Assuming your on the correct tires and prep what would cause a kart to be locked down?
i.e. Too much left, not air pressure, cross???
Interested in racer's opinions from a setup standpoint.
Thanks
All the grip in the world will not hurt you so long as you are able to roll your tires in the direction you want to go.
More grip equals more speed by being able to carry more momentum and put hp to the track. The ONLY resistance grip offers to rolling a tire straight is when it is compressed rolling over the track and when released from the track. If you are rolling a tire onto the track in the direction you want to go and then releasing it from the track still rolling in the direction you want to go, sure it's offering resistance but the rolling resistance for all practical purposes is meaningless.
Locked down ONLY occurs when you have enough grip to go in the direction you want to go AND two or more tires are fighting with each other for control of direction. You could be fighting with the tires through the steering wheel and you feel the fight. Two or more tires can also be fighting each other for control, with the fight occurring without a winner for control. In that case all you notice is it just seems slow and locked down because it's easy to drive.
Search on here for how to use your staggered solid axle in the most efficient way. If you can use your solid axle in the most efficient way by loading and unloading each rear tire as necessary, your rear tires combined will roll in the direction you want to go. All you need out of your front tires is to hold the front end up, put a little effort into things starting turn in, carrying the front end over to the left and > to help in loading weight onto and off of the rear tires so they will roll in the direction you want to go.
If you can do what I just explained all that is left to do is to match up how you carry the load on the tires, to track conditions. You match up the load carried front to rear, left to right and up and down to match up with track and racing conditions. Track and racing conditions are track speed, banking, the shape of the turns, available grip and available hp.
But no matter what the track conditions, locked down only occurs and is the result of two or more tires fighting for control of direction. Figure out which tires don't want to roll in the direction you want to go, make them roll where you want to go and you will not be locked down. It's that simple. ...
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Here's a quick example of locked down. Lets say you have too much stagger and everyone knows stagger is like how a paper cup rolls. More stagger and it wants to roll more to the left. But even though it wants to roll to the left because of a lot of stagger and the paper cup thing, you have a lot of grip and can make it go where you want to.
Your not loose because the back end in no way is going to slide because you have plenty of grip. You can just put effort into the steering wheel and make it go where you want to go.
That effort and the resulting fighting of the fronts and back for control of direction,eats up hp. And your locked down. You have a whole ton of control, but no rolling speed because the fronts are fighting with the rears. It doesn't have to be all the tires fighting with each other, it could be just the RR having a lot of grip and just fighting your turning because it wants to roll straight. It might even be having the front end all messed up and the two front tires wanting to go in different directions, maybe a ton of toe out, and grip eats hp.
No matter what tire or tires it is, your locked down because you have grip and you have a tire or tires trying to make you go in some direction, you do not want to go. And this is all just IMHO and ain't necessarily right anyway. ...