UK Karting - Notice Board (General Karting) : Re: building chassis

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Re: building chassis
Posted by 'SimonS' on 14 Aug 2009 @ 09:34

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SimonSJoined: December 2004
Total Posts: 4
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The big cost in building a chassis commercially is teh cost of labour (or its replacement, CNC machines)

If you aren't paying for labour, then a chassis is only 10 metres of 32mm steel tube and some welding.

You can even bend the tube by hand, if you are good, though a proper bending machine makes life a lot easier. The outer chassis ring has to be a continuous tube, not cut as sections and welded / brazed together and everything else is welded on to that.

Looking at the various karts, one of the most innovative that I have seen is the TechnoKart, with its separation of caster and camber adjustment, and the sleevable and removable stub axles. Various drivers seem to do OK on it, but I don't suppose it has the selling power of having won championships.

As has been said before, too much seems to be made of the championship winners, often it seems the result of a manufacturer cynically giving free chassis to a very good driver (or the works team) and selling on the back of that drivers efforts. Another wy of looking at it might be that far more drivers fail with the popular chassis than do with the less well sold ones.

So what does one want to see on a chassis.
My wish list might include:

Flexibility tuned to the drivers weight, a heavy driver requires a different chassis from a light one.

Separate caster / camber adjustment

A range of front and rear torsion bars, from very stiff to very flexible (yes I know about flattened tubes and rotating them)

Chassis bumps. sacrificial bits on the bottom of the chassis.

Manufacturer's information on what the various settings are meant to do. (eg: One Chassis manufacturer has a fourth rail insert or mid torsion bar, but privately says that they have never used it, except in testing. It's there because people expect it to be there and will buy something else if it isn't. Other chassis users swear by the fourth rail.)

Do we need adjustable ride height, front and rear?

Adjustable seating?

Anything else?

Message Thread:

building chassis by 'dcmotorsports' (12 Aug 2009 @ 19:12)

Re: building chassis by 'QuickOldTimer' (12 Aug 2009 @ 22:45)

Re: building chassis by 'SteveGraves' (12 Aug 2009 @ 23:33)

Well QOT and Steve... by 'Attack2001' (12 Aug 2009 @ 23:41)

Re: Well QOT and Steve... by 'blobslosak' (12 Aug 2009 @ 23:53)

Re: Well QOT and Steve... by 'QuickOldTimer' (12 Aug 2009 @ 23:58)

Ask these people..... by 'dth07' (13 Aug 2009 @ 8:48)

Re: building chassis by 'dcmotorsports' (13 Aug 2009 @ 9:35)

Re: building chassis by 'John' (13 Aug 2009 @ 10:18)

Re: building chassis by 'Aztech' (13 Aug 2009 @ 10:33)

Re: building chassis by 'Andrewrr' (13 Aug 2009 @ 10:01)

Re: building chassis by 'SimonS' (13 Aug 2009 @ 10:20)

Re: building chassis by 'dcmotorsports' (13 Aug 2009 @ 14:28)

Re: building chassis by 'John' (13 Aug 2009 @ 16:47)

Re: building chassis by 'dcmotorsports' (13 Aug 2009 @ 18:36)

Re: building chassis by 'John' (13 Aug 2009 @ 18:51)

Re: building chassis by 'dcmotorsports' (13 Aug 2009 @ 19:25)

Re: building chassis by 'stephenc47' (13 Aug 2009 @ 21:41)

Re: building chassis by 'Aztech' (13 Aug 2009 @ 23:50)

Re: building chassis by 'michaelg36' (14 Aug 2009 @ 3:25)

Re: building chassis by 'henrycutts' (14 Aug 2009 @ 8:47)

Re: building chassis by 'detective' (14 Aug 2009 @ 9:04)

Re: building chassis by 'dcmotorsports' (14 Aug 2009 @ 9:21)

Re: building chassis by 'michaelg36' (15 Aug 2009 @ 19:54)

Re: building chassis by 'SimonS' << You are here!

Re: building chassis by 'BiPed' (14 Aug 2009 @ 16:44)

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