Reducing tire size

[Blissard]

I'm thinking of reducing the diameter of my Hilux tires to fit 1.55 wheels and I have some questions;

How do you cut rubber smoothly? What type of glue is the best ? Can I weld by melting instead of glue ? How do you make it look like no work has been done on the tires ? ...

This it the look I want for my FJ40:

 

 

 

Thanks in advance : )

[WillyChang]

Superglue cyanoacrylate works well enough joining cut tyres together.  you could reinforce it inside with an extra patch glued with contact rubber cement, or maybe a vulcanising rubber patch like on bicycle inner tube puncture repair... but I doubt most don't bother. 

Sharp scissors or scalpel cuts rubber well enough. Lubricate with water if you have to. Plan your cuts to maximise butt-joint contact area & preserve the tyre thread continuity if only for looks.

 

[Blissard]

Thank you! Tire thread continuity is definitely very important. I'm mostly worried about a line on the side walls.

[Apexape]

Looks like it would take alot more work than finding suitable tires for the wheels you want to use. Do you plan on running these wheels and tires or using them on a shelfer? 

[nbTMM]

I think even if you cut it and glued it back together perfectly, it would still be out of round because the tyre is going to want to maintain the radius that is was molded as. It will probably assume an egg shape not unlike your last picture.

[Butler]

http://www.tam.ne.jp/nic/tires/tires_01e.html might help. 

[Blissard]

Thanks for the replies guys. I've decided to keep them original and use 1.9 wheels instead. If I reduce them they will also look too short and wide. And I am planning to run them. 

My observation; Hilux tires are close to 1.8 size and they fit Tamiya 1.9 plastic wheels nicely, they don't work with rc4wd 1.9 wheels.

[WillyChang]

are those repop hilux tyres?

Was just thinking the originals on the steel wheels have that plastic ribcage holding them round... that wouldn't be too easy to cut-n-shut  

[Blissard]

On 9/30/2019 at 8:36 AM, WillyChang said:

are those repop hilux tyres?

Was just thinking the originals on the steel wheels have that plastic ribcage holding them round... that wouldn't be too easy to cut-n-shut  

Yes. I bought them on ebay while they were available, should have bought Blazer tires as well.

I would rather make new ones than cutting the original ribcage. It's even very difficult to hold them or place in tires.

[WillyChang]

Darned, have the repops dried up?  Was thinking of getting some, then got distracted by Life. Ah well...

Yeah was thinking of drawing up the ribcage and squirting something out on 3D printer. One day!

[Blissard]

Yeah,  haven't seen them for years. I hope they will be available again one day,  the quality was amazing. I just remembered that I also bought their soft Bruiser tires.

[WillyChang]

Hilux is an odd size, the repops would've been handy. Blazer rubber would be godsent for M38 Willy owners.

Bruiser otoh is 2" and over the years there's been various alternatives. I think the Monster Beetle tyres are softer? There's also some 3rd party lookalikes... I've had some going back to the 90s, with yellow bag tag... branded CRC or something like that.  They're pretty soft, have doubts they'd even support a Bruiser  they're probably more for Blackfoot maybe. 

[Blissard]

Yeah, I always thought Hilux tires are 1.9 but they are little bit smaller, still bigger than 1.7 though. Repops are also same size as originals, the maker of those should have offered them in 1.9 also.

I agree with soft tires on Bruiser. Aftermarket soft Bruiser tires can't even carry an iphone so they're also too soft for a Blackfoot.

[mongoose1983]

Why don't you glue some ring rubber pieces taken from old tires correct size to mount your Hilux tires on those wheels instead of cutting 'em out?

[Blissard]

Do you mean replacing tires side wall  ? I think it would look more messy with a cut line all around the tires.

[mongoose1983]

No, actually to use extra rubber to "reduce" or "fill" the gap between the Hilux tire and the wheel you want to use.

[Blissard]

I understand now. That's great idea! I will make a small test see how it looks.

[njmlondon]

Are you replacing the wheels on a vintage Hilux 3-speed? If so I am interested to know whether you have swapped out the axles or modified the originals?

On another note, if you want genuine Goodyear tires for RC4WD rims, they do a large range... 

https://store.rc4wd.com/Goodyear_c_772.html

 

[Blissard]

On 11/27/2019 at 3:14 PM, njmlondon said:

Are you replacing the wheels on a vintage Hilux 3-speed? If so I am interested to know whether you have swapped out the axles or modified the originals?

On another note, if you want genuine Goodyear tires for RC4WD rims, they do a large range... 

https://store.rc4wd.com/Goodyear_c_772.html

 

Sorry for late reply. I was planning to use those tires for another truck but decided to postpone that build. But I did modify Bruiser axles to accept pins in order to use standard wheels.