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First off... Congratulations on your purchase of the Ultramax
Racing Chassis! And welcome to the Owners & Setup Area of
the Ultramax website.
We'll help you get started off with your chassis the right way.
Even if you are an experienced racer, you should be able to
go even faster! |
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Owners
Manual Page 4:
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With the hardest part of mounting the body behind you,
we can quickly locate the left side panel and move on
in our setup process. Place the left side panel up to
the nose and space it up with your 1" spacer as
done before. Again, check the joint to see that it fits
well and then clamp the panel and nose together. Now,
step back and look at the side panel to see if it is
square with the chassis from front to rear. Be careful
to check the clearance from the left rear rim making
sure that the rim is no farther than 1" inside
the side panel in order to comply with WKA rules.
Once the above has been done, move the left
side nerf bar in or out if necessary to
get it to fit flush against the side panel.
With this done, you can now mark and drill
each hole, one at a time, placing a bolt
and nut through after each hole is drilled.
When all four holes have been drilled, tighten
each nut and bolt down and remove your 1"
spacer.
When your
body is fit and secure, it should look similar
to the body in the picture above. Now that
we have finished hanging the body, we can
move on to getting your new kart ready for
the race weekend ahead!
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6
– Preparing For Race Day
With all of your necessary preparation
work done to your new Ultramax Chassis we are now ready to do
the necessary setup work to get you ready for the race weekend
ahead. The following section will be a generalized discussion
of the pre-race setup process. Because there are so many different
track types and conditions we will not discuss specific setup
numbers, rather, a general set of parameters for each setup
item and a systematic approach to your pre-race setup process.
Step 1 – Tire Positioning
Your chassis should now have its
caster, Ackerman and seat positioning set from the previous
sections above. Now all we have to do is get an engine on there,
pick out the right starting four tires and get it on the scale
plate. Because of the unending variations in possible track
types and conditions, we will not discuss specific types of
tires to run and when to run them. We will only discuss their
positioning on the kart. Tire positioning is a very critical
aspect of chassis performance since they transfer the chassis
information to the track and visa-versa. For that reason, we
recommend leaving the positioning of your tires at the factory
recommended settings that we are getting ready to list. There
will be times where moving a tire slightly in or out here or
there may help you, but as we have stated before, you will generally
be better off if you run these recommended settings as the incorrect
positioning of your tires can negate any chance of optimum chassis
performance.
We recommend running the
right rear, right front and left front a ¼" off of
the frame or spindle at all times. The left rear is where any
moving in or out will generally occur depending on track conditions
and tire selections. For dirt, we have found that in almost
all cases a 6.00 on the left rear is the way to go. As we have
stated before, there may be times where this is not the case
however, by keeping this constant you eliminate certain variables
that can greatly hinder your on track performance. As a starting
placement for the left rear, we recommend running a rear tread
width (measured from outside of the right rear tread patch to
the outside of the left rear tread patch) on dirt of 38 ¾"
and on pavement, 39 ¼". Any time you change from one
left rear tire to another, always recheck this measurement and
move the left rear in or out to regain this measurement.
Lastly concerning tires,
we recommending running no less than ¾" of rear stagger
and no more than 1 3/8". With front stagger we recommend
running no less than 1" and no more than 1 ¾".
Again we stress that these parameters are merely a gauge to
work off of. By no means will they work for every track condition
in the country. However, we feel that if you stay within these
parameters you are running a reasonable amount of stagger that
should allow you to be fast at most any track.
Step 2 – Setting
Your Camber
Now that the tires and engine are
on the kart, we are ready to get your chassis on the scales!
The first step once the chassis is on the scales is to check
the camber and get it roughed in. Some drivers like to check
camber with the driver in the kart and others like to check
it with the driver out. There really is no right or wrong way
to do this, only a consistent way. In other words, whichever
way you choose to check it, check it that way every time you
check the camber. With that said, lets discuss some numbers.
Right front camber can be
related to how much the kart is being loaded by the given track
conditions. If the track is very fast and is producing a lot
of bite, then the right front tread patch will be deflecting
quite a bit and therefore will need more negative camber in
it. If the track is not biting very hard then likewise, the
right front tread patch will not be deflecting very much and
will not need as much negative camber. Right front camber is
also very dependent on the tracks banking. If the track has
a lot of banking in the corners it will then go through a very
strenuous load on corner entry due to essentially being driven
into the racetrack. Because of this you will have a rapid amount
of right front tire deflection and will need to run more negative
camber. We recommend running no less than -1 1/2° and no
more than -4° of right front camber.
The left front tire can generally
be considered as the tire that holds the kart in the corner.
Relating the right front to the left front, the right front
is the tire that accepts the load of the racetrack and the left
front is the tire that directs the load put in the chassis.
Left front camber can also be related to tire deflection, as
was right front camber. If the track is very fast and producing
a lot of bite, the left front tread patch will be deflecting
quite a bit and will therefore need more positive left front
camber. If the track is not producing a lot of bite the left
front tread patch will not be deflecting as much and will therefore
not need as much positive camber. Left front camber is not generally
affected as greatly by banking as right front camber although
it does depend on it a bit. We recommend running no less than
+1/2° and no more than +1 1/2° of left front camber.
Again, these numbers are
merely meant to give you parameters to work within. You may
find situations where you need to run outside of these parameters.
However, these parameters will almost always hold the correct
amount of camber for your given track conditions. There is one
final note on changing your camber settings.
We mentioned before that
you would need to recheck your toe after checking your camber.
With every camber change the toe will be effected, depending
on how much the camber was changed. Whichever tire you are changing
the camber in is the side that you will need to readjust your
toe with. In other words, when you make a right front camber
change, place the toe plates back onto the front end and readjust
your toe by lengthening or shortening the right front tie rod.
Once the right front camber is set you then do the same with
the left front camber. By doing this after each change, you
can prevent having to redo the squaring process mentioned earlier
in the tutorial. The same process holds true for changing caster
and Ackerman. Whichever side you change either of these on is
the side that you need to readjust the toe on. We are now ready
to place your chassis on the scales.
Step 3 – Setting
Your Weight Percentages
We are now in the home stretch of
pre-race preparation, its time to scale your chassis. We will
again only be able to talk general numbers since there are so
many varying track conditions as well as driver weights and
sizes. The following paragraphs will give you some starting
percentages as well as some pointers on when to change you weight
percentages.
Left side weight is directly
proportional to the amount of bite the track has and the size
and positioning of the driver. We mentioned the positioning
of the driver in great detail in the previous section on seat
mounting. With that being addressed, we will now tie the amount
of bite the track has to the positioning of the driver. The
more bite a racetrack has and the bigger the driver, the more
weight that will be transferred from left to right in the corners
requiring more left side percentage to offset the amount of
weight transfer. Likewise, a track with a small amount of bite
and a little driver will not transfer very much weight in the
corners therefore not needing very much left side percentage
to offset the small amount of transfer. With this being briefly
explained, we recommend running no higher than 58% and no less
than 54%. The higher percentage will be needed for tracks that
are very fast, have a lot of bite and have a bigger, but more
importantly taller, driver. The lower percentage will be needed
for the tracks with the least amount of speed and bite and a
driver of a smaller build. Too much left side weight will generally
make a kart quite lazy on corner entry sometimes creating a
pushing condition due to lack of weight transfer from the left
rear to the right front tire. Not enough left side weight will
sometimes yield a very twitchy kart on corner entry causing
an over biting condition of the right side tires making the
kart overall, unstable.
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Page Five... or
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