camber vs grip level

[William Martin]

Just curious: last time out my left front tire really got chewed up on the inner edge. Thought something must be wrong, so took front end apart & measured everything I could figure out how to measure, and didn’t really find anything major wrong. What I did find was that the spindle vs king pin angle does not match the angle between the king pin & vertical reference, net result is some built in negative camber at “neutral” pill setting. Is this normal for any track condition, or does it demand a high-grip situation to make it work? Last event’s track was anything but high grip… appreciate any insights!

-bill

 

[Ray Lovestead]

Is the track mainly right hand turns?

How does the tread look (does it look like long wavy grains in the tire)?   Does it look or feel like it is understeering?  Too much negative camber can cause some understeer on the exit of the turn – but I find that I always use a little bit of negative camber.

Did you get a chance to check the tire pressures on all 4 tires?

Ray

 

 

 

 

"Karting Expert Since 2015"

[TJ Koyen]

Karts already have negative camber built in so your neutral setting will yield some negative camber. Your tires will always wear more on the inside edge.

Driver/Coach/Wrench : Innovative Performance/Exprit
Owner : Oktane Visual - www.oktanevisual.com
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[William Martin]

Ray Lovestead wrote:

Is the track mainly right hand turns? How does the tread look (does it look like long wavy grains in the tire)? Does it look or feel like it is understeering? Too much negative camber can cause some understeer on the exit of the turn – but I find that I always use a little bit of negative camber. Did you get a chance to check the tire pressures on all 4 tires? Ray

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<div class=”bbp-reply-signature”>“Karting expert since 2014″</div>

Yes, mostly right hand turns. I expected some extra wear on the left front, but not this much… It was sliding a lot more than I liked, due to downhill turns. Maybe need some skiing lessons! Tire pressures were “normal”, whatever that means.

[William Martin]

TJ Koyen wrote:

Karts already have negative camber built in so your neutral setting will yield some negative camber. Your tires will always wear more on the inside edge.

By comparison with some other karts on the same track, this was kind of gross. I was just wondering about the effect of track grip level on what the desired camber setting might be…

 

[Jeff Field]

Sounds like a standard “push” wore out your front tire.  Try some width or other changes to loosen it up next time.

[TJ Koyen]

I’ve always found more negative camber to release the kart better off the corner. If you’ve got too much initial lift, you might want to go to a bit more negative camber to settle rear down on turn-in and help the kart roll more controllably off the corner.

There isn’t a hard and fast rule with camber in regards to track grip levels really.

If you’re getting excess front wear, I’d agree with the above that you’ve got understeer. I’d set your camber to it’s neutral setting, that should work for almost any condition, and I’d go a bit wider on front track width.

Driver/Coach/Wrench : Innovative Performance/Exprit
Owner : Oktane Visual - www.oktanevisual.com
www.facebook.com/oktanevisual
www.instagram.com/oktanevisual

[William Martin]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Will try some adjustments based around neutral camber & see what happens.

 

[Broque Ward]

wait, what are you running for tire pressure you just said they were normal and then said whatever that means… what psi were you running? you said the kart was skidding more then youd like… how do you know your not running too much or too little tire pressure to allow the wear to be caused by tire pressure? or have you played with the tire pressure before adjusting the kart?

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