Video sponsored by: slotcarcorner.... TL:DW=race silicone tires: slotcarcorner.... This time just some of thoughts about "treating tires" and a yucky issue with older Carrera tires.
When a tire goes hard on an aluminum wheel, the wheel can be saved. It just takes patience. Generally I use an exacto knife, sometimes I use it on a spinning axle running very slowly. Some slot car tires are known for their tires going bad. Every Sloter tire that I have run is bad, both front and rear. Old Fly tires randomly go bad. And I’ve had similar problems with Carrera tires that you have shown, even some of the newer ones. We (our Atlanta group) mostly use NSR tires for racing. The rears eventually wear out or get hard… I’m glad their are replacement tires out there for sale.
Another crime with the Carrera is that not only do the tires go bad quickly but the replacement tires are so hard to get. Never in stock wherever I look (at least in the US anyway), when I put an order in from my LHS it takes sometimes months and only usually only half are available anyway, and tires for some models aren't produced any longer that I can tell. Sure, I can get urethanes for many of my cars but I'd rather have the OEM rubber instead especially when we run club races and we want to run cars totally stock. Plus, I've got two Firebird T/As with tires that are garbage and nothing to replace them with as Carrera no longer produces them and no other manufacturers have anything that fits. No useful info in this comment, just ranting.
I thought it was the axle lube oil I was using that was seeping its way slowly to the rim and "melting" my Carrera tires. Maybe not? At least PG Urethane tires hold up no problems.
Hi Dave. I already had both problems. It helps if you wash your tires with soap and water after the race. To save the rims, you can soak them in glycerin diluted in water and the tire becomes pasty after a few weeks.
with the carrera gooey tyres is it ok to drop the whole axle wheel assembly in the the glycerine water mix as its always a problem if you remove the wheels on the carrera axles as they are a friction fit.
Interesting video! Inhaber some very old Fly cars. The tires simply harden and obviously impossible to race them. It‘s Ok if you simply collect the cars and you don’t run them. Carrera tires are different. They become sticky and usually after one year they crack and you need to replace them. I always keep some in stock. I buy them in advance and strange enough, they do not suffer when simply being stocked in their original packaging (plastic bag). Another option would be to use tires from other producers, but it’s always a bit tricky to find the right size. Hence I purchase the original ones when I find them. Always going over the spareparts pages when buying a car. Even bought some rear axels in advance because the wheels are often very specific too. It’s a bit annoying indeed, but part of the hobby I think. I am using Slotcar Union, shipping all over Europe. They have a lot of Carrera tires. Have fun!
Just for the record the problem you showed here with the Carrera tires affected SCX too. I have an SCX compact F1 car with the same problem. At least I now know it wasn't anything I did. Sadly the replacement tires are not available here at the moment. Thanks for the super video Dave!
Just pulled what looked like melted tyres off my sons car last night. Carrera also. Rubbish tyres. Sat in the toolbox for 12months unused due to covid. Tyres on one of my Carerra cars is starting to look like that too.
I never get 'tired' of watching your videos, Dave. Good stuff as always. I'd suggest using orange wood cuticle sticks to clean up that gunked up NSR wheel. This is a trick from cinematographers to clean debris out of the mechanical workings of motion picture cameras. Chuck that wheel on a tire lathe and go at it. The wood is firm enough to get at any kind of residue, but soft enough to not scratch metal. Fly cars have that disintegrating tire problem too.
Great information yet again Dave. Simple stuff that has saved a novice like me a bunch of heartache. Recently I bought a second hand Carrera GT performance set and you guessed it the tires were deteriorated.
We run only nsr rubber in our club we have mastered the nsr rubber i belive we run 5230 for rear wheels on some carrera cars. We only use nsr rubber treatment. And always and I mean always GLUE!! Your tires to your wheel s and then true them and after a few break in runs they run and stick like glue. Little putty under the rear axle and it should run like a real race car.
WD-40 is a good braid conditioner/cleaner. Do you ever try any of the urethane tires? The local 1/24 hard body home group uses urethanes. for both road racing & drag racing on routed wood tracks.
Yes I've some urethane tires but I haven't found any other than old Ortmann tires I like. I like NSR and Slot It rubber tires and old Ninco rubber tires but we mostly race Quickslicks and Super Tires at my club. We race on wood tracks at my club.
