Help me with tires!

[SarsK9]

Alright guys, I need help choosing tires for my build. I’m mainly running on pavement with some extremely short grass, light gravel and hard packed dirt. Basically everything around parking lots. My main concern is tire life. I don’t need to have the best grip and obv grip and tire life go in opposite with each other but I’d still like to have decent grip on pavement and would prefer to stick with one set for now. Any suggestions, as there are a million different choices

 

[Billl DeLong]

There is no such thing as 1 tire that performs well for all driving conditions. If you limit yourself to only 1 set of tires, then you will need to make sacrifices.

For asphalt you want a medium compound so you get longer tire life. You also want more tire to be in direct contact with the surface to get better grip so a suitable tire for parking lots would be the DTX Bandito's:
https://www.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?I=LXCNZF&P=7
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https://www.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?I=LXCNZD&P=7

***Note that DTX says the tire is a "soft" compound but it's significantly harder than most off-road soft compounds in comparison.

For off-road you typically want a pin style and the length of the pin needed will be determined on the conditions, where you want long sharp pointy pins to dig into thick grass/gravel, but thick block style pin is better suited for hard packed dirt.

This is a good tire for dirt, I recommend the soft compound:
http://www.raceaka.com/IMPACT-_c_48.html

This is a good tire for grass/gravel:
https://www.amainhobbies.com/schuma...y-front-tires-2-soft-scht652/p362286?v=170794
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https://www.amainhobbies.com/schuma...gy-rear-tires-2-soft-scht650/p362307?v=170793


If you try to run an "all-purpose" tire in each condition, then you will sacrifice performance, if you try to run the wrong tire in the wrong condition, then you will sacrifice performance.

If you run the intended tire for each surface you will maximize performance and tire life without any sacrifices as well as get more bang for the buck in the long run.

 

[SarsK9]

Thanks @Billl DeLong i know there’s not one tire that’ll cover all driving conditions well, really looking for a good enough for very light off-road while being better on pavement. Sort of like an all-season for 1:1. My reasoning for one set right now is I have am running out of space for all my cars and gear and trying to find better storage solutions as I don’t have a garage and my closets are filled with crap for my 3 kids ? I’m used to 1/10 touring tires and 1/8 off road and on road but I’m amazed on just how many types of 1/10 buggy tire variants there are. I’m hoping to get a better storage solution soon so I can have all that I need but I will look into your recommendations. Thank you

 

[fixjunk]

Asphalt will destroy tires. I'm running proline prime slicks in MC (clay) compound and they're wearing pretty quickly on hot, grippy asphalt. They do OK in loose stuff but will obviously have no bite.

They're by no means good on my long grass, but I can usually keep the car moving through grass in spite of their baldness. They might be just fine on something like a putting green.

And obviously they'd probably do great on clay or other smooth hard pack.

 

[Billl DeLong]

Clay compound tires will have a very thin carcass, the Bandito's that linked above are very thick, in fact those tires will weigh about 15-25% more than most clay tires on the market. The extra tread will give you far more usable lifespan before the treads wear down to slicks. It's important to select the proper tire for the surface you are running on to get the best results on both performance and saving you money in the long run.