FISH FOAM...FISH RUBBER??

[Broman62]

I’ve seen these listed on Prof. Motor’s site and Harry mentioned these today in another thread...what are Fish foam or Fish rubber tires?? Are they a hybrid of 2 different tires or are they something completely different?? How do they compare to regular foam, rubber, silicone or urethane’s?? Been curious to purchase a pair or two but was hoping for some input from people who have used them before I make a purchase!! Thanks for any info on them!!

[HomeRacingWorld]

Well, it's just a slang term for the pure original rubber tires. Parma called them "Tunas" as I remember...my memory isn't perfect, I think Alpha (commercial) called them "Piranha". I could be wrong on the names, but the smell of the pure foam rubber gave it's name.

For myself, these foams are best suited for commercial tracks with your normal spray glue. We run them here WITHOUT any of that, but they are usually treated with WD40 or Rononol fluid to soften. Sometimes oil of wintergreen for that "Ahhh it's the 60's" fresh scent :lol:

Honestly sir, I do not even bother with foams anymore. They are a hassle. They dry out fast, and without treatment and stored in the fridge, just do not last.

I have switched to PG for all my 1/24. Plenty of grip grip and less mess.

But in the right environment, the hook up well.

[slothead]

Back in the 70's and 80's a bunch of us all ran Parma foam tires on 1/24th scale replicas of local dirt modified cars and hard bodied NASCARs. We sanded and cleaned them with lighter fluid, but other than that did not use any goop on them or the track for traction. They worked fine though they would wear down and need to be changed to make track clearance spec, and got hard over time. If other types of tires were available we didn't know it and our rules stated Parma foam tires. For some classes orange foams on the rear and O-ring or black (Womp-Womp) foams on the front. You could drive those cars hard and while a good handling chassis was needed, I don't remember anyone complaining about traction.

This thread has me wondering what the difference might be between the surface of large commercial tracks from that era and what most of us race on at home so that foam tires no longer cut it? Is anyone using foam tires on their home track? Thinking back, both commercial tracks and club track back then may have been routed out of plywood, rather than mdf or particle board, but could that be the difference? Were tracks painted with anything different than we're using today? All I can remember is a somewhat glossy jet black surface on most tracks.

[padirtfan]

I still have a few cars running foam on my painted Artin track. I can get them to hook up pretty good by cleaning them with one of the orange cleaner liquids, I think it's Fantastic. I was buying bare wheels and sponge donuts from Alpha as a cheap way to make tires for my dirt modifieds. On some of them I coated them with silicone and some I left alone.

[Broman62]

Thanks Harry for the info...no need now to purchase them...I’ll stick with my PG’s too!! Thanks guys for the history background... I do have a set of H & R foams but were useless on my tracks so I mounted them on a brass chassis and also took out the silicone and ran them thru it and...DANG...fast and sticky too the tracks...I do like that and after the silicone wears down just repeat process and away you go :auto-layrubber: :auto-layrubber: :auto-layrubber:

[slothead]

Daytona Stockers silicone coated foam tires are by far the best tires on my hardboard 'dirt' oval. They stick so well that on some cars I only put one on the right rear and pair it with a regular silicone tire in the left side to get a little more slide and no chirp in the corners.


These wheel and tire sets are $15 a pair at Professor Motor. I know some guys make these on their own, and I bought the stuff to do it but haven't tried it yet.

[HomeRacingWorld]

[RichD]

"Fish" tires are a urethane foam, I used those when I raced 1/24th cars at commercial tracks and those had a bit more grip than regular foam tires. With any sort of foam tire you need to use a traction compound, otherwise known as tire goop, to get good grip. If you don't want to use a traction compound you would be better off using solid silicone or urethane tires. Silicone coated foam tires should have more grip than those provided that the track is clean. Foam tires do tend to harden up and loose grip with time. If you run your cars a lot the tires will wear out and have to be replaced before that happens.
With respect to the fish smell, that comes from the amine that is added to the tire formulation before the urethane gets poured. Without the amine the components would not react. If an excess of amine is used you get the fish smell. I am guessing that years ago someone made up a batch of foam with too much amine, they may not have noticed that the tires smelled like fish but someone must have run them and discovered that they had better grip.

[slothead]

Harry - thanks for reposting that video. The guy who told me about making silicone over foam tires raced 1/32 replicas of sprint cars in PA. Huge rear tires added to the realism.


I learned about urethane and PG tires on HRW, and ALL my Trans Am, Can-Am, and World Sportscar Championship (Le Mans) series cars that race on my road course have PGT's on them. That's nearly 100 cars worth of tires, but well worth the investment. Some of my newer cars have XPG's on them just because I found them to be more flexible and easier to mount.

But in the years before I found HRW when my slot car knowledge was still from the '80's I bought random things from Professor Motor and just because I liked how beefy they were got some silicone coated foam tires. They turned out to work very well on the oval I'd just built so the arms race was on, all the ensuing cars were built using these tires and cars built from RTR parts got MaxxTrac tires. I'm guessing it was the years of 'rubbering' in that track with silicone that explains why they outperform urethanes.

So if I may rephrase what Harry said, "Individual results will vary". I think track location, surface, and history are all apt to play a role in how cars and tires perform. Experimentation is likely the best way to find what will produce the best results.