Chassis life expectancy

[brian downing]

I was wondering about chassis life expectancy. One of my fellow racers has a garage full of used chassis, many with only a weekend on them. That’s certainly overkill, but there has to be some way to determine when a chassis has gone off, just like any other component.

I know this is going to vary from mfgr to mfgr, as well as depend on tube thickness, chassis material used and type of welds, but in general…0

How often, when, why do you change to a new chassis?

How would you measure and quantify, other than seat of the pants?

[FREDDY SANDOVAL]

Brian
Brand new chassis do sit on the shelf, or box for a long time, before sold, back in the late 90’s to mid 2000’s chassis were very durable

Now adays are manufactured to be a lot softer, and will perform very well, as they flex everywhere, I just don’t know how many years you can get out of new ones now, but my gess would be 5 to 6 years? (if you wanna stay on top with the major racers)
But for the club level racing shouldn’t be a problem at all.

If these chassis you’re talking about at your buddy’s garage are only 1 weekend old, I would say they are still pretty much new, except for the brake system.
What brand of manufacture are they? Tony Kart, CRG, Top Kart, Etc.

I would say if the deal is good JUMP ON IT! Taking in consideration you’ll need to re do all your seals, at least. But as far as fatigue on the frame goes no worries there. What year are they?

[brian downing]

I didn’t mean to imply he was offering them for sale, just curious in general.
I have a late 90’s Margay A/C Synchro, a new ’13 Margay Brava, an ’07 Merlin cadet and a 900mm PTK CRG. They’re all for my son.

[TJ Koyen]

We try and renew the frame at least every year. A kart that is past it’s useful life will stop responding to chassis adjustments and feel the same all the time. That’s not to say it won’t be fast, I’ve seen guys do incredibly well on used equipment. You’ll just lose some of the adjustability and some of the durability perhaps.

A couple good examples would be Ashley Rogero winning and running up front on a national level on Tony Karts that are a couple years old. Also, Tommy Andersen running up front, winning one of the heats and setting fast lap in the toughest field in the country, TaG Senior at the Supernationals, on a Kosmic kart that had 2 seasons of national/regional racing on it. That, for me, completely blows the “karts go off after 2 weekends” myth out of the water.

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