Do wheels make a difference

[DougV]

Building a eb48 2.1 and closing in on finishing it but still need one slightly important part, wheels. Are they all the same? I was considering de racing or avid rc wheels. These both have ribs to keep the foam from moving. This sounded good to me but I’m not sure. Is smooth better? Is there a better more rigid wheel?

 

[Billl DeLong]

Wheels are going to vary a lot between brands, and some brands will offer various blends of plastic and/or stiffeners to install in either the wheel and/or the sidewall of the tire when mounting. Some brands will also offer different stiffness in foam inserts as well.

You're going to get a wide range of opinions, but at the end if the day, the only person that is going to know what right for your track conditions is you.

If you want more grip, go with a more flexible wheel and/or softer foam insert.

If you want less grip ( or prevent traction rolls) as a fine tuning aid, go with a harder wheel or install wheel stiffeners and/or side wall stiffeners and/or harder foam insert and/or glue the foams the wheels.

There are an infinite number of tuning options to consider, especially with so many directional tread patterns as well, punching holes in the foam inserts, how many holes to punch in your tires for venting, tire sauce and tire warmers, etc...


If you're not hitting 99% consistency on a semi-regular basis then chances are you don't need to fuss about all the voodoo in wheels/tires

I prefer the softest and most flexible wheel I can get, harder wheels tend to crack in the winter months.

A trick I've learned is to boil my wheels to get them extremely soft and flexible to get max grip, I've never had a problem having too flexible of a wheel that can't be corrected with running a harder compound tire, but there are many times where I just can't get as soft of a compound tire that I need without using sauce/warmers.

Good Luck!

 

[MAVERICK]

Now that is a good answer there is no need for me to chime in after that

More info to add to the tuning book