That’s what we are struggling with at the moment. Just moved over to KA100 and we are already at class weight and are having a lot of issues with the handling on the kart.
What handling problems are you having? And what’s the chassis and setup do you have on it?
Ever since we got the kart we’ve had a lot of issues with kart flexing and binding to much into tight but faster corners and then on long wide left hand turns the kart just oversteers so badly because of the weight on the right-hand side.
We are running a 2018 OTK with KA100.
What’s your setup?
Can you move the seat to the left any?
Extra seat strut on brake side?
What app are you using? It looks useful!
TIA,
Tom
Yes…the seat can be moved left/right or rotated clockwise very slightly. Also if you run varying seat struts, for eg two on brake side and none/1 of engine… that’ll all affect the way it scales without adding lead
What app are you using? It looks useful!
TIA,
Tom
KartBalance on iphone
I found and used the kart balance app after seeing this thread. I had to add 55lbs of lead to my sons kart this year as his first year in sportsman and the app was very helpful!
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Is it a secret? Can you tell us?
Go to your respective App Store on your phone and search “kart balance”. I believe it was $3 to purchase
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@highSRT what were the corner weights? What did you have to do to get there?
Does HRE have a table? Anytime else have a table in the Seattle area?
My lO206 numbers are similar and trying to figure out what to do - if anything.
Thanks!
I would make sure the chassis is mechanically square before moving to corner weights. There are ways of measuring chassis squareness using a couple of very long levels (Harbor Freight) and hubs but it takes a lot fiddling before there is confidence that it’s a good measurement. This is an very old pix of what I used, when chassis tables were rare. Now many teams carry tables with them to the track. You have to make sure everything is square, steering straight, chassis is level is both directions and etc. The right type of hubs is help also.
Thank you for the picture and info. It is very helpful. I’m reasonably sure we can do the level setup, level the scale pads, etc. But I think for the first time (used chassis and I’m new to karting), I’d like to have a shop do it. Good way to get to know them and I’m sure they will see things I have no or about.
I chatted with one of the local shops around Seattle and when I mentioned that the right rear was heavier by 20lbs, they thought that might be the best one can achieve. To their credit, they did ask if the chassis was straight, properly inflated tires, even tires, steering straight, driver wearing proper garb, fuel in tank, etc.
I was looking for data for what people got to for LO206 karts so I had an idea of what is possible. To be honest, their response was ‘meh’ about doing this.
As our first experiment, my friend without having done everything put the kart on scales with me in the seat and in lbs:
Left front 72. Right front 73. Left rear 92. right rear 114.
So, what I’m looking for is how even were people able to get the rear mass? What percentage/actual mass is good enough?
I am assuming you have the engine sitting far to the right and running the clutch outboard. If so, that is about as close as you can get with a 206 on an OTK with no weight on the kart.
You can make some changes to get the 206 better balance across the rear but it takes bending the left seat post over about 1-1.25”, shifting seat over and running longer chain to get clutch inboard and in front of right seat post. You can get the rear within 2-3 lbs when doing so.
I’ve seen karts win both ways. I’m honestly not convinced with the OTK needing to be “perfect”.
How much weight are you adding for your class? Depending on this, you may get it close without the extra work.
Realistically, the front is great side to side and rear within 8-10 would be a send it for me on the OTK.
I would say try to get the total nose weight up 1.5-2%
We’ve scooted the engine over (Odenthal mount) and had the clutch setup inboard. This resulted in ~7 mm of clearance between the chain and the right seat strut. We are hopeful that this is enough clearance. From another thread here, people seemed to think it would be okay. I’ve looked at karts at one of the local tracks (PGP raceway) and some have a similar gap.
The right OTK seat strut is such that it has a short reinforcement strut that is attached to it (forming an upside Y) and a perpendicular chassis piece and so I don’t think we can really bend it. If this is a bad assumption on our part, we are all ears.
I think moving the seat left would help reduce the mass difference between the rear sides… So, per your suggestion, we can bend the left strut. This will result in a gap of an inch and a half or so on the right side. It felt like that would be a large distance between the right side strut and the seat. We would use a solid spacers to take up the gap. My friend has a lathe and mill and so making a delrin spacer with a large surface is very, very doable. We don’t have any experience if the 1.5" spacer would be too long, though.
I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I don’t know if the local track (PSGKA in Spanaway - just South of Seattle) runs both LO206 senior and masters. I believe one is 360lbs and the other is 390lbs.
The mass I quoted above adds up to 351. If we add fuel, racing suit, helmet, and a few other items, we should be comfortably over the 360lbs target.
The fuel should help with increasing the front mass a little, too.
Would love to get your and others thoughts. Thank you.
7mm? Thats massive… I run hust enough that it hits for a few sessions.
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The hot setup for the TonyKart I had was literally that - inboard drive on the clutch so the chain would clear the seat mount, then a nickel laminated into the seat and greased to provide a bearing for the end of the crankshaft to strike in left hand turns.
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This. Give her like 1-2mm clearance while sitting on the stand and it’ll self clearance for race conditions.
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A little electrical tape wrapped around as a skid guard and you’re good for a few weeks.
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Yea hre has a table. But I think you have done the effort. Now it’s time to drive it.
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