How long can you run your tires?

[JohnPaul]

I have Hoosier R35's on my car for 9 sesssions. I drove the sh*t out of the car and they still have a bunch of meat on them and as of my last session the grip seemed fine (obviously not as good as new but not bad at all).

There is a one day race at PBIR next weekend. I'm not trying to set the track on fire, I just need the seat time right now. So I was thinking to just use them and change them for the next full weekend (which I'm not sure when will be).

So my question is how much is enough? I know some people change them every day but realistically how much time (sessions/heat cycles etc) can you use them and be safe and competitive? Everyone is different on this topic so I'm curious to hear what people think that point is when new tires are needed.

[ghickman]

Tire life has much to do with how well your car is balanced. There's no reason that 9 heat cycle old tires on a car that is WELL BALANCED couldn't go another 4 or 5 heat cycles.

Tread depth isn't really a gage that you should be using. Measure them strictly in heat cycles. Keep a log of heat cycles on each set.

Another way to extend front tire life is to swap side to side, this helps on tracks where you have more turns in one direction than the other or a particular turn with high loading on abrassive surface.

I never run a National race with tires that have more than 4 heat cycles but I do testing and practice on tires with as many as 10 heat cycles.

GH
FB #76

[JakeL]

My experience has been that it's hard to actually wear out a set of R35 Hoosiers. They will just get gradually slower as they get older and older.

By contrast, the GY 160 compound is quite a bit softer, and they'll generally wear out in the 7-10 heat cycle range - the little wear dots will eventually disappear around the inner portion of the tire. Some tracks they can be dead in as little as 5 though - at Miller, for example on a hot day, I wore through a set very quickly, where the Hoosiers showed very little wear at all.

Haven't run the Hoosier R25's enough to say.

$0.02.

-J

[JohnPaul]

Tire life has much to do with how well your car is balanced. There's no reason that 9 heat cycle old tires on a car that is WELL BALANCED couldn't go another 4 or 5 heat cycles.

Tread depth isn't really a gage that you should be using. Measure them strictly in heat cycles. Keep a log of heat cycles on each set.
GH
FB #76

I just had James Lee do the setup and I'm assuming from the way the tires look that the car is well balanced. I feel the wear has been very good, pretty much even throughout all tires.

My experience has been that it's hard to actually wear out a set of R35 Hoosiers. They will just get gradually slower as they get older and older.

-J

Im really surprised at how little wear these R35 show after 9 heat cycles (and I'm pushing). I almost feel like it would be a waste of money to change them right now (at least for this upcoming one day weekend at PBIR). I just don't want to be stupid, I stopped doing the "one more session" thing racing MC's because it always led to a fall that could have been avoided with new rubber, but in a car it's different and I don't feel any real loss of traction (as of last session) just as you said slightly slower times (I'm not sure if that is me going easy on the tires). I'll try them out and see how I feel.
But just how many heat cycles is too much? Should I toss them after this weekend or do people run them for 14-15 cycles as I've heard? I don't want to take any stupid chances,

[ghickman]

JP
It seems as though the car is very well balanced, especially if your fronts are holding up this long.

I'd say run what you have until there just isn't any grip left in them...providing the car is doing what you want it to do....and the cord isn't showing thru.

An FB builder told me the other day he tested on tires that had 30 Heat Cycles on them and they still had grip....now that's getting a good ROI.

Save your dough for new tires when it really counts....a National say in Jan??

[BennyBad]

I just had James Lee do the setup and I'm assuming from the way the tires look that the car is well balanced. I feel the wear has been very good, pretty much even throughout all tires.




Im really surprised at how little wear these R35 show after 9 heat cycles (and I'm pushing). I almost feel like it would be a waste of money to change them right now (at least for this upcoming one day weekend at PBIR). I just don't want to be stupid, I stopped doing the "one more session" thing racing MC's because it always led to a fall that could have been avoided with new rubber, but in a car it's different and I don't feel any real loss of traction (as of last session) just as you said slightly slower times (I'm not sure if that is me going easy on the tires). I'll try them out and see how I feel.
But just how many heat cycles is too much? Should I toss them after this weekend or do people run them for 14-15 cycles as I've heard? I don't want to take any stupid chances,

im running them till they dont grip no more, or fronts start to blister running nascar 3&4 at homestead

jp
you doing pbir sat. dont see you registered yet

benny

[JohnPaul]

im running them till they dont grip no more, or fronts start to blister running nascar 3&4 at homestead

jp
you doing pbir sat. dont see you registered yet

benny

I'll be there, I haven't got around to signing up. I'll do it now.