Tyres are getting to be a problem....

[mud4fun 1696]

Was discussing tyres earlier and I realised that my life was so much easier before last year.

We had six buggies we used regularly, three Thundershots, an Avante2001, an Egress and a Vanquish and we mainly just ran in the garden on dirt and grass.

I had standardised the wheels and tyres so they were all fitted with the exact same black DF03 front and rear wheels and exact same Schumacher mini spike or full spike tyres. This was a joyful life. Only needed a few spare tyres and they could be fitted to any of our buggies whenever a tyre had worn out.

Then, and I entirely blame @TurnipJF for this, he created the awesome postal racing challenge........ 

This in turn meant in order to compete and get better lap times and thus higher lap counts we had to purchase specific tyres to suit specific buggies for specific surfaces and/or track designs.

This in turn meant I had simply dozens of different tyres in different patterns and even the same tyre pattern but in multiple compounds!!!

Then to make matters worse I decided to revive and restore a few of our old non runner cars such as yet more Egress/Avante2001's plus my monster modified SRB and my Super Blackfoot to use in postal racing too which meant even more different tyres.

Then, as if it couldn't get worse, my daughters decided that they wanted new buggies for xmas and chose 2WD whereas all our existing buggy tyres were for 4WD, so now I've had to buy numerous 2WD front tyre patterns and compounds. OH AND the mudlets decided that they didn't like having the same wheels on all their cars so have now swapped to different wheels on their cars for display purposes and these are different sizes, widths and offsets to the runner wheels and don't fit on all the cars without using spacers, narrower hexes, hex bearing adaptors and even shims!

So I now have an attic with large storage boxes full of old tyres, a box that lives under the dining room table with NIB tyres, foams and wheels, a box of hardly used vintage wheels and tyres (but may be used for display) and a massive pile of part used tyres and wheels that is now taking over my house!!!!! 

I'm guessing I'm not alone in this? I'm looking to find some decent containers for them as my current storage trays end up with alot of wasted space due to lots of round things not fitting very nicely into the standard square box sizes and it also becomes a pain trying to find the correct tyres from out of the box. Could do with making some tyre racks really with sections for each of the different tyre patterns etc? is there anything available specific to tyre storage?

 

[taffer 948]

A first world RC problem! 🤣

That would drive me crazy........

[taffer 948]

Maybe it's time your daughter's stored their tyres in their bedrooms? That would see a chunk go?

For postal racing just select one 2wd and one 4wd to compete with!?

[taffer 948]

These tyres need to be in the dark in stable temps out of the UV!? (Even if they are cycled frequently)

(Consider changing your name to 'tyres4fun' )

[mud4fun 1696]

Yeah, fully agree @taffer

Most of the tyres, especially the NIB and vintage are stored in boxes on dark shelf in the 'larder' so are out of sunlight. However for the tyres we use frequently it is pain. 

I'm fed up of moving them to dust, I have little piles of tyres everywhere, sat on shelves, window ledges etc.

I went to pack a buggy away earlier, pushed it onto a shelf and toppled over a pile of a dozen tyres and they proceeded to roll off the shelf and all over the floor....... have a mind of their own.

Need to find some long but thin storage boxes that are more suitable for tyres I think. 

[taffer 948]

Yes like a long cracker box or donut tray!

[mud4fun 1696]

Yeah!

PS. The reason we need multiple for postal racing is that as we found on the last round, even on the same lawn, the surface conditions change depending on weather and tyre compounds and patterns can make as much as 10 laps difference so we keep a few sets out in different patterns and compounds, especially at this time of year with very changeable weather. It was easy in the hot summer weather where we ran on tarmac because we all ran the same tyres week after week.

When we were just competing amongst ourselves it didn't matter as all of us ran the same 'control' tyre. However when racing against other people with different cars, tyres and surfaces we've found tyre choice is quite critical, especially on the grass/dirt.

[mud4fun 1696]

@taffer that cracker tin idea is exactly the sort of thing I need. 

If I can find one of the correct size I can keep all the different patterns and compounds in their own little boxes (label the ends so I can see what is in them) and just grab the box we need for the conditions without having to drag out large storage cases and root through to find the correct tyres.

[taffer 948]

Bit small?

[taffer 948]

[Robert5000 928]

51 minutes ago, mud4fun said:

OH AND the mudlets decided that they didn't like having the same wheels on all their cars so have now swapped to different wheels on their cars for display purposes

You raised them well! 

