Race slicks, tubes or tubeless, stiff or soft sidewall, etc.

[cjetmech]

I did a little google research on this and found some good info like this article http://www.dragracingonline.com/technical/v8-tiretubes-1.html. And from reading a lot of peoples opinions, all say the Hoosier slicks don't leak period without tubes. Must be the way there made. Glad to hear your buying a new set though, they always bite the best when their new, and with all that power your prob going to need all the help you can get.

[bluef100fe]

When I ran my Hoosiers tubeless they didn't leak for the first 100 or so passes then they slowly started to leak... And gradually got worse to the point I had to leave the pits with more pressure than I wanted then set them in the staging lanes right before my pass... Then I had to put tubes in to finish out the season with that set of tires... My truck isn't that fast but it does punish the slick pretty bad on the start...

[XR7]

I have run Goodyear and Hoosier and M/T. I have run without tubes for probably 10 years. On my car and with the size tire available that fits, the M/T work the best, and they are a stiff sidewall tire. I don't run any rim screws either. The Hoosier tires works OK but the sidewall would give out after awhile, a stick car will usually just crush the tire, and the sidewall would not last as long as the tread. The Hoosier's did hold air the best however. Stiff sidewalls were not available in the (Hoosier) size I was running at the time. I switched to M/T stiff sidewalls and they would hook until there was no rubber left (that was when I was running 10.80's). Now running in the 9's the tire will fall off after 3 years like other have said, before the tread is gone.

If I lived that close to a warehouse I would buy Hoosiers too. I would get the stiff sidewall Jay, and go through the stack of tires to get a matched pair. They will put "chalk marks" on them, write like 94 1/2 or 94 3/4 on the tread for example... this is the measured roll out during manufacturing. There is always a range of rollout on the same size, it may be from 93 3/4 to 95 inches for extremes as an example. I would air up your tires to 12# and measure yours first. Then try and find 2 at the warehouse that are the same number whatever that ends up (on the Hoosier stiff sidewall tire). You can lose that extra size you don't have room for this way.

Another thing is these tires are date coded, you want something made this year not 2 years old before the first burnout. It is a date stamp like on block and heads, right next to the bead on one side. It will have letters and numbers etc.  the last 4 digits are what you are interested in. Let say they are 1214, that means the 12 week of 2014 as the first two numbers are the week and the last two are the year. If they allow you to look through them that would be a great thing, and you can get what you want after seeing the range of sizes on that particular tire, compared to what you have. Sometime they will air up a little different size, but there are ways to shrink and to stretch the tire to size before the first heat cycle and then they take a set (burnout).

[faulkdaddy]

Thor,
  You know damn well Jay should be running M and H slicks with tubes and screws just like I do. Actually Jay I ran Hoosiers for years and tubes and was happy as hell. Went to the M and H  slicks 2 years ago and tubes and are even happier. I am a stick car and heavy. I have gotten to the point where I can raise tire pressure and still get 1.40-1.38 60 ft times on a 2 year old tire that is not a stiff sidewall. My next one will either be the same M and H or another set of Hoosiers. By the way when John @ M and H sent me the tires the were within 1/16th of an inch of each other. The Hoosiers QTP

[faulkdaddy]

 Sorry, the Hoosier QTP's were close to that in roll out but better than any M/T tire I have ever seen. Just a contiuation from above.

Bruce Faulkner
SSG U.S. ARMY (RET)

[XR7]

"Thor,
  You know damn well Jay should be running M and H slicks with tubes and screws just like I do."


LOL Bruce! I don't think he will and neither will I, ever. The reason being is... M&H doesn't even offer a 29 or 29.5" tire, zero... ziltch, nada, so no reason buying a tire that won't fit. My buddy had a set of 10.5x30 M&H and he went to order another set and they were discontinued. They go from a 91" roll out to a 97" and nothing in-between. I see they have a ton of 24" and 26" slicks available, Ricer's? Motorcycles? WTF?

