Building Ice Racing Tires
(Stephen Jones)		 Next >

There are many different ways of building ice racing tires. Or, for that matter, instead of building you can buy a set of Pro Rally winter tires with studs. To the right is a tire that you can buy online. But, this page isn't about buying tires, this page is about building a set. (though, that is a nice looking tire...)

There are two ways that I have learned to make ice racing tires. The first way is to take some hardened bolts, washers, and locking nuts to form the stud. Essentially, drill a lot of holes through the tire. Next, from the inside, put a bolt through the hole (washer on inside and outside) and tighten the nut down from the outside. The nut will squeeze this whole setup so that the washers sandwich the tire and make a great seal. To finish, cut the excess bolt length off at two different angles to form a point.

To the left is a set of bolt-washer-washer-locknut tires that work very well. To date, these tires have not lost any air. To get a little more traction, the bolts should be cut at an angle.

One concern with this type of setup is what when the bolt fatigues the tire to the extent where the bolt gets pulled out and you are left with a big hole. With tire screws you have a smaller hole to patch either with another screw or with a rasp/tire plug kit that you can buy at your local automotive store (and Wal-Mart).

Of course, the bolts won't pull out of the tires like the screws might.

One note on the rally winter studded tires that you can buy. The studs in these tires are the same style as your street studded tires. This is to say that one end has a large ball and is pushed into a recess in your tire with the sharp stud at the other end. These studs do not do through your tire. (which is very good!)
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Let's start with the basic ingredients for your ice racing tires.

(1) Four skinny RADIAL tires with blocky tread
(2) 1,000+ 1-1/4" Ice Racing screws
(3) 1 gallon liquid Fix-a-Flat (and injector)
(4) Tire valve remover
(5) Drill/Screw gun with magnetic nut driver
(6) Time.

I will detail these on the next page.....

  
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