. My buddy gave me some sticky lead weights that are used to balance full size tires. I may try to cut them up a bit and use them!