# INSTANT TRACTION TIRE FOR ANY LOCOMOTIVE



## BENZ TRAINZ (Sep 22, 2017)

an expedient but this works quite well. i used vinyl tape trimmed with a razor blade to fit the wheel. clean the wheel with 91% alcohol. the tape is wrapped one turn around the left front wheel and this Marx 400 is pulling 25 tin litho cars !!! using black electrical tape this is completely invisible...






SAME ENGINE WITHOUT THE TAPE TRACTION TIRE

as you see the tape makes a tremendous difference in the abilities of the Marx 400 and will work on any locomotive...


----------



## Krieglok (Sep 7, 2013)

Interesting. I have heard of using liquid electrical tape and applying it with a toothpick on a rotating wheel

I never thought of trying real tape instead. I have used Bullfrogsnot on my N-gauge with good results but the bigger the scale, the more problematic it is to apply. 

I have Gorilla Tape. I wonder how that would work...

Tom


----------



## Spence (Oct 15, 2015)

Interesting but I wonder how long it would hold up.


----------



## BENZ TRAINZ (Sep 22, 2017)

Spence said:


> Interesting but I wonder how long it would hold up.


as i said in the video, it depends on how often you run your train, this will last several weeks or more...


----------



## Lynn D Bennett (Jul 27, 2013)

The life of normal rubber tires on MTH loco's is very limited, in my experience. I have ten engines only moderately used on a flat layout and I am for ever replacing lost tires on one engine or another. There should be a better way! Maybe electrical tape is it????

LDBennett


----------



## Krieglok (Sep 7, 2013)

I am glad I am not the only one who experienced regular traction tire failure. I have the same issues with my N gauge steam. I used the Bullfrog stuff with good results but it probably will not work well on larger applications like o scale.

I was starting to think is was environmental as I had a couple other rubber items decay likely from o-zone caused by adjacent washer, dryer and boiler...all with electric motors.

Tires made from neoprene may be an answer. I am going to try the tape thing, just as an experiment. 

I have a roll of "Gorilla Tape" which is high adhesion duct tape which is black. I may try that too...

Tom


----------



## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

I actually tried this on an MTH RK Northern a number of years ago, and it worked only for a a short while before coming off - the tape sort of migrated in places and squished up and got bumpy, then peeled itself off. I might be that that loco was just too heavy - had to be three times the weight of a Marx loco.


----------



## Lynn D Bennett (Jul 27, 2013)

Just today I changed a traction tire on one of my loco's. What I often see is not worn out threads but rubber cracking. That says to me that they use a bad rubber compound that is attacked by the ozone in the air. They fit tight on the wheels and excessive stretching to get them on the wheel has to be inducing some micro cracking is my guess. Seems that on engines that cost $400 and up, MTH (I have no information on Lionel tires???) tires should last a lot longer than a common rubber band, without cracking.

In my case there is the MTH RealTrax failure to align rail ends from section to section (there are no alignment pins in the rails as there are in Lionel's FastTrack). That has to be ripping at the tires. So do my tires fail because of cracked rubber or poor rail alignments?

LDBennett


----------



## L0stS0ul (Feb 6, 2015)

I've had much better luck with MTH traction tires. On my ceiling layout I run the trains many hours a day and so far, after 2 years, I think I've only replaced 1 traction tire and that was on a really old locosound engine. Lionel on the other hand I've had to replace a lot more often. I guess I've been lucky. My track is old tube track for the ceiling layout and it's not particularly tight. I really should go up there and clean it up but man it's a pain  I also don't think I've cleaned it in over a year. Early on I was up there every month or so cleaning but it turns out I don't need to clean as often as that.


----------



## Panther (Oct 5, 2015)

You may want to try this tape I purchased at harbor freight, they us it to wrap pipe with. It is very sticky, and 20 mil thick.

Dan


----------

