Few questions

[ibrahim123]

Here are some pictures of my kart up to now. As u can see there will be suspension at the back of the kart, and at the A arms which i am not showing now.







Question is. Will my axle bend if i place my bearing on the sides of the metal square at the back? Also Do the wheels have to be parallel or do the back wheels have to be more open? Lastly does it matter if the wheels are the same size (8'') or do the big ones have to be bigger? If yes what difference would it make?

 

[Badot]

Typically, you'll want to have your bearings as close to your wheels as possible. Hitting bumps and rough terrain, and the weight of your cart and rider increase the necessity of this. You also need to take into account the thickness and alloy of your axle (I run 8620 steel with ~100,000 psi yield strength on my trike with a 3/4" axle with a clear foot on either bearing to the wheel, but it only gets run on roads, and only weighs 75 lbs + 170 for me)

As far as the width between the wheels, it's really up to you... most any widths will work, but you need to remember to take steering and stability into account, not to mention if it physically needs to be a certain size... narrowly spaced wheels on the rear axle with a live axle setup would make it easier to turn, and on a one wheel drive will lessen torque steering, but will decrease stability a bit. For the front wheels, the width has a larger effect on stability, esp. when cornering, but I believe this would complicate proper steering geometry... I'd ask someone else about this.

For wheel sizes, same sized wheels in the front and back shouldn't be a problem. I wouldn't really know how much it would affect anything... you have the obvious gearing/weight/ride smoothness effects, but so long as you design the cart having the 8" wheel size in mind you shouldn't have any problems.