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How to Cut Tire Foam in an RC Rock Crawler

Remote-controlled Rock Crawlers are specially built RC vehicles made to cover the most difficult of terrains. Rock Crawlers differ in several ways from traditional RC trucks, including in the construction of the truck tires. In order to excel at driving over rocky terrain, the tires of Rock Crawlers must be sturdy enough to carry the weight of the vehicle while they remain pliable enough to grip the constantly changing rock surface. To create tires capable of this, many crawler enthusiasts cut foam tire inserts into a star pattern before placing them inside the rubber tires. This allows the treads of the tires to grip the surface while the foam deforms so that the tire maintains as much contact with the rock as possible.

Things You'll Need

RC foam tire inserts
Compass
Marker
Straightedge
Scissors

Instructions

- 1
  Secure the foam tire to a flat surface with double-sided tape to make sure it doesn't move while marking the cutting lines.
- 2
  Place a marker in a compass and then draw a circle on the face of the foam. Locate the circle around the diameter of the tire about one quarter the width of the tire from its inner rim.
- 3
  Use a straightedge to mark the tire into equal quarters. Split the quarters into eighths, split them again into 16ths, and finally into 32nds so that you have 32 individual sections. Remove the tire from the tape for cutting.
- 4
  Cut the star-shaped pattern by cutting from the outside point of one of the drawn lines down towards the center of the tire to the intersecting point of the next line and the drawn circle. Continue the process using every other line as the top point of your star. This should create 16 complete triangles emerging from the center of the foam tire.
- 5
  Place the cut foam into the RC truck wheel for use.

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