CarsonRocket
New member
What does the increase in split do to the rolling resistence?
Explaining "Free"
- Thread starter CarsonRocket
- Start date
Not sure how it affects rolling resistance but increasing or decreasing the pressure split can control the weight transfer a bit, which can free up or tighten a kart depending on which way you change the split and how much. If im thinking right, increasing the pressure split would slow down weight transfer and free up the chassis, while decreasing the split would speed up the transfer and tighten the chassis.....i may have that backwards but im pretty sure i have it right
paulkish
old fart
Did you race last weekend?
What did you do to 'free' it up?
What do you think changed as a result of what you did to free it up?
How did your driver react to the changes and report on what they felt?
_____________________
Did you watch the drivers hands to see if they were turning the steering wheel extra, in one direction or another?
Did you take notes on what you did and what you thought the results were?
Did you write down how you thought the track was and your other setup numbers?
Did you add or take off gearing?
If you raced, what do you think the main problem was that you saw on the track, if any?
What one thing improved over last time out and what is your best guess about why it may have improved?
_____________________________
Don't get too caught up in what fixes what and having to know every little thing to do.
You can't fix everything at one time and you can't have everything right or wrong at one time. You need to make things simple not complicated. If you try to grasp everything at once, something will slip out of your hand, so do it one thing at a time.
I don't know your financial situation but there are specific things which will have to come together for you. They are first the driver, then engine, clutch, gearing, chassis setup and tires.
Your driver needs seat time, seat time and more seat time. Your driver also has to learn how to race and along the way will need to understand which lines on the track are fast, not fast, aggressive and defensive. That will come with time, your learning and your talking with your driver and others.
If your running clone then it's sort of easy to know your engine is about as good as anyone else's and you can quickly learn to take suspected engine problems out of the picture and your learning curve.
Then comes your clutch. The clutch is the easiest thing to know if it's right or wrong. You set it to come in at peak torque and forget it, unless you suspect it has a problem. Get the rpm from your engine builder or seller on where to set clutch engagement for peak torque. Or you can use the scale method Al has made popular, it works and I'll leave it up to you to research and find how to do it.
Your gearing is next. Ask around and get a general idea of what gearing you should be running. It's pretty simple starting out. If you can't get to the correct maximum rpm, throw gearing at it. If you still can't get it to rev after throwing gearing at it, you have setup, driving or tire issues. Try to identify driving issues first, then setup and tire issues. Fix those three and the rpm's will take care of itself. You'll find as you improve, you'll take gear off, go faster and still make your rpm.
Then there's the chassis issues your wondering about. The first thing to do is to go to the manufacture, find out what they give you for a baseline and set your chassis to their baseline. Unless you have an older chassis or something that's bent, worn out, etc., just put it to the baseline and deal with driving, engine, clutch and gearing. Get seat time, seat time and more seat time.
Now while your getting seat time watch your drivers hands and listen to what your driver reports. Forget about free and tight, until you can deal with and know your troubles are not push, loose, 4 wheel drift or driving problems. When your comfortable that what's on the track is being driven ok, is not pushing, loose or drifting, then and only then worry about being too tight or too free. Tight is about having grip and things are messed up. Un-mess things and then worry about the tight. Un-mess things like driver problems or lack of experience, push, loose, drift and the tight will likely take care of itself.
... time for that second cup of coffee and take all this bs with a grain of salt because it ain't necessarily right anyway. ...
It's only written for my fun and games enjoying writing. And hoping you'll report back what you did, what you think happened or changed, that you >won< and we all learned and had fun along the way.
ps... I just looked at the clock. My first cup took 50 minutes of fun this morning, it was time well spent for me and I hope reading my bs is time well spent and helpful for others. ...
ps again. never forget the most important thing in karting is the one on one seat time you get with your driver, ... to and from the track. ...
What did you do to 'free' it up?
What do you think changed as a result of what you did to free it up?
How did your driver react to the changes and report on what they felt?
_____________________
Did you watch the drivers hands to see if they were turning the steering wheel extra, in one direction or another?
Did you take notes on what you did and what you thought the results were?
