Tyre wear gearbox karts

More thoughts despite fairly worn tires?.. (Note the same graining front and back despite fronts having much more tire left)

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Drop 1lb cold and go again.

Rears are thoroughly cooked. Angled graining = pure sliding

Fronts are cooked too, but not as bad. Graining and outer edge build-up = understeer

My thought is either the kart won’t turn or you’re over-driving the entry, and then the kart snaps to oversteer and just lights the rear tires up.

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Back again. This is with some Dunlop DFH option tires instead of the usual Vega XM prime tires.

tire1 tire2

Slight feathering on the inner shoulder = slight slide but not terrible. Rear end might be a touch too soft? Not sure what to make of the wear on the outer edge. Looks like the tire is shredding a bit?

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I’d say still sliding a little in the back but i’m at 1391mm already so not sure if I want to go much narrower… As for every tire wearing away on the inside edge i’m at a bit of a loss. What do you think TJ? Comparing them to my fathers Rotax tires my inside edges are heavily worn in comparison.

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I wouldn’t go narrower on rear track on a shifter, you’re right. Might be time for an axle change. Right now it looks like the rear is just flexing and squatting which is what is wearing the inside edge. I might try going stiffer on the axle. If you don’t have a stiffer axle, longer hubs can also be a quick adjustment to check if that’s the right direction.

I’ll try long hubs next time as iv’e got a set.

It seems odd though cause the seat is already higher than factory standard and the axle is already 2nd hardest in the range. Would it be worth changing the rear height from low to medium despite low also being a factory standard?

Cheers TJ

Raising the rear ride height will give basically the same feel as raising the seat, so it could be worth a shot. But the axle might fix it too. I would go axle first because it’s a more normal change. Get that seat up there too high and you might get the whole kart out of the tuning window.

If the axle doesn’t help, I would venture to guess it could be a driving thing. How does the kart physically feel on track at entry -> apex -> exit?

Iv’e been widening out the front because after driving my dad’s mad croc I realised my front end was not even close to as nice feeling which helped remove some correction from entry.

Apex I feel is where the corner is decided in terms of slide through exit. If it doesn’t slide from the apex it’ll be fine all the way through but if it slides through the apex the rest of the corner is ruined.

I’ve been playing with how early and how much throttle iv’e been applying last few times iv’e gone to the track