HYPER MINIS

Hey All; So I was reading a few back issues and recent magazine artilcles on crawlers. I found all kinds of info from all the threads here as well. Thanks Guys. So I decided to do a full mod on the RTR rims and tires to at least salvage these till I can decide on new ones. So I did all the mods in the searches I could find. I Star Shaped the foams. I added lead wieghts to the front and rear rims as well as added a few breather holes. Now they work. WOW!!! was that a night and day change. So much so I snapped the front center drive shaft.I added a new set of Bead Lock Rings as well.The plain black rings on the RTR suck so I found a unique set from a guy on-line. Works for me.So here we go and get to work on these stock rims and tire combos.Thanks for looking.l8r,w.

Well here are the OEM stockers. Seems they don't really work as intended. I will be modding them to work better as rock crawlers. So I start out with the dissasembly with lots of little screws to turn. I just keep telling myself that it sure beats glueing and unglueing tires and rims. So off with the 24 screws per set.



Here is what I have to work with. Since I work as a bike mechanic we use the sticky backed lead wieghts for balancing tires and wheels. So I commendiered some for crawler duty. I will be adding 6 1/2 oz. of wieghts to the front rims. And 3 1/2 oz. in the rear rims.I will also be narrowing the foams by 1/2 inch in thickness. I found an article of good ideas in the most recent Hi-Torque's R/C Car mag all bout the Axial AX-10 Scorpion. Sweet.









Now that I narrowed the foams it is time to Star Cut them for better forward bite. This also allows air into the rim via the holes I drilled. So when I face an item with the tire it flattens out and or contours with the surface of the obsticle I want to go onto or over.Things I couldn't climb before I did the mod I can now go over without much fuss, if any.





Here are the fronts. I added a second layer of wieghts on top of the wider first layer. If these will stayed glued to motorcycle rims doing 170MPH+ I think they will stay put here.





So now I want to drill a couple of small breather holes in the rims all the way through the wieghts and all. Thus allowing it so soften and breath properly. I used a pin vise with a 2-56 drill bit.



Next all I had to do was assemble all the pieces together and it didn't cost me a dime. The wieghts can be found at car tire shops. Ask for there takeoffs and use your own glue or double sided sticky tape.

Here is the before shot of the OEM rear rim.



And here is a pic of the modded front tire. New Ring and sits a bit lower in the rubber, eh.



Here is a pic of the front done and the rear still stock together in one shot.




Well this brings us back to the end of the begining where we started this whole thingy with the wheels and tires. So now that it is done here is a pic of the finished product. Hope this helps out. It was not hard at all and it took a good part of an evening to complete but was fun to do as well. W

That's some awesome stuff there man. I'm gonna have to put these things to use on my rig very soon.

hmmmmm...looks like a worthwhile Mod Wrench! Thanks for the great step by step picture tutorial....wonderfully done, as usual!