Hi Dave I have the same problem, as I have ALOT of cars. I was wondering now that you have told us what not to do, what can I use to keep my cars tires pliable so I can use them ? The second question that I have for you is I have lots of Scalextric DTM cars from the 90'2 when I got onto the hobby, the problem is the wheels seem to get lose and spin on the axle how do I fix this? thank you in advance, keep it in the slot. gas on !
Thanks for the question Sam! You can use locktite maybe on the wheels if they're slipping a bit and you just need a bit of adhesion between the axle and the wheel maybe? Tires kinda dry out on their own. Normally tires last for a long time and don't have this gooey kinda look to them. they just get hard and you have to replace them. But finding replacements is hard especially for some tires and for newer cars for front tires it can be hard. There's no simple answer to this... other than replace wheels on a car that you still want to race with an aluminum wheel set.
Ok WD-40 is actually some advice I’ve been told at my local track by others, this video saved me several sets of wheels! My Carrera is only 2 years old and looks fine though so must be certain conditions or they’ve improved the batch since
Dave, you mentioned tire oil. I'm guessing you were referring to NSR's tire oil, but you didn't show any tires that had been treated with it. Do you have any such tires to show?
In the video it says that the WD-40 should not be used because it damages the tires. What kind of oil do you recommend to soften the tires and have more grip on the track? Thanks
Hi enjoying your channel however I think your comments on treating tyres do not represent all forms of slot car racing, however I understand you recommendations are general and my suit the home racer rather than the pro racer. So with respect this is my perspective on treated tyres. I agree that you need rules for club racing and national racing that keeps the competition fair for all, that being said there is a wide number of countries and clubs that allow treated tyres. I have raced at clubs where it is allowed and have travelled to Italy where this is common practice. If the rules are clear there is no advantage. In most of our interstate competitions they have hand out tyres so there is no funny business. Firstly, if you are a hard-core racer your tyres will last a long time when treated and are more likely to wear out rather than go mushie (we race solely on large timber tracks). This may not be the case if you are an occasional racer and eave your cars in storage for months and months. NSR previously sold a tyre truer and treated, I have had two and they are great. The Italians use a wide range of treatment fluids to treat their tyres, NSR Tyre Oil, WD40 etc however we have fond that CRC 226 works the best. We treated our tyres until the expand and create a bubble in the centre of the tread. You can expect at least a 1 second lap time or more advantage depending on the track. You indicated that you do not glue your tyres we have found that gluing your tyres is essential as they tyres will separate from the rims at hi speed causing a hop. I only race 1:24 cars now using sponge tyres (Plafit) however we found that sponge tyres give a greater advantage than treated tyres on a non gooed track. Many years ago we raced NSR Moslers with treated tyres and one of our members ran NSR foam tyres as a test and smashed the previous track record. The foams were band shortly after. You also mentioned silicon tyres most commercial raceways in Australia ban silicon tyres as they leave a slippery residue on the track surface. Cheers Ray
Hello Ray, so most of my videos are aimed at the beginner racers. I'm a competitive racer too so I understand that people do allow treated tires. But this isn't a great suggestion for people getting into the hobby as they don't understand that down the road they may not be able to get replacement tires for the stock wheels they would still be using. What you're mentioning with foam treated tires isn't a world that most of the slot world lives in. A few racers do this compared to the vast majority of homeset folks and families enjoying their slot racing toys. I'm more addressing the homeset folks and families and newer racers since the hardcore folks who already to treatment of tires know what they're doing and I don't feel the need to really need to have me to suggest things to them. My point is that if a new racer treats tires, there are NO replacements from most manufacturers. I should know, Iv'e worked for them all and no one stocks wheels and tires for Scalextric and Carrera and no one ever could for SCX. Yes the hobbyist companies do make replacement tires and wheels but those are a different part of the market than I'm talking to here. Thanks for your comments Ray and thanks for watching.
@@SlotCarNewsOfficial Hey yes fully understand your perspective and agree re the hobbyist, my comments were to highlight the more competitive side of slot cars. Cheers and keep up the channel Ray
When a tire goes hard on an aluminum wheel, the wheel can be saved. It just takes patience. Generally I use an exacto knife, sometimes I use it on a spinning axle running very slowly.
Some slot car tires are known for their tires going bad. Every Sloter tire that I have run is bad, both front and rear. Old Fly tires randomly go bad. And I’ve had similar problems with Carrera tires that you have shown, even some of the newer ones.
