I have always wondered how much effect BS has on actual tire contact with the track.

I like the real deep look that a minimum BS gives the wheel. However, function overrules look.
It seems having load on the wheel being in middle or closest to would make for better distribution and enhance traction.

I understand most of that is an opinion and so will be most replys. So your opinions and thoughts.

I thinking the tire wear will be more even with a central backspace. I base that on experience with my old Vega. It was an old s/g tube chassis car. Fairly light @2550 me in the seat. Car used14/32 slicks on 14” wide x 3” backspace wheels. It always seemed to wear the inside couple of inches of tread faster than the rest of the tire. Even after the factory 12 bolt narrowed housing was replaced with a hd strange 12 bolt housing. New car will use a 14” wide wheel wit 7 1/2” backspace. So that should give me a answer of some sort. If I can ever finish the new car. Getting all of he parts takes forever now. Don’t even start with waiting on the chassis shop.

Warren Johnson was once asked that same question. He said that he spent a lot of money to find out it made no différance.

Joe

quote:

Originally posted by sr4440:
Warren Johnson was once asked that same question. He said that he spent a lot of money to find out it made no différance.

Joe

Sounds like Earning Elliot when asked about the flow balancing engine.I think he spent a year plus getting every cylinder to flow exactly the same and the car showed zero difference on the track.

Always nice to learn off others many. LMAO. While I am not a Warren Johnson fan, he is smart guy and knows his stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by Wooley:
Fairly light @2550 me in the seat. Car used14/32 slicks on 14” wide x 3” backspace wheels. It always seemed to wear the inside couple of inches of tread faster than the rest of the tire.

I have 10" with 5" bs and it has always worn the inside worse than the outside. I used to flip the tire on the wheel and rebalance about 1/2 way through the tire life. Since switching to radials it doesn't seem as bad, but the compound is much harder.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Brktracer,

6.5 backspace + 3.5 out. 10" rim, 10 x 28 M/T tire always wore the outside.

Put a beadlock on the outside, wears perfectly even as the gal at Champion beadlocks suggested it would beforehand. Very knowledgeable lady - beadlocks.

Hopefully someone was wise enough to hire her in the racing industry, everything she said was spot on.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mike Rietow,

quote:

Originally posted by wideopen231:
I have always wondered how much effect BS has on actual tire contact with the track.

I like the real deep look that a minimum BS gives the wheel. However, function overrules look.

You got that right.

Just an opinion here but I do not think the wheel is flexing much if any causing it to wear more on inside.

If it is doing that I would look at Axles, Axle bearings, housing ends not straight or housing itself flexing.

I just do not see the wheel itself flexing much and if it does then I would expect it to break at some point. Probably close to outside of bolt holes.

I do think with Back Space closer to center of wheel it should be a little stronger but that should not ever be an issue to us and nothing we need to worry about. One of main things about back space is using it to fill wheel well and get the tire centered right where you want it for clearance etc.

quote:

Originally posted by Brktracer:

quote:

Originally posted by Wooley:
Fairly light @2550 me in the seat. Car used14/32 slicks on 14” wide x 3” backspace wheels. It always seemed to wear the inside couple of inches of tread faster than the rest of the tire.

I have 10" with 5" bs and it has always worn the inside worse than the outside. I used to flip the tire on the wheel and rebalance about 1/2 way through the tire life. Since switching to radials it doesn't seem as bad, but the compound is much harder.

Logic says a wheel with the offset in a neutral location will flex less than a wheel with a lot of positive offset.
Over the past 18 years of racing the same car with the same wheels the multitude of tires that have been on the car have worn uniformly across the carcass. Always been a 15 inch wide wheel, with a 7 1/2 offset, with anywhere from a 15x33 to a 17x33 on it, with weight at the 2840 to 2860 and hp from 1000 to 1125. A couple of pairs of takeoffs from a light pro built car of GY 17x33 size came to me with a slight difference in the wear holes from one side to the other, and as pairs. And they came off of a car that had a lot of positive offset, probably 4 inches of backspace.
Made no difference in my times other than they had less rollout and my 60 footers picked up.

quote:

Originally posted by sr4440:
Warren Johnson was once asked that same question. He said that he spent a lot of money to find out it made no différance.

Joe

Yep, and a lot of other Pro Stock teams as well. The only advantage found with the wheel and tire configuration allowed by the Nazi Racing league was shaving half the tread off of a new tire. Then they outlawed that.

quote:

Originally posted by Roger McGinnis:

quote:

Originally posted by sr4440:
Warren Johnson was once asked that same question. He said that he spent a lot of money to find out it made no différance.

