Braking while backing up?

[Blazkowiez]

I don't know how many folks here have a hate-on for the much-maligned band brake. I don't. I do, however recognize the reality that "sufficient" is not always enough. While I will concede the fact that a band brake is probably just fine for a factory, one-wheel-peel Manco, it certainly falls short in some other cases. My kart weighs nearly 300 lbs without me, has a live axle, and maxes out at 45 mph. There is absolutely no way in he// I'd trust my life to a band brake in that case. Would you?

As for the whole hill/ directional thing... Well- Yeah. With skill and experience a good driver could probably spin it 'round and save his butt. Not everybody's that good or experienced. So in my own opinion...

Since the circumstances are a little outside the norm here, I would advise an alternate braking method. (This may require mods to the kart)

I've read and could pull a good dozen+ quotes where builders or rebuilders say something to the effect. "I got rid of the crappy band brake and put something good on the kart".

Aside from that let me just say that these brakes need to be sized for the project. On the Magnum karts we built in the shop we used 2 4" band brakes, the dual engine set-up built can easily do 45 with moderately sized engines. One gentleman paid to have 2 West Bend 820's put on.... thats a fast kart dude. They worked just fine, but there seem to be many poor quality bands floating around like the one from Northern which can spoil faith.

For my money on karts my favorite brake type is internal expanding for several reasons, sadly they tend to be the most expensive type to boot.

The one thing I really want to stress on individual kart builders attempting to assemble projects for the first time is that mechanical disk brakes typically are far less effective than a similarly sized band brake.

Ya know what, as a closing point. If your Carter is live axle then we'll help you each step of the way converting to a hydraulic disk brake. If it isn't live axle currently we can try and give you an idea of how much it might cost to switch over.