How can you make tire warmers? (just the concept behind it)

I was thinking about making mini tire warmers for these slot cars that I've gotten addicted to. What material would I use? and how do I get the thermal energy I need? Im assuming some kind of wire and then a resistor to set the temperature. And can you make them run off of DC?

 

How hard is it to get the wheels on and off?

 

Same concept as heated hand grips I'd assume?

Some kind of heating coil.

Just turn the heater up in the room really good.

Or better yet, get a hot air or heat gun and melt the slot car completely to heat up the tires!

 

What kind of slots? And what is the surface you run them on?

 

what I have found. They make warmers for r/c cars and they run off of DC. They are 1/32 scale slot cars running on a semi-abrasive plastic surface. How do I make a heating coil? I know how to wind the slot cars electric motor armatures so I have that kind of wire if thats what I need. The material would be like a foam type, not like foam foam but like the "foam" used in shoe inserts and neoprene life jackets.


-we also have different compunds of tires that you can tell a big difference in performance with

 

Just throwing this out at ya, I know you mentioned hooking up to DC, but what about heating pads and modifying it, the small ones, I've seen them at Walgreens, is that possible (is that the concept)?

 

Tire warmers for slotcars...

99 cent Bic lighter and soem lint fom Darrin's Belly Button

 

Gotcha, just wondering, in the old days, we used traction compound.

 

Forget that. I cleaned my belly button last week.

Might have some more in stock soon, though.

 

i made a heating coil and you didnt.
I had some 30awg kynar insulated stuff in my room. i just hooked up 7.2v to the whole spool of it and it got pretty warm. So what I think I might do is find a some kind of foamish material and I've got some 1,500 feet or so of 31awg 200°C rated magnet wire. Ill just experiment with it. Voltage variable and wind variable.

 

well we cant use this on the track. He wants to keep it clean and stuff, its not a super competitive thing just fun. We dont run foam tires either. So I think I jsut have to find a material and I should be good2goizzle.

 

ill probably go with a slide on type warmer. Ill use a thin piece of copper and ill bend/arc it around a tire, wrap it in wire and then cover it in something.

 

What if you just rolled the car back and forth on a heating pad?

 

itd be gay.

A large part of 1/32 slot car racing is replica stuff, I want to be able to sell these too.

 

You need to build little bitty replica genertors, too.

 

nick, i mean the idea sounds cool, but dude, is that really going to net anything?

i know i never EVER saw a set of those tire warmers out for the r/c cars when i was racing, and they had been out for a year or so when i am talking about. all the nitro guys were on foams, they heated up in like 2 laps, youd be that long just getting the motor up to full temp. the only set i saw was on a car on display once, just for bling.

i mean yeah warm tires are nice and all, but dont you guys run a warm up lap before the race, wont that get the job done?

not trying to call ya stupid or anything, but it doesnt seem like something thats really going to have a return on investment for ya

 

what about burn outs??.....no...that would pop the tires....but it would still get them hot :up:

 

You dont need warmers...that's what the slot is for.

 

Since I've repaired dozens of these things, here's the basic gist of it:

Heating coil has power running through, with a small thermostat to control temps. (you'll need to determine optimum temps for your tire materials). The coil is based on ohms per foot, so with such a small diameter, you might be SOL.

Coils are sandwiched between a fiberglass fabric sheeting in a sepentine fashion, that allows conductivity of the heat. Inner lining is of a heat resistant fabric, outer shell should also be heat resistant but insulating as well to prevent loss of heat.

Are these are realistic in such a small scale? Try it and tell us what you find.

 

i've got a prototype running right now. oh boy, it just melted one lol. Ill run it at 2.4-3v with 31 awg. right now its 30 awg but at 8.4v. One the 31 awg one ill use less winds so itll compensate. Since im going with a slide-on style the coil wont be sandwiched. the tire will be inside the coil. I think im going to use copper to wrap the coil around and it can conduct heat to the tire pretty well. I need to kepp a pretty low heat. Like around 100-120°F. The prototype one I made got really hot, it was coiled around a hard white plastic and it melted it. It was sweet.