Heat Cycling for competition tires

[Qship5]

Does anyone know of a place locally that provides heat cycling of competition tires using rollers in a controlled environment rather than doing it with the tires on the car at a track?

I've read that after the initial heat cycle, you want to let the tires rest for a week or more to properly allow the rubber molecules to rebond in order to provide the best traction and treadwear. That might be tough to do if heat cycling them on the car.

[mpulse]

Q Dog.... Give me your car for the weekend and I will make sure the tires are properly heat cycled....:burnout:

[Silentrun]

IMHO you just need to go out and drive...same as I told imaj when he went to drive on his new R tires. Just drive and check pressures directly after each run. Running on new/different tires shouldn't get in your head. Again just my .02

[himself]

A number of us have not seen any appreciable difference with heat cycling. Your situation may be different. If you find that your tires are lasting longer with cycling, please let us know.

-td

[imaj]

IMHO you just need to go out and drive...same as I told imaj when he went to drive on his new R tires. Just drive and check pressures directly after each run. Running on new/different tires shouldn't get in your head. Again just my .02

It was great advice Michael! Thank you!

[Qship5]

Thanks for the replies...B-Rad, I'll avoid your heat cycling process.:D

[OKcruising]

I've seen some guys trash and vac 'em after a few laps. I'd venture to say that any gains from them for 99% of cases would be swallowed by the margin of error.

If you had a lot of sets of wheel/tire combos and needed to swap them out in an enduro etc. where green tires cost you... that'd be worth it for sure though.

[ken o]

Discount Tires at Ohio and 121 can do this. Ask for Todd.

[GTCole]

I heat cycle mine, and I notice a huge difference in wear, etc. Will do it all the time. But, a great alignment on a car effects the wear more importantly than heat cycling.

[Qship5]

Discount Tires at Ohio and 121 can do this. Ask for Todd.

Will they do it for tires purchased elsewhere or only for tires purchased there?

[himself]

I heat cycle mine, and I notice a huge difference in wear, etc. Will do it all the time. But, a great alignment on a car effects the wear more importantly than heat cycling.
What type of improvement are you seeing, and what type of tires? Also, what kind of cycling? [how many extra cycles and max cycles you are getting now]

-td

[edit: should also add, if you are going to heat cycle, the gurus suggest that the only way to properly cycle tires is on the car. No machine can replicate the heat, loads and abrasion needed. And by gurus, I mean Bob Woodman ;)]

[GTCole]

I pay $15 per tire at Tire Rack. They do it in a machine designed for Hoosiers, etc. I run R6's. I just feel like, and can visibly see, that they wear better. I would think that I might get 2 more sessions our of them. But, and this is a big but, the alignment is way way more important.

[Qship5]

That's good to know that you are seeing better wear with heat cycling.

As I understand it, the first heat cycle is the critical one and the tires must be allowed to rest for at least a week afterwards to see any appreciable difference to just using them as is. Of course, that's what I've read, not based on personal experience, which is why I asked the question. In GTCole's case, the time in transit from Tirerack will cover a good portion of the sitting time.

[GTCole]

We wait 48 hours or more. I will say from experienct that when I used Hoosier R6's before, I noticed significant tire wear and rubber coming off, as opposed to smooth wear for heat cycling. It costs $60 for tires since there are 4.