Big Squid RC – Slam Tech’d
Hello everyone and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
This week we are talking about foams. Closed foams to be more specific. Ok, JConcepts Slam-Tech monster truck closed cell foams to be hyper specific.
Closed cell foams are dense and resist deforming, unlike the “sponge” feeling of standard open cell foam. They resist flat spotting. They last a long time. They are also water resistant, in case you like mudding with your monster.
For many of those reasons, they are the defacto choice for standard r/c racing. You don’t get tire roll, and vehicle bounce is minimized. When you are talking r/c monster trucks and their much bigger tires (than say, a buggy), it amplifies the effect. The truck will absorb jumps with minimal bounce, allowing you to get under power fast.
Long story short, once you put closed cell foams on your monster truck, you will NEVER want to mess with open cells again.
Several companies have release closed cell foams for r/c solid axle monster truck racing applications, but now the folks at JConcepts have entered the ring with their Slam-Tech inserts. These are designed to fit their Renegade, Firestorm Racer, and Golden Year lines of tires.
My entire fleet is getting outfitted with ’em.
Now the one thing you should know is that mounting them up is a bear. You have to wrangle those solid pieces of foam inside the tire carcass, and you’ll need to use a bit of force to do it.
I actually just filmed a video detailing how I mount them, using a set of gold compound Firestorm Racer tires. You can check it out here.
They feel awesome on my Losi LMT in testing around the house! The big truck soaks up the bumps and I can stay on power more.
If you are going to be picking up a set of aftermarket tires, I’d strongly recommend grabbing the Slam-Techs to try them out. I don’t think you’ll go back to the stock foams!
Alright folks, I hope that information was helpful and you can understand why someone would want to make the upgrade to these.
Until next time, keep it on all 4’s!
