Tire Traction Additives / Compounds: Home-Made and Name-Brand. - Honda Forum / Acura Forum

mike_sho · 03-29-2005, 01:19 PM

What do you use for traction. I have been doing this for a long time. I kinda stumbled across it. Then I looked into it and it all makes sense.

For rubber tires. They have oils in them when they are made. These oils need to stay in the tire for it to be flexible. Overtime the oils will leave. Especially when you run the tire. The heat and friction depletes these oils. Which leaves the tire dry and harder.

I have 3 things I use. One trinity tire grip. Im not sure the exact name....but its pretty toxic. So I try to not use it much. Next is great. It also is a general thing thats always applied to my rc now during the cleaning process.

Its simple green / alcohol / water mixture. You just blast your tire and wipe perfectly clean. Once its dry youll be able to tell a difference.

Then finally I also use after run oil. Just apply a layer , let it soak in. Then get a paper towell and really rub at the tire to remove any slickness. The remaining tire will be ultra grippy. Its like taking your tire from pencil eraser grippy. To those stick on the wall glob things or super bouncey balls. Just majorily increased grip.

I normally do a test with the vehicle on glass or tile. When the car needs it. I push at the side of the front, like the wheel or chassis and the car will slide around. Once I add any of those traction solutions. You push on the car and its literally stuck to the ground. I set it on the ground and its pulling rocks off the ground. I set it on cardboard and when I pick it back up later cardboard is fused to the wheel.

This works on certain tires, some are already well oiled and sometimes dont loose it as easy as others. As well those that sometimes dont loose , wont suck in oil.

The tires that work the best for me is yokomo slicks. They take to traction compound like crazy. I disregarded the tires at first cause they were so dry. But with traction compound, these things grip....even right in the middle of an unprepared and really old bumpy street. Thats something Ive never been able to achieve with any sort of ribbed street tire.

krazykloudz · 03-29-2005, 06:41 PM

I has some medium compount slicks and my old roommate and I went to an empty church parking lot (the smooth slick kind of blacktop) and man it must have been oily or something my car was spinning all four tires until it nailed second gear where it would jerk and catch and shoot off. It was leaving baby black marks, hehe, but the pictures didn't turn out unfortunetely. After that, the tires got some of that oil on them and the next day we were driving them in my apartment complex and the car was still not gripping like it should, so I took it inside and used rubbing alcohol and cleaned the tires up and man it worked wonders. I took it back outside and she hugged the road like mad. I'm not sure how bad the traction issues would have been before the tuned pipe and shorter gears though... hmm.

mike_sho · 03-29-2005, 07:50 PM

Yup thats the great thing about RC you can go and test it. But yeah cleaning the tire off will also allow it to apply the full tire to the ground.

Also im sure it was a combo of the oil beforehand, then the cleaning with the alcohol. The tire soaks in what it needs...and the rest makes it slick so you gotta remove that and voila, super grip tire.

I almost never run without doing it....makes it safer to run. The car stops on a dime...no sliding.

krazykloudz · 03-30-2005, 01:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike_sho

Yup thats the great thing about RC you can go and test it. But yeah cleaning the tire off will also allow it to apply the full tire to the ground.

Also im sure it was a combo of the oil beforehand, then the cleaning with the alcohol. The tire soaks in what it needs...and the rest makes it slick so you gotta remove that and voila, super grip tire.

I almost never run without doing it....makes it safer to run. The car stops on a dime...no sliding.

yea, right now my front right tire is uh floppy, hehe. i slammed on the brakes from full speed (somewhere around 60mph) and only after about half second of braking I nailed the curb at a 45degree angle, and the car went airborn, luckily the only thing that broke was the front right control arms. Got the replacements, but I haven't put them in yet, but I bet if I would have used your magic tire cleaning solution I would have been able to slow down/steer away from the curb in time.

Here are two vids of the car with slick tires, it was filmed behind our AMC Olathe Studio 30, they have a huge back parking lot and I went at night and it was well lit. My old roommate recorded it (you can hear him, his accent cracks me up). I'll take tons of vids this summer, and I plan on building a mount for my camera onto my r/c car, but with the camera on there I doubt the car will hit 60 mph, but it'll still be a cool vid. actually thinking about it, the car has more balls than 60 but that's all my gears allow so maybe it will still top off, hmmm it'll be interesting for sure. thanks for the trick though, i'll probably mix up a whole gallon of your special mix and put it in one of my empty washer fluid bottles or something.

http://home.kc.rr.com/kloudz/vid1.mpg
http://home.kc.rr.com/kloudz/vid2.mpg

SilvStylin45s · 03-31-2005, 10:04 AM

Paragon Ground Effects....best stuff on the market. Banned at a few tracks for its possible health hazzards but most of the places its legal. If i cant use that i take a jack the gripper can and put that stuff in it

. Remember to clean your foam tires off after every run to get remaining compund and cunk off the tire. Take motor spray or brake cleaner (cheaper) spray it on a rag and rub your tires off with it

mike_sho · 03-31-2005, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SilvStylin45s

Paragon Ground Effects....best stuff on the market. Banned at a few tracks for its possible health hazzards but most of the places its legal. If i cant use that i take a jack the gripper can and put that stuff in it

. Remember to clean your foam tires off after every run to get remaining compund and cunk off the tire. Take motor spray or brake cleaner (cheaper) spray it on a rag and rub your tires off with it

Good tips for the foam racer. Yeah some of that stuff is pretty lethal.

SilvStylin45s · 03-31-2005, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike_sho

Good tips for the foam racer. Yeah some of that stuff is pretty lethal.

It has oil of wintergreen in it. Most of the time when someone comes to a race and hasnt been before they ask why it smells like pepto bismol. It has a real distinct smell.

mike_sho · 03-31-2005, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SilvStylin45s

It has oil of wintergreen in it. Most of the time when someone comes to a race and hasnt been before they ask why it smells like pepto bismol. It has a real distinct smell.

Ah I thought the wintergreen was for a distinct smell. Not the properties that help. But yeah my traction stuff smells like chewing tabacco wintergreen.

Shibby H22A · 03-31-2005, 06:17 PM

cool, ill have to try them out once i get my RS4 running this summer again.

i remember long time ago i used to get nails and put it in my black foot truck's tires and then solder it on along with a small washer and it worked wonders for a few battery runs! hehe then it was all worn out.