My suggestion would be to go for fashion, Fox and Avante tyres all around! 

[TurboRSR 356]

https://tirestackrc.com/

[taffer 948]

2 minutes ago, TurboRSR said:

https://tirestackrc.com/

Nice! Bit pricey

[markbt73 5316]

I feel your pain. I have "runner" and "shelfer" tires for most of my cars, as well as several sets of scaler/crawler tires/wheels, and a whole variety of options for the RC10s. Plus all the stock take-offs from vehicles that have aftermarket wheels.

I've got several plastic stacked-drawer thingies similar to this, and two whole drawers are wheels/tires. One drawer neatly stacked sets of tires mounted on wheels, and one of loose wheels and tires, mostly in at least pairs. The other drawers hold parts and project cars, leftover parts on sprues, etc. (Yes, they're clear, but they live under my workbench in a room with only one small window, so I don't worry much about UV exposure.)

 

[mud4fun 1696]

Thanks @TurboRSR yes, that would make organising them a lot easier but they are pretty pricey, especially when I'd need stacks of them.

[mud4fun 1696]

ah, thank you @markbt73, in fact the mudlets have similar draw units for their Lego....... oh now there is an idea.....lego ---> attic, lego storage draw units --> me! 

Yes, I think the drawers are probably the best bet as I can access just one quite easily, At the moment we have about 12 storage trays (for parts and tyres) but they are stacked on top of one another on a shelf. That is fine for the spare parts which we don't need to access that often but it is a right PITA when just trying to get some tyres, wheels or foams out as you have to lift off all the top cases to get to the bottom one (you can guarantee that what you need is never in the top one! Hence the reason the tyres just build up in a big stack on the windowsills.

 

[mud4fun 1696]

@taffer sorry, just spotted that post of yours. Those tubes look great, I'll see if they do some in the correct diameter. I don't think any solution is perfect for tyres as they are such an awkward, space consuming item. So at the moment it looks like either tubes stacked horizontally or draw units or a bespoke rack like the tyre fitter/shops have with tyres sat vertical and easily lifted off. I quite liked the idea of a rack but it will be a pain to make and the tyres may end up with distortions where they sit on the rack and they would still be exposed to sunlight (although we will probably wear out the race tyres sooner than the sunlight degrades them as most are quite soft compounds!).

edit: I guess I could make a rack with steel rods that the wheels thread onto, that way the tyres are not taking any weight and will not distort?

 

[SupraChrgd82 1425]

It is best to clean tires following each use and store each set in a zipper seal bag.

The locals at the LHS use a shoe brush and simple green to clean tires after runs.  The tires go back into zipper bags in Rubbermaid non-transparent boxes.

Sunlight and ozone deteriorate tires very rapidly.

[mud4fun 1696]

thank you @SupraChrgd82 , I'm curious though, do you know how quickly 'quickly' is? The reason I ask is that we've worn out two sets of mini spikes and two sets of full spikes in the last 4 months. So our turnover is pretty fast. Would sunlight degrade them faster then we wear them out do you think? I can probably understand with vintage tyres that get little use but our buggies are being used frequently, in fact VWERY frequently at the moment and under competitive conditions so they are being used hard.

However you do raise an interesting point. Currently we tend to clean our buggies after use, hose them down, re-lube the drive cups and UJ's and then store on a shelf (or anywhere we find space including our dining room table....). Should we be removing the tyres, storing those out of sunlight and storing the buggies without tyres? That of course leads to a whole new debate about how to store the damned buggies which are also taking up loads of space! 

Curiously the only tyres we have that don't show much wear at all are the Schumacher silver compound carpet tyres which are the softest of the lot!!! We use them because they give amazing grip on the wet rough tarmac at our local rec ground. They grip so well on wet tarmac/concrete that is nigh on impossible to get them to spin up or slide. They show near zero levels of wear despite thousands of laps fitted to buggies with quite pokey motors, high voltage and being pushed hard.

[MadInventor 3884]

13 minutes ago, mud4fun said:

thank you @SupraChrgd82 , I'm curious though, do you know how quickly 'quickly' is? The reason I ask is that we've worn out two sets of mini spikes and two sets of full spikes in the last 4 months. So our turnover is pretty fast. Would sunlight degrade them faster then we wear them out do you think? I can probably understand with vintage tyres that get little use but our buggies are being used frequently, in fact VWERY frequently at the moment and under competitive conditions so they are being used hard.

