Plastic track rubber tyre pre-scrubber, a first?

The proven method of the tyre preparation for the Slot.it South Africa non magnet racing series has been lots of plastic track time and benzine or lighter fluid tyre cleaning.

Took us wood track magnet racers quite a while to come to terms with that, compounded by not  having a coastal plastic track to achieve same....

Whilst looking at online tyre saucing machine (not applicable for this game) we challenged local Guru Lance Cranmer to come up with a gizmo that would achieve the same result as the scores of laps and copious tyre cleans a plastic track achieves. Ruaan of Modeltech had kick-started us on to track trued rubber tyres and he too was taken with the same idea.

Lance did just that.....

I collected my neat and solid 3D printed box with lathe trued and ball bearing scuff roller a week ago and was promptly waylaid by hospital visits before I could test drive for this report but am pleased to report that it is an extremely worthwhile nominal investment.

The neat 3D orange box with ball bear bearing scuff roller is mated up to a power source pretty much anywhere from 3.7 volts (single lipo battery) to about 6 volts - I used a RC charger in motor mode in my case, allowing me to experiment with different voltages at 4, 5 and 6 volts.

The unit is taylor made for the popular long Slot.it Lola LMP Chassis (ignore redundant magnet from wood racing) but can also cater for anything smaller by simply turning in the large plastic bolt till the rear axle aligns over the centre of the scuff roller. Pretty much any slot.it pod will do but I was eventually pleased with the inline pod weighted down with the Boxer motor, proving to run cool even at 6 volts. 

A set of Slot.it N22 (20mm) tyres was carefully fitted on to a 16.5 rim, along with a harder Sideways Prospeed (19mm) tyre on a 17.3.mm rim. I had been pre-warned to seat the tyres carefully and that paid significant dividends as the combo ran smooth as a baby's bum from the get go, despite the back ground noise evident in the video. A short run at 5 volts to check for smoothness and then ten minutes at 4 volts with the N22 provided a smooth finish pretty much as promised. 

I then went a bit over the top in experimenting with benzine on a rag and different voltages - the benzine really not required to aid truing as there is zero track dirt to be removed ;-). The tougher soft prospeed proved a longer exercise and three sessions of twenty minutes got me to where I was after.

The part that tickled me most was how the unit auto aligned itself and ran true as a die!

The Prospeed eventual tyre finish immaculate, as can be seen from the pic. The N22 also buffed up glossy and shiny like the fancy tyre cleaners and were carefully put away for track use in due course.

This unit will save time for all racers, including those with tracks, in minimising much trackside tyre preparation :-)