Limitless Wheel Maintenance

[Jerold]

I'm curious about how people maintain their speed run wheels.

After every run I look at the wheels/tires and make sure there is no damage or wear spots. Clean them up, maybe check the balance. I also don't leave my speed run wheels on the car while it's sitting on the bench, because I don't want them to get all dirty and I don't want flat spots.

I was wondering how you track your wheel inventory. My thought is it might be good to keep track of them by position (on the car), that way they are always turning the same direction. Maybe you can rotate front/back, but crossing sides might be bad, but I'm purely guessing based on folklore and witchcraft at this point.

I could track by each corner, by sides (R/L side). Should keep them is sets of 4 or be willing to replace 1, 2 or 3 tires of a set. Maybe I'm over thinking this and should just grab whatever looks good. I dunno?

The questions is, do you track your wheels, how much detail do you include and does it matter?

Thoughts.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

I think when you run foams keeping track of diameters and doing as you said is vital. 5mm diameter change can mean 8+ mph in some scenarios.

With rubber/GRP tires not so much.
I have had the same set of GPR XM3s on my VTE2 all year with zero issues. I do not rotate them.
I pulled them to check the balance on occasion but has not needed adjusting.

As for maintenance and keeping up with them.... I do check the bead around the wheel to make sure my added CA glue is there, and I do clean them on occasion because dirt seems to pack inside the wheel barrel.

Honestly I am shocked that the soft compound tire is lasting so well and has performed flawlessly for me. (they still look like 90% of the tread is there)

 

[Jerold]

I think when you run foams keeping track of diameters and doing as you said is vital. 5mm diameter change can mean 8+ mph in some scenarios.

With rubber/GRP tires not so much.
I have had the same set of GPR XM3s on my VTE2 all year with zero issues. I do not rotate them.
I pulled them to check the balance on occasion but has not needed adjusting.

As for maintenance and keeping up with them.... I do check the bead around the wheel to make sure my added CA glue is there, and I do clean them on occasion because dirt seems to pack inside the wheel barrel.

Honestly I am shocked that the soft compound tire is lasting so well and has performed flawlessly for me. (they still look like 90% of the tread is there)

From your description, I'm over thinking it and should put down the spreadsheet.

With the foam it make sense to check the diameter carefully. Top speed aside, a difference from side to side means the diff is working harder and the car may not track straight either or just drive a bit wonky.

Talking about wear, I can check the wear/depth of GTJ03s (treaded), but I also bought as a set of the GTJ04 (Slicks) and they do not have any wear indicators?

I think the soft compounds would wear out much quicker if we were cornering hard. In the case it's a bit of heat from the run but they aren't even gooey when I'm done. Maybe that will change when I get to higher speeds and the weather gets warmer.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

I think the soft compounds would wear out much quicker if we were cornering hard. In the case it's a bit of heat from the run but they aren't even gooey when I'm done. Maybe that will change when I get to higher speeds and the weather gets warmer.

Yep on hot days they came back with a collection of rocks and sand for you. On cooler days they usually cool down after the run and on the return drive back to where you started.

 

[Diem Turner]

Yeah, I think you might be overthinking this one a little bit. As has already been mentioned, the diameter of foams is worth keeping an eye on but, assuming you're not spending a lot of time spinning your wheels, you should see more or less homogenous tire wear. It's crazy though how much effect a small difference in diameter will make. If you're running in the 130s, a 0.1"/2.5mm difference in diameter is a solid 4mph difference in top speed. With belted tires that balloon it's an entirely different proposition though.

So yeah, put down the spreadsheet and spend your time on more rewarding parts of the hobby

 

[Jerold]

Yeah, I think you might be overthinking this one a little bit. As has already been mentioned, the diameter of foams is worth keeping an eye on but, assuming you're not spending a lot of time spinning your wheels, you should see more or less homogenous tire wear. It's crazy though how much effect a small difference in diameter will make. If you're running in the 130s, a 0.1"/2.5mm difference in diameter is a solid 4mph difference in top speed. With belted tires that balloon it's an entirely different proposition though.

So yeah, put down the spreadsheet and spend your time on more rewarding parts of the hobby

Yup, 130MPH is the next stop.

The GRPs are belted, as far as I know, so I'm sure I will get to experience ballooning very soon.

So

1. Inspect tires regularly
2. Clean an balance once in while
3. Loosely watch tire diameters
4. Chuck worn tires or use them for low speed testing
5. Call it a day

 

[Diem Turner]

Yup, 130MPH is the next stop.

The GRPs are belted, as far as I know, so I'm sure I will get to experience ballooning very soon.

So

1. Inspect tires regularly
2. Clean an balance once in while
3. Loosely watch tire diameters
4. Chuck worn tires or use them for low speed testing
5. Call it a day

You've surely already experienced tire ballooning. You're well past 100mph so you're probably looking at a 0.1-0.15" increase in the radius of your tire. I only know this from reverse engineering my recorded speeds in a speed calculator that includes a variable for tire ballooning.

But yeah, stick to that list and the rest should be cream cheese