Traded a pellet gun for this...

[Half-breeder]

Yesterday I got my set of tires in from Amazon... 16.5x6.5-8. In the past almost 2 yrs Ive gone through a set of 2 ply (lasted 5-6mths) and this last set, were 4 ply tires. This new set are a 6 ply tire, and let me tell you...

First thing I noticed bout the 6 ply were the weight. These have got some SUPER stiff walls, n probably weight 10lbs each. Straight outta the box I could practically stand on em (no air/rim) w/out them collapsing. Today, I mounted em up n took her for a run. First off, the tires have a max air pressure of 70PSI and are rated to 800lbs each... I put in 50lbs. The tires have SO many of those lil fallangy thingy's that stick out off new tires. They are so numerous and compacted that as I took the maiden drive, I noticed my rearend 'felt' like I was driving w/ a loose hub. I pulled over, examined everything... nothing. Drove back, same feel... hmm. So, I sat and started to hypothetically guesstimate the reason the rearend felt loose. The only thing that i came up w/ were the fallangys were, at a certain speed, lifting my kart/wheels, off the ground at probably round 40mph.

Ill drift the wheels tomorrow to get the fallangys off, aswell as see if my theory of a 'harder' tire making drifting easier... and if so, at what cost to handling

 

[Half-breeder]

Tomorrow I am planning on starting on a/the frontend redesign...

The pic shows that the tierods are perpendicular to both the spindle arms and steering arm... however, the mental picture shows that the spindles will be much further forward than the pic shows (everything associated w/ green line moved forward more) and the angle, of the tierods, will not be perpendicular to either. I have 'yet' to figure out weather or not I need to relocate the angle of the spindle arms (where the tierods connect).

I know that the spindle arms and the steering arm 'should' be at a 90* to the tierods, however I am 'thinking' that due to my moving the front axle axis forward, 1 if not both wont be perpendicular to the other. Im also wondering if I make the spindle arms a 90* to the tierods and leave the steering at a non-rite angle, if it will effect steering throw/Ackermann?

I have plans on angling the spindle bracket forwards (not caster angle) to compensate for arm clearance... seeing as that they are 'normally' the throw 'stop' for steering, Im hoping for a sharper turning radius than what Im envisioning... key word 'hoping'.

...I will also be stretching the frame ~3" aswell... front of seat, forward, length.

 

[Half-breeder]

So far...

Frontend mockup...

 

[landuse]

You don't mess around. When you say you are going to do something you do it right away.

Nice going

 

[Half-breeder]

You don't mess around. When you say you are going to do something you do it right away.

Nice going

When you work the hours I do, days are kinda boring when everyone else is at work. No sense in letting time pass by... especially when there's a possibility of snow!!!

TyTy...


All thats is missing is paint... I didnt get around to stretching it today (maybe next week)...

 

[Poboy kartman]

Yeah.....the whole world has it wrong!

I'm not kidding......there aren't enough night time jobs.

Why shut down the roads to fix them in rush hour and let them sit there when there's no one driving on them????

We ought to all work at least part of our jobs at night.....if you think about it...daylight lets us do whatever we want to....and most people give up 8 hours of that just to make money.....in places that are artificially lit ....??????

 

[Half-breeder]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucu1kIUBhp8&feature=youtu.be

 

[Denny]

Is it too late to get the pellet gun back?
No, seriously the kart looks real good!

Denny

 

[Poboy kartman]

Is it too late to get the pellet gun back?
No, seriously the kart looks real good!

Denny

You don't know.....he had one bad azz pellet gun....but he's gotten too shaky to take advantage of it's sniper like ability....so....now he's got a bad azz kart....I'd be happy with either!!!!

 

[Half-breeder]

Yea... I'm not as bad as my mom... she can shake paint just by holding it... but i now shake bad enough that my handwriting is quite atrocious!

 

[Half-breeder]

These are afew things that I have verified, w/ the last fabrication...

