Carrera replacement rear tires for use on Carrera plastic track?

[SlotCat]

Just got my new home Carrera plastic track layout all ready to fire up, took out my Carrera cars from wood track racing days and the rear tires are mostly shot! Some are hard and crusty and some are kinda soft and gooey, we used to use NSR tire traction oil on them for the painted wood track surface. Our Carrera spec class racing required use of stock tires, motors, etc on 10 volts. I'm going to be racing with Carrera supplied transformer for now, but have an adjustable power supply to set up later, just want to run some slotcars! My older cars are setup with tungsten putty (no magnets) and we're anticipating running them all non-magnet. I've bought Carrera replacement tires but it's been several years. Kinda leaning towards stock tires but wheels and tires glued and trued.

What tires do y'all recommend for replacement? Best way to remove the old tires that are glued to stock plastic rims using BSI Tire Glue (CA) on just the bead areas?

[RichD]

It is not unusual for rubber tires to get hard or turn to goo when they age. Possibly using a tire conditioner speeds that up but I believe that the problem happens when the tire was not formulated properly in the first place.
Heat will cause CA glue to debond, you could try boiling water first, you would not want to damage your plastic wheels. Wait for things to cool to room temperature before you try to remove the tires. You can buy a CA debonder product, those are likely to contain acetone that will attack your wheels.
OEM replacement rubber tires are often hard to find, in addition if you are able to find some they may have been sitting on the shelf for a while and are past their prime. Aftermarket silicone or rubber tires are probably made to be an exact fit on your wheels. If you will still be running rubber tires on your track urethane tires would probably be a better choice. Slot Car Corner has a tire selector to find if specific tires are made for your wheels.

[dw5555]

Not quite sure what you're asking. If you running a stock tire class it would require Carrera tires. Am I wrong? The problem may be in finding stock replacements. Some dealers still have stock tires but it's easier if you get the part number yourself and look it up online by part number.
If you go to the Racing Track Spare Parts List on the website you can look up the part number of the tires you need.

https://www.carrera-toys.com/en/2882/downloads

Forget the 200 in the part numbers. It's only the last 5 digits. By the way you can't buy just the rear tires from Carrera. They sell you all 4.
Dave

[DRW-FJ40]

Cincy Slots has a pretty good selection of stock Carrera tires. I usually use NSR tire oil with plastic track.

[SlotCat]

RichD, agree with you about the tires aging, conditioner's effects and poor rubber quality control. My analog cars mostly have NSR and some SlotIt tires that are still good, so quality matters. I guess I will still like to run these cars with rubber tires, therefore urethane is less affected negatively by the rubber laid down on the track? Silicone pretty much picks up every peice of dust ime. I'll check SCC tire finder, thanks.

Dw5555, thanks but I'm not running in the Carrera spec class anymore since our track closed about two years ago, so I'm open to suggestions. Used to be able to buy just front or rear Carrera stock tires, but I don't mind a set of all four.

DRW-FJ40, thanks I've found them to have good stock and CarreraSlots too. OK, NSR tire oil is what we used at the commercial wood track. Seems might be better to run tires that don't require tire conditioner? Less hassle and tires last longer?

[dinglebery]

For rubber tires I use NSR or Slot.it and some BRM

[RichD]

My club normally runs on silicone tires, but we also host a lot of proxy races for cars that use rubber or urethane tires. If we are doing a proxy race the track will be conditioned for the specified type of tire and silicone tires will not be run on the track until the proxy racing is over. I do testing for a major supplier of aftermarket tires, all of that testing is done under very carefully controlled conditions so that my results will be reliable. For casual home running you don't have to be so fussy, for club style racing you would not want the cars to all have different types of tires.
People often will say that they use a certain type or brand of tire, but they seldom say why. Modern silicone tires have good grip on a clean track, they are the most durable type. They are good for 12-24 hours of hard running. The price for that durability is that silicone tires are more difficult to true and reducing their diameter would take a very long time. Dust does not stick to urethane tires, so they do not go off as much on a dusty track. That does not necessarily mean that they will have terrific grip on a filthy track however. Urethane tires are much easier to true than silicone tires, but for the best grip they need to be polished after they are trued and that may take some time. As you might expect urethane tires wear out considerably faster than silicone tires. There have been some issues reported about urethane tires becoming brittle with age, that seems to take quite a long time, in most cases the tires would have worn out and been replaced long before that happened. Rubber tires work best on a track that has been rubbered in. It has been said that running silicone tires on a track that was rubbered in will spoil the grip for rubber tires. That is not something that I have tested myself. Rubber tires can be unstable, they wear more quickly, but except for the very soft compounds they are easy to true. OEM rubber tires may be difficult to find, aftermarket rubber tires are only made to fit standard aftermarket wheels like the Slot.it and CB Design ones. Unlike silicone or urethane tires the grip of rubber tires can often be improved by using a tire conditioner. We found that different batches of the same make and model rubber tires would respond differently to the same conditioner. In a club racing situation that complication makes it difficult to have a level playing field and that was a major reason that we switched to silicone tires.
I glue and true silicone tires and I can race on them for years without having to fuss with a tire conditioner.

