foam tires to fit a buggy??????

[gixxer]

many moons ago when i was a nipper we used to use foam tires on buggys indoors on carpet, now the burning question! does anyone know anywhere that still sells them? as my local club is thinking of running buggys next indoor season

cheers john

[davidmog99]

I searched for hours to try to find some so i could run my b4 during practice at ardent. No luck. They were popular in the early nineties, when the first 1/10 touring cars were actually converted buggies.
Please post if you find any!

[terry.sc]

Tyres have always been available, unless you are expecting them ready mounted. You'll just have to mount them yourself - just like we used to do in the old days.
Take your pick from these, 30 shore is very soft while 42 shore is the firmest.
http://www.rc-direct.co.uk/-c-39_198_205.html

One tyre will do one pair of buggy wheels, they are just wide enough to do a pair of rears but they are plenty wide enough to do one front and one rear.

[tsan]

What type of wheels would foam tires be mounted on? Would they go onto regular buggy wheels, or is there any modification needed to get them on? We run tarmac buggy in the summer at our outdoor onroad track, I might be interested in trying something like this.

[soggytomato]

we run buggys on foam tyres at our club and use Kamtec KSE 34 for both front and rear on 2wd and 4wd buggies-just trim em to fit. have a look on kamtecs website-bout £6 a pair and last ages-been using mine every week for about 9mths now and just about ready for changing

[tsan]

Cool, but just to be certain, after cutting them down, 1/8 onroad foams will fit onto 1/10 buggy rims?
The bead/lip things on the rims won't cause problems when mounting?
I'll most likely look for something a little more local... shipping from the UK may prove too expensive.

[terry.sc]

Any 1/8th onroad donuts will do fine, there's also 1/10th dirt oval donuts such as these from rc4less which are made to fit on buggy wheels.

Originally Posted by tsan

What type of wheels would foam tires be mounted on? Would they go onto regular buggy wheels, or is there any modification needed to get them on?

You can usually get away with just stretching them onto standard buggy wheels but ideally you need to glue them on to the wheels, so you need a flat surface on the wheel. Get a set of buggy wheels and remove the remove the tyre locating ribs from the surface. If you've got access to a lathe you can do this in seconds, for the rest of us cut the ribs off with side cutters or very carefully with a knife (I'd definitely recommend side cutters!) then finish them off with a Dremel or sandpaper. Leave the outer rib in place as it helps support the wheel as well as protect the tyre from damage.

Glue the tyres on with either contact adhesive or cyano,contact adhesive means you can get the tyres off fairly easily when they are worn, cyano means you have less chance of the tyre peeling off when racing, but means you have to sand the glue off the wheel when you replace the foams.

[tsan]

Thanks Terry, that's the info that I was looking for!

[kart102]

If you can only get a hold of 1/8th foam tyres you should be able to cut a pair of rears to fit all four corners of a 1/10th buggy. As the previous poster says it would be advantagous to have access to a lathe (If you've never used a lathe best to get someone to operate it on your behalf though)

I used to race indoors on carpet in the 90's and I used 1/8 tyres. Never had a lathe back then so used to do it by hand and then after gluing, I would use a drill and sanding block to buff the tyres down a bit to a lower diameter (not essential but sometimes helps)...won a lot of races but these days I'm getting a bit old!!

I've actually just bought myself a set of 1/8th foams in the UK for my own 2wd as you do get some serious grip on smoother indoor (carpet) tracks!

Good luck buddy!

Jim

[tsan]

I just heard back from RC Direct, and the shipping prices are good enough to order a few sets from them.

My last question is, has anyone had any experience using these types of tires on asphalt? Most people I've heard from (including direct rc) have mentioned most guys running them do so on carpet. Surely they must work well for a 4WD buggy on asphalt? After all, that's what the 1/8 racers run on, right?

Thanks for all the info, guys!

[kart102]

Tsan,

That's what the 1/8th scale tyres were and still are generally developed for but to be honest I've only run on asphalt a long time ago using what was effectively a buggy with a saloon shell. This was in the days leading up to the modern touring car class where we used to set up buggys for on road racing. Nowadays there's obviously dedicated narrow track chassis for racing on road but they all still use foam tyres in the dry weather. Most dedicated on road cars still run foam tyres on tarmac.

There are also additives for use with foam tyres to increase grip on tar as well as carpet but I dont know much about what is available and legal for your form of racing as I've never used them. End result though is that your foam tyres will work on tarmac as well as carpet.

Hope this helps,

Jim