Mickey Thompson's website states: "Besides being required for air retention, M/T® Tubes will enhance the reaction time, increase stiffness and reduce sidewall shock and deflection when launching."

I know some guys screw the slicks to their rims and they say air retention isn't that big of deal. Are there other pro's/con's to tubing?

-Mark

 

Tubes are heavy, very heavy! Increased weight isn't good.

I ran the old GT on ET Streets with rim screws, and I had no real issues with air retention.

joe

 

i rode around on my et streets with no tubes and no screws for the whole summer and kept my rear 20's in the bed in case it started to rain out then i would change the tires... i never had any problems with losing air at all with them.

 

I've got one that will only have adout 4lbs in it every time I put them on to go to the track but it takes a month or 2 for them to get that low.I usually only run them down to 25lbs at the track that way I can still drive them home.I'm sure they don't have any tubes in them.
jeff

 

I have been told that tubes will help the tire equalize and help keep a bigger footprint on the ground during launch. I run w/o tubes. I just soap up the slicks with a large bottle of Palmolive before mounting and use rim screws.

 

I (personally) believe there is little to no measurable difference between running, or not running tubes from a 60 ft or ET perspective. I ran them in a low 9 sec Mustang.

What I like about tubes is, your tires don't go flat in 3 days, like slicks have always done for me w/out tubes. However, because of the tubes' valve stem, you have to run rim screws. Without rim screws, the tire will (eventually) rotate enough to pull the valve stem off the tube. Obviously, a bad situation.

My vote; run 'em.

 

I ran tubes and NO rim screws for about 200 or more passes on a set of ET Streets. They never gave me a problem; now I am trying to go tubeless, but the tire keeps slipping slightly on the rim every pass.

But, I am also gettting faster too

 

i have a friend that use to run no tubes and he would spin his rim inside his tire off the line every pass. we video taped it to show him afterwards and its pretty crzy lookin. he has gone to tubes and no issue ne more

 

So without tubes, the tire will probably slip on the rim - unless you screw it down..

So if you use screws, then the only downside is a little air pressure loss between trips to the track? If so, I can live with that.

 

I ran my slicks without tubes or screws last summer. I finally marked the rims & tires to see if the tire is spinning on the rim. Sure enough it was moving at least an inch every run. I have since screwed the tires to the rims. I used black RTV on the thread screws to help to air from leaking out. I then put the wheel on its side and sprayed it with soapy water to check for air leaks. A couple leaks were found but adding more RTV or tightning the screws up stopped the leak. Should be able to acheive a slightly better 60' this year at the track.

 

Never used tubes or screws and no problemo. I sold my MT ET slicks and now running 30 inch Hoosiers without tubes or screws, and 1.52 60 ft times with 18 lbs. of air. I checked, and there is zero spin on the rim. I guess I'm lucky.

 

anyone know if rob02 runs tubes or screws? maybe he'll chime in?

 

I forgot to add that I run around 11 lbs of air. The more air you run the less likely the tire will spin on the wheel because the more air will help hold the tire on the bead.

 

I think Rob has a couple of loose screws.