144001, 124019, 124018 1822 Wheel Upgrade - The new Offroad champ; some compromises

The 1/14 and 1/12 scale WL toys cars (144001, 124018, 124019) are rightly very popular cars due to their competitive price for a platform that is extremely versatile and lends itself well to upgrade - I have over 30 articles here that prove it. Although on road wheel options are easily accessible, this is less the case with off road options other than the Remo P6973 (reviewed here) which have been the gold standard. I've now found a wheel and tyre set I find to be even better offroad so long as specific conditions are met: ​4PCS Upgraded Larger Tires Wheels 12mm Hex for Wltoys 144001 124018 124019 RC Car Vehicles Model Parts - 1822G-A. Read on to find more about their good, and bad points to see if they are right for you.

Wheel Style. These new wheels/tyres which I will refer to from here as the 1822 have options for either solid disc or spoked wheels in black, white and neon green. They come in a set of 4 with a set of foam inners and of course the tyres. Tyres come in one of two pattern styles, one I would call a paddle  style and the other a knobbly style.

5 spoke white rims

5 spoke green rims

Black disc rims

Tyre patterns. Both paddle and knobbly tyres are a very soft rubber compound; much softer than even the Remo P6973 tyres I mentioned above which I would class as medium (stock tyres are hard). They have a relatively tall sidewall and sitting still they are 40mm wide and 82ish mm in diameter

Knobbly tyres

Paddle tyres

82ish mm diameter stationary

40mm wide

Additional hardware. As you can see they do also come with some hardware - drive pins, m3 washers and nylock nuts plus tabbed body pins - random but actually hand things to have in your spares.

Glue the tyres. Disappointingly the tyres are not glued so you will most definitely need to do this. You will not be able to drive at all without gluing these. Lucky you then that I have created a simply tyre gluing video for you using the cheap super glue you can buy practically anywhere:

Larger diameter. From a size standpoint, these are about as big as you want to go on these cars before you start stressing the drive train. They do of course offer some great ground clearance as you can see below. Bear in mind that at this diameter is roughly 10% greater that the stock wheels which makes you gearing 10% taller - faster but hotter running so keep an eye on temps to be safe. I think these look fantastic on the 124018 especially as you can see below.

Ground clearance is taller especially on the 124018 and allows you to clear a little more now

I think this style of wheel really improves the look on the 124018 especially

I would tend to steer towards the disc style wheels are as seen above as they tend to be stronger. With that said I have yet to break one of the spoked wheel set but in general the extra material only helps with strength, especially for an off-road basher.

Why are they so good offroad?

As I mentioned earlier, the Remo P6973 wheels have been the gold standard bashing wheel for these cars - they are durable, have good grip off road, are predictable on road and are even decent in the wet. You can see a comparison between these two sets in the image here with the Remo p6973 on the left dwarfed by the 1822 on the right.

I was very surprised then to find how much more I enjoyed these 1822 wheels and tyres offroad based on factors that I hadn't even considered before. I thought that the very soft compound and taller sidewalls would equate to much sloppier cornering but what surprised me was their ability to soak up bumps. Usually we think of our suspension as soaking up the bumps but it is actually the tyres that do this job first. For a tyre with a low profile (even when it is relatively soft like the Remo p6973) they have little ability to soak up bumps and transmit these to the shocks instead. In bumpy conditions these can get overwhelmed and the car bounces around, making it very hard to control. However, with the 1822 tyres reviewed here, they act like a balloon, absorbing a lot of the shock themselves and so rely on the shock absorbers for only really big bumps. Result? They car feels like it glides over the surface rather than bouncing around all over the place and so is a lot more controllable. Check out the video further down compared to a car with the standard wheels

Remo P6973 and 1822 hubs are the same diameter...

But a big difference in outside diameter - 1822 sidewalls are 26% taller than the P6973 and much softer

I should of course mention grip - it is outstanding. Grip on loose surfaces is a level above anything I've tried. On grass it tends to float on top rather than plow through it like the the buggy and to a lesser extent p6973 wheels. There is enough traction to make it lift the front wheels on occasion, something I wasn't expecting in this long wheelbase car. I haven't found much difference between paddle and knobbly tyres but would expect the paddlers would be better on very loose, sandy surfaces.

124018 with the 1822 wheels and tyres

144001 (similar car) with remo P6972 wheels and tyres. See how much more bouncy it is

What about the downsides?

• I wouldn't even consider these 1822 tyres on road. Tread will wear quickly but before then they traction roll a lot and feel imprecise. Just not suitable for this application. Update: they are actually not as bad as I made out for tarmac and concrete.
• Although the larger diameter is great for ground clearance, it does put more strain on your power system. As I said you could get away with it on the stock setup but you would need to keep an eye on ESC and motor temps. For custom brushless setups I'd keep the KV low with a 15t pinion. I have been running this with my drop in brushless upgrade as per the video above and it is a joy to drive.
• These tyres will balloon a lot with speed. I wouldn't run this on a car much over 60km/h but to be honest, I wouldn't want a car faster than that for off road bashing as it would handle poorly and overheat anyway.
• The gluing - not a big deal especially with my helpful video above 😁😁 but worth thinking about

So there you have it, my completed review of the 1822 wheel and tyre set. It's annoying they aren't glued as supplied but not a big deal because it takes less than $1 worth of glue and about 10 minutes to glue them all. Grip is excellent off road but I would avoid using these on road at all. You'll also need to be sure you don't try and over power your car with these wheels on but if you can manage with these constraints you'll be rewarded with wonderful grip and an ability to drive over bumpier surfaces with much more control.

Parts used in the article

1822 wheel and tyre set (4) reviewed here available at Banggood only

Remo P6973 wheel and tyre set (4) are reviewed here in more depth and available at Banggood

​The WL Toys 124018 desert buggy is reviewed here and available at Banggood

The 3600kv drop in brushless upgrade is covered in detail here.

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