Baking Tyres?

[pthickett]

Guys,

Just a quick one, we (at Aston Uni, in the UK, in the midst of getting ready for comp, have started thinking about getting new tyres for the event, however we already have some brand new (sticker) slick avons that we didnt use a couple of years ago. Is there anything that we should do to these tyres before we run them? I have heard rumours about putting them in an oven and running a heat cycle through them?

Any advice would be welcome.

Cheers

Pete

[pthickett]

Guys,

Just a quick one, we (at Aston Uni, in the UK, in the midst of getting ready for comp, have started thinking about getting new tyres for the event, however we already have some brand new (sticker) slick avons that we didnt use a couple of years ago. Is there anything that we should do to these tyres before we run them? I have heard rumours about putting them in an oven and running a heat cycle through them?

Any advice would be welcome.

Cheers

Pete

[Jersey Tom]

Have they been hidden away or in bags, or just sitting out?

As far as I know there is a 'shelf life' on tread compounds, which is probably on the order of a year. I'd just buy a fresh set.

You do want to break in the tires, but not by putting them in an oven. Scrub them in like normal.. run a couple laps starting at say 70% pace and working up to a couple laps at 100% full out (though not pushing so hard that you're sliding all over).. take a cool down lap, and then get the tires off the ground and let cool to ambient.

[Kyle Walther]

i don't understand why ppl scrub in tires at FSAE.. unless you are running a brand new set of goodyears before endurance.. then i would scrub them in so that you don't get the tread separation from the abuse of an endurance race.. but i always liked coming to comp with a new set of stickers. working some heat into them on the practice track right before pushing the car over to skid pad.. trying to preserve the heat in the tire. if its cold we have insulated wheel covers to aid in this.. each time the tire cools and gets a heat cycle as i understand it the compound hardens. so you'll never have a tire better than in the first heat cycle.. In the first events the grip needs to be at the max, often skid pad accel and autocross are decided by hundredths not tenths. so do whatever you have to to get a new set of tires.. sell a kidney or whatever.

[Jersey Tom]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">so you'll never have a tire better than in the first heat cycle.. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

One of our guys used this argument in 06. I didn't buy it just being worried about how much mold release is on the tires. The Avons in particular that we were running (A45 compound) were so soft that a whole batch of them got scrapped because they got stuck in the molds.

We got our competition set of tires right before we left, no time to scrub them in or work off any mold release. We ran wets for accel and skidpad, and then it had finally dried up to use slicks for auto-x. If I remember right, our first run or so the tires didn't grip for crap. After that, much better.

Could have been mold release being worked off, could have been our drivers misreading the situation, who knows.

All I know is that experience, and while in line for I believe our second run of auto-x sitting next to NC State, they had run a sticker set of the Goodyears and they were starting to delaminate!!

[rkellz007]

Goodyear is VERY specific on their site about the whys and hows of tire scuffing/break in. They are also VERY specific that tires should be scuffed before reaching comp for the reasons stated and because the practice areas are way too small to allow proper break in.

The first couple of minute in the running life of a D2692 are definitely not its fastest.

[Peter7307]

Before you start baking , frying , scrubbing or whatever you may want to send an email to Avon and ask their advice.

Since they made the things in the first place and have been in business for some length of time it is likely they have encountered this before.

Pete.

[Kyle Walther]

the reason Goodyear has you break in the tire is b/c of the aforementioned tread separation and to prolong life..f' life we run these tires for a whooping 24-25Km over about three heat cycles. like i said a quick three min. session on the practice track working heat into the tire with large figure eights and circles is enough to scrub off the mold release and bring the tire up to temp slowly without working the tire to hard that would cause separation.

we have used this method with some success and no tread separation. but i do know teams that have experienced this.. i'd look at your suspension setup. especially if you only experience it at certain end of the vehicle.. my guess is that your balance is off and your relying on the tire grip to compensate

[Jersey Tom]

I can just speak for what I've seen. I was eyeing NC State's rubber for a while, from the graining it looked like they had a pretty balanced setup, but the stickers they had been running at the beginning of comp were delaminating by auto-x. It was enough to worry me. I'd just scrub the things.

I'm sure the NC State guys could speak to this much better than I.

Of course to answer the base argument it'd be cool to see friction ellipse from some really consistent driver on some track, tire grip from laps 1 through say 50. But I doubt if anyone had that they'd be sharing it!

[murpia]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Poe:
We had some older R065 compound tires on the car for acceleration, skidpad, and autocross because they come in faster (although they don't last as long) and were saving our 2692's for endurance because they don't fall off like the R065. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
That's against the rules, isn't it?

Regards, Ian

[Jersey Tom]

They allowed you to go with two different compounds and/or constructions of dry tires at tech? http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif

[Poe]

Sorry, I just talked to the team tire guy, and I misunderstood what happened. We ran the 2692's throughout, which was different than what we had practiced at home leading up to competition. I didn't make the tire decisions, obviously, so sorry for that incorrect information...

[PBandJ]

Following up on Tom's comment, our tires did have a delamed spot and it was due to an incomplete scrub. We dont have that problem with the goodyears when we are able to scrub them at home and let them cool like the directions say.