We (our Atlanta group) mostly use NSR tires for racing. The rears eventually wear out or get hard…
I’m glad their are replacement tires out there for sale.
Great video! Love the real time demonstration!
Another crime with the Carrera is that not only do the tires go bad quickly but the replacement tires are so hard to get. Never in stock wherever I look (at least in the US anyway), when I put an order in from my LHS it takes sometimes months and only usually only half are available anyway, and tires for some models aren't produced any longer that I can tell. Sure, I can get urethanes for many of my cars but I'd rather have the OEM rubber instead especially when we run club races and we want to run cars totally stock. Plus, I've got two Firebird T/As with tires that are garbage and nothing to replace them with as Carrera no longer produces them and no other manufacturers have anything that fits. No useful info in this comment, just ranting.
I thought it was the axle lube oil I was using that was seeping its way slowly to the rim and "melting" my Carrera tires. Maybe not? At least PG Urethane tires hold up no problems.
Hi Dave. I already had both problems. It helps if you wash your tires with soap and water after the race. To save the rims, you can soak them in glycerin diluted in water and the tire becomes pasty after a few weeks.
with the carrera gooey tyres is it ok to drop the whole axle wheel assembly in the the glycerine water mix as its always a problem if you remove the wheels on the carrera axles as they are a friction fit.
Interesting video! Inhaber some very old Fly cars. The tires simply harden and obviously impossible to race them. It‘s Ok if you simply collect the cars and you don’t run them. Carrera tires are different. They become sticky and usually after one year they crack and you need to replace them. I always keep some in stock. I buy them in advance and strange enough, they do not suffer when simply being stocked in their original packaging (plastic bag). Another option would be to use tires from other producers, but it’s always a bit tricky to find the right size. Hence I purchase the original ones when I find them. Always going over the spareparts pages when buying a car. Even bought some rear axels in advance because the wheels are often very specific too. It’s a bit annoying indeed, but part of the hobby I think. I am using Slotcar Union, shipping all over Europe. They have a lot of Carrera tires. Have fun!
Just for the record the problem you showed here with the Carrera tires affected SCX too. I have an SCX compact F1 car with the same problem. At least I now know it wasn't anything I did.
Sadly the replacement tires are not available here at the moment.
Thanks for the super video Dave!
Yes I agree this can happen to any tire. I’ve had it happen on a few Fly cars too. Never on an SCX car but I believe you it did.
Don’t you remember oil of wintergreen and the smell?
Just pulled what looked like melted tyres off my sons car last night.
Carrera also.
Rubbish tyres.
Sat in the toolbox for 12months unused due to covid.
Tyres on one of my Carerra cars is starting to look like that too.
Great information Dave.
Thanks for watching Robert!
Interesting video. Wish Carrera would make better quality tires. Hard to find good replacement rubber tires.
I never get 'tired' of watching your videos, Dave. Good stuff as always. I'd suggest using orange wood cuticle sticks to clean up that gunked up NSR wheel. This is a trick from cinematographers to clean debris out of the mechanical workings of motion picture cameras. Chuck that wheel on a tire lathe and go at it. The wood is firm enough to get at any kind of residue, but soft enough to not scratch metal. Fly cars have that disintegrating tire problem too.
Thanks for watching and thanks for the tip Van!!!
Great information yet again Dave. Simple stuff that has saved a novice like me a bunch of heartache. Recently I bought a second hand Carrera GT performance set and you guessed it the tires were deteriorated.
We run only nsr rubber in our club we have mastered the nsr rubber i belive we run 5230 for rear wheels on some carrera cars. We only use nsr rubber treatment. And always and I mean always GLUE!! Your tires to your wheel s and then true them and after a few break in runs they run and stick like glue. Little putty under the rear axle and it should run like a real race car.
Good info. never tried it, was thinking about it, know better now, Thanks!
The more you know....
New to this. Love this guy!
WD-40 is a good braid conditioner/cleaner. Do you ever try any of the urethane tires? The local 1/24 hard body home group uses urethanes. for both road racing & drag racing on routed wood tracks.
Yes I've some urethane tires but I haven't found any other than old Ortmann tires I like. I like NSR and Slot It rubber tires and old Ninco rubber tires but we mostly race Quickslicks and Super Tires at my club. We race on wood tracks at my club.
