Where have all the knobby tires gone?

[markbt73 5616]

We all know the RC aftermarket is fad-driven. When it was all Grasshoppers, Hornets, and Frogs, you could find all sorts of stuff to fit them. Then when the Balckfoot ushered in the truck scene, everyone rushed to sell 2.2" tires and conversion kits to turn buggies into trucks. Touring cars? Suddenly everyone sold 190mm wide bodies and TC-sized wheels and tires. And in each case, companies discontinued the old stuff to make room for the latest and greatest.

I've just been looking around for some tires to fit two early stadium-style trucks, a spare-parts RC10T and a really rough Traxxas Hawk that I intend to restore. Both take the once-common 2.2" "Blackfoot" size tires, now referred to as stadium truck tires. And yes, people still race stadium trucks, but if you search for "2.2 tires," you get mostly crawler tires or 2.2/3.0 Slash-style tires. The few stadium-sized tires that come up are nearly all slicks or near-slicks made for racing on clay or carpet - virtually useless for my yard terrain, and completely wrong for the style of trucks.

Where are the chunky knobs in nice long-wearing hard compounds? Pro-Line used to make ten different styles that would have worked perfectly. IMEX is basically out of business as far as I can tell. AJs, gone. Even Duratrax had some good ones back in the day; they sell only completely wrong tires pre-glued to hideous all-black wheels these days, as far as I can tell. Schumacher seems to make a couple of possibilities, but they're just not quite right.

Hey, Pro-Line: With the 10T reissue, and the popularity of the Blackfoot/Monster Beetle reissues, the time has come for a re-re of some good old knobbies. Bring back Trac-ta-gators or Dirt Paws, in the original compound, and I'll buy a bunch of sets so I have them for the future.

[DGunn1 61]

Traxxas Pro trax 2.2 spikes were the best I found as a replacement for HiLux monster racer rears. A rounded spiked profile compared to the rather low profile more modern style. Could be worth a look?

[markbt73 5616]

Nah, those are mini-pins. I want these.

[Kowalski86 3983]

Lack of demand

Most racers run on carpet, smooth dirt, clay, and most "bashers" buy all-terrain tires for skateparks and dirt.

Spiky tires don't work on asphalt/smoother surfaces, especially with today's insane power levels.

[Saito2 7249]

I admit it is tough to look back at an old issue of RC Car Action and see all the amazing options we had available to us back then. "Progress" or more rather change is inevitable but it isn't always good, particularly to us folk that still play around with this "old" stuff. We never know how good we have/had it until its gone.

[Kowalski86 3983]

@Saito2I definitely feel like we had more variety back then, the market wasn't dominated with super scale (and expensive) crawlers and dozens of Maxx/Kraton copies.

[BuggyDad 5334]

JC Racing do some which although they're still spikes rather than knobs/blocks they are quite "all terrain" suitable and I have found them fairly hard wearing (while also having reasonable grip):

https://www.jcracingproducts.co.uk/king-pin

Or maybe an alternative is one of the Schumacher options in a harder compound? 

[Frog Jumper 3801]

Imex:

https://www.imexrc.com/collections/2-2-tires

[guggles 238]

Hpi yokohamas are still fairly easy to get. 

Maybe find some leftover or nos proline dirt works or dirt hawgs

 

[El Gecko 1428]

I've had good success with the Traxxas Canyon AT tires on my 2.2 wheels, which are usually in stock on Amazon (the AT is for All-Terrain, other versions are mainly crawler-focused). They're meant for the 1:16 scale Summit, so they're a bit smaller and lighter than Pro Line Trenchers, which are also usually well-stocked. Both aren't as knobby as the Pro Line Dirt Paws shown in your pic above (I really wish they would re-release those!), but they do have decent traction on most surfaces. Pro-Line makes a few different versions of the Trenchers too, and the "T" or "Truck" version is the stadium-truck style which is about 104-107mm diameter. The Canyons are just a hair smaller at 102-105 (versus Blitzer rear tires at around 95mm, and most other stadium truck tires at 100-105mm).

Front tires are a little easier, JConcepts makes the Carvers which work well in most dirt, although I've changed the stock foams out for some a little firmer. I don't glue my tires onto the rims, and the firmer foam helps the newer/thinner/weaker tires stay on better. Both the Traxxas and Pro Line tires I mentioned seem to stay on Blackfoot and HPI Super Star rims well, but I have a set of TRX dish wheels that are meant for a Nitro Hawk, and none of my tires like to stay on those for some reason. It kind of seems like the channel for the tire bead isn't deep enough or something. So there is some variation, but I think you should be able to find something that works for you.

Now for some pics, here are the Canyons on Blackfoot and HPI rims with stock foams (yes I still run these tires on both the front and rear, also this pic was taken a few years ago and I'm still on the same set with very minimal wear):

 

Trying out the Trenchers on the same rims (also stock foams):

 

And here's another view when I tried the Canyons on an actual stadium truck chassis (Hawk). They're around 5mm smaller diameter than the vintage Associated fronts. I preferred the Canyons back on the other car above, so this one has been switched to Trenchers in the rear and JC Carvers in the front, and it drives really well now, but I had to gear it down for the heavier Trenchers (smaller pinion).

[wtcc5 5509]

Or you can wait for AE to bring their RC10T spare line up. Then you have spikey tires.