Trinity Digital Heat tire warmers

Friction causes heat. Heat softens rubber. And that, my friends, is why your touring car's tires stick better one minute into a race than they did at the start tone. The benefit of preheated tires is obvious: instead of holding back during those critical first laps and biding time until the treads warm to full-grip temperature, you can clamp the throttle from the start with toasty tires squeezing the track as hard as they can from the get-go.

To get that grip-giving heat into the tires, Trinity added electric tire warmers to its catalog way back in 1998, and a few other companies have jumped on board with warmers of their own since then. Until now, the warmers all worked about the same, and they all had the same flaw: no means to monitor or adjust the tire temperature.

Trinity's new Digital Heat tire warmers have addressed that concern by incorporating a digital temperature control box in the system, so you can dial in as much heat as you want. It gets better; since the front and rear tires are usually different temperatures after a run, Trinity designed the warmers so that the heat in each pair can be adjusted independently. Sounds good; does it work?

TESTING

I tested the Digital Heat warmers with a 12V, 10A DC power supply. Setting the system up only took a minute, and the unit's 3-foot power wires and 32-inch warmer harnesses made it easy for me to put the car in an out-of-the-way spot on my bench (we bundled the wires for neater photos). As soon as the power supply was connected, the digital readouts indicated the ambient temperature, and the warmers began to heat to the default setting of 60[degrees] Celsius (C).

Pressing the "up" and "down" keys adjusts the temperature in 1-degree increments. The digital displays show the temperature of the warmers as they heat up, and during the process you can check your target setting by pressing an "up" or "down" key. When up to temperature, the control unit automatically cycles the power on and off to maintain the setting. A pair of LEDs winks on and off to indicate when the warmers are on and off.

I wanted to work the warmers hard from the start, so I entered the maximum setting of 98[degrees] C (208[degrees] Fahrenheit) and let the warmers cook. After four minutes, the warmers had reached maximum temperature. But remember, the Digital Heat control box doesn't show the temperature of the tires themselves; although the warmers heat up quickly, it takes time for the tires to absorb and then match the temperature. The longer you let them bake, the more deeply the tires will be heated and the longer they'll retain their heat as you wait for your race to start.

The Digital Heat system was easily dialed down to cooler temps using the "down" keys, and it operated reliably throughout testing. As a final test, I let the warmers crank away at full power all day; after eight hours, they were still holding steady at 98[degrees] C.

THE VERDICT

I pressed the buttons, the tires got hot; this thing works! The question is, do you really need it, and is it worth its $130 price tag? If you're a casual racer, there are smarter ways to spend your money, but if you're out there every weekend and making the A-main, the Digital Heat system is worth a look. It can buy you precious tenths in the early laps of a race, and as you know, every fraction of a second you save gets you closer to the front or extends your gap on the chasing pack. For serious racing, hot tires are definitely cool.

Copyright Air Age Publishing Jun 2003
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