I'm going to be doing my first rallycross at the end of the month, in my BRZ. I'll be using stock wheels with Altimax Arctics. Stock suspension and skidplate/trays.
Should I pack one or more of the summer tires/wheels (also mounted on stock rims, same tires size but PSS) in case I roll a bead? I will need to drive my car home 1.5hrs after the event.
Wouldn't hurt to have a spare or 2 just in case for the drive home.
Definitely. A spare could not only save you a tow truck bill, but could also keep you in the event.
Can of starting fluid or carb cleaner and a bic lighter. I'm a 4x4 guy too and reseating beads is a piece of cake all you need is a jack, dont even need to pull the wheel
I've done it with a compressor and a ratchet strap around the tire. Problem is if you end up with dirt in the bead and don't get it all out, it's not gonna seal when you do that. And there's a chance that you spun the tire on the wheel, so you might have too big an unbalance to drive home on it (even if it's fine to continue competing with).
All you need is an air tank and a jack. We used to repair them right there on course, take about as long as slowly limping a car back to the paddock on a flat.
Pete says a swear in this one. So does Orion.
Editing is broken for some reason, so to add to that:
Debeading in a RWD is extremely unlikely. Debeads happen when you plow into a rut or bump, this is not the rear drive style of driving.
At Nationals a couple years ago I witnessed a tire being re-beaded with a bicycle pump. I swear. So getting that fixed up to drive home isn't a problem usually. And de-beads aren't that overly common.
That said, I'm a belt and suspenders guy, so I'll always advocate bringing a backup!
I assume I want to run the tires at the max cold pressure? For ice racing I would let air out once on the ice but we really don't have much in the way of bumps (or friction)
A lot of people suggest no less than 40 psi. Depending on the tires, how tall and stiff the sidewalls are (taller and stiffer sidewalls are harder to debead) and your driving style you may be able to go lower. Personally, I tend to run the Jeep pretty much at street pressures on my snow tires or the mudders for rallycross (high 30s / low 40s up front cold, low / mid 30s in the rear). I've never debeaded one.
Thanks! This will be my first time on dirt or ice with RWD. I used to run AWD, then FWD on ice. I'll be running 215/45/17 snow tires, so medium sidewall heigh. The Altimax Arctics also have a medium stiff sidewall. I'll try high 30's and see how that goes.
wae said:At Nationals a couple years ago I witnessed a tire being re-beaded with a bicycle pump. I swear. So getting that fixed up to drive home isn't a problem usually. And de-beads aren't that overly common.
That said, I'm a belt and suspenders guy, so I'll always advocate bringing a backup!
That would be Will's idea. And it works. A large diameter bike pump will inflate a tire faster than you'd believe.
We went around during our off heat rebeading peoples' tires. It was awesome.
The '16 nationals was surreal. People were debeading and freaking out about it, rotating debeaded tires to the back and stuff. I was like, WTH, it's just a debead, put a little more air in it than last time and keep going.
But my favorite memory was at the 2009 Eastern States challenge that Ohio Valley Region hosted, off at the big field at NTR. (Not the small field that we had to use after 2010 or so) I was working grid, and someone debeaded on one of the first runs. A guy from out of state worriedly asked me "People debead on rally tires?" Well, yeah, you can debead anything, even rally tires at 35psi. Although I think in that instance the person who debeaded was ZB, and he could debead a runflat filled with concrete...
Wiscocrashtest said:Thanks! This will be my first time on dirt or ice with RWD. I used to run AWD, then FWD on ice. I'll be running 215/45/17 snow tires, so medium sidewall heigh. The Altimax Arctics also have a medium stiff sidewall. I'll try high 30's and see how that goes.
Dirt is completely different from ice or snow. There's a lot of grip to be had.
I've never seen one that wasn't fixed at the event, but I did buy a full-size WRX wheel and mount one of my old snow tire cast-off's as a spare tire. Comes in handy if I ever get a flat on the road as well.
Debeads generally happen due to the sideways forces on the tire plus drive applied to the wheel. In FWD/AWD it comes from accelerating out of an understeer situation. You have to do some truly dumb stuff to debead a RWD car on most courses. If anyone has a video of that, I would like to see it.
Just bring a full sized spare that holds air and will get you home. On the off chance you debead, get the tire reseated with some help and tone it down a bit in that section for the last few runs.
In reply to ojannen :
No video but I debeaded the left rear at the 2013? Eastern championship. I was running snow tires, the course in the back area was like driving a toboggan run, and it felt "funny" driving up to the line on the fateful run. I am thinking that i rammed dirt in between the tire and rim and the tire got very low on air.
The funny thing is, I heard a loud noise, but it felt kinda OK, but I figured, well nobody is reg flagging me, so that probably wasn't a debead. Then I looped it hard coming through the next right-hander.
So, corner workers, RED FLAG DEBEADS. Don't stand there BSing with other people, leave your phone in your car, pay attention to your job and do it. The driver is depending on you to do your work as much as your job is for keeping the course set up.
You'll need to log in to post.
