Air Wheels Use or Replace

[arroldn]

I just sent off my ThunderSlot Lola T70 to the CanAm proxy. It arrived on a Friday and I shipped it on Monday. Thus I didn't have much time to test prep and tune. The rear wheels are air wheels. By mistake I glued on some NSR Supergrips. Trued them down to where the contact patch was even all the way across. Today I started testing my Sideways Lamborghini Huracan GT3. It too as air wheels. After running some laps you can see where the inside middle of the tire does not contact the track surface. What is the advantage or disadvantage of Air Wheels?
Options:
1) True tires till contact patch is even.
2) Replace wheels with ones which have a center rib.

[GTOking]

You will get lots of differering opinions on this. Personally, I like air wheels. Some people don't. Good for club racing, maybe not so good for proxy or endurance racing. There are foam strips available to fill in the air gap or make your own if you don't want the air effect. Or get solid rib wheels in place of the air wheels. The club I run with rarely runs NSR but my best handling/driving cars on my home track are NSR with air wheels.

[Dodgefarmer]

3) Fill gap with construction urethane
4) PGT 21105LMDF

HTh
Randy

[GT6]

hey Arrold, I had even less prep time on my TS McLaren (about 2 hours from when I opened the case to when it was shipped) and the same suspicions regarding the hasty decision to go with the stock air wheels. There is a large enough sample of air flange vs solid flange cars in the proxy that I'm hoping the question will be answered definitively over the course of the next few months.

cheers
Scott

[Dogsbody]

We're running the Thunderslots in our club at the moment and there's no voiced concern one way or the other regarding the wheels. I did make some strips out of electrical tape to fill the middle then I put on my usual silicone tires. Others have used Quick Slicks and I think those take in to account and fill in the air gap as well. I didn't do that with my Sideways Huracan (17K Baby Raptor) though I just put on silicones and FWIW, it is winning our Modern GT class and thats against NSRs with the EVO 21.5 King motor.

[gascarnut]

I will swap solid wheels with anyone who wants to get rid of air wheels, be they NSR, Slot.it or Thunderslot. It will save me machining away the center of the wheels, which I do on every pair of solid wheels I use with rubber tires. Let me know via PM.

[bobbyraz49]

We have 2 hone tracks in the Buffalo area. We run air rides on all our slot.it cars. They really seem to make a positive difference. The key is to find the correct tire.
We run on MDF at both houses. PM me if you'd like to know what tires we run.

[Kevan]

I don't like air wheels, the rubber folds in whilst cornering causing chattering. Easy fix, two 'O' rings of the right size fill the gap, a bead of superglue to keep them in then true them down to the tops of the alloy ribs.

I think they may work better with the hard compounds (NSR Supergrips) but not the softer (Ultra/Extreme)...but not when they're worn down so the rubber is thin.

[4424ever]

Very interesting subject the only air ride wheels I have are an NSR Mosler 100% stock with one mag removed It was an absolute rocket on Scaly sport when new but performance has dropped off lately and tires are showing an odd wear pattern in the center section

[War Eagle River]

The air ride rims are designed so they create a suction with the tire contact patch. A lot of the racers swap them out for the front rims on their cars. I prefer them on the rears. Wish we raced more NSR, Thunderslot, and some of the newer Sideways cars that have them. But a lot of folks aren’t willing to drop almost a $100 for slot cars.

[charlesx@xtra.co.nz]

Hi all. I do not like air tyres for the reason many have mentioned. Have certainly got some on cars that go particularly well despite this however. Like idea of a rubber ring or third support as a possible compromise. One can only suspect however that as top producers (e.g. Slot-it and NSR) have gone to air rims that given the right setup and tyres they are superior to solid wheels. I thought perhaps that idea was that tyres would balloon a bit at high speed effectively changing gear as car got faster. That seems like a good idea in principle but if centre section is showing wear is that a sign that tyres are not deflating quick enough as you enter corner and are getting scuffed. One also has to accept that while most of us race non-magnet many of these cars are developed for magnet racing. In a magnet car for example with the car held firmly to the track perhaps they perform differently. Just some thoughts. Regards Chas Le Breton (charlesx)

[charlesx@xtra.co.nz]

Hi all. I do not like air tyres for the reason many have mentioned. Have certainly got some on cars that go particularly well despite this however. Like idea of a rubber ring or third support as a possible compromise. One can only suspect however that as top producers (e.g. Slot-it and NSR) have gone to air rims that given the right setup and tyres they are superior to solid wheels. I thought perhaps that idea was that tyres would balloon a bit at high speed effectively changing gear as car got faster. That seems like a good idea in principle but if centre section is showing wear is that a sign that tyres are not deflating quick enough as you enter corner and are getting scuffed. One also has to accept that while most of us race non-magnet many of these cars are developed for magnet racing. In a magnet car for example with the car held firmly to the track perhaps they perform differently. Just some thoughts. Regards Chas Le Breton (charlesx)

[charlesx@xtra.co.nz]

Sorry I do not know how but my last post has appeared twice. If some body can remove duplicate please feel free to do so. C Le B

[HomeRacingWorld]

Just use the Quick Slicks TS43 or 44. They are solid and fill the gap if need be. I use them on mine and they work great, very smooth and even fit.

[GAS41T]

I run air rims on all my proxy cars ....
I even ran air rims on my IPS PROXY CAR LOVE THEM ....