Third Party Tires for Lego Technic Rims

[DLuders]

@ TasV: Actually, it is a common practice to reduce the tire pressure in real tires to enhance grip in snow, mud, and ice (where friction is poor). So, when your Micro Crawler Tires partially deflate, the tire contact patch is greater and one gets better grip than if the tire were more puffed-up. I'm curious about the combination of a sticky RC tire and the Rotocaster Omniwheel (which has a lot less friction). One is resistant to sideways movement, and the other can turn in virtually any direction with ease....

[TasV]

Hi Dluders... I'm familiar with deflating the tires in 4WDs when driving on surfaces such as sand. I only did it once when I had my Jeep Cherokee (sport). I hadn't put these two things together but yes... you are right... there will be more contact so even better grip! The reason behind the omniwheel is that a basic line-following NXT-G program will cause the robot to scan left and right by powering the left and right front wheel alternately. This means the back end needs to 'wiggle' freely. Many designs use a jockey wheel but we have found that a swivelling jockey wheel can sometimes 'jack-knife' and fight the turning of the robot enough to send the robot off course while it tries to correct itself. The Omniwheel eliminates this problem. Part of the course includes an incline and the normal balloon wheels that come with the NXT - Education kit don't have enough grip to climb the incline and we can't gear it down too much because the NXT motors already have a fairly low rotation and high torque and we are timed around the course. So these are an experiment to try and increase the grip in the front end whilst minimising the friction in the back end with the omniwheel that will hopefully allow us to move around the course faster, climb over the speed-bumps easily without losing the line, climb the incline and the see-saw more easily... and look sexy while we are doing it with our pimped-out ride ;) We are also developing a better program that follows the line more smoothly, without the constant L-R scanning and we have just built a robot with a simple steering rack/dif. combo that turns it from the back as well (like forklift steering) so we can hopefully get smoother and tighter turns but this is proving to be a real challenge for my 12 year old Son to program. This is what we compete in:

Edited March 21, 2013 by TasV

[Balrog]

This is all very interesting. I think I might order me some bigger offroad tires to use instead of the Unimog tires for a MOC that I am planning.

But I wonder if anyone looked for street tires for the 44772 wheel as well? This might be interesting, too. Since I have only the street tires from 8070 supercar, I am somewhat limited in the scale. I know there are original Lego tires that are a size bigger, but I wanted to know, if there are already known good 3rd party tires.

Thanks.

Edit:

I would guess, that any 1.9" (48mm) x 1.4"-1.45" (35-37mm) tires should fit on the 44772 rims. Is that correct?

Edited March 22, 2013 by Balrog

[fex00]

My Duratrax Bandito tires arrived (Thank you international shipping and missed parcel services...)

The tires have this weird set up where the opening on the inside of the wheel is much larger (about 80mm) than the opening on the outside (54mm).

The bandito tires do, with foam inserts, fit fairly well over these and fit perfectly over the 42000 wheels, which is how I plan on using them, possibly using a dish with an end stop axle to secure them more firmly.

Overall, not what I expected but at least they work.

Also, @Balrog, these are street tires.

[DLuders]

I would guess, that any 1.9" (48mm) x 1.4"-1.45" (35-37mm) tires should fit on the 44772 rims. Is that correct?

Yes, they will fit.

[fex00]

Images of aforementioned tires, the white specks are glittery particles in the tire rubber highlighted by the flash.

The tires are fairly solid on the wheels and take quite a bit of force to pull off, I have not had them slip yet but I am concerned about the outside edge snagging on something.

They are not directly mounted onto the 44772 wheel rims but are forced over the intermediary x1825 tires.

Larger images can be found here.

[Someonenamedjon]

Holy cow! Those are big tires!

[Balrog]

Wow... those are huge. Too bad I don't have the fitting tires.

[fex00]

I just found these images on Brickshelf; although the tires on the model in the foreground are mounted on custom machined aluminium(?) hubs, in the background of the 4th image are some smaller similar tires mounted directly onto the 44772 wheel rims.

[Someonenamedjon]

oh man, those are HUGE tires, i bet they were 100% custom, even the rims.

[efferman]

my dirt grabbers has arrived and they look great

but unfortunately ther are a small modification at the rims neccessary

normaly i dont cut lego, but because of the price of the dirt grabbers i think its worth

[camaudio]

my dirt grabbers has arrived and they look great

but unfortunately ther are a small modification at the rims neccessary

normaly i dont cut lego, but because of the price of the dirt grabbers i think its worth

I did the same mod to a set of rims. the third party tires fit a lot nicer so its totally worth it

[rm8]

my dirt grabbers has arrived and they look great

but unfortunately ther are a small modification at the rims neccessary

normaly i dont cut lego, but because of the price of the dirt grabbers i think its worth

Cool, I am also waiting for Baja MTZ scale tires....on the way

[DarkShadow73]

you know that the lego tires are often too wide for their diameter or the pattern is only street legal and nothing for real offroad driving.

now i have found some RC crawler tires which fits nearly perfect to the 8110 unimog rims.

the tires came from the german manufacturer ansmann and have the number 211000224

the diameter is 108mm and the width is 40mm

or 4,25"x1,45"- 1,9"

they are ballon tires with a very soft rubber compound and with a foam inside

here some pics

if you know some other compatible third part tires, please tell it us.

