Need some help with wheels

[Wilson]

I have decided to shop arpund for some new tires and wheels and I need some help on what I need to get. I have several questions so I apologize for the long post and being such a noob lol

There are 3.2, 3.8, 40 series, traxxas style,maxx size, with being fairly new I'm not sure what is what or what I need.

Now I understand what 3.2 and 3.8 is, right now I have 3.2 but what should I go with? Are they doing away with the 3.2 size, on prolines website I'm not sure if I see any 3.2 they are all 3.8. Basically what I'm wanting to know is, what's the most popular size and with what size will I have the most options with? I'm fine with either size but I just don't want to get one size and have 5 tires to pick from.

Now with the 40 series is that just another name for 3.8? If so is everything exactly the same, if not could someone help explain what is what?

My last question is the traxxas style bead and the maxx size tires. I just don't really understand what this is. If I like a tire that has the traxxas style bead how to I insure that I get a wheel that will fit that tire and the maxx size tire, what does that mean and how do I find a wheel that fits it?

I have been looking on Amazon and eBay, along AMain and tower hobbies, is there a way I can look at a wheel or tire and tell what it is because sometimes they give very generic vague discriptions and I just don't want to buy the wrong stuff.

I very much thank you all for any help as I have looked and tires and wheels until I am blue in the face, I rather get a answer from you all than some sales pitch from my lhs.

 

[olds97_lss]

Traxxas style bead is a newer type of tire bead for MT's where the bead goes into a horizontal groove like 1/8th buggy tires instead of vertical grooves. Some don't have a horizontal groove, just a flat area for the bead to glue to the rim horizontally vs vertically. I'm not 100% sure of the benefit of one over the other.

To use the traxxas wheels/tires on my savage, I had to cut out the little hex nubs that traxxas puts in them. In hind sight, I should have just bought another set of traxxas hex/hubs and cut them off/drilled them out to fit the savage axle, but seemed ok to just cut off the nubs at the time.

Traxxas's 3.8" tires aren't as wide as standard 40 series, but are a bit wider than standard 3.2 MT tires in general. The 3.8" rim/tire combo has less sidewall so the trucks are less floaty than if I ran old 3.2" tires. I'm pretty sure 40 series tend to have narrower sidewalls as well to help combat the float and they are also wider tires for a larger contact patch on the ground.

For my needs, I just run traxxas 3.8" 17mm hex tires/wheels on all 3 of my MT's. I like them because they can be bought pretty cheap usually on ebay in sets of 4 and they are pretty light and not so big that they cause excess leverage that breaks arms/turnbuckles while bashing.

 

[Wilson]

I came across a topic where you posted some pics of your traxxas geode wheels, they are some pretty good looking wheels. Did they add any offset compared to stock savage wheels? I wouldn't mind have a little wider offset. From what I'm understanding I just need to find a wheel with a traxxas style bead then it looks like any proline tire will work since most say they are traxxas style. From what I'm finding traxxas style 3.8 wheels seem to have the most available options.

If possible could you post a pic of the difference or just some measurements between the 3.2 and 3.8 tire width?

 

[olds97_lss]

The geodes add 1/2" of width over traxxas stock and I believe over HPI stock wheels.

Tire comparisons, left to right:
Traxxas Max 3.8 3.3, revo 3.8 talons, HPI 3.2 Old School GT1, Pro-Line 3.2 road rage, traxxas 3.2 chevrons

Traxxas Max 3.8 3.3, revo 3.8 talons, HPI 3.2 Old School GT1, traxxas 3.2 chevrons

The above tires and a few others:

My savage X with the traxxas geode rims and 3.8 chevrons:

vs the same rims with the 3.8 T-maxx 3.3 tires:

The chevron tires aren't quite as tall, but wear well on concrete while allowing for a bit if sliding when in the grass to help with traction rollovers.

 

[Wilson]

Wow you don't have a shortage of tires lol. I appreciate the pics. I was thinking of getting badlands or something like that but ill have to look at my options.

I have also thought about going the headlock way but after reading that they sometimes separate I think I'll just stick with glue.

I'm actually watching some axial beadlocks with some losi 420 super bolt ons on eBay right now but I think I might just let them pass.

 

[olds97_lss]

The badlands are pretty small I think, good for dirt/off road. Not sure I'd run them on pavement much. I run a set of those on my jato on 1/8th buggy wheels. They hook up really well in grass.

 

[Jam Racing 1]

Losi 420 series on Redcat wheels, I use them on my MMT mostly but they are 17mm hex so putting on the savage is easy.....

 

[andthereyouare]

This is great stuff as I had some questions about wheels/tires too. I opted for the Duratrax Lockup Mt 3.8 wheel/tire setup I normally stay on the grass. They make my stock tires(Dirtbones) look very puny. I have noticed, while the truck is on a stand the wheels rub the shock springs. So I've opted to get some 16mm hub extensions(From Integy) and we'll see how that works.

I'm going to the beach soon and wanted to run paddle tires. So I opted for some Losa7743 dish rims; but, having a hard figuring out what paddle tire would fit as there are no numbers on Losi's website for them. Any ideas would be awesome.

 

[Jam Racing 1]

The Lockups outta be a good tire for sand or most unprepared surfaces like gravel or dirt lots, as for those losi dish wheels they are 3.2 so any tire with a 3.2 size should fit but beware they have a zero offset so rubbing may be a problem on your rig....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Losi-LOSA77...235336?hash=item43e9acf608:g:294AAOSw7FRWbovK

 

[andthereyouare]

Awesome! Thanks.

Funny the link you have is the one I bought.

 

[olds97_lss]

Wow you don't have a shortage of tires lol.

I have a drawer full of 1/8 buggy tires/wheels and a 18"Wx16"Lx14"H box of 1/10 stadium tires/wheels too that I'll probalby never use again. I have an entire shelf of MT tires/wheels.

I should just take photos of them all and list them on ebay or something. I really only use a couple variations of MT. Odds are, the old 1/10 tires are all dry rotted. I haven't taken the box out of the closet in 4-5 years. Ever since I converted my jato to 1/8th buggy wheels/tires.

 

[Wilson]

If you ever decide to sell post up a link for us, I'm always looking.