Bully Tyre Test

TEST REVIEW OF THE
PIT BULL GROWLER AT / Extra and ROCK BEST
1.9’’ R/C Scale Tires and it’s included 2 Stage Foam
Brought to South Africa by
Boyztoyz
Late August I received an email from Ben at Boyztoyz informing me about some new tires that came in from abroad, he asked me to choose a set from the 2 tread patterns that he has available and if I would write a test review on them. My choice was the “GROWLER AT/ Extra” which is the one with the least aggressive tread of the 2 options available. The platform on which the test was to be conducted is my personal Axial SCX10 with a scale land rover D90 topless body. Upon arrival and debagging the new tires I immediately noticed that although the tires is 1,9’ it looks slightly wider and seems to have a somewhat larger overall profile than most 1,9’ tires out on the market. This is good news to me because I always get so upset when I buy a brand new awesome looking set of anodized aluminium bead lock wheels and after the first trail I take it to there is a good collection of scratches on the colour anodizing of the bead ring, so the wider pit bull tire with its wider side wall will allow the rim to sit much deeper into the centre of the tire which acts much like a person’s eye brow protecting the eye from large or long objects from coming into contact with the eye itself. Not only does the wider shoes help protect those “snazzy” looking bead locks but also it widens the overall foot print of the car which in turns helps with stability when driving the model over areas with steep angles and results in less roll over’s. The second feature I noticed was the 2 stage foam that comes standard with the PIT BULL tires, this is a brilliant design because like most of you know in both scale trucks and the real thing on off road conditions it is best to have your tires running as flat as possible because it helps lengthen the foot print of your tire and this gives you a lot more rubber on the ground which increases traction drastically. With this 2 stage foam inserts which has a very soft outer foam ring on top of a harder foam ring it helps to flatten the tire out to a very competent level and in turn the harder inner foam prevents the obstacle being crossed from compressing the tire to much and bottoming out against the rim. So now That the tires were out of the bags and I had a long hard look at it, it was time for the next step which is my secret preparation tip to all you RC maniacs. Before installing brand new tires on the rims I always remove the inserts if it comes already installed and then I very politely ask the misses if I can use the kitchen zinc for a brief moment, upon receiving the necessary permission I start to wash my brand new tires with sunlight soap and an old plastic nail brush and this boys and girls I do with all tires because any new tire has a strange coating on it that robs the tire with I’d say 30 % of its stickiness. O no matter how soft a compound your tires have it will not perform as it should straight out of the packet. I use to do this with my 10th scale touring car rubber tires as well. After the tire’s had its bath it was time to pop the foam inserts back in and wrapping it around some brand new bead lock rims. Yes please, the rims I used I also sourced from Boyztoyz and they are the 1.9 ‐ HS213016 ‐ CNC Machined aluminium rims ‐ Hex: 12mm. What an awe inspiring sight. Now what experiment shall I devise to show you all the strengths and weaknesses of these tires...............? I wonder. Well any off road tire’s first test and should always be the only real concern is the traction test but how does one perform this test down at 1/10th of a scale? After much brain storming whilst sitting in my man cave I came up with the Id of a pull test measured in Kg’s, yes that is right I shall hook my tow strap and d shackles up to the rear bumper of my rig and attach the other end up to my little 5kg Salter fish weighing scale and at crawl speed start pulling the scale until the wheels brakes traction. Then I will repeat the experiment 5 times first with the Bull dog tires and then with my standard tires the brand of which I will not make known because.................. It is the ones that come standard with the axial SCX10 jeep wrangler G6 kit. After getting the average kilograms out of each sets 5 tests I will write it down and tell you guys the outcome, cool huh. So I decided to take the bulldogs of off my rig and re install my standard tyres which I kept fairly new and also gave a wash with the nail brush and sun light soap, just to even the odds as much as possible ..................................and yes after the permission was obtained. I started with the first of the five pull tests and golly gosh who would have thought It registered 3, 25 kg’s on my 5kg scale and after the fifth one I calculated the average pull at just over 3, 0 kg’s So now the test we’ve all been waiting for , the bull dogs . Are they really better with their 2 stage foam and super soft compound? At the point of swopping out the tires I was supper exited myself to see how the bully’s performed. So all changed out hooked up to the scale I commenced with the first of its five pull tests. As the tension started to pull the scale and the dial hit the 3, 3kg’s mark ................................................................... Disaster struck! One load “clack” sound ........................................? It appears that prop shafts don’t like working hard without going anywhere so they pulled out like Eskom and snapped off after letting the thread making my mom’s “koeksistertjies” look like Childs play. ! Luckily ‐ Not so long ago I ordered some steel prop shafts ( RC4WD ) from Ben at Boyztoyz. So out with the old and the weak and in with the new! After five pull tests I couldn’t believe my eyes when the average weight came to 4, 2 Kg’s. A whole kg and a bit more than the standard tire’s. I wish I had made a video of this mad test! So there you have It The Bull dog tires definitely packs way more traction on a smooth concrete surface than any other 1,9’ tire I own , and I have a good selection believe you me ! Overall conclusion. 1.
I am really impressed with the overall capability of the Pit Bull tires and I also like the fact that although it is 1, 9’ tires the actual size is slightly larger than the standard tires and not as big as the 2,2’ tires so as not to distort the scale looks of your rig but packing almost the same type of performance one can expect from the larger heavier 2,2’ setup. 2.
I have to be honest in saying that the all terrain version of the tires might not be as appealing to every RC addict as the more aggressive looking Rock Beast tires. I can also only Imagine that the Rock Beast’s will have an advantage over the AT version in some cases. Pit Bull Rock Beast aggressive tread pattern. 3.
The AT’s performed very well on the trail and the stability was amazing! It however lacked some bite when it came to driving up steep hard soil inclines with loose powdery dirt but on the rocks and sand and mud I think there isn’t much that will compare. I hope you all have enjoyed the review and found it informative. Editor Danie Schoonwinkel RB‐RC SPOOR ADVENTURES