I’ve read that magnesium rims and aluminum rims affect the kart setup differently, but what happens if you were to run both at the same time (i.e. magnesium in the front, aluminum in the rear and vice versa)? Will there be a significant handling disadvantage compared to running just 1 material?
I run at a low grip track with Bridgestone YDS tires and I got a narrower set of rear tires to help with grip. They are of different designs, so I believe they are different materials.
P.S. Does anybody have any information/tips on the Praga Dark 28 chassis? It’s my current chassis and I cannot seem to find anything about it online.
Aluminum rims will transfer heat to the tire differently than magnesium. I’d imagine It would be odd to have different pressures/temps front and back.
I’ve never seen it but that doesn’t mean much. If it’s any help, I’ve only seen aluminum used in rain to get heat in tires faster. Not sure if common in other classes.
I was reading the post and thought it sounds like RA. Looked up and saw you LOL
You can run mag and aluminum. All depends on what you want to do. We do all the time but usually on the Vega. The YDS you’ll want the aluminum as it keeps heat in the tire. Try 6.5” rear wheels
You can reach out to Brandon Steinhauer. He ran one for a while. It was prior to repave though. I’m sure he can get some data for you.
I have a set of rims with the recommended widths all picked out, but my issue is they appear to be two different materials. I can post a picture if needed. If there really isn’t any disadvantage to running both on the kart at the same time, i may not bother exchanging them (might try anyways to be safe). Is there a way to check the material?
I’ve done it before as well, but in reality, the handling effects it produces can be replicated with other adjustments on the kart that don’t affect the consistency and heat of the tires.
If you needed more heat in the tires on one end of the kart, you could run aluminum wheels on that end, but my opinion would be that if you had that situation, there is a bigger fundamental balance issue at play that needs to be solved with actual chassis adjustments.
If I think it’s going to produce the results I want I will run any combination of pressures/wheels/Stagger etc…
Sometimes you will be on tracks that require far more heat to one side or the other due to layout. I have staggered pressures, wheels etc… and found a few tenths over a 15 lap run
Is there a way to confirm if a set of rims are aluminium or magnesium? When I purchased my kart I was given an extra set of rims by the previous owner, however to this day I’m not sure whether they’re magnesium rims or aluminium.
These are the rims as I had received them. Since then, I have spray painted these rims black, but as you can see under the orange the rims are silver, just like regular aluminium wheels (however I think magnesium wheels are also silver under the paint).
Thanks for your replies. @Ronald_Swift looks like you were right in that they’re Freeline wheels; according to an imprint on them they’re CH130. Would you happen to know if they’re magnesium or aluminium? According to this page, the CH130 are Aluminium wheels, while the DF130 are Magnesium, but I can’t find much more information.
Many years ago I won British Open kart championship in Rotax using mag front and aluminium rears, this gave me a better balance and helped the condition of front tyres.
These days, people just follow others like sheep and then wonder why they can’t get a set up. My advice is to test out various options. I have seen axles over the years double in size from 25mm to now 50mm. In fact the front stub axles are now the same diameter as my rear axle was in my very first kart!
The modern karts have so much caster built into them and also the nassau panels and spoilers give extra down force create extra front end grip, so much so that even changing your spoiler height makes a difference.
Every one I see will use 2 extra seat stays to help give the rear the extra bite it needs but are using a wheel designed to get rid of heat build up, like the MXC or AMV.
Test days are exactly that…test things, try something different. I see so many people just driving round, lap after lap with the same set up for the whole day. All they achieve is wearing out the tyres and engine.