[b.yingling]

As a digital racer on plastic track- I switched to silicone years ago. As you said in your detailed and informative post, they last for *years* and require almost zero maintenance. While getting the absolute best out of them may take more effort at the start (they are more difficult to true), it is, for me, more than worth it.

I use to race with an analog group that allowed any tire *but* silicone. The chemicals, oils, and abrasives used before every heat and during tuning days were absolutely ridiculous. The rule was the tire could not leave a visible residue on the track- but other than that, anything was allowed, as long as the tires weren't silicone. The work they put into their tires was truly astounding. Some cars came to the track with tires literally dripping goo. As long as enough was wiped off that the tire left no visible traces on the track, it was legal.

[SlotCat]

Thanks for all the help, ordered some Paul Gage urethane tires last week by using his fitment chart. Not sure I’d use that chart again, Carrera DTM rear are very tall in the center and will either require a lot of truing or the wheels rib needs turned way down so tires are not super crowned in the middle. Size listed for Carrera 911 RSR is so tall they rub the body, removed them after one lap! Listed size for Carrera 917k looks like might be good fit but not opening anymore new tires until I decide what to do. Temporary sandpapered the DTM tires and friends been running them, they are wearing in and getting better. Stock Carrera rubber tires are better after sanding and done running, but as I’ve found they could have better grip and wear. Leaving towards urethane measure the wheels first, need to decide what to do?

[HomeRacingWorld]

Well, if I may? Just ask for the car you are wanting. Fitment charts are good and they help, but some of us have tested sizes.

Here is our CARRERA REVIEW SECTION I always try and list the Paul Gage/Quick Slicks tire that fits the best on that specific model.

[SlotCat]

Thanks for asking Harry, appreciate the help! Ah ok, that link is to the old HRW forum, sometimes gotta search harder before asking.

[SlotCat]

Carrera Porsche 911 RSR (older and newer wider type), DTM, 917k and Ferrari 365P2 if you have recommendations. Thanks for link too, reading now!

[paul gage]

Carrera Porsche 911 RSR (older and newer wider type), DTM, 917k and Ferrari 365P2 if you have recommendations. Thanks for link too, reading now!

In this order... PGT-21126XD, PGT-20125LMXD, PGT-22148XXD, and PGT-21094XXD.... Google the numbers and find half a dozen sources....

[SlotCat]

Thanks for helping Paul, some cars have several different tire sizes listed which is confusing to a new to PG tires guy, looking into it a bit deeper, appreciate the help.

[WB2]

Personally, I like the 21126XD on my DTM cars. It gives me room for truing and fills the wheelwell up much better.

[SlotCat]

I prefer close to stock tire size after sanding, lower roll out/gear ratio, and room for some body float with loosened body mount screws especially magnet free.

[WB2]

I true these to stock diameter.
The LMs end up smaller than stock.

[SlotCat]

Thanks for clarification, I've always trued the wheels, glued stock tires at edges (bead area) of rims with thin CA, trued tires just until round not more, and then rounded the edges. I should measure what the last set came out to as they've not been run yet. Had to replace front tires since one had a rip from the factory.

[SlotCat]

Ordered recommended tires, thanks! Thinking about not gluing the tires at first in case I change my mind or should I just glue them now and true?

[SlotCat]

Carrera Capri RS 3100 has chromed plastic wheels, should I lightly sand or remove the chrome before gluing the tires on?