king pin inclination

Kingpin inclination was used on cars to keep the wheels tracking in a straight line. Castor does the same thing. Early automobiles had very little or no Castor, even negative Castor. Castor makes it very hard to turn the car. Negative Castor makes it a little easier.
When I built karts, they had no kingpin inclination and handle just fine, even better. Bug Karts, until about 1977, had no kingpin inclination. In my personal opinion; there's absolutely no need for kingpin inclination on a kart. This opinion is backed up by personal experience.
 
Dito on what Kj26 just said.

alvin I nunley has no experience at all and is giving you useless information which will not help you at all dirt oval racing.

I'm sure you will get your question answered but pay no attention to what Al offers it will just screw you up dirt racing.
 
KPI affects scrub radius and camber change across the arc of the spindle. John Learmonth has a good article on the issue if you'd care to Google it.
 
Ted Hamilton said:
KPI affects scrub radius and camber change across the arc of the spindle. John Learmonth has a good article on the issue if you'd care to Google it.
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I'd love to read John's article. Would you post a url to the article Ted?

LOL with so much dirt racing in Auzzie land maybe John has moved to dirt racin? They also do lefty righty dirt road racin down there too.

Al wasn't it YOU over 20 years ago who use to argue and nit pick with John all the time when he was developing his front end theories, aggravating him to high heaven? ... :)
 
Kj26 said:
Which has ZERO experience on dirt ovals.
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Not entirely true. One customer who bought one of my Mayko Shark's was exceedingly happy with the kart he bought from me. When I suggested maybe a thicker tube frame would work better, he was adamant that his shark was working just fine. Of course that was a long time ago, before the dirt kart frame became a thing of its own.
 
paulkish said:
Al wasn't it YOU over 20 years ago who use to argue and nit pick with John all the time when he was developing his front end theories, aggravating him to high heaven? ... :)
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20 years ago I was in San Diego. Before I heard of Bob's, so I couldn't have had any conversations with anybody here.
 
alvin l nunley said:
Of course that was a long time ago, before the dirt kart frame became a thing of its own.
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We had an offset dirt oval chassis made in the, i'm not into remembering when karting started, 50' or 60'.

It was made as we were told from a Popular Mechanics chassis but offset for dirt oval. It ran at Columbiana Speedway when Columbiana Speedway later a sprint course was just a dirt oval.

edit: The kart actually had push truck wheels and bearings on it and came with a red tiller motor. My son ended up selling it to Arlie Utsinger. The sheet metal on the back of the seat had holes where the McCulla use to mount.
 
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jdkart3 said:
What does it effect on a kart and how to change it
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Like Ted said it affects scrub radius and camber gain .
The only way to change it is to swap spindles if they're avalible or make your own .
Scrub radius can be changed with wheel offset and add or remove spacers .
Currently on newer stuff about all you can do is move the wheel out .
 
flattop1 said:
Like Ted said it affects scrub radius and camber gain .
The only way to change it is to swap spindles if they're avalible or make your own .
Scrub radius can be changed with wheel offset and add or remove spacers .
Currently on newer stuff about all you can do is move the wheel out .
Click to expand...
Now is there any way to calculate scrub radius and camber gain on flat kart ?
 
paulkish said:
We had an offset dirt oval chassis made in the, i'm not into remembering when karting started, 50' or 60'.

It was made as we were told from a Popular Mechanics chassis but offset for dirt oval. It ran at Columbiana Speedway when Columbiana Speedway later a sprint course was just a dirt oval.

edit: The kart actually had push truck wheels and bearings on it and came with a red tiller motor. My son ended up selling it to Arlie Utsinger. The sheet metal on the back of the seat had holes where the McCulla use to mount.
Click to expand...
Not too many kart racers on here familiar with Columbiana, we would race Slippery Rock saturday nights then show up to Columbiana with dirt still on the karts and get strange looks haha.
 
jdkart3 said:
What does it effect on a kart and how to change it
Click to expand...
I don't know enough about it to speak on subject but My question would be WHY your asking, If your asking just to learn more about it and gain knowledge GREAT !! But if your asking because your lacking speed with your program and not satisfied with your results, your barking up the wrong tree, I point this out in only trying to save you more frustration as it's not going to get you end result you would be looking for.
 
So far I have only read the first part but that's enough for me to make a wrong statement. ... :)

The difference between left right turning karts with a solid axle and no stagger and oval racers/karts which use a solid axle and stagger is unlike karts which turn both left and right LTO karts and cars can operate with the Left Rear/inside Rear always in contact with the track using the LR to create all acceleration. The Right Rear/outside Rear can then be used to assist the fronts in turning and/or even totally control turning.

How much or how well a solid axle staggered LTO race vehicle can do the above is designed into the LTO racer/kart per vehicle construction rules and the skill of the driver.

... on to read the rest of the story ... :)

edit: couldn't do it
 
Though total LTO acceleration can be setup to come from the LR alone, total acceleration most often will be an average between acceleration from the LR slipping the RR or acceleration from the RR slipping the LR or a combination of both. How you setup to use acceleration from your two rear tires with their different diameters and different surface speeds depends on matching available grip and available hp to the track and racing needs.

The point is unlike lefty right racers which normally must use both rear tires the same, LTO's have the ability to control and use each rear tire differently at all places around the track.
 
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