Joe

Yep, and a lot of other Pro Stock teams as well. The only advantage found with the wheel and tire configuration allowed by the Nazi Racing league was shaving half the tread off of a new tire. Then they outlawed that.

No direct comparison to an average bracket guy, pro guys don't run a tire for 100 runs or more. What maybe 10?

quote:

Originally posted by Bad News:

quote:

Originally posted by Roger McGinnis:

quote:

Originally posted by sr4440:
Warren Johnson was once asked that same question. He said that he spent a lot of money to find out it made no différance.

Joe

Yep, and a lot of other Pro Stock teams as well. The only advantage found with the wheel and tire configuration allowed by the Nazi Racing league was shaving half the tread off of a new tire. Then they outlawed that.

No direct comparison to an average bracket guy, pro guys don't run a tire for 100 runs or more. What maybe 10?

No saying that bracket guys should shave half the tread off, just that backspacing makes no difference in anything except ease of removal in a door car.

Think of it as a 15" wide wheel with 14.5" of back space.

Or a 15" wide wheel with .50 backspace.

It don't matter?

Wrong.

Roger, you missed the point. Pro guys would never notice any appreciable uneven wear, as they will never run a tire long enough to see it happen.
Nothing to do with shaving the tire.

The only obvious positive thing as far as a large offset is the unsprung weight will be slightly lighter. Axles and housing will be shorter.

For Warren Johnson to do a proper finding that would correlate to every grassroots racer, he'd have to measure the deflection of every rearend, suspension, wheel and backspace combination scenario in play on the planet.

This info from Warren Johnson doesn't pertain to the grassroots racer.

Common sense.

If you have a 15" wheel with 15" backspace hypothetically speaking, the outside sidewall is gonna take more of a beating than the inside.

Common sense.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Rietow:
For Warren Johnson to do a proper finding that would correlate to every grassroots racer, he'd have to measure the deflection of every rearend, suspension, wheel and backspace combination scenario in play on the planet.

This info from Warren Johnson doesn't pertain to the grassroots racer.

Common sense.

If you have a 15" wheel with 15" backspace hypothetically speaking, the outside sidewall is gonna take more of a beating than the inside.

Common sense.

If that were true, we'd all be running wheels that are centered hubs. Weight savings is all you gain with the hub all the way on the inside. And it is not substantial, nor measurable for the normal guy.

quote:

Originally posted by Roger McGinnis:

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Rietow:
For Warren Johnson to do a proper finding that would correlate to every grassroots racer, he'd have to measure the deflection of every rearend, suspension, wheel and backspace combination scenario in play on the planet.

This info from Warren Johnson doesn't pertain to the grassroots racer.

Common sense.

If you have a 15" wheel with 15" backspace hypothetically speaking, the outside sidewall is gonna take more of a beating than the inside.

Common sense.

If that were true, we'd all be running wheels that are centered hubs. Weight savings is all you gain with the hub all the way on the inside. And it is not substantial, nor measurable for the normal guy.

Never gave thought to the weight of rearend difference.
While never thought abour it,when you do it could be decent. lets say 3" less BS. that means both axles are 3" shorter and housing is 6 " narrower.Not a ton but it is less weight,

Good point no matter how minor difference.

quote:

Originally posted by Roger McGinnis:

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Rietow:
For Warren Johnson to do a proper finding that would correlate to every grassroots racer, he'd have to measure the deflection of every rearend, suspension, wheel and backspace combination scenario in play on the planet.

This info from Warren Johnson doesn't pertain to the grassroots racer.

Common sense.

If you have a 15" wheel with 15" backspace hypothetically speaking, the outside sidewall is gonna take more of a beating than the inside.

Common sense.

If that were true, we'd all be running wheels that are centered hubs. Weight savings is all you gain with the hub all the way on the inside. And it is not substantial, nor measurable for the normal guy.

Oh, it is the case. Hypothetically if you have 100" wide wheel with zero back space. The inside side wall is gonna take more of a beating than the outside, and the tire is not gonna wear even. Common sense.

As far as what everyone is choosing now, when they go to look at wheel they're thinking of putting on their car. The number one thing is quality/cost/durability, then looks, then availability.

If they're advanced in drag racing experience, they're considering the best approach for taking care of the tire all the while.

To be advanced, you gotta wanna be advanced.

If the wheel is completely, 100% rigid, the tire doesn't know what the backspace is.

quote:

Originally posted by SlyFox:
If the wheel is completely, 100% rigid, the tire doesn't know what the backspace is.

Perfectly rigid is impossible.

Common sense.