Short Horns

In my never ending quest to find the right tire I decided I wanted something a little taller. Most 2.2 tires are right at or under 5" so I decided I'd go for something closer to 5.5". Because the tire would be a little taller I knew I'd want a thicker sidewall to prevent it folding over completely, so the HPI Mud Thrasher was selected for the sidewall. For the tread, I wanted something that would flex great and not have and LFO (Lug Fold Over), so I decided to try the Hot Bodies tires which are 5.43" tall.

PARTS & SUPPLIES NEEDED
4 HPI Mud Thrashers
4 Hot Bodies Type-Baja tires (138mmx70mm)

TOOLS
CA Tire glue
Rubber Cement
Curved scissors



1. I cut the Thrashers all the way around where the tread fades into the sidewall. You'll be left with two sidewalls and a tread carcass like this:


2. Next you need to cut the sidewall of the "Type-Bajas". This is the hardest part. There is a faint ring all the way around the tire just outside where the sidewall says "rotation". I cute right along that ring. On some of the tires it was barely visible if at all but once you see it on one tires you'll know where to cut the rest.


3. Next I cut out the center section of tread. until I was left with something like this:


4. Form there it is all about gluing things back together. I use CA tire glue to start with and do a little at a time. Once that sets I go back around it all with CA glue, then finally I hit it all with rubber cement from the inside, just to help keep it water tight. In this case I had issues matching up the thicker & thinner sidewalls so I ended up getting glue everywhere. Nobody is perfect I guess.


5. I also went back and used some of the center tread I had removed to make sidewall biters. Here are some finished shots compared to M2 Mashers, narrowed M3 Mashers and Reverends.




6. And here are a few test shots. As you can see the thicker sidewall does it's job but I'll still need some foams in there. I'll post up full results once I get them mounted and can really tear into them.