Hey, so my team wants to paint our pneumatic tires, but my coach isn’t sure if this is legal or not. We know there have been some problems in the past with some teams painting things that they shouldn’t have (i.e. pneumatic cylinders). I just wanna make sure it’s alright to do this before we ruin a precious commodity. Thanks
In 2012 at the inaugural Montreal Regional a rookie team would paint their tires EVERY MATCH whatever colors their alliance was (apparently there was an 8 years let loose in their pits with cans of paint and lots of free time). Every match they would leave blue and red skid marks all over the carpet. It was like someone roadkilled a Smurf. The head ref repeatedly disabled them and I think after a while told them to cut it out or else. Needless to say no one wanted the carpet afterwards.
I would say it’s a not allowed on painting tires. Depending on the paint used it could flake off and leave paint chips on the carpet, and end up in other robots, let alone the marks and chips that could be left on the floor
You can legally paint them but, It is not smart. The pain will rub off quickly and get everywhere.
If don’t paint the whole tire (the part that contacts the ground shouldn’t be painted) this stuff works pretty well. I’ve used it to touch up whitewalls before that had been gouged and it lasted for months with no issues at highway speeds.
You won’t be able to paint the whole tire with a spray can and get the results you want, but a product designed for the job will do pretty well. Just like any paintjob, the prepwork is almost more important than the application.
Look at the relevant rules for wheels / tractive surfaces. The biggest concern would be paint rubbing off and marking up the carpet. Since you are suggesting painting the tires this would probably be a big problem and I really would not recommend it.
Now, if you are constantly leaving lots of paint on the floor that would be different, but if you paint them now and you leave some different colored skid marks, I think you’re in the clear.
We painted tires last year. I believe we just used standard spray paint. We had no problems with it flaking off. We painted them our second event and they still looked good through 4 more events. Never had a problem with refs either. Just don’t paint the actual tread that is touching the ground, and let it dry for a while.
You’d think they’d just have two sets of wheels painted different colors, no?
Anyways as long as you don’t do that and you don’t paint the actual tread you should be ok.
I guess I should clarify. We only want to pain the sides of the tires. From the sounds of it, this is only a bad idea if you are painting the part of the wheel that comes in contact with the floor.
Then yes, painting the sides of your tires should be allowed, as this would not damage the field carpet. Make sure to be extra careful when applying the paint and to allow it time to dry. (Just don’t paint any part that is going to touch the carpet.)
Yes it is legal, the paint should be fine on the sides of the wheels.
This year 4118 has painted their wheel hubs 