Really nice looking tires, especially for off-road vehicles like the Unimog, and other models with that type of rim...wouldn't mind getting a few sets for the Unimog and a couple other models...another model that could use these tires is the 9397 Log Loader set

Edited April 26, 2013 by TechnicFreak

[GDomino]

As requested by DLuders from the Panther thread. Here are quick shots of the 1.9 Dick Cepek Giant Puller tires, which can be a cheap alternative to buying the (now) very expensive TLG Power Puller tires and rims. Here are a few quick shots of getting the 44772 rims to fit in the the Dick Cepek Giant Puller tires (DGGP) + comparisons with TLG's Power Puller tires (PP) - (again, I apologize before hand for the large images since I'm still getting used to this forum/board):

Notice that the DCGP tires are slightly smaller (outer diameter) than the PPs, but is wider (for wider stances). The DCGP tires weigh around 127 g, almost half of the PPs 240 g. Please note that you will need to use two 44772 rims for each tire which adds about 30 grams for each tire (still way less than the power puller + rim combined which IIRC is around 240 grams total).

These pics shows the inner sleeve that will need to be trimmed for two 44772 rims to fit in the tire (before and after). You can use scissors to cut the sleeve and then use nail clippers (that are curving outwards or convexed) to clean up the jagged edges left behind from the cut. Word of warning though, since these tires are so expensive and you don't want to screw up by cutting the wrong sleeve causing your tire threads to not be oriented the way you want it - ensure to check that you are cutting the correct sleeve because you want the threads to be oriented forward. Note that the side with the sleeve removed will not look as plumped as the side with the sleeve. It's a fairly easy cut. Just cut along the groove between the sleeve and the tire wall. You may need to use an axle rod to keep the rims from slipping in the tire when driving, but with the inner foam these tires these come with, I doubt that will happen. The tire's rubber feels really stiff, so you may need to really play with the fit to get both 44772 rims in there.

These tires can be ordered from RC4WD.com and currently go for $24.99 for a pair (you will need to buy 2 sets for 4 tires).

[Doc_Brown]

I just found these images on Brickshelf; although the tires on the model in the foreground are mounted on custom machined aluminium(?) hubs, in the background of the 4th image are some smaller similar tires mounted directly onto the 44772 wheel rims.

O M G! That is truly insane!

I'm seriously going to think about making custom wheel rims now. I wonder how much it costs to get something like that made. Anyone know the tires???

If I had those wheels I would make a truly awesome monster truck.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Doc_Brown

[rm8]

my dirt grabbers has arrived and they look great

but unfortunately ther are a small modification at the rims neccessary

normaly i dont cut lego, but because of the price of the dirt grabbers i think its worth

Got the same problem with Baja MTZ from 4wdrc. Did not cut rims yet, but will

As for DCGP - super tires. Hope they work well at sand and gearing is enough to roll such wide tires. But steering is a problem, right?

[Doc_Brown]

Got the same problem with Baja MTZ from 4wdrc. Did not cut rims yet, but will

As for DCGP - super tires. Hope they work well at sand and gearing is enough to roll such wide tires. But steering is a problem, right?

Why don't you turn the tires inside out and trim the rubber?

[GDomino]

Got the same problem with Baja MTZ from 4wdrc. Did not cut rims yet, but will

As for DCGP - super tires. Hope they work well at sand and gearing is enough to roll such wide tires. But steering is a problem, right?

I don't like modifying lego rims. For me, I would alter the tire first over the rims so that I can still tire swap with the standard lego tires later.

The Giant Pullers work just as well (maybe better) as the Lego PP tires. Servo motors from 9398 seem to have no problems steering it, and if anything, seems to turn better compared to the PPs since the tires weigh less. Medium motors geared down for torque will have no problems either (was turning fine in Zblj's Panther). As with any wide® tire, the turning radius is decreased but that is a given if you're going for the monster truck look.

[tbird8057]

Has anybody found any third party racing slicks for technic wheels? I'm thinking especially for the 42000 grand prix racer. It would definitely kick it up a notch.

Edited May 25, 2013 by tbird8057

[1gor]

Is there any tractor tires that one could get.

Is there any tractor tires that one could get.

...and if possible in this dimensions (in mm) to enable tractors to fit Unimog U400 scale:

- 170 x 70 R

- 160 x 60 R

- 140 x 50 R

- 134 x 50 R

[efferman]

maybe i have found a new possibility to use 2,2" third party tires

i have ordered rc4wd roklox 2.2" to thest this theory

[Someonenamedjon]

Very creative, like the turntable version!

[Doc_Brown]

I didn't even know that part had gearing inside it, saying that I don't even have that part! haha

Awesome design! Are you going to purchase some 2.2" to test it out, if you don't have any already?

[legomuppet9]

i have ordered rc4wd roklox 2.2" to thest this theory

Good idea effe interesting use of those parts

Edited June 11, 2013 by legomuppet9