Narrowwing Tires

[bscotti]

Has anyone here successfully narrowed a set of rubber tires? Is it even possible? I figure it'd be pretty tough to accurately take out a slice and glue the 2 halves back together.

[mikedealer]

i would think once the rubber is vulcanized it would be pretty tough other than gluing them

[scr8p]

the rock crawling guys do it. i'm sure you could find a "how to" write up on rccrawler.com.

[MOmo]

BITD We used to do it for our RC rally racing. We would shorten AND narrow a set of M2 holeshots to fit a std sedan wheel.

The M2 rubber was softer, so cutting it wasn't very difficult. Using some sicssors, we would cut a straight line accross the tire and make a 2nd cut removing several rows of tread. Then, we would cut lengthwise down the whole tire. we would narrow the tire 3-4 rows, and then re-glue the halves back together. once dry, we would re-glue the tire cross wise. Once dry, we would re-apply glue to the seams and apply the Foam. Then attach to the rim.


I think alot of it depends on the tire material. Newer tires are softer and more pliable. Older tires might be too hard to cut. Theoretically, the same principals apply. make sure to mark any areas you plan to cut, and mate the spots back together. (For narraowing a wheel width wise, draw a line accross the tire, narrow the wheel, then you have a reference to align it with)


MOmo

[bscotti]

perfecto!

[badhoopty]

i've narrowed jumbo kongs, i havent had the need (or desire) to reduce a tire but you can do that as well. (e.g. taking a 2.2 and making it a 1.9)

the rubberize ca glue i used was called IC-2000 or something like that. made specifically for bonding rubber. i've seen many many posts on crawler guys doing it, and if it holds up while trying to tear a tire from a beadlock it should hold up for a buggy application, although keeping the tire round would be a priority...

search either rcc or scale4x4.org.

[matteo]

i've narrowed jumbo kongs, i havent had the need (or desire) to reduce a tire but you can do that as well. (e.g. taking a 2.2 and making it a 1.9)

Is there certain way to cut tire to keep it from coming apart during use?

[badhoopty]

i've narrowed jumbo kongs, i havent had the need (or desire) to reduce a tire but you can do that as well. (e.g. taking a 2.2 and making it a 1.9)

Is there certain way to cut tire to keep it from coming apart during use?

you want to put a decent bead of ca on the inside of the tire where the seam is, but other than that all the ones i've seen narrowed were just cut right down the middle and glued back together.

[littleVETTE]

i remember some guys that cut their tires and would use bike tire patches. if i remember right they would use them on the harder compounds. they tried the patches on the softer compounds but they distract the tire from doing it's "job". the CA is the key when cutting your tires. find a couple of good ones and experiment.

[highwayracer]

If you guys remember, this was a very common practice after the 89 worlds. People would convert their 2.0 tires ti 2.2. In addition, people would combine different tread paterns (one patern on the left and another patern on the right).

I personally have never done it, but I'm sure that there's a write up in RCCA somewhere.

Regards,
highwayracer

[littleVETTE]

i think that's how bk came up with the bk bar tire. flipped a tire inside out, cut it out and glued.

[mrlexan]

Long ago there was a thread or a couple of posts (I believe) from member Ron Jeremy (no not the reall RJ) that discussed this. Try doing a search for all posts from user and you might find it.

[YZ-10]

Brian I have done this before couple of times to prolines, can send you pics if need be, to look at the tires you wouldn't know that had been done until close inspection, any info you need let me know

[bscotti]

isn't this place great?

[JK Racing]

Ived done the Cut-N-Shut method many times to make 4wd fronts, step pins, BK bars, bowties, ifmar pins....the list goes on. I use standard CA and they hold up to brushless lipo power on my wheelers.

Here is a link to a write up w/pictures showing how to do it, same method I use.

http://www.4wdrc.com/tech/FrontTires.htm

I will be attempting to narrow some JConcepts Truck Goosebumps to mount on my stock Traxxas Slash rear wheels here in the future. We have a traxxas sponsored slash race coming up in November, and there is an "open mod" class....