Hi Dave I have the same problem, as I have ALOT of cars. I was wondering now that you have told us what not to do, what can I use to keep my cars tires pliable so I can use them ?
The second question that I have for you is I have lots of Scalextric DTM cars from the 90'2 when I got onto the hobby, the problem is the wheels seem to get lose and spin on the axle how do I fix this? thank you in advance, keep it in the slot. gas on !
Thanks for the question Sam!
You can use locktite maybe on the wheels if they're slipping a bit and you just need a bit of adhesion between the axle and the wheel maybe?
Tires kinda dry out on their own. Normally tires last for a long time and don't have this gooey kinda look to them. they just get hard and you have to replace them. But finding replacements is hard especially for some tires and for newer cars for front tires it can be hard. There's no simple answer to this... other than replace wheels on a car that you still want to race with an aluminum wheel set.
Ok WD-40 is actually some advice I’ve been told at my local track by others, this video saved me several sets of wheels!
My Carrera is only 2 years old and looks fine though so must be certain conditions or they’ve improved the batch since
Dave, you mentioned tire oil. I'm guessing you were referring to NSR's tire oil, but you didn't show any tires that had been treated with it. Do you have any such tires to show?
I don’t have any I’m sorry
In the video it says that the WD-40 should not be used because it damages the tires. What kind of oil do you recommend to soften the tires and have more grip on the track? Thanks
You shouldn’t because it will ruin the tires eventually.
So she advises not to use any product on the tires and if they become hard, sand them with sandpaper.
Hi enjoying your channel however I think your comments on treating tyres do not represent all forms of slot car racing, however I understand you recommendations are general and my suit the home racer rather than the pro racer. So with respect this is my perspective on treated tyres.
I agree that you need rules for club racing and national racing that keeps the competition fair for all, that being said there is a wide number of countries and clubs that allow treated tyres. I have raced at clubs where it is allowed and have travelled to Italy where this is common practice. If the rules are clear there is no advantage. In most of our interstate competitions they have hand out tyres so there is no funny business.
Firstly, if you are a hard-core racer your tyres will last a long time when treated and are more likely to wear out rather than go mushie (we race solely on large timber tracks). This may not be the case if you are an occasional racer and eave your cars in storage for months and months.
NSR previously sold a tyre truer and treated, I have had two and they are great. The Italians use a wide range of treatment fluids to treat their tyres, NSR Tyre Oil, WD40 etc however we have fond that CRC 226 works the best. We treated our tyres until the expand and create a bubble in the centre of the tread. You can expect at least a 1 second lap time or more advantage depending on the track.
You indicated that you do not glue your tyres we have found that gluing your tyres is essential as they tyres will separate from the rims at hi speed causing a hop.
I only race 1:24 cars now using sponge tyres (Plafit) however we found that sponge tyres give a greater advantage than treated tyres on a non gooed track. Many years ago we raced NSR Moslers with treated tyres and one of our members ran NSR foam tyres as a test and smashed the previous track record. The foams were band shortly after.
You also mentioned silicon tyres most commercial raceways in Australia ban silicon tyres as they leave a slippery residue on the track surface.
Cheers
Ray
Hello Ray, so most of my videos are aimed at the beginner racers. I'm a competitive racer too so I understand that people do allow treated tires. But this isn't a great suggestion for people getting into the hobby as they don't understand that down the road they may not be able to get replacement tires for the stock wheels they would still be using.
What you're mentioning with foam treated tires isn't a world that most of the slot world lives in. A few racers do this compared to the vast majority of homeset folks and families enjoying their slot racing toys.
I'm more addressing the homeset folks and families and newer racers since the hardcore folks who already to treatment of tires know what they're doing and I don't feel the need to really need to have me to suggest things to them.
My point is that if a new racer treats tires, there are NO replacements from most manufacturers. I should know, Iv'e worked for them all and no one stocks wheels and tires for Scalextric and Carrera and no one ever could for SCX.
Yes the hobbyist companies do make replacement tires and wheels but those are a different part of the market than I'm talking to here.
Thanks for your comments Ray and thanks for watching.
@@SlotCarNewsOfficial Hey yes fully understand your perspective and agree re the hobbyist, my comments were to highlight the more competitive side of slot cars. Cheers and keep up the channel Ray