How To Add Weight to Your Crawler Wheels

[Ricco69]

Welcome in @Ricco69 , I've never heard of doing this but this thread is from 2009.
However, running water in your wheels would be a huge change in the performance of your tires and not for the good, especially if you run in very cold weather.
That would create a serious balance problem with the tires. Tires are vented so air can enter and exit the tire allowing smoother operation, and allows water to escape.
The softer the tire, the better it grips the rocks when climbing. Water would drastically reduce the performance.

I hear your point but f you haven’t tried it. You can’t respond. It doesn’t effect the balance. And I know what the vent hole is for. Try it then get back to me. I totally out climb all my buddy’s units.

That, and over time mold will form inside the tires.

I dry them out after each use

I'm starting to find this user a bit puzzling and I may be wrong but only two posts and both suggest water filled tire?

You can only know for sure by trying

 

[Ricco69]

Adding weight to your wheels on your crawler can be very beneficial to handling. It adds weight at the lowest point of your truck and helps lower the cog. It will also aid in getting better traction on the rocks.



What you will need are some automotive stick on wheel balancing weights, the kind they use for mag wheels, and some electrical tape. I had no luck finding them at any of the local automotive parts stores, so I hit the local tire shop and the manager there was more than willing to help out.



I picked up 8 strips of weights that consisted of 12 1/4 ounce weights per strip and a roll of electrical tape.



View attachment 43681



First thing I did was drill a 1/8 vent hole in the rim.



View attachment 43682



Next I wrapped the first strip of weights around the center of the rim being careful to not cover the vent hole. One pass around the rim actually took 14 weights so I added two more from another strip. This added 3 1/2 ounces of weight to each rim for the rear rims



View attachment 43683



Next, since I was working on the front rims I wanted to add around 7 ounces of weight to each wheel, so I wrapped another strip of weights around the rim on top of the first section, this time to go completely around required 16 weights. With the two strips in each front wheel I ended up with 7 1/2 ounces of added weight to each front wheel.



View attachment 43684



After I had the weight I wanted attached to each rim, I took the electrical tape and wrapped the weights tightly to keep everything held in place.



View attachment 43685



Now just reassemble the wheels and tires and give it a run. You can add more or less weight depending on what you are looking for, and to tune it to your driving style.​

I have the same tires but I modded them

Adding weight to your wheels on your crawler can be very beneficial to handling. It adds weight at the lowest point of your truck and helps lower the cog. It will also aid in getting better traction on the rocks.



What you will need are some automotive stick on wheel balancing weights, the kind they use for mag wheels, and some electrical tape. I had no luck finding them at any of the local automotive parts stores, so I hit the local tire shop and the manager there was more than willing to help out.



I picked up 8 strips of weights that consisted of 12 1/4 ounce weights per strip and a roll of electrical tape.



View attachment 43681



First thing I did was drill a 1/8 vent hole in the rim.



View attachment 43682



Next I wrapped the first strip of weights around the center of the rim being careful to not cover the vent hole. One pass around the rim actually took 14 weights so I added two more from another strip. This added 3 1/2 ounces of weight to each rim for the rear rims



View attachment 43683



Next, since I was working on the front rims I wanted to add around 7 ounces of weight to each wheel, so I wrapped another strip of weights around the rim on top of the first section, this time to go completely around required 16 weights. With the two strips in each front wheel I ended up with 7 1/2 ounces of added weight to each front wheel.



View attachment 43684



After I had the weight I wanted attached to each rim, I took the electrical tape and wrapped the weights tightly to keep everything held in place.



View attachment 43685



Now just reassemble the wheels and tires and give it a run. You can add more or less weight depending on what you are looking for, and to tune it to your driving style.​

 

[SnowCamo]

I have the same tires but I modded them

Nice job on the tread cut. I'm positive that made the tires grip like crazy. You probably crawl over everything I cut the tread on my 2.2s as well. Helps if done right.

 

[Tunedfrog]

I've been schooled, I'm such a newbie...

 

[Greywolf74]

I'm posting this here because this thread actually pertains to adding weight to your tires. The heated debate about filling your tires with water to add weight took place in a thread that had nothing to do with adding weight to tires and that can be found HERE if anyone cares. At any rate after Ricco got upset because at least 3 or 4 of us would not accept his mod as being a better alternative than adding weight to the wheels themselves or the axles I started feeling a bit guilty. I felt guilty because I was one of the biggest opponents in the debate yet I'm not a crawler guy. Because of this I started wondering if my theories that i was basing my arguments on were in fact sound. I started wondering if maybe there was something about crawlers that maybe I didnt know or understand that would invalidate my theories and arguments.

