Tire ideas

[BrianG]

I found Bondo's "how to unglue tires" thread/video informative, but my issue is gluing them in the first place! I either use too little glue and they come apart, or too much and the excess drips down the sidewall or gets into the tire and hardens the foam inside. Either way, not pretty. And that's not even mentioning when I don't get the rubber edge lined up just right and there are little "arc" where it's not touching the rim. Arrgg!

And then there's the ballooning thing. Duct tape works sometimes, but comes apart.

Using air filled tires would be nice, but doesn't look like it's gonna happen anytime soon. And a blowout is a definite possibility.

On onroad cars, foams work, but they are relatively hard to find, expensive, and don't last too long (at least in my experience).

What I really want is a solid rubber tire. Yeah, it'll be too hard to perform well, but I prefer longevity. These tires/rims are expensive (overly so if you ask me)! And a solid tire will not balloon nearly as much. These aren't available either.

So, what about filling the tire with something liquid that hardens with around the same consistency as hotglue? Would be heavier, but again, I value longevity.

[What's_nitro?]

You could try that expanding foam. It would need a very precise amount per tire but it dries to the consistency of hard tire foams.

[Arct1k]

Premounts!

[nitrostarter]

Originally Posted by Arct1k

Premounts!

I second that notion! Pro-Line and AKA premounts are some of the finest available and their glue jobs are great and strong!

[BL_RV0]

I 3rd the "premount" notion.

[JThiessen]

Originally Posted by nitrostarter

I second that notion! Pro-Line and AKA premounts are some of the finest available and their glue jobs are great and strong!

Your referring to buying tires already mounted to the rims, correct??? Just making sure that I havent been missing out on some great technological innovation!!

We had a vendor come in a couple years ago and they claimed they were a year away from releasing a closed cell foam tire for the automotive industry, and they were looking at developing industrial casters with that same stuff. Lightweight and never goes flat. But I havent seen hide nor hair of them since. They even left me a small cross section of the tire - but I threw all of that out a while back. I'll have to dig around with some of my suppliers to see if they are still going down that road.

Brian - just glue the living snot out of them, run it through the dirt and get some good road rash on the sides of the tires. Then never clean them. Good to go!

[BrianG]

Originally Posted by JThiessen

...Brian - just glue the living snot out of them, run it through the dirt and get some good road rash on the sides of the tires. Then never clean them. Good to go!

But I just got a new Viper body for my GTP (my absolute favorite car of all time - particularly the 90's models before they turned into Vette wannabes) and want the wheels to be pretty too. Seriously, the rear tires literally ripped apart the rear end of the stock body (Porsche) due to ballooning, and then when the tire ripped apart. I want to avoid that if possible because bodies this large are not cheap. As a matter of fact, my butt still hurts from what they charged from getting the Viper body. I mean, really; $45 for a press formed piece of this lexan??? That's just wrong any way you look at it!

What's_nitro: I did think of that. Basically, put in a few sheets of f-glass cloth and then enough f-glass resin to liberally coat the inside of the tire and spin in continuously until it cures. That should provide a nice 1/16"-1/8" thick coat of resin to stiffen the whole tire without adding as much weight as totally filling it.

I also thought about getting some plastidip (in a can, not the spray) and pouring it in there, but I don't think it will ever harden. I need something that needs to be mixed so it cures via chemical reaction rather than air-dry seeing as it will be contained inside the tire and airflow is minimal if any.

[redshift]

Originally Posted by BrianG

What's_nitro: I did think of that. Basically, put in a few sheets of f-glass cloth and then enough f-glass resin to liberally coat the inside of the tire and spin in continuously until it cures. That should provide a nice 1/16"-1/8" thick coat of resin to stiffen the whole tire without adding as much weight as totally filling it.

I also thought about getting some plastidip (in a can, not the spray) and pouring it in there, but I don't think it will ever harden. I need something that needs to be mixed so it cures via chemical reaction rather than air-dry seeing as it will be contained inside the tire and airflow is minimal if any.

Even if you were able to distribute the resin or whatever evenly, you'd still have flimsy sidewalls. That would mean still running foams or using sprayfoam, both of which I think the point here is to avoid. Sprayfoam would probably require at least 4 holes inside the rim to get close to even, unless it was done first as mentioned. Still there is almost no way you'd be able to have both a balanced wheel and one that runs true... it seems to me. Balancing would be more difficult with either of the above ideas, I think, than it would be to do the old way. I've given quite a lot of thought to this and keep coming up empty.

Now if someone could make a sub-carcass type of molded piece that the tire glued onto completely (or almost completely) and then the tire & molded carcass assembly was glued onto the rim, maybe that would be something. Need something like thin lexan, but something that would not be attacked by the various glues.

And there would be many profiles for someone to have to mold for the various tire inners. The various shapes and sizes could be semi-universal I suppose but who is gonna invest in the idea......

Really shouldn't be this difficult

[simplechamp]

Originally Posted by BrianG

I also thought about getting some plastidip (in a can, not the spray) and pouring it in there, but I don't think it will ever harden. I need something that needs to be mixed so it cures via chemical reaction rather than air-dry seeing as it will be contained inside the tire and airflow is minimal if any.

I thought maybe if you wanted to use a compound that required air drying you could use a small aquarium air pump and tubing. The pump would blow air through the tubing into one of the wheel vents and it would escape from the other vent. Constant flow of air to cure the plasty-dip.

However figuring out how to make this work while the tire is rotating? That's another story...

[Metallover]

If you had pneumatic tires they would bounce like a basketball.

Maybe a magical rubber compund could be created. One that was lightweight, long lasting, spongy (like foam) and cheap. It could be just a solid tire made of this magical foam.

[nitrostarter]

Originally Posted by Metallover

If you had pneumatic tires they would bounce like a basketball.

Not necessarily. 12lb R/c would only require minimal pressure, probably like 1-2psi or less.

[BrianG]

I'm mainly interested in onroad tires, but something decent for any tire (truggy, buggy, etc) would be nice too. As long as I'm not pumping them with 30psi or something, they shouldn't bounce.

"Magic" foam sounds good, but probably not a viable solution at this time. My magic wand is fresh out of pixie dust.

I've thought of things like filling the tires with hotglue, to using fiberglass resin. Both of these would probably work, but would be far too heavy, especially the resin. Expanding foam may work, but in my experience, it tends to be uncontrolled and may expand too much.

[nitrostarter]

Expanding foam could be an option as long as it can be distributed equally throughout the tire and in an equal consistency. My fear would be the foam causes horrible balance problems....

[BrianG]

lol, my tires may end up looking deformed with bulges and voids all over the place.

Any idea where something is sprayed or poured in would involve a process where the tire is inserted into some kind of holder to keep its shape until the filler cures/dries/cools.

[What's_nitro?]

Originally Posted by BrianG

Any idea where something is sprayed or poured in would involve a process where the tire is inserted into some kind of holder to keep its shape until the filler cures/dries/cools.

Spin it....