Home Racing World

I would love to learn the secrets of preparing silicone tires.

How about a Do and Don't list.

Tools, type of sand paper used.

Anything the Pros are willing to share, I'm here to listen and learn.

Start with a Hudy tire truer........and go from there. You'll be a long way towards the finish line if you start with a Hudy (my experience and personal bias).

Allan

Thanks for the reply, I'm sure that truer is a good start. I use one but what are steps to making a really good running set of tires?

Of course, the first step is to glue the tire on the wheel. Make sure it's glued everywhere on the surface of the wheel and around the edges. Then, take it slow for truing. Use the amp meter on your power supply that's connected to your tire truer. Move the tire towards the sanding drum just enough so the amperage goes up a bit. Then, let the truer do its thing until the amperage goes back down to where it was when the truer was running free. Then, move the tire again towards the drum (not much). Repeat until you get a nice smooth surface all across the contact patch. Brush a fingernail against the rotating tire, you shouldn't feel a single bump or vibration (do it with a freshly-glued tire, you'll feel the difference). You also have to clean the sanding drum on a regular basis to get rid of the silicone that gets off the tire.

Then, once it's over on the truer, use a very fine sandpaper to get the polish back on the tire. You can also let the car run on a skidpad for a few hours to get that shine back (change direction once in a while).

This is how I do it. But i'm far from the best tire masters out there. They will surely give you more nice tips.

Hire Alma55... :auto-checkeredflag:

There are some tips in the Tire Shop and remember to profile your edges.....

the 2 key things to trueing silicones are to have patience, and to have something else to do.

As Christian says, glueing the tires are key to get the best performance. IC2000 ca glue works good. Lately the trend is using a silicone gasket maker. It seems the preferred brand is Ultra Black made by Versa-Chem. After cleaning the wheels to remove the oil residue from the machining process, cover the wheel with the adhesive. I have the 2 wheels on a free axle so I can hold onto to it. Then stretch the ntire over the wheel as best you can, and wipe any excess off with a paper towel. You might want to wear cheap latex gloves while doing this. After mounting the 2nd tire on the other wheel, I then roll the unit across my set up block to get the tires as smooth as I can. Then I let them sit overnight.

I use a Hudy that Allan recommended. I put some fingernail polish on the adjusting screws so that they wouldn't "walk" while the unit was running. I power the Hudy with a power supply that has a voltage readout, but more importantly, a amp draw readout.

With no load, the Hudy will draw about 1.8 amps. I turn the tire into the drum very slowly until I see the amp draw go up to 1.9 amps. At this point is where you need something else to do, like work on other aspects of your car. Let the Hudy work for at least 5 minutes. Resist any temptation to hurry the process. Doing so will only add more heat to the tire. After 5 minutes and if the amp draw has dropped back to 1.8 amps. I back off the secondary adjusting screw and stop the truer. I move the tire on the shaft so that it runs on a different spot on the drum.I then restart the truer, bringing in the tire until I see 1.9 amps, and go about doing something else for the next 5-10 minutes. I repeat the process until the tire is smooth across the entire surface. I test by running my fingernail across the bottom side of the tire. Once I'm satisfied, I stop the truer, then move the tire all the way in against the stop on the shaft, and run it for another 5-10 minutes. This now the setting That I want for the 2nd tire. I use the secondary screw only on the 2nd tire, and repeat the process again using the amp draw as my guide. When the 2nd tire gets to the stop of the 1st screw, and if it's smooth, I again move the tire against the stop and let it run for 5-10 minutes.

For profiling the edges, I like to use what's called a foot file (found in the beauty/health dept in most stores). It's usually about 2-3" wide. Mount the tire on the Hudy, but do not run it against the drum. Use the foot file, and carefully work the edges of the tire until you are satisfied with the profile. Usually it takes a minute or 2 to get a good profile.

Christian has a good idea to use a really fine sandpaper to smooth up the tire, but I normally like to run laps instead (more fun this way :lol: )

What I'm reading is that you want to avoid getting the tire HOT during the trueing process??
Does heat damage the silicone?

[nfo] What I'm reading is that you want to avoid getting the tire HOT during the trueing process??
Does heat damage the silicone? nfo]
Yes Bob it will become very gummy and ball up on the sand paper.

It looks like people all use a slightly different method to true their silicone tires, but all of the methods seem to be pretty close. If you are using some type of Superglue that will debond if the tire gets hot. The gasket maker stuff can obvioysly take a lot more heat, but is messy to use. To keep from overheating the tires you can limit the time that you grind them. A machine like a Hudy uses a large rotating drum that does not heat up as quickly as one that uses flat sheets of abrasive. I squirt soap solution on the tires as I sand them, that keeps the tires cool and also helps to keep the media from getting gunked up. If you put too much pressure on the tire as you sand you will never get it true, the trick is to true using minimal pressure so you only remove the high spots.

This year, I believe all teams dealt with the loose condition. I personally don't think it was the tires so much as it was the conditions in the basement. It was kind of cold and damp down there this year, and I believe that caused the lack of traction more than anything.

The other issue that may cause the loose condition is too much motor. When we tested with the Scaleauto 20k motor, the car felt good but slow compared to the NSR 22k Shark. I sometimes wonder if we stayed with the Scaleauto, might we have had a car that was easier to drive?

I checked the humidity and it was at about 65 % . I wanted to turn on a dehumidifier but was reluctant be because it could move dust around. Next year we will have it up and running. We actually turned down the heat most of guys were to warm. I also thought it being to warm might make it slippery. I really don't know what temperature is best.
Bob if you are at Butch s race maybe we can show you some of the finer points on truing.
Mike