How do you run your tyres?

popeyethewelder.com/facebook questions

 

2012

 

  • John Jones – how do you guys run your tyres, i.e. pressure, number of grooves, tyre type, and why ?? to explain, ive just acquired a big foot lite shod buggy and i was interested in setups to see if they make a big difference racing
  • Bobby Muse – I ran my bfls at about 8 psi. A little more for really hard smooth surfaces and a little less for rough/soft surfaces.
  • Robin Cook – In the same boat John. Just got a set of Duros to go on the new bug so what’s said here will be pertinent
  • KiteBuggy BagMan – i knew tyre pressures would come up sooner or later 🙂
  • Carlos Urtiaga – I run Kenda bigfoots on Cadkats and nearly always have my rears at 10psi and my front at 8psi…Have done for many years…The front has 12 grooves and my rears have 8 grooves a piece, still aquaplane on a smooth wet beach though but a lot less than not having any grooves at all!!!
  • John Jones – i have about 6 psi in at the moment, tried 8 but just felt i was sliding to much, wasnt sure if it was a pressure thing or only having 5 grooves in the tyres, figured more grooves may add to lateral traction, but how many to go for ??
  • Robin Cook – Hmm. Wouldn’t more pressure mean less groves in contact with the sand?
  • John Jones – yeah, but would running the tyes at 6psi say, and more grooves help ?? or are kenda beach racers a better option on assym’s
  • Ken Shaw – Just for running in the desert scrub I like the stock length Flexi axle on Scout Buggly with 4X8 rims and 18.50X9.50X8 ribs at about 6-8 psi. Nice fat footprint, low pressure smooths out the rumbly bits and the short wheel base and narrow
    axle make turning on itself do-able which is rather handy. However, this combination on Ivanpah at about 45+ mph was one of the most frightening things I’ve ever experienced. IMO, squishy tires are a big No-No on the lake bed, too much sidewall flex makes it hard to judge when the back is gonna break loose and when it does, it’s a complete washout with little hope of gathering it back up. Getting unhooked in a rumbly section with this combo at those speeds will make your buggy mascot walk off in protest.
  • Alan Vidow – It depends on the beach surface.
    Soft sand; lower pressure
    Hard sand/wet beach lots of pressure.
    Grooves, generally the racing scene have found out that the deep/wide grooves give better grip/water clearance.
    Sarah runs Eurotrax cause she prefers them. I run Duros for the acceration out the corner. We both have lots of deep/wide grooves for better lateral grip & water clearance.
    I’ve tried beach racers few years ago, I found they were too heavy/bulky & slower than Duros/eurotrax. They will aquaplane before a Duros/eurotrax with decent grooves.
  • Robin Cook – How come the duros accelerate out of corners better Alan?
  • Alan Vidow – Duros have a Small diameter & lighter than the eurotrax
  • Carlos Fandango – I don’t know how long you ran Beach racers for Alan to gather your information, but I ran them solid for at least 18 months on all surfaces.
    My thoughts on the Beach Racers are, they are certainly rounder and more well balanced than any Euro Trax and Duro I have seen and used, weight wise I dont think there is much in it between a BR and a Eurotrax tyre TBH.
    Travelling through 3-4” water I found, they dispersed water certainly as well as the other tyres, I also found if Beach Racers were put on the 4″ hubs to make a much rounder profile they were as good as any other tyres out there. I have run over 50mph over 1”-3” of a large area of water and the buggy kept straight, I did not run them through deep water.
    The negatives about the tyres, well on the Dominator I had BR on Asymmetric hubs on the rear and a cadkat on the front, and while the rear tyres were very wide and perfect for the soft sand, the front wheel as well as the rears offered little resistance against side pull because of the very flat profile, but on a 4″ hub, the traction was much better.
    Overall, I would say they tyres are very well made, already having the grooves moulded in, very round and not lumpy like ET and Duros, the right hubs for the right conditions they are money well spent.
  • Arend Geerlings – I aggree with Carlos. I’m also a beachracer user. I put them on the new Gismo 2.5″ rimm. So they are a bit lighter than the 5 spoke 2.5″ rimm. The problem is that they flatten out to much on 8″. Than they have to much friction. I made a lot of experiments with the beachracer and I noticed that they are a bit bigger than the Duro. So ….a bigger tyre runs lighter. That is a fact. People who runn my buggy tell me that my buggy runn so easy. They all think my tyres are lighter. The grooves of the beachracer are a bit to wide and deep. I find out that they beake a little bit. They are eaten themselves into the sand. So I cut all the grooves away. Now my beachracers have 39 litte grooves each..:-) Preasure? I use always about 0.8 to 1 bar. I do not know what it is in PSI. The beachracer flatten out a bit compare to a duro. So it is easy to have more preasure on it on the soft beaches and when you keep them harder they walk lighter over de soft beaches than the soft tyres. do not forget. When you make a lot of preasure on a Duro on hard beaches the friction on a square ince is much higher. That is not always better. You can find my tyres in my pictures here on FB. PHOTO
  • Alan Vidow – So why don’t you use them now Carlos?
    95% of the people at the euros/worlds do not run beach racers. So which is faster/better?
  • Carlos Fandango – I run Landsegler wheels now, you can make statistics say anything you want…..10% of deaths on the road are caused by drunk drivers….ok so 90% of deaths are caused by sober drivers….see my point
  • Arend Geerlings – Yo Alan Vidow….the best pilot is the fastest.
  • Matt Cook – soft beach soft tyres,hard beach hard tyres
  • Arend Geerlings – I made this one for a German rider. A Eurotrax on a 2.5″ rimm. Hell of a thing. I think I make one set for myself for the more harder beaches. Above is the one. Under it is a Duro with the 2.5″ rimm.
  • Jaap Tanis – Beach racers and Carlos and Arend told everything.