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Wheel alignment for a Billy Kart

Motorsport Wheel Alignment Fundamentals

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Discussion and questions related to the course Motorsport Wheel Alignment Fundamentals

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OK. slightly off topic I know. My son is competing with his Scout group in the Billy Kart challenge. Specs attached, but its a wooden cart where the entire front axle pivots from the centre to steer. 260mm pneumatic wheels, downhill gravity powered on a dirt track. The course is mostly straight with a few obstacles to steer around.

Was hoping for some informed opinions on camber and toe. I know a little toe out and negative camber (front) and negative camber and zero toe (rear) is a good start for a little engine go-kart. But for gravity powered and the whole-front-axle pivot steering I'm not sure if those rules hold.

I think having tyre pressure as high as possible makes sense. Not sure how wide a tyre make sense - thin has less rolling resistance but too think might bury itself if the surface is soft.

OK brains trust. Opinions welcomed!

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  • billy-kart-challenge-2015-billy-kart-specifications-with-photograph-examples-00-1-v2.pdf
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Rolling resistance is going to be paramount, so running the wheels vertically and straight - no toe in or out, and no camber - is going to be best. A possible, but unlikely, exception may be if the turns apply enough lateral force to pop the tyre off the rim.

Making sure the wheel bearings - whether rolling element or plain - are clean and lightly lubricated is going to be important.

Tyre pressures, as you noted, would normally be high - are you able to find out what surface they will be run on?

With the foot 'brakes', do they have to be free to drag, or can light springs be used to hold them off the track surface, or maybe deform the hinges slightly for more resistance, so they can be easily applied but, beforehand, there's enough resistance to hold them up and off the track surface?

I hope your son has a lot of fun, I did as a kid with our karts, made from old fish crates - and without brakes... Had some good crashes but nothing more than missing skin and a few bruises.

Looking at the pics I'm not seeing a way to adjust camber and wheels will be straight up, but perhaps I'm just missing it.

Zero toe to reduce drag sounds good to me.

I was going to make a steel axle that bolts to the wooden front beam/axle. Two short stub axles welded to a flat bar. I could set the camber/toe when i welded them to some fixed angle, but they wouldn't be adjustable after that.

I like the springs idea to hold the brakes off the ground.

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