JP1738's Stocker and S/G car

[JP1738]

Originally Posted by goinbroke2

5th tire....is it punctures or wear etc? I'd be concerned after the second let alone 5th. Something rubbing, axle bent, etc?

Or is it the loose nut behind the wheel hitting potholes? LOL!!

Love the pic of you pulling the carb, in the whole picture, there's NO GRAY HAIR?? LOL!!

I honestly don't know what the issue is. Never blows the same tire twice either side or either axle. The tries were all new at the start of last season, but I do race a lot to be fair. Now I'm putting old spares on it as I blow them, some from my trailer before I put new on and some from my dad's pile of spares.

And yes, no gray hair... yet.

[Randy Wells]

Originally Posted by JP1738

I honestly don't know what the issue is. Never blows the same tire twice either side or either axle. The tries were all new at the start of last season, but I do race a lot to be fair. Now I'm putting old spares on it as I blow them, some from my trailer before I put new on and some from my dad's pile of spares.

And yes, no gray hair... yet.

I got tired of blowing trailer tires, I put 14 ply tires on this year, should solve the problem.

Randy Wells
I/S 5628

[Keith 944]

If you can switch to 16 inch, do so and use a 14 ply tire. the tires I use are like for a logging truck. They?re 100 psi pressure, you have to put in good steel valve stems too. I go for five years and sell them for $200 a set. I haven?t blown a tire in the last 10 years.
Oh yeah, forgot to add: and Slow down! high speeds create lots of heat in the middle of summer on these ever smooth highways

[1arunem]

Make sure they are heavy duty/high pressure rated metal valve stems.

Standard rubber passenger tire valve stems will not hold up.

Ruined two NEW tires on a Ford Excusion after the installer put in regular stems before I realized the issue.

[JP1738]

No pics this time around because I've been traveling alone for the most part and just don't think to take any.

Still grinding but still quiet. Took my stuff up to Roxboro a few weeks ago and didn't have any luck. The car was ok but the driver was struggling. I started the day completely lost on the tree, anywhere from -.020 to .050 in the first 4 hits or so. Girlfriend called for an update where I explained it was getting ugly in a hurry. She gave me a little pep-talk and I ended up making a semi-final appearance in 6.0 index after bulbs of .006, .008, and .015. Unfortunately at 3 cars I lost .02 to 60ft and couldn't run the number. Had my man up front 15 to his 30, but ran 2 above wide open, he lands dead 3 and I'm .007 behind.

This past weekend I took my stuff locally to Shadyside to run their 6.0 index race and had similar results. Letting go great, 12, 13, and 19 in my first 3 hits between qualifying and first round, but lost focus pretty badly and let the tree go by me 2nd round. Let it go .053 and got locked out unsurprisingly. Gotta say that's fairly out of character for me, still not sure what happened. The most frustrating part about it was that I had the car to beat. On spray, the car moved .005 to half track in those 4 hits, which is unbelievably good for my equipment, but I fell out of the seat and let it down. I was disgusted with myself and very frustrated. Happy for my dad though, he picked up the win in the index class and is not 3 for 3 on the year at Shadyside and the points leader even after missing the first race.

So it's back to the drawing board. Gotta say I know I still have a lot of good racing left in the tank this year, but it's getting harder and harder to convince myself I do. What's weird is I swear I'm turning loose and driving as good as I ever have, but just have absolutely nothing to show for it, which is very disheartening. I may go back in my log book to last year and see if I can figure out what I'm doing differently. Maybe I'm not driving as good as I think I am. The car has definitely given me the weenie on several occasions this year which hasn't helped, but I feel I can still overcome a mediocre car, just like I always have.

Anyway, pity party over. Just needed to get that out of my system. I'm going to try to slip down to SGMP this weekend for a big 1/4 mile index race where I'll run 10.50 and 11.50 index. I hope it will pay decently well and have, perhaps, a bit softer competition. Only one way to find out.

Oh, and I blew another tire on the way home from Roxboro, bringing my season total of tire mishaps to 6.

[nickh]

Dawson in the heat 65 mph max. We did switch to 16 inch 14 ply like Keith did, then we slowed down from 80 to 65 problem went away LOL

[JP1738]

Originally Posted by nickh

Dawson in the heat 65 mph max. We did switch to 16 inch 14 ply like Keith did, then we slowed down from 80 to 65 problem went away LOL

I'm not exactly setting land speed records as it is. I usually set the cruise in my truck at 69-71 because that's where the diesel engine is happiest. Also, I never blow the tires in the heat of the day, always at night near the end of the drive. I blew the tire coming home from Roxboro at 11pm and the one before that coming home from SGMP at 1am.