Team Cobra Trackside [Tire] Truer

[matt1ptkn]

I bought one of these sometime within the past 2-3 years ( ) and never had time to use it. I'm now gearing up to mount and true a plethora of foam tires for pan cars, gear box cars and 1/14 - 1/18 scale oval racers, so I'm trying to set this thing up. I'm not new to lathes or truing RC tires, but this thing came with about 5 different arbors for various wheels, and I have no idea what each may or may not be for. I realize that it will be impossible to tell what they are for without photos, so I'll try to remember to upload some soon. But in the meantime, does anyone have experience with this truer, or better yet, have a scan/photo of the manual? Thanks for sharing any knowledge!

Here's a Google pic for attention, until I upload more.

[RC10th]

I've got one of those somewhere.

Very basic but it does the trick. Hard to get even accurate cuts as you slide the slide side to side by hand, especially with new donuts. I found the easiest way is to get them all down to nearly the finished size one by one, and for your last finish cut leave the tool depth and finish cut them all at the same time so the tool position doesn’t change between wheels.

[GeneralZod]

I have many tires I need to size as well. I may need to look into getting one of these. Any recommendations on a good setup?

[matt1ptkn]

Thanks for the info on this unit. I’m not expecting to perfectly true everything. My racing skills don’t benefit from perfect tires anyway.

Here are actual photos of mine, along with all the arbors. I’m guessing they’re just for various wheels, I just can’t figure out what wheels may fit some of them. Many tires that I’ll be needing to true are on pin drive rear wheels. The only way I see to attach them is to just tightly screw them to any of the threaded arbors. Am I missing anything?

[matt1ptkn]

These are the two arbors/adapters that I just can’t figure out. They are the same, except that one has a roll pin and the little "hubs" protruding out the one side are different diameters. Anyone have any ideas what these are for and how to use them?

I also started on my pin drive, rear wheel arbor last night.

[GoMachV]

If I were a betting man, my guess would be 1/12 and 1/10 front for the one without a pin, and the other for 1/12 rears. The diameter of the hubs would be 5/16 for a front 1/12 and 1/10 wheel, and 1/4” for rear 1/12

[ChisaiKuso]

That is a nice assortment of arbors.

On my Cobra tire truers, I always use arbors with pins for both front and rear pan car tires. The pins can be placed against the inside "spokes" of front wheels and into the mounting screw holes of rear wheels. The pins prevent the arbors from slipping inside the wheels (thereby preventing damage to the wheels' bearing holes and hubcentricity).

[matt1ptkn]

That makes sense. Thanks for the info. I think that the two opposing, partial depth holes on each of those arbors was throwing me off. I assumed that they were for function, such as for clearance over top of screw heads. But maybe they are just for weight reduction/aesthetics.

[ChisaiKuso]

That makes sense. Thanks for the info. I think that the two opposing, partial depth holes on each of those arbors was throwing me off. I assumed that they were for function, such as for clearance over top of screw heads. But maybe they are just for weight reduction/aesthetics.

The holes in those arbors are for function. At least they are on the Cobra Tire Lathe, anyway.

It has been a long time since I have seen a Cobra Trackside Truer in person. You now have me wondering about something. Were the arbors for the Cobra Trackside Truer different than the arbors for the Cobra Tire Lathe?

[matt1ptkn]

I don’t have any knowledge about the tire lathe. But after a little turning, I did nearly finish my pin drive arbor.