Unusual wear of a kart’s tyres: causes, effects and remedies - TKART

1 INTRODUCTION

Except for the engine, it is known that tyres are the main items that affect the performance of a kart. The correct use of these therefore allows getting the most out of the vehicle even more than the setup. This is one of the reasons why, especially in motoring, almost all classess have a single tyre supplier of tyres, because otherwise, due to the competition between manufacturers, there would be an increase in performance and costs that are difficult to control. So let's see how to manage tyres better.

2 PRESSURE

The first aspect to be taken care of and carefully managed is tyre pressure. Manufacturers always recommend an operating pressure which, however, refers to tyres already at the right temperature. Therefore, this pressure is right when a tyre is cold, because when driving tyres heat up and their internal pressure increases. The important thing is that, once it is "normalised", the pressure is the one indicated. The variance between the pressure to be when a tyre is cold and the pressure achieved when a tyre is warmed up depends on several factors: mix, asphalt temperature, tyre level of the track ... Being able to define an initial cold pressure to reach the desired pressure once the tyre has reached the right temperature therefore becomes a determining factor to be able to get the most out of the tyres and optimise performance.

3 TOO HIGH PRESSURE

An initial problem that can be found is that of having excessive hot pressure, a sign that too high pressure was set when a tyre is cold. There are signs that can help you to recognise the problem: for example, when the pressure is excessive the tread only tends to work in the central part, because of the shape a tyre takes due to internal pressure. Looking at the tyres you will tend to notice concentrated wear in that part and, consequently, there is localised overheating that easily leads to problems of rapid degradation of tyre performance. A tyre can take bluish strokes, indicating that the temperature reached by the tread has been excessive.

Bluish tread areas indicate that excessive temperatures have been reached: this is the phenomenon of "overheating"

4 TOO LOW PRESSURE

Clearly, if, contrary to what has been previously described, cold pressures are set too low, the opposite problem can occur, in other words, not being able to reach the desired temperature value in hot weather. This can happen when, for example, you return to a known track but in colder climatic conditions and do not adjust the starting pressure.
Signs of too low operating pressure can already be seen on the track, because it is difficult for the the tyres to reach the right temperature and, consequently, there is no noticeable improvement in grip after the first few laps. In addition, vibrations arise as the speed increases. This happens because the tyres have a pronounced "centrifugation" effect, which in some cases can also affect the integrity of the tyres. If you notice the obvious signs of this phenomenon, it is absolutely a good idea to stop and increase the pressure.

A tyre that has not reached the right working pressure will become deformed and worn in the outermost areas of the tread

CHECK ... THE UNUSUAL WEAR OF TYRES