Advantages of running a JR TRITON

Kmoody. The procedure i told you is what Longacre and others do when you send them in to check them. Not a waste of time. It shows if they are reading correctly. We cal scales everyday at our calibration shop and we do as the manufacturer instructs us to do them. I wanted to share so others don't have to pay a company to check them. Also make sure each pad is level from left to right and front to back. Your scale stand may be level but if the pads are not you could see a change of almost 8% if a pad needs to be lifted on one side by the thickness of a dime.

good luck.
 
Directly from Longacre tech section on how to scale properly. They don't have kart specific scaling info, but it would be the same.

”At this point have one of your crewmembers stand on each pad. He should weigh within a pound or two on each one. If all is well, then check that the scales have returned to zero. At this point jack up the car and slide the pads under each wheel.”

http://www.longacreracing.com/technical-articles.aspx?item=8163&article=Scaling A Race Car Properly

Nice to know how they calibrate them at the factory. I'm sure they stack them for calibration strictly for time savings.

A scale pad being off by the thickness of a dime (approx a cross washer) is closer to 1.5%, at least in karting. I'm thinking it would affect cars even less, but it has been a long time since I helped scale a car. Now if the scale is somehow in a bind, which is why it's good to lift kart off the scales one end at a time after the driver sits in the kart, 8% off or more on perfectly level pads is possible.
 
Now if the scale is somehow in a bind, which is why it's good to lift kart off the scales one end at a time after the driver sits in the kart, 8% off or more on perfectly level pads is possible.
I find that hard to believe. Forgive me, it's my nature to be suspicious of everything. If the LR weighs, let's say 140 pounds, that would mean this scale, (assuming it's the LR that's in a bind) would be off 11.2 pounds. I guess I don't understand what you mean by in a bind

one way of checking is to turn the kart 180° and see if you get the same readings on all 4 scales.

From the desk of Al Nunley
Comments compliments criticisms and questions always welcome.
If the data does not support the theory, get a new theory. (Al Nunley)
 
No problem Al.

When the driver sits in the kart, the chassis will flex and bend, the tires will compress, play taken out of all the tie rods and such. All of this movement can cause a bind between the contact patches and scale pad which is in a stationary position for the most part. Normally if you have a bind, it's shared between 2 tires, unless the top plate of the scale is somehow touching part of the scale stand.

Another solution to releive the bind is roll off scale stands and also spacers with rollers on top to allow for the scale to float on the rollers.

I only included the 8% number as a possibility because it was suggested that the thickness of a dime could cause that much difference in a previous post.
 
This seems like a good place to drop this question.
Does the height (from the ground) for the add on weights effect the setup? I'm new to this but not have a perspective from motorcycle road racing.

It seems to me that the lower the added weights are placed, the lower the center of gravity is? But I see folks karts with weights raised higher than necessary. Since the driver is approximately 1/3 the total weight, why is are the weights not located under the seat to pull the center of gravity closer to the ground?
 
This seems like a good place to drop this question.
Does the height (from the ground) for the add on weights effect the setup? I'm new to this but not have a perspective from motorcycle road racing.

It seems to me that the lower the added weights are placed, the lower the center of gravity is? But I see folks karts with weights raised higher than necessary. Since the driver is approximately 1/3 the total weight, why is are the weights not located under the seat to pull the center of gravity closer to the ground?
Because there's more to it than just center of gravity, there is VCG ( vertical center gravity ) which has a big affect on set up, and smaller drivers you cannot have all the weight low, you need some higher hitting that balance is key.
 
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