Dialing in weight distribution is crucial in all forms of motorsports, also in karting. Yes i've never seen any amateur taking care of this, nor any detailed guide or dedicated tool for it.
You will always find someone saying that a particular practice or device is useless, and that they have been doing this for many years so they know better. Particularly, the more science or engineering define something as a best practice, the more Sunday's mechanics will be skeptical about it. Well... no offense that is exactly the kind of people you want to stay away from. They have been doing the same for many years with no curiosity to learn something new or to improve, it means the last race they won was many years ago.
Motorsport is getting more expensive as we speak unfortunately, and there is no chance you can afford to waste.
The stopwatch never lies, but, unless you are a godlike talent like Senna, you cannot feel such things (heck, not even him could when he was learning).
When you are learning and driving in your karting days, you won't probably notice the difference if you move your radiator a couple centimeters (an inch) forward, or mounted a ballast block in a slightly different place. The stop watch will notice. And a few thousandths of a second per lap, in a tight competitive race can be the difference between a chance at winning or being out of the podium. Factor in this, plus maybe something else you overlooked in setting up your machine, and you will struggle to enter top five. Losing out to potentially less talented drivers with better mechanical preparation. Frustrating.
That is why it's crucial to balance your chassis with you on the seat before everything else, as a perfect base point to make any setup adjustment. Ideally you should balance the weight on a neutral setup, and only then, start adjusting the setup to your likes, always following the golden rule of making a change, testing it with tires in the temp window and then deciding, always with an eye on the stopwatch. Sometimes what feels slower to you ends up being your new personal best.
Getting the chassis as balanced and consistent as possible across front, rear and sides is the basic goal, so you should try to place the components and ballast accordingly, then hop into the seat and check the overall weight with the driver included, dressed with all the overalls and helmet.
Keep in mind that for obvious reasons, the kart will always have a front to rear weight ratio of 40/45%-60/55% and a left to right ratio that varies based on the engine and radiator (if any) you have installed.
Pro tip: If possible at this stage you should place all the components as temporarily as possible with tape, zipties etc. or tighten bolts loosely as the next step is what actually solidifies the balance of your chassis (you don't really want to poke a hole in a seat if it's not necessary).
After having balanced out everything, the key parameter to look at is the cross-weight front left to rear right and front right to rear left.
This is the most important parameter to look after as it expresses the way the weight transfer will happen and dictates the overall handling of the go kart and how aggressively it turns left or right. You should tune it as neutral as possible for neutral behavior and equal number and equal type of of turns left and right in a circuit, or slightly in favor of the dominant type of corner if you can handle differences between left and right turning. It depends a lot on your driving style and what the stopwatch ultimately says.
If you are above 52% and below 48% something is definitely off and you will feel the kart driving in different ways between left and right corners.
A lot of time there are situations where the driver complains about the handling difference between left and right turning behavior of the chassis, and they enter in a loop of setup changes that never solves the problem.
"Ok all clear, but how do I do this?" you might think. Well there are different ways, but all of them lead to scales.
I have seen people using 4 bodyweight scales, set them on a leveled surface and then placing them under the wheels. Works? Possibly. It depends on how good quality and consistent are the scales, and also it requires you to calculate the weight distribution manually, or have a spreadsheet ready and input all the values. It's the cheapest method for sure, considering reliable bodyscales start at around 50$, and you need 4. But what if you are looking for a good professional solution that doesn't cost a lot more than that?
The vehicle scales on the market are mostly meant for bigger and heavier vehicles, and they are expensive.
What is good for karting then?
We have a scale that is specific for karting, it's considerably cheaper compared to all the other solutions on the market, it's 100% engineered and made in Switzerland (except the electronic components obviously) and it solves the weight distribution setting issue very quickly and effectively.
The SDP kart scale gives you total weight, weight distribution per corner and side, cross weight and live COG (Center Of Gravity).
All of this in a compact and light package, on a color touchscreen that displays the UI in 4 languages and in both metric and imperial units, and calibrated with precision weight.
The SDP way of thinking is: "How can we do this the best and most effective way?". This has allowed us to create the perfect solution with a product that is:
- Immediately ready
- Gives all the information you need on the spot
- Doesn't give you any battery charging, app downloading/updating or connections headache
- Allows you to measure on the wheels and on the hubs as well
That is why we have developed it as a low power consumption, wired solution with a color touchscreen that does everything on the spot.
You don't have to download any app, connect your phone wirelessly with the scale plates or charge any battery.
Imagine having to use the scale every once in a while to balance chassis or even worse in a tight time squeeze during a race weekend... And when you pull it out, the battery is dead and needs to be recharged, or the wireless connection doesn't work very well with the phone model you own, or the app needs to be updated before using it and maybe the internet connection at the racetrack is not good, or the app is no longer compatible and supported by the manufacturer vs pulling the scale out, connecting 4 wires, turning it on, and getting the job done in a breeze, with your units and language setting already saved from the last usage.
It allows you to place the kart on the plates on it's wheels, blocking the rears with simple wedges and allows you to apply some steering to check how the COG and weight distribution shifts when steering, as well as to use the included hub stands to measure static weight distribution, ( cannot apply steering on the stands ) which is ideal for the initial chassis setup.
Take a look at the scale HERE
In this page you will find all the specs, instructions and video tutorials for the scale.
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