Choosing the Right Off-Road RC Tires and Wheels

Tire and wheel sizes refer to the outside diameter of the wheel and the inside diameter of the tire.

Note that tires in the same size category may vary widely in outside diameter. For example, both tires in this illustration are 2.2” in size, even though one has taller sidewalls and a larger diameter. If you need to know the tire’s outside diameter, check its specs at the manufacturer’s website or here at AMain Hobbies.

Sport and competition buggies most commonly use 2.2” wheels, but nearly all sport trucks use larger 2.8” wheels—as shown here with a Traxxas Bandit and Rustler.

Competition kits like this Team Associated RC10B6.3 typically don’t include tires or wheels, but the manual will list the wheel options for the car.

You can also find out if your car or truck requires wheels and tires and which type in the “Needed to Complete” section for your model here at AMain Hobbies—shown: Team Associated RC10T6.2.

Another consideration for wheel fit is hex-hub size. Virtually all 1/10 scale models use 12mm hexes, and 1/8 scale models have 17mm hexes (as shown). Monster trucks and large-scale models may use up to a 24mm hex—check your manual or measure the hex yourself. Hex size is measured from flat side to flat side.

As seen on this Traxxas Bandit, 2WD buggies use a front tread design optimized for steering traction instead of power-transmitting capability since the front wheels are unpowered. Ribbed designs are common.

When equipping a 1/10 scale 4WD buggy like this Team Associated RC10B74.1, identical front and rear treads are fitted, but the front wheels and tires are narrower—but not as narrow as 2WD front wheels. So when shopping 1/10 scale front buggy wheels and tires, make sure you note whether the size is “2WD front” or “4WD front.”

1/8 scale buggies like this Arrma Typhon use the same size tires and wheels, front and rear. The standard size is a 3.3” wheel with a 17mm hex. Shown: Pro-Line Badlands tires on Velocity wheels.

1/10 scale monster trucks generally wear 2.8” wheels with 12 or 14mm hexes, but 1/8 scale monster trucks and truggies like the Traxxas Maxx and Arrma Kraton use 3.8” wheels and tires with 17mm hexes.

1/10 trail trucks most commonly use 1.9” wheels and tires, but 2.2” is common for models of rock racers, like the Axial Bomber. Some trail trucks use 1.55” wheels for more realistic proportions, like the Element Enduro Knightrunner seen here. Depending on your model, you may be able to fit larger wheels and tires onto your truck. For example, Traxxas offers a lift kit for the TRX-4 series trucks so they can accept 2.2” wheels and tires without interference issues.

Most car and truck wheel sizes are described simply as the model scale, type, and size in inches. For example, “1/10 2WD buggy 2.2 inch.”

A tire design with larger, more widely-spaced tread elements like the RC4WD Wrangler MT will give a better grip in loose, soft conditions like churned-up dirt or sand and less prone to clogging in mud or snow. Likewise, the finer tread of the Mud-Terrain T/A replica should grip better and wear longer on harder-packed surfaces and rocks.

Knobbies look cool, but if your off-roader primarily sees street action, you’ll get more grip, better handling, and longer life out of slick or road-tread tires. For example, the JConcepts G-Locs and Pro-Line Street Fighters have fairly deep treads, so they still grip on hard-packed dirt, while the Pro-Line Prime is a pure hard-surface tire.

For soft sand, snow, and mud, you can’t beat a set of paddle tires. Pro-Line’s Dumont design is pictured, which you can get in 2.8”, 3.8”, and SCT sizes.

As you can see, the optional Sledgehammer tire is much larger in diameter than the stock Talon EXT. That larger diameter means the Sledgehammer also has a larger circumference and will roll farther with each revolution than the Talon. If we do the math, the Talon rolls 13.5 inches with each spin of the tire, and the Sledgehammer rolls just over three inches farther: 16.6 inches.

This illustration shows just how much farther the Sledgehammer-equipped Rustler 4X4 rolls after just six tire revolutions. When the motor is spinning at tens of thousands of RPM, the extra distance compounds quickly and really puts a lot of strain on the power system. That reduces performance and leads to overheating and shorter motor life. Installing a smaller pinion will correct for the greater rollout of the bigger tire and keep the powertrain happy.

A pair of mounted Pro-Line Buckshot 1/8 scale buggy tires will run you $41, so that’s $82 for a set of four.

Or, you can get unmounted Buckshots and Velocity wheels for $28 a pair and $23 for a set of four wheels. Add a bottle of ProTek RC tire glue, and you’re looking at $89 and some time at the bench to glue them up.

Trail truckers can skip gluing and get beadlock wheels that mechanically hold the tires to the wheels. They look great, allow you to remove the tires anytime you like, and unlike glue-mount rims, you can reuse the wheels over and over. So why don’t all cars and trucks use them? The answer is weight. The extra heft is actually helpful for trail-truck performance, where it’s all about low-RPM driving. However, the excess weight for high-speed, high-RPM models would be bad for handling and put extra strain on the suspension and drivetrain.

Manufacturers’ tire compound guides make it easy to zero in on the correct tires for your car and conditions. JConcepts even has event-specific Tire Guides from their team drivers. Follow these links:

As this Pro-Line chart shows, tire compounds vary in firmness (or durometer), wear resistance (softer tires wear faster), and wet-surface traction. Of course, temperature plays a part; the ideal compound for warm-weather racing may be too firm for competition in cooler temps.

In the competition-buggy tire category, American manufacturers Pro-Line and JConcepts focus on low-profile tread designs for clay and AstroTurf tracks since that’s what we typically race on here in the states. However, UK-based Schumacher also covers those bases and offers spikey treads for racing on natural grass, as common in Europe.

Dirt oval racers may choose to run the same tires buggy racers choose or oval-specific treads.