Looking at possibly making a switch to OTK for next season. But my cursory research seems to indicate that OTK no longer makes an extended front porch for their karts…
Has anyone adapted another manufacturer’s extended front porch to an OTK? Looking at the design, it looks like it wouldn’t be too difficult to make the Birel porch work… but I’m not sure what the diameter of the OTK front pedal mount tube is.
Does anyone know the OD of the front tube on the OTK that the bronze-ish pedal mount mounts to?
How tall are you? I’m 6 foot 4 and run an otk without issue. I have the longer steering column and that helps with leg clearance and generally better ergonomics. But the longer column isn’t necessary, I wasn’t touching. It’s just more comfortable.
I have been told the CRG Front Porch Kit is pretty universal, even for the OTK. I personally had one custom made for my OTK, because they had changed the posts that protrude from the front hoop to a tapered design and wasn’t sure the universal kit would work.
I’m 6’4", same inseam roughly. I spent the past few seasons running without an extended front porch… just made the transition at the beginning of this year. It made a huge difference in comfort while driving, but the main thing was it allowed me to hold the fuel tank with my legs. Without the extended porch my knees were so high that I couldn’t brace myself effectively… and while I could fit in the kart and drive it, over the course of a final my arms would get absolutely gassed from holding myself up in the kart so much.
Someone locally had adapted a CRG porch kit on their OTK… but I never got a close look at it and I haven’t seem them around in a while. I do remember that they had it welded on, which was something I wanted to avoid.
I can understand not welding it on. Mine is bolt on. The guy that made it flared the ends of the tubing so they would match the OTK design better. I have a 36 in inseam and my knees hit just above the fuel tank. As a result I usually have bruises from bracing myself right around where the steering block holds the steering shaft. In retrospect, I would like to add another 2 inches to my current front porch.
When you guys say “bracing yourself”, do you just meant holding your legs tight? You shouldnt be holding your bodyweight with your legs should you? TJ may have to jump in here and correct me.
I’m gonna guess that means pushing against wheel and kart. Rigid(er) arms bracing by pushing back into seat against steering wheel. Perhaps with our taller friends they also brace against the fuel column with their legs in turns? Very bruise-y.
I think if you’re a real tall guy, your knees tend to flop around a bit and you’re probably scrunched up pretty good and can’t use the heel rests as easily, so maybe taller drivers need to use more upper body strength sometimes to hold themselves stable.
I’m 5’7", I can’t really make an educated comment.
At 6’3", I am finally more qualified than TJ at something!!!
In all seriousness, my legs do flop around a ton. I kinda let them do their thing in the corners and focus on my upperbody. However, on long straights, I hide them behind the driver panel. I didnt know if i was missing some “bracing technique” the other fellow tall guys have figured out.
My legs doing their thing mid corner:
Me on straightaway (not as tucked as they should be, but I couldnt find a good picture):
For reference, I am 6’3". 220 and this is a 2021 OTK with no extended front porch. The most important thing to me was switching to a Beasley seat from Comet Kart Sales. Got my CoG down and my head a lot lower. I find it very comfortable, but like I said, I dont really pay attention to my legs.
I’m not tall, just 6’. But, when I first started x30 I would get horrible knee bruising. My knees would whanging against fuel can. So, I started hugging the fuel thing with my knees.
Eventually I stopped banging my knees against the kart. Not sure why. It remains a mystery to this day.
Without the front porch, my legs are at such an extreme angle that I cannot effectively use the heel stops. Because of that, the majority of my body control came from my upper body… ie: pushing against the steering wheel and just locking my entire arm/torso area to keep it from moving.
With the extended porch, I can use the heel stops much better… and I can also squeeze the middle of the fuel tank with my thighs. I have MUCH better control over my body movement in the kart because my lower body is braced, which allows me to use my upper body to drive the kart instead of hanging on.
I am with James on this one. Before the front porch my knees were level with my hands on the steering wheel. Now with the front porch, my knees can tuck under the steering wheel, but above the tank. I have raised and adjusted my heel stops to be more effective for my longer legs and feet, but through high grip corners find myself bracing against the steering block. Which has a rather large bolt sticking out of it. I am often bruised on the inside of my knees after a race weekend.
I am the last kart in this train and you can see how my right knee is pressed against the steering block. The other two driver’s knees are at the tank level.
I hear ya on the legs flopping around. Mine too are high. I need to wear knee pads to not bruise them on the bolt that adjusts the steering column position haha
I experimented with a couple seats. The nek and then ultimately the tillet t11. The nek was more comfortable and actually helped my stamina A LOT. It came higher on my ribs and supported my upper body so that I didn’t need to hold myself in with my arms. The tillet handled much better…but was lower on the rib. However tillet have rib cage extensions you can bolt in. What I did was mount those rib cage extensions slightly above the top of the seat by about an 1 inch or a smidge less. This effectively rose the top of the seat and gave me the support needed. Helped my upper body fatigue more than you know.
Now I know this might not be the solution to your issue, but it’s certainly easier to try this and see if it helps your fatigue than going through fabricating the front porch.
I wonder if taller drivers would benefit from the rib seats? They are taller and also wrap slightly around upper torso. I’d think a longer torso would find this more comfortable. You could lean back.
