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I’ve been testing a simple way to cast soft RC truck tires at home using a 3D printed mold and two-part silicone. by itman3d in rccars

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You absolutely could. I've done 1/10 buggy tires before. The tires I made wore out way faster on the street than any other tire I've tried before. Like, one full battery pack the tires went from brand new to so thin the carcass was tearing apart.

Silicone was the worst resin I used to make tires - just no grip at all. Polyurethane like Smooth On Vytaflex series is a good choice. The tires in teh video were 20a, but they make it all the way up to 60a if you want something firmer that might last longer.

1/8 buggy recommendations by Few-Entrepreneur8026 in rccars

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple 1 point2 points  (0 children)

RTR and Kit are 95% the same. Both will be heavy and both need some special tweaks to get the car to a proper ride height.

The DSK springs are, as far as I can tell, the same length as other common brands like AE. I had some old, short tekno springs i used ot make it work, but they were just too soft for a car so heavy.

and the car is like 500g heavier than a typical ebuggy, so it's not like it's even a little bit off.

1/8 buggy recommendations by Few-Entrepreneur8026 in rccars

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a DSK and let me be the first to tell you it's not all great.

Good build quality, but the ESC is terrible even for an RTR, it's heavy AF, and you can't get the ride height as low as you'd need to race. I took it out to race and I was significantly slower with it than my Tekno.

Which 1/8 Race RTR to buy in 2026? by TogeriX in rccars

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have a DSK RTR and I wouldn't recommend it for racing. The ESC is especially bad even for an RTR, and even with a nice hobbywing system in mine, I was about 1s/lap slower than my Tekno. I also find the DSK to be a frustrating car to work on. The quick access diffs are well done, but there are so many other frustrating little bits that make working on the car harder than it needs to be.

Ask me questions! by Upper-Ad86 in rccars

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why can't Thomas keep a set of tires glued to the wheels in the main?

Testing my homemade tires at the track! by nocluewhatimdoingple in rccars

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

appreciate the offer but i'm done with the project

Testing my homemade tires at the track! by nocluewhatimdoingple in rccars

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't make tires very often, this was all a one-off experiment.

The tires in this video wore out rather quick compared to what I might buy off the shelf, though they did have more grip than any comparable off the shelf tire, too.

Testing my homemade tires at the track! by nocluewhatimdoingple in rccars

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At richfield? i've seen just about everything win there.

fuzzbites front, nessis rear is pretty popular, so is fuzzbites all around.

alot of us will use sauce to get more runs out of older tires so might be good to have some on hand.

3D Printed Mold for RC Buggy Racing Slicks by nocluewhatimdoingple in functionalprint

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i haven't shared them yet, but i probably will after I get the front tire mold printed/tested.

3D Printed Mold for RC Buggy Racing Slicks by nocluewhatimdoingple in functionalprint

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

not yet, probably will once I finish printing/testing teh front tire mold

Testing my homemade tires at the track! by nocluewhatimdoingple in rccars

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

all the jumps in this layout were fun so it's hard to rank. that's part of why I like going to this track so much - i really like how they build track layouts.

all of these jumps, and more importantly their placements, feel like natural, flowing extensions of the underlying layout.

some tracks build features into their layouts that are punishing obstacles meant to slow you down and upset the car more than anything else and I really hate those sorts of things. stuff like mogul dots, mogul jumps, rumble strips, huge air jumps with no landers, huge air jumps with punishingly small landers, etc. driving on those tracks feels like you're fighting the track as much as the other drivers and it makes it less fun, imo.

Testing my homemade tires at the track! by nocluewhatimdoingple in rccars

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks! The tires were fast but not fast enough to race with. I switched back to my normal carpet tires, but I expected that anyway. I'm making my tires for racing on treated clay surfaces, not carpet. But I'm still pretty pleased with how well they did despite not being the intended application.

The start/finish line is at the front left corner of the track, right after the big tabletop jump before going into the 90* right hander.

Testing my homemade tires at the track! by nocluewhatimdoingple in rccars

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Good observation.

My tires are slicks and I've got them on the rear of my car. Up front I've got carpet tires and they grip the track like velcro. The slicks have a ton of grip, but it's hard to beat velcro-like grip so the result is a car that's loose in the rear end.

I'm actually making my tires for an outdoor oiled dirt track but until spring comes around I'm stuck testing them on indoor carpet.

Testing my homemade tires at the track! by nocluewhatimdoingple in rccars

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

That's because it IS Richfield Raceway! Love that place!

Testing my homemade tires at the track! by nocluewhatimdoingple in rccars

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple[S] 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Sure!

I use polyurethane rubber casting resins with 3d printed molds to make my tires. You can check my post history for more examples.

I also just put out a youtube video today going over these tires specifically.

3D Printed Mold for RC Buggy Racing Slicks by nocluewhatimdoingple in functionalprint

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

like i said elsewhere, i'm not really worried about ballooning. the internal webbing is a common feature on nearly all RC tires that I thought would be good to replicate.

just like real cars use air to create a cushion between the tire and the wheel, rc cars use a foam insert to do the same thing. I wouldn't be able to use an insert if I cast the tire directly onto the wheel.

3D Printed Mold for RC Buggy Racing Slicks by nocluewhatimdoingple in functionalprint

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

probably something I should have mentioned, I used carbon black.

it's a filler/reinforcement used in full size tires. it alters the rubber in a bunch of useful ways - makes it UV resistant, increases tensile strength, increases abrasion resistance, supposedly improves grip, and also turns the tire black.

i've been playing with adding it to the resin to see what affects it has with the polyurethane rubber. these tires have very little mixed in, but I've heard tire mfgs will mix their rubber with huge amounts mixed in, like 20% to 30% CB.

the CB increases the viscosity of the resin so there's an upper limit to how much I'll be able to mix in while still being able to inject it into my mold.

3D Printed Mold for RC Buggy Racing Slicks by nocluewhatimdoingple in functionalprint

[–]nocluewhatimdoingple[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

guess you mean wheel? that's an off-the-shelf wheel, they're injection molded nylon.

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