Hey, I thought farm trucks had 16" split rims anyway? LOL.

Oh, and tubes are floating the river with a beer in your hand on a hot day, or sliding down a hill with snow on it on a cold day...

A friend of mine took his tubes out and his car went .08 quicker, seems like a lot but he said no other changes and similar weather conditions.

A stiff sidewall works much better than tubes in a standard slick, and weighs less. Grab a stiff sidewall slicks bead and move it around, it is really thick and strong, you can't wrinkle it at all, on the inner half of the sidewall.

In the end, use what you are happy with, no different than oil, spark plugs, lifters, etc.

[jayb]

Got my new tires; I ended up with the Hoosiers with the stiff sidewall.  One thing about the stiff sidewall version that surprised me, and that Thor mentioned above, is that the entire sidewall is not stiff, just a portion of it.  My old tires were stiff from the bead out about 1.5" towards the outside of the tire, and then were really light from there to the OD of the tire.  The stiff sidewall tires are stiff from the bead out about 3.5", and then are light from there out to the OD of the tire.  I had expected the entire sidewall to be stiff, but that was not the case.  You learn something new every day...

Also I decided to pick up a tire durometer when I bought the tires.  The old tires read between 52 and 56 on the durometer, depending on where on the tire I check.  The new ones read between 42 and 44.  FWIW...

[machoneman]

Sticky!

Read this article Jay on durometer, 'bout 1/2 way down the page. FYI.

http://racecarbook.com/articles/traction.shtml

On edit: almost forgot. Put'em in the sun for a few hours, note the ambient air temp and take another reading. Book it and try to repeat the sun and local temps for the next durometer reading.  Most tire reps/techs at the events do note both as one should attempt to duplicate local track conditions, hence the temps and sun.   

[JamesonRacing]

What's the circumference of the new tires compared to the previous tires?

[jayb]

According to the spec sheets they were supposed to be within 0.2" in diameter.  However, when I measured them in the old tires were 92" in circumference, and the new tires were 94.25".  That translates to a difference in diameter of three quarters of an inch, which was more than I'd been hoping for.  After putting them on the car, I decided to do a little wheelwell trimming, and now they fit just fine 

[65er]

Where do you guys find the specs on the sidewalls and what are the different compounds?

I'm Looking at Hoosier #18140 because it's about ALL the tire I can fit under the car without surgery.  Specs that I see say it's a D06 compound but nothing about the sidewall.  Looking at the specs on Jay's new tire I see that one is a C07 compound but again, nothing about the sidewalls. 

I'm expecting about 4200 lbs race weight, stick shift of course, and I've got 4.30 gears in now.  I'm planning on doing the Texas Muscle Car Club Challenge next year, which is about 12 Sunday morning races at a few tracks in the Dallas area.  I'm also hopeful that I might be able to get a pic of the Galaxie going wheels up like Cody's truck!

[jayb]

Go here, Wade; down at the bottom is a key for askerisks after the tire, that gives a little information on the sidewall.

https://www.hoosiertire.com/Drtire.htm

[65er]

Thanks Jay.  Looks like maybe I should go with the 18155 instead of the 18140 then?  It's only .2 wider in section and has the stiff sidewall and C07 compound.  The stiff sidewall I understand is really a good thing for a stick car?  Also the 18155 shows 10.2 tread width vs 9.0 which HAS to be a good thing.  Does kind of make me nervous though since according to my measurements I can fit 11.4" width and that one lists at 11.3".  If it runs a little over spec I'll be screwed.  Guess I'll have to chat with the Hoosier guy when I get ready to place an order.

[bn69stang]

Is it possible to roll the fender lip a bit , i remember seeing a 69 boss 302 track car at a car show and fender lips were rolled front and rear , maybe more of a road coarse setup but car had slicks ..

[jayb]

Stick cars like stiff sidewalls, so I'd definitely go that route.  I'd also think about stepping down a size, Wade, because based on my experience the specs don't exactly follow the actual tire size...