Tires

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shagnasty

New member
I am fairly inexperienced with Kart racing but I was able to buy a fellow out and get my son in a few races last season. Had a great time! We are back for another year. When we bought out the other team we used the tires they had but we need to get a couple sets for this season. We will only be running about a half dozen races or so as time allows this year. we race a couple of local dirt ovals. I need to purchase new Maxxis HTC tires. What is the easiest way to do that? Should I just buy 4 sticker tires, mount them, run a few laps to scuff them, and then go racing? Or should I buy tires that are already scuffed and treated? Who do you recommend purchasing tires from. I will take any suggestions you have.
 
Depends on how big of a race your gonna be running, if its big races you'll want prepared and treated tires. If its just a local track you can probably just buy them and scuff yourself, size them and prep them and go racing
 
With Limited seat time just buy new tires and mount them and yes scuff them yourself and race them, buy them from the closest Maxxis dealer to ya or at the track and save shipping, that person should have an idea what you need to do to prep them talk to him about that.

Good Luck !!
 
What racing promoter said.

As much as I'd like to sell you a set of fully tricked out blueprinted tires, I don't know that you need that just yet. They might make you faster, but more seat time is probably more valuable at this stage of the learning curve. Buying them local will certainly save on shipping, but then you've got local sales tax to deal with as well.
Maxxis like internal prep, so if you can get them from a local guy that is familiar with the tracks that you'll be at, you might be better off picking up a set of his take-offs or scuffs. Brand new sticker tires need to be scuffed and/or sanded to get the glaze off of them when new. At least do that if you decide to purchase sticker tires and do the work yourself. You will need a roller if you are going to do your own internal prep. Tools are never a bad investment if you plan to stay in the sport very long. Cost of a roller can be in the neighborhood of $240. Cost to have an experienced tire guy roll your tires internally range from $25 - $50 a set. Cost of prep is $35/qt. for most brands and they'll be using some electric, stinking up your garage, and need some babysitting while they roll for 24 hours. As you can see, it's not a big money maker for the tire guys. :) In the long run though, a roller will pay for itself.

There are lots of good guys on here to help you.
If there's anything we can help you with, please feel free to call on us.



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Thanks and God bless,
Brian Carlson
Carlson Racing Engines
Vector Cutz
www.CarlsonMotorsports.com
26 years of service to the karting industry
765-339-4407
bcarlson@CarlsonMotorsports.com
 
What track are you wanting to run?
Call one or some of the prep companies and talk to them.
I called Matt at Palmetto because we are going to Cap City this year for our first try at dirt racing. Very knowledgeable and very helpfull, haven't track proven their product yet, but iff their product is as good as the customer service we should be awsome.
 
Hey thanks for all of the advice. I will run mostly Woodleaf this year and possibly a few races at Providence. What I didn't mention was that when I bought the fellow out I got two karts, a jr green/purple and adult medium which fit perfect for my 12 year old and 19 year old to have some fun. I alternate and race one at a time different weeks. That's why they only race a half dozen or so times a year a piece.

I went ahead and ordered a new set of tires from Palmetto. They seemed to have the best online price. The closest Kart shop is two hours away so the shipping was a wash. The hardest thing for me to get my arms around is the whole tire prep durometer/track conditions thing. How do I get my tires in a competitive range w/o investing a fortune. Guess that's always the rub. Can you prep your tires w/o a roller or is that an absolute necessity? I see people at the track rubbing compounds on their tires, torching them, hot boxes, etc. I just want the boys to be decently competitive. No delusions of grandeur here. Just want to run hard on a limited budget.
 
Shagnasty,
Welcome to the sport first off, there are many father child racing teams on here that want to run competitively with the least amount money spent. Keep in mind that the experience that seat time gets you is something that cant be bought as well as the memories that you and your boys will make over the time spent together. With that said I think the best thing you can do is observe the local guys and find a good prep program and stick with it.
 
Woodleaf can get hard, especially in the summer if the weather’s been dry. Be careful not to over-prep. How can you tell if you've over-prepped? During the second half of the race the kart quits handling and wants to slide around, usually because the tires have overheated.

When Woodleaf is moist (racing, not practice) we generally run tires that duro in the 40s. For the feature we go up about 5 points, maybe into the low to mid 50s if the track has gotten hard.
But others might like different duro numbers. A lot has to do with how your kart works and how you drive it. So please don't take my numbers as gospel - experiment to find what you like.

Providence generally likes softer tires than Woodleaf, especially because they tend to water the track again at Providence during intermission. So keep an eye on what they do to the track. I haven't been to Providence recently so it might have changed, but that track had a hard surface and a lot of water was running off instead of soaking in. If that's still the case you might find that it changes pretty quickly from moist to dusty during the race. We ran tires that duro’d in the low 40s for the heat race and in the mid to upper 40s for the feature race. But again, please experiment to find what works best for you.

Do most of your tire prepping at home during the week. Many of the preps need several days to soak in and do their thing. At the track you need to use aggressive preps if you want to get much out of them. But it can work to wipe on a “fire up” prep to get your tires working sooner at the start of the race.

Prepping is a complex subject and you can read a lot about it in the Tires forum. But like others have posted, get seat time and comfortable with racing and working on the kart in general before you start sweating about prepping.
 
Great advice right there. Don't chase whatever prep is beating you each week, you will go crazy. Pick a simple prep line and that you can get help with and stick to it.
 
Since when did they stop allowing torching tires at the track? Been doing it since the late 90's and never had a problem. If it's been stopped some where it's probably the same reason why we need directions in on shampoo bottles.......
 
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