The Best RC Tires to Conquer Any Terrain

Tire choice is probably the single most important factor in getting your RC car to perform at its best. If you pick the wrong RC tires, there’s often very little you can do to fix the situation.

We’ll go over a series of variables to help you make the right call and choose the ideal RC tires for each type of racing surface, so you don’t run into trouble on your adventures.

RC crawler tires

Crawler tires are made for climbing. As you can see at a glance, these tires have a lot of tread pattern on their surface, which gives them plenty of grip on whatever ground you’re running your RC crawler on.

1/10 RC drift tires

Moving on through the main RC car categories, we have RC drift cars. Compared with crawlers or off-road cars, the compound and shape of the tire are very different.

These tires are almost smooth, with very little tread on the outside, which suits smooth surfaces and indoor tracks.

RC tire compounds

A tire’s compound, or softness, can often have a big impact on its performance.

Every tire manufacturer has its own range of rubber tires and gives each compound a different name.

Ideally, you’ll want tires made specifically for the brand of RC car you’re running.

Super soft tires

A softer compound isn’t necessarily better. The new-generation “super soft” compounds should be used when the track reaches blue-groove conditions*.

*This happens when there’s practically no dust left on the racing surface, just a rock-hard surface where the racing line turns blue from all the rubber laid down on it.

Super soft tires should be used when it’s the rubber on the track that is generating the grip.

Soft tires

In general, soft-compound tires will perform better.

Well-packed track surfaces with some loose material on top are particularly well suited to these tires. Dusty conditions also suit them well.

Medium tires

Medium-compound tires are most effective when track conditions are poor.

That means when the surface is mostly loose material, when debris starts to show up, or in moderately wet conditions.

Hard tires

Hard tires are rarely used. You should only run hard-compound tires if the track is particularly wet or muddy, or if the track surface is mostly grass.

Amphibious RC cars also use a different type of tire.

RC tire size

There are two main tire sizes for RC crawlers and scale vehicles: 1.9 and 2.2. In both cases, the number refers to the size of the wheel the tires are designed to fit.

More specifically, 1.9 or 2.2 refers to the wheel diameter in inches and, of course, to the matching inner diameter of the tire.

Although the difference looks small, 2.2 tires are generally larger overall than most 1.9 tires.

Some SCX10 vehicles come with 1.9 wheels but can easily take 2.2s with a few modifications.

RC tire tread

The ideal tread for you depends on the terrain you expect to run on. Treads with large gaps between the lugs work best in mud and loose dirt.

On the other hand, tires with smaller gaps between the lugs handle better on pavement and other high-speed tracks.

Directional tires work exceptionally well on vehicles with good wheel speed, because the tread pattern lets the tire throw mud and water from the center of the tire out the back. Mounted the wrong way, a directional tire will want to dig in, so only mount it in the intended direction, unless you’re running exclusively on solid rock.

Foam-filled scale tires

If you run a standard RC car on dirt, rocks, sand, pavement and so on, standard foam may be the ideal choice for you.

If you run exclusively on rocks or in competitions, you may want to consider memory foam.

Memory foam is heavier (and denser) and conforms to the rocks. Some companies also offer hybrid inserts that combine standard foam and memory foam.

Thanks for reading this post on RC car tires; we hope it’s been a big help. Feel free to share it with your friends.

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