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I have the Harbor Freight flatbed trailer with 12″ wheels, and it certainly gets the job done if you’re not afraid to turn some wrenches (better not be if you’re looking at karting!). I decked it with 1/2″ plywood (should’ve used 3/4″) and built up two rails out of 2×4 to lift the kart above the fenders. I wonder if the same trailer with smaller wheels also has shorter fenders…
Of course, I had to put a hitch and trailer wiring on the Mazda6 wagon, and after a friendly City inspector said I can’t park the trailer on an unused section of my driveway, I had to get a little clever about storing it. But it all came down to, “how badly do I want a kart?” Badly enough, it looks like… 🙂
The Harbor Freight trailers can be folded and stood on end, but that’s best done with a second pair of hands available, and you’d feel better tying the top of the folded trailer to something in the off chance those little plastic casters decide to give up. Still, it’s a heck of a trailer for the money ($204 on sale AND with a 15% coupon).
@Kurt Freiburg wrote:
Garrick – I would think that as a crit racer you have a unique perspective on the safety discussion, eh?
I’ve been agonizing over whether to chime in on that discussion. I’ve been learning a lot from it, but I don’t want to make a post there unless I have something of value to say.
Aw, heck… I’ll start a different thread instead of putting something here. Stay tuned.
@joescal wrote:
Good luck on determining anything.
Cool footage nonetheless.
Reminds me that I need to get more than a handful of laps of following someone knowledgeable in close quarters before venturing into Colorado’s frenetic club racing scene… 😆
The deeper the holes, the more usable rubber thickness you have left.
No hole(s) = Well, I suppose we should all experience driving on the cords, right? 🙂Let’s see how the NWS weekend forecast as of Sunday evening holds up… :loony:
Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 55.
Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 35.
Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 63.
Thanks to Doug and the other responders who gave useful info.
Now I’m just scratching my head over having a K22 needle. Was that ever stock for the FR125? Since I have a VHSB 34 “QD” carb, it looks like I could just swap needles if I ever wanted to do RMax.
Any guidance for would-be spectators, especially if one was looking to drop in for a short time? Is our best bet to bring a camping chair and watch from the hill? If the turnout is truly massive, would there be “overflow parking” along Potomac or Otero?
Thanks,
The Mychron3 Basic unit takes a different cable than Mychron3 Plus or Gold. I didn’t know the physical difference between the cables but was pleased to see the Plus/Gold cable is cheaper… 😆
@jj wrote:
Garri(c)k, I am an EE with a lot of mechanical and aerodynamic experience. While the primarly relation is linear, karts have high drag aerodynamically… Regardless of the math, weight has a huge factor on acceleration.
… And I’m a PE Mechanical who did terribly in the one Circuits class I had to take. 😳
What you said originally was, “Acceleration is related to the square of the weight.” I still contend that statement justifies the :bs: flag. Now I think you’re trying to equate increased weight with increased aero drag. That’s not unreasonable. However, even if you assume a heavier driver has more frontal area (which might not be true when comparing a squat, compact driver with a tall, lanky one), the effect of weight is nowhere close to a second-order function. Drag is proportional to frontal area (to the first power), and frontal area does not increase with the square of volume (in the case of an upright cylinder, doubling weight or volume by making the cylinder “fatter” increases frontal area by 41%).
OK, I’ll hop off the soapbox now (and the sound of my club hitting the dead horse ceases). In the end, when you consider ALL of the effects of decreased mass: Increased acceleration, decreased tire loading, decreased polar moment of intertia (possibly), improved transient response, less heat generated by the brakes for a given speed change, etc., etc., the reason for designating a minimum weight is clear. But it’s about much, much more than simply straight-line acceleration.
Check out Tillett’s web site: http://tillett.co.uk
Dimensions here: http://tillett.co.uk/PDF/dimensions2007.pdf
I have a T8 1/4 pad XL that will be for sale once I find a replacement… Drop me a note if you’re interested.
@jj wrote:
Acceleration is related to the square of the weight.
F = ma, or a = F/m = Fg/(weight). It’s an inverse relationship, but there’s no squared term. In other words, acceleration is proportional to the reciprocal of the weight, not to the reciprocal of the square of the weight. OK, F isn’t exactly constant over a range of RPMs, but you’re still integrating over the same power curve.
Aero drag increases with the square of the airspeed, but that’s not the same thing (although the drag does counteract the engine output to decrease the force F available for acceleration). Yes, I’m a Mechanical Engineer, thanks for asking. :loony:
I’m still having trouble wrapping my brain around the notion that FWB doesn’t matter from a lap-time perspective, but then again I’m still at the “brakes too much, just happy to get back to the pits under his own power” phase. 😳
@Dave wrote:
It may be that one who races has to go through.
If I’m reading you correctly, then yes, you’re right. I’m going through all that myself, so I offer a fellow n00b’s perspective.
If anything, getting into karting has been waaaaay esier than getting into bike racing… Shortcomings here are addressed by technical tweaks, money, and practice, bypassing the immense physical suffering of hanging on to the tail end of the lead echelon on two wheels.
I consider the process of “learning the ropes” as an apprenticeship… One doesn’t magically absorb the entire body of knowledge of a new trade; one must have the desire to ply that trade with a minimum of knowledge, and then maintain that desire even as the “dirty work” of the trade becomes apparent while working under people who know much more than you do.
This may be lost on the younger generation today… They see The Matrix as Keanu Reeves gets plugged in to a computer and, 3 seconds later, utters those immortal words: “I know Kung-Fu.”
In any case, your question is a fair one, but the solution is the same as it was before the Internet age… Get out to the track, practice, ask questions, and in some cases have a completely busted day because of a technical glitch or forgotten part. No real shortcuts there. “If it was easy, then everybody would do it.” [/soapbox]
That’s what I figured. Can anyone confirm, though, that after you turn the gauge on, it starts timing as soon as it sees a beacon?
@Angie MacEwen wrote:
ps. sorry you will miss tonight. Everything will be relayed here, though…. maybe I will bring the camera, too!
Thanks! 8)
Woo hoo! Now I just need to find and dig out my trailer.
How are conditions off-track? Or is it like “bumper bowling” where they fill up the gutters for the kiddies? 😆
@Troy Howell wrote:
Have a pro driver like Alan run the test on a tight track that requires some good braking and do it scientifically.
Or, have someone drive rear-only and FWB karts back-to-back, same weight, with an accelerometer on board. I have a Vericom VC3000 at work, now if I can only figure out how to mount it rigidly and level…
I’ll echo an earlier post and say FWB shouldn’t be an “option.” Either require them or don’t. In my cycling days, I raced Friday nights at the velodrome in Houston. On the track, you have a single fixed gear (think direct drive) and no brakes. That thought horrifies many casual observers, but as long as everyone had the same configuration, it was actually quite safe even with fields of 30 or more riders thundering around a tight banked oval at 30+ mph…
The qualifier that keeps coming up is weight. “Try running at 400lbs +.” Fine. Have the TAG Masters run FWB, all lighter TAG classes rear-only.