However you do raise an interesting point. Currently we tend to clean our buggies after use, hose them down, re-lube the drive cups and UJ's and then store on a shelf (or anywhere we find space including our dining room table....). Should we be removing the tyres, storing those out of sunlight and storing the buggies without tyres? That of course leads to a whole new debate about how to store the damned buggies which are also taking up loads of space! 

Curiously the only tyres we have that don't show much wear at all are the Schumacher silver compound carpet tyres which are the softest of the lot!!! We use them because they give amazing grip on the wet rough tarmac at our local rec ground. They grip so well on wet tarmac/concrete that is nigh on impossible to get them to spin up or slide. They show near zero levels of wear despite thousands of laps fitted to buggies with quite pokey motors, high voltage and being pushed hard.

I think the point with the schumacher tires is that grip so well that you're not getting wheelspin, which is generally what wears tires out (Certainly rears anyway)

PS: This tire issue is another good reason for me to stay away from racing .  I have 4 spare tires for the War Rig (Which has 22 tires of the same type, so 4 spares in case of perishing / damage seems reasonable), a set of spare Juggernaut 2 tires, and a set of spare lunch box tires.

[taffer 948]

Pity a pringles tube can't be used, they stack quite well!

[Wooders28 4723]

I'm using the 60 or 80ltr storage boxes out of B&M.

One for 2", one for new (get a seasons worth at the start of the year) , one for new ish, and one for,  I really should throw these away, but must be good for something.....🤦‍♂️

[mud4fun 1696]

22 minutes ago, Wooders28 said:

I'm using the 60 or 80ltr storage boxes out of B&M.

One for 2", one for new (get a seasons worth at the start of the year) , one for new ish, and one for,  I really should throw these away, but must be good for something.....🤦‍♂️

yes, I really need to bin the really old rubbish, sell all the vintage stuff that we no longer have any need for and that would free up alot of space. Do I really need 100 hotshot/Thundershot vintage wheels and tyres that I never ever use?  I also have a dozen sets of Vanquish white/Egress black lightweight wheels, never use them as the DF03 2.2" wheels are better for us and we prefer modern tyres. No idea why anybody would actually spend alot of money for those lightweight wheels as they are pants, warp easily and scuff up badly during use. A set of modern cheap Schumacher race wheels is far superior at a fraction of the cost!!!

[SupraChrgd82 1425]

6 hours ago, mud4fun said:

thank you @SupraChrgd82 , I'm curious though, do you know how quickly 'quickly' is? The reason I ask is that we've worn out two sets of mini spikes and two sets of full spikes in the last 4 months. So our turnover is pretty fast. Would sunlight degrade them faster then we wear them out do you think? I can probably understand with vintage tyres that get little use but our buggies are being used frequently, in fact VWERY frequently at the moment and under competitive conditions so they are being used hard.

However you do raise an interesting point. Currently we tend to clean our buggies after use, hose them down, re-lube the drive cups and UJ's and then store on a shelf (or anywhere we find space including our dining room table....). Should we be removing the tyres, storing those out of sunlight and storing the buggies without tyres? That of course leads to a whole new debate about how to store the damned buggies which are also taking up loads of space! 

Curiously the only tyres we have that don't show much wear at all are the Schumacher silver compound carpet tyres which are the softest of the lot!!! We use them because they give amazing grip on the wet rough tarmac at our local rec ground. They grip so well on wet tarmac/concrete that is nigh on impossible to get them to spin up or slide. They show near zero levels of wear despite thousands of laps fitted to buggies with quite pokey motors, high voltage and being pushed hard.

Being that I live in the Los Angeles Basin where air pollution is bad (high ozone concentration), tires develop an oxidized layer in a few months; not enough to crumble, but enough to reduce grip. After about a year they become harder such that you can feel a difference by touch and develop cracks in the treads.

I don’t know what air quality and UV exposure is where you are, but a little extra dedication can easily prolong the life of your rubbers.

[JYCM3 236]

 Mudfun, how about these?

simple and effectivetive 

you can get it here various types, color.. maybe you find them in UK

https://www.amainhobbies.com/tire-storage-cars-trucks/c1337