Well a couple days later it was still bugging me so i went over to RCCrawler forums to get opinions from the folks over there that sleep, eat, and breathe crawlers. I didnt try and flame him over there or anything like that. In fact I didnt mention any names and posed the question as if he, myself, and the others that replied to him here about his mod were all in the same place in real life. I was legitimately wondering if I had been wrong and I was open to the possibility that I didnt know what I was talking about. Also dont get the wrong idea, I'm not posting this as an "I told ya so" type post. I'm posting this just so anyone else involved in the debate or anyone reading this in the future that might be wondering if that is indeed a good mod will have the most information possible about it. The long and the short of the replies over there were pretty much in agreement that it was not a good way (or at least a less than ideal way) of adding weight down low. HERE is a link to the thread over there is anyone is interested in reading the exact responses.

All that being said, I hope Ricco comes back one of these days and at least can agree to disagree. It certainly wasn't my intention to run him off and I would have posted this link if I had been wrong just the same because at the end of the day I dont care if I'm right or wrong as long as good information is being posted in these forums. The hobby can be frustrating enough without having to learn the hard way that something you saw in a forum and tried turned out to be bad advice.

Speaking of advice, Someone in the other thread posted up this youtube video about the pros and cons of adding weight to tires and axles and seems like really good info so ill repost the video here

 

[WickedFog]

An alternative to this would be to fill the tires up to various weights with lead shot and test it. The only problem with that is after driving for awhile you would have a lot of lead powder in your tires, kinda like garnet from a rock tumbler. Wear a good mask when removing it and rubber gloves lol.

The benefit would be you will add weight down low, but it wouldn't technically all be rotational weight since the mass of lead shot would roll with gravity, vs being rotated by the motor, if that makes sense.

I did test this a couple years ago by filling the front tires on a 1/16th crawler with BB's. It worked great to increase tire grip on a steep incline. But the constant rattling of BB's made it really annoying to drive. Lead shot would be quieter, but messier

 

[Doom!]

The water thing sounded like a bad thing to me, but being fairly new to this, I thought maybe it was an old school trick I hadn't heard of. Not something I would have tried though.

 

[Greywolf74]

An alternative to this would be to fill the tires up to various weights with lead shot and test it. The only problem with that is after driving for awhile you would have a lot of lead powder in your tires, kinda like garnet from a rock tumbler. Wear a good mask when removing it and rubber gloves lol.

The benefit would be you will add weight down low, but it wouldn't technically all be rotational weight since the mass of lead shot would roll with gravity, vs being rotated by the motor, if that makes sense.

I did test this a couple years ago by filling the front tires on a 1/16th crawler with BB's. It worked great to increase tire grip on a steep incline. But the constant rattling of BB's made it really annoying to drive. Lead shot would be quieter, but messier

The other problem with BBs/lead shot as mentioned in the RCCrawler thread is that for situations where you need to throttle blip up/over an obstacle you have the problem of spinning the tires up fast and then when you get on top of the obstacle and the wheels stop, the weight inside the wheels is going to want to keep moving forward.

 

[SnowCamo]

So I do agree in adding brass will help. And many do so. Actually adding an unsprung weight to the tire and or wheel it self is like icing on the cake. A guy can do what he feels but actual weights vs water is about like comparing apples and oranges. Like what's your flavor...lol.

Seriously it is only understandable if you experience it for yourself. On inclines you'll be just that much more likely to flip back due to the weight being closer to the surface in which is being crawled over. This is assuming one does not fill the tire completely with water.

 

[Greywolf74]

So I do agree in adding brass will help. And many do so. Actually adding an unsprung weight to the tire and or wheel it self is like icing on the cake. A guy can do what he feels but actual weights vs water is about like comparing apples and oranges. Like what's your flavor...lol.

Seriously it is only understandable if you experience it for yourself. On inclines you'll be just that much more likely to flip back due to the weight being closer to the surface in which is being crawled over. This is assuming one does not fill the tire completely with water.

If thats true then why does no one in the forum devoted to crawlers seem to think that its a good idea? Plus adding any additional rotating mass poses problems with inertia when you need to spin up your wheel speed to get over/on top of an obstacle.

