Gokart wheel bearings and pipe?

[ezcome-ezgo]

Oh just fill it with bearings, but make sure the 2 outside ones are shouldered/flanged. Why not? Not necessary, but no harm done. The ideal solution is flanged (or grooved for snap ring) tapered roller bearings that can deal with the side loads like Denny deals with cats.

 

[ezcome-ezgo]

Revised doodle:

 

[Master Hack]

Actually, you might be surprised at how much thrust (side) load a radial bearing can take.
There are bearings that have a snap ring groove on the OD. The bearing number would be followed by the suffix N.
The only issue with filling the hub with bearings is the height of the bearing stack has to match the depth of the hub exactly. Thats something the hub manufacturer probably didn’t consider important.

 

[madprofessor]

Simplicity is my favorite mistress for bearings, hence I like flanged bearings. Note that the only time the torque of a nut or the side loading on a bearing is a problem factor is when there's nothing keeping the bearing from moving laterally on the axle (like a flange). That's where some good double-split locking collars on both sides (if no nut on one side) of the hub shine brightly.
A flanged bearing will torque down tight to a hub without any force on the rotating bearing itself, as the flange-to-hub connection takes all of the torque. The bearing itself is actually "floating" on the axle, has no compression or twisting force on it, and the flange and hub turn together as one unit. The problem would only be if there was a spacer going through the hub in-between the bearings, allowing a nut to torque down on that spacer and both bearings together.
Did I say that right? Suddenly unable to remember what I did on last spindles.

 

[Master Hack]

Well, After reading that a couple of times... I'm not sure!

In this image the flanged bearings are held in place by the flange on the OD. The inner races of the bearing are free floating. Assuming the axle has stop of some sort on the left, and a nut on the right, there will be preload applied to the inner races as they get pulled together. Too much preload will lock the bearing up. Radial bearings of this type are most happy with little to no preload applied. If there were nothing on the axle to limit how far the inner races can move together, then preload is determined only by the guy (or girl) with the wrench on the nut.
In the drawing below the bearings are held in place by the axle and hub and tightning on the axle nut will only apply as much preload as the setup allows, regardless of how much torque is applied to the nut.
The same thing can be accomplished by putting a tube on the axle (the size of the inner race only). Flanged bearings or straight radial bearings would be the same, if the hub had a shoulder the same depth as the bearing width, on both ends.
You can see the effect of preload. as it changes the contact angle of the balls. None of this stuff applies to taper roller bearings, BTW.

If yer suffering form insomnia, let me know I can post up some tech BS that'll knock ya right out!

 

[ezcome-ezgo]

What could go wrong?

 

[Master Hack]

There is always one of those lurking somewhere!

 

[Karttekk]

Pretty sure this is what you're talking about. There SHOULD be a spanner in between the bearings but I've sold karts with them installed and some without them installed & never had an issue. The spanner will keep any outside pressure from stressing the bearings.

 

[Rymax]

I recognize this is an older post, but wanted to throw my 2 cents in. The biggest issues I have with filling it with bearings that nobody seemed to mention, is each time a bearing is added, friction is added. Every additional ball in every addtional bearing...adds friction. You do NOT want that much friction...THAT is the biggest reason NOT to fill it with bearings.