Lowering/widening/advancing the frontend has alleviated afew slight issues that I had. Some would dismiss the issues as, "it's a go kart...!", but even being a go kart, there are things that 'can' be done to change the ride. I had a slight issue w/ control at high speeds... the frontend would tend to bounce and knock me astray of a straight line path. Widening, gave the frame the ability to cover a wider path of travel, which inturn gave the control that the previous setup lacked.

Another thing that was a slight issue was turn control. Widening the front helped in the 'control' of a turn... however, the lessened caster (15* ~ 13*) that I did allowed the rear to not lift as high, which in turn, allowed a more consistent pattern in a turn vs the slightly erratic over turn, like a drift car... for 'this' frame/setup.

The Ackermann doesnt seem to be affected by the widening and advancing of the front... even though by math, it 'should' be. Im gonna mockup a 'mathematically correct' Ackermann plate, to see if it makes things any different... probably when I stretch the front.

The 13" wheels that I have planned on getting to drift, will lower the rear 1.5"~1.75". Did a rough guesstimate of geometry, and after the stretching of the front and the 13" wheels are on, only seeing a 1*~1.5* gain in caster, which'll only equate to approx. 1/8" raise in the rear, in a turn... if that. But the smaller wheels will gain more torque to break traction easier, which 'should' compensate for the +/-caster* in a drift, and the springs that I use inplace of wheel spacers allows the rear to travel slightly higher than w/out.

The proof is in the pudding... as the vid shows, she 'can' drift on dry pavement w/ the 16" wheels... but Im taking into factor that the tires are a 6ply (harder/firmer) tire when a normal kart tire is a 2-4ply (softer/grabby). Plus it was ~40*F which cold, tends to toughen a tire further. The whole kart and myself are less than 300lbs total (~290lbs), and Im familiar enough w/ the terrain to know where the dips are to ease into a drift (plus knowing 'how' to drift, helps).

... and one other thing that is apparent to me is, it just plain "looks" WAY kewler than that factory knuby setup!!!!!!


And for those that were curious bout the tubing I used and how I got the bends... I took the framework of the roll cage I 'was' gonna use on a previous build, and cut the appropriate sections out...

 

[Half-breeder]

Yesturday, I kicked on the heater n painted in the shed... . I let it bake over night. Put her all back together today...

Got clocked in at 52mph by a city cop, in the neighborhood (not there because of me). He took picks and planned on tellin his buddies at the station bout it/me... (FREE advertisement!). Asked how much Id part w/ it for... told him 600$ and I watched him cringe >.<. Hehe...

 

[Tomahawk27]

Very nice. I still love that front end fabrication.

 

[Half-breeder]

It finally has gotten dry/warm enough to finish up the minor visuals/bugs...

I relocated the pedals to the bumper axis... by doin this, it added the 3"s I was originally going to stretch the frame. I no longer feel a need to stretch the frame. I had to buy new tires for the front, due to a miscalculation, in the past, of alignment. I had forgot to compensate measurement points to coincide w/ the adjusted caster.

In the past few days of pushing my limits of test driving, to getting her to drift further, I found that the frame has a bit too much flex/twist flexing. I dont forsee an issue if I stop trying to drift... but seeing as that Im building her strictly for the ability for pavement drifting... Im gonna have to remedy the action. I removed a section of piping from another kart. The added framing will reinforce any rear flexing due to torque, and should all but eliminate the twisting movement.

Near future plans...
A.- Relocate rear axle back ~5"-6".
B.- Reinforce frame for more rigidity.
C.- Get 13"wheels for the rear.

Attachments are just a guesstimated mockup...

 

[Half-breeder]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KquYzBAOEmg&feature=youtu.be

 

[Half-breeder]

Today, I swung by my father's place to look at a new pellet gun he had gotten, and he wanted pointers towards upgrading it to get a closer pattern... but mainly was there to let him give the kart a spin... he did pretty good for a 70+y/o guy that just had surgery done last week or so...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rifeN7NAj_0&feature=youtu.be

 

[2SlickNick]

Awesome! Good for him.