I'm done debating the topic though. Ill tell you the same thing I told Ricco. Go convince the hardcore crawler guys over at RCCrawler and I'll be inclined to admit that I'm wrong. So far between this form and that one I've seen 2 guys saying its a good idea and at least 10 saying its not.

 

[SnowCamo]

If thats true then why does no one in the forum devoted to crawlers seem to think that its a good idea? Plus adding any additional rotating mass poses problems with inertia when you need to spin up your wheel speed to get over/on top of an obstacle.

I'm done debating the topic though. Ill tell you the same thing I told Ricco. Go convince the hardcore crawler guys over at RCCrawler and I'll be inclined to admit that I'm wrong. So far between this form and that one I've seen 2 guys saying its a good idea and at least 10 saying its not.

Best way to explain it is... Be the black sheep. Don't follow the crowd and think for yourself. So you hardly ever need wheel speed. And if you do your not setup or doing it right for the terrain. That a fact lol. To each his own, but its like telling a guy to not vent his 6 or 8s tires and say go play in the mud or sand. You'll get that group who say don't vent because it'll cause your tires to rip. No biggie

 

[Greywolf74]

Best way to explain it is... Be the black sheep. Don't follow the crowd and think for yourself.

Heres the thing about being the black sheep. If you're the black sheep and the majority dont believe you but your convinced you're right then go and collect scientific data that proves you are right. No one is going to believe the odd man out just because he says hes convinced. You need proof. Just like awhile back when most everyone in this forum was saying that Deans were only good for amp draws between 45-60A. Well I went and did actually quantifiable tests to prove they can handle continuous amp loads of 80+A. So until someone has some sort of testing with quantifiable results then Ill stick to statistics.

 

[SnowCamo]

Do you guy. There really not a reason for this thread to have gone this far over water lol may as well have spilled the milk idk I'm not trying to convince anyone just stating what I know from speaking to guys on the trails and seeing their setups. Brass is just the begining lol as with all in this hobby.

 

[Greywolf74]

There really not a reason for this thread to have gone this far over water

Imo this has just been healthy debate at least on my part. I've not said anything degrading or demeaning to anyone. If I did say anything out of the way to Ricco it was most likely after he started calling people idiots. Ultimately I dont care what you do or dont run in your tires. I'm just not convinced neither are the people over in RCCrawler forums, even the guys offering to give away their left over mercury from when they tried it and decided it wasn't good. Besides if you really felt that way why are you adding to it?

I'm not trying to convince anyone

If you werent trying to convince anyone of anything you wouldnt be here debating it.

 

[SnowCamo]

I stated what I know to be true. That's different. Do with that as you will. No debate here. I know how it works out in the trails. Bash on.

 

[Greywolf74]

I stated what I know to be true. That's different. Do with that as you will. No debate here. I know how it works out in the trails. Bash on.

and I've stated over and over again that neither of you have not the slightest shred of even basic scientific evidence to back it up, yet you keep claiming your opinion to be fact even against a multitude of other people who dont think your opinion is correct, including guys that have tried it themselves even going as far as to use mercury which is even heavier than water. At this point I dont care that you run water or anything else in your tires, and I dont care that you think you are right, I only care about what you can prove.

 

[WickedFog]

and I've stated over and over again that neither of you have not the slightest shred of even basic scientific evidence to back it up, yet you keep claiming your opinion to be fact even against a multitude of other people who dont think your opinion is correct, including guys that have tried it themselves even going as far as to use mercury which is even heavier than water. At this point I dont care that you run water or anything else in your tires, and I dont care that you think you are right, I only care about what you can prove.

I don't think there is much scientific study even in 1:1 rock crawling

 

[Doom!]

If it works for you that's all that matters. Seems to fussy for me, if I were to try something similar I think I would try sand. But I'm gonna stick with brass . It works for me.

 

[SnowCamo]

If it works for you that's all that matters. Seems to fussy for me, if I were to try something similar I think I would try sand. But I'm gonna stick with brass . It works for me.

Exactly. This Ish really isn't that big of a deal man.

Its grown men playing with remote controlled cars. Not a thing scientific about that.

 

[Greywolf74]

I don't think there is much scientific study even in 1:1 rock crawling

That might be true but these two guys are trying to convince people of something that goes against conventional wisdom but they have no proof that their claims actually carry any weight.

Exactly. This Ish really isn't that big of a deal man.

Its grown men playing with remote controlled cars. Not a thing scientific about that.

Science doesn't stop being science because you are wrong.