Tire temps

Since tires are so important, do you guys ever use a pyrometer? I know most dirt guys don’t mess with them in cars because the tires cool to quick on the cool track, but in asphalt tire temps are paramount.

Also, Air or Nitrogen in the tires?
 
Since tires are so important, do you guys ever use a pyrometer? I know most dirt guys don’t mess with them in cars because the tires cool to quick on the cool track, but in asphalt tire temps are paramount.

Also, Air or Nitrogen in the tires?
Air, we've never checked kart tire temps on asphalt or dirt. Now the asphalt big cars always did temps.
 
Used to take tire temperatures, but found it hard to do consistently enough on race days to achieve useful results. Kart tires cool off very quickly if you roll through any dampness, and the tracks I've been at (even paved tracks) usually have damp dirt paths off the track and through the scales. If they hold karts after a race very long, the tires cool off too much before I can get to them. I've had better luck teaching drivers to feel how the tires perform, and how to communicate that to me later in the pits.

Use air in the tires. You usually have to run much longer races than karts normally do before nitrogen shows any real benefits. Particularly on dirt, kart tires do not get up to the manufacturer's preferred best operating temperature unless you really soak them down with prep.
 
What Someone says in #4 above. As an aside, at the dirt track where I was crew chief for a buddy's son, we were able to get to the kart and take tire temps as soon as it came off the track (onto an asphalt apron) to wait in line for the scales. Because we could get to the tires quickly, we sometimes got info that helped us refine the setup, so, if the timing of your tire access is better than Someone's was, tire temps can help - but definitely best if taken with a probe type tire temperature gauge, not a laser temp gauge.
 
What Someone says in #4 above. As an aside, at the dirt track where I was crew chief for a buddy's son, we were able to get to the kart and take tire temps as soon as it came off the track (onto an asphalt apron) to wait in line for the scales. Because we could get to the tires quickly, we sometimes got info that helped us refine the setup, so, if the timing of your tire access is better than Someone's was, tire temps can help - but definitely best if taken with a probe type tire temperature gauge, not a laser temp gauge.

I was also taught tip always use a probe on tires. Maybe temps could be beneficial during tests where I can stop him and walk right on the track and check temps. But, like Earl said, I might be overthinking things a bit for an 8 year old, lol.
 
I responded to your other post, but let me add this here... (maybe a moderator can merge the two threads)
Temps are simply data. Collecting data can be useful, some more useful than others. There's certainly bigger things to focus on with dirt kart racing.
For tire testing that we've done, the manufacturer was really into tire temps.
On higher biting tracks and pavement tracks, I'm somewhat interested.
Like Someone said above, feeling with your bare hand is as accurate as I really need on soft tires and low bite tracks. I'm more interested in a disparity in temps (ie the RR being over worked, etc.) and that can usually be seen visually by tire wear.


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I was also taught tip always use a probe on tires. Maybe temps could be beneficial during tests where I can stop him and walk right on the track and check temps. But, like Earl said, I might be overthinking things a bit for an 8 year old, lol.
Took Temps for a season, sold the probe for a loss.
Much more interested in what they look like, and lap times for each lap compared to the rest of the field
 
Took Temps for a season, sold the probe for a loss.
Much more interested in what they look like, and lap times for each lap compared to the rest of the field
I breifly remember a thread from December-ish where we all went round and round about tire temp collection. If I knew the title I'd link it here. Sure would save us alot of time.
 
Temps will be hard to capture and not entirely accurate due to the cool down laps. If you want to use a less timing critical method of chassis-issue verification, keep your air gauge on your kart stand and measure pressure growth right after you put it on the stand. You want equal pressure growth between the right sides with the left rear either equal to or not far off. Pressure growth is a side effect of heat. You can learn a lot if you have one tire with more pressure growth than the others.
 
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