Did you write down how you thought the track was and your other setup numbers?
Did you add or take off gearing?
If you raced, what do you think the main problem was that you saw on the track, if any?
What one thing improved over last time out and what is your best guess about why it may have improved?
_____________________________
Don't get too caught up in what fixes what and having to know every little thing to do.
You can't fix everything at one time and you can't have everything right or wrong at one time. You need to make things simple not complicated. If you try to grasp everything at once, something will slip out of your hand, so do it one thing at a time.
I don't know your financial situation but there are specific things which will have to come together for you. They are first the driver, then engine, clutch, gearing, chassis setup and tires.
Your driver needs seat time, seat time and more seat time. Your driver also has to learn how to race and along the way will need to understand which lines on the track are fast, not fast, aggressive and defensive. That will come with time, your learning and your talking with your driver and others.
If your running clone then it's sort of easy to know your engine is about as good as anyone else's and you can quickly learn to take suspected engine problems out of the picture and your learning curve.
Then comes your clutch. The clutch is the easiest thing to know if it's right or wrong. You set it to come in at peak torque and forget it, unless you suspect it has a problem. Get the rpm from your engine builder or seller on where to set clutch engagement for peak torque. Or you can use the scale method Al has made popular, it works and I'll leave it up to you to research and find how to do it.
Your gearing is next. Ask around and get a general idea of what gearing you should be running. It's pretty simple starting out. If you can't get to the correct maximum rpm, throw gearing at it. If you still can't get it to rev after throwing gearing at it, you have setup, driving or tire issues. Try to identify driving issues first, then setup and tire issues. Fix those three and the rpm's will take care of itself. You'll find as you improve, you'll take gear off, go faster and still make your rpm.
Then there's the chassis issues your wondering about. The first thing to do is to go to the manufacture, find out what they give you for a baseline and set your chassis to their baseline. Unless you have an older chassis or something that's bent, worn out, etc., just put it to the baseline and deal with driving, engine, clutch and gearing. Get seat time, seat time and more seat time.
Now while your getting seat time watch your drivers hands and listen to what your driver reports. Forget about free and tight, until you can deal with and know your troubles are not push, loose, 4 wheel drift or driving problems. When your comfortable that what's on the track is being driven ok, is not pushing, loose or drifting, then and only then worry about being too tight or too free. Tight is about having grip and things are messed up. Un-mess things and then worry about the tight. Un-mess things like driver problems or lack of experience, push, loose, drift and the tight will likely take care of itself.
... time for that second cup of coffee and take all this bs with a grain of salt because it ain't necessarily right anyway. ...
It's only written for my fun and games enjoying writing. And hoping you'll report back what you did, what you think happened or changed, that you >won< and we all learned and had fun along the way.
ps... I just looked at the clock. My first cup took 50 minutes of fun this morning, it was time well spent for me and I hope reading my bs is time well spent and helpful for others. ...
ps again. never forget the most important thing in karting is the one on one seat time you get with your driver, ... to and from the track. ...
CarsonRocket
New member
Had engine trouble this past weekend. We didn't really get a chance to see if the chassis changes made a difference. Hoping to get back at it this weekend.
Randy Major
Member
Use your RPM drop as a sign as well. If your kart is tight RPM drop will show it.
DianSmokes
New member
I'm confused now, i've always thought free and loose were different things. Loose is to tight as free is to bind. I thought when you mounted a seat wrong, or had a bumper or nerfbars bent in a manner that wouldn't allow the chassis to flex in the way it was designed to that would be a chassis "binding". I once got rear ended and it bent the bolt that held my bumper in and made it stiff. The handling immediately started pushing like a dump truck (where the past few laps it had run "normal") Got the bumper bent back straight and a new bolt in it and it drove like it did before. I thought that was getting a kart "freed up". Where when your kart has no binding and it still pushes like a dump truck, you would need to make adjustments to "loosen the kart". It seems like we have a lot of terminology that means close to the same thing as something else here. Anyone make a karting thesaurus?
When we run asphalt we're around 10 to 12 on air pressure, more if its cold. Go with xxx and up the air, alot if your at the 6-7 you mentioned.