Lifted Wheel - Treated or Stock - Does it Matter?

[philm63]

In my quest to help my two cubs design next year’s cars, we decided to give 3-wheeled rail riders a shot.

Also for next year’s race, because wheel and axle prep for this year's race didn’t go well, took a lot of time, and was messy, we decided to purchase our wheels and axles already trued, polished, etc. and this costs money.

Seeing as only 3 wheels are going to be in intentional contact with the track, does that 4th “lifted” wheel really need to be treated in the same manner as for the other 3? Or can we just use the stock wheels and axles for these 4th wheels?

We plan on having 4 cars in next year’s race (wife and I are entering the Parent/Sibling race), and if I can get away with purchasing only 3 sets of finished wheels and axles, that’d save us a few clams. I realize that this would leave one car with the leftovers from the 3 sets – potentially being a mismatched set, but how much would this really matter for a pack race (they’d be on my car so my wife and boys would at least have matched sets)?

[Vitamin K]

The only time that we do any kind of treatment on the raised wheel is when I want to demonstrate wheel polishing for the kids before doing it themselves. So I'm like "I'll do this one, you have to do the other three."

But realistically, that wheel is never gonna roll, so it does not need polishing, coning, shaving, whatever. The "pro guys" even push the axle into the body so the wheel is locked and can't even spin.

[FatSebastian]

...does that 4th “lifted” wheel really need to be treated...

But realistically, that wheel is never gonna roll, so it does not need polishing, coning, shaving, whatever.

I agree with Kurt, except that I might consider rubbing a little graphite onto the lip of the inside tread (the part that could possibly come in contact the center rail). Why?

• It is trivial to do and costs nothing.
• In kid's races we have seen tracks that are less than optimal in their assembly. Track defects can sway a car.
• The car may be staged in a way so that the non-DFW could contact, if the "driver" isn't staging the car himself.

So the probability that non-DFW will make contact is certainly very low, but still not absolutely zero IMO, due to enviromental factors.

[philm63]

Yeah, that's what was behind the "...intentional contact..." comment - it likely will have incidental contact at some point during the race - didn't think about the staging at the start thing, though - maybe I could hang out at that end of the track when they're loading our cars... Good tip regarding the graphite thing, easy enough to do during weigh-in.

Ever seen someone walk the track before a race and feel the joints between track sections? I was actually doing this at this year's race and got some strange looks.

[exoray]

Ever seen someone walk the track before a race and feel the joints between track sections? I was actually doing this at this year's race and got some strange looks.

At every race I have been to and something I also do at my races is that only race staff are allowed anywhere near the track (it's cordoned off) pretty much the only people touching the track are those who set up the track and are running the race...

We run each car once in each lane and average the times for ranking, so every car will experience any 'glitch' in each lane so any advantage or disadvantage to any lane(s) due to seaming or whatever should be negated in the final time...

[FatSebastian]

...something I also do at my races is that only race staff are allowed anywhere near the track (it's cordoned off)...

We also cordon the track area, but "drivers" are allowed in the area when it is their turn to stage and retrieve. Have you considered letting the girls stage their own cars? Our experience with self-staging is that it goes pretty fast if the race schedule is visible so that participants can anticipate where they are in the queue (after the first few heats anyway), and the participants and audience certainly enjoy the event more.

[exoray]

Have you considered letting the girls stage their own cars? Our experience with self-staging is that it goes pretty fast if the race schedule is visible so that participants can anticipate where they are in the queue (after the first few heats anyway), and the participants and audience certainly enjoy the event more.

The lifted BestTrack is honestly too high for most participants to reach... We do keep the racers involved as we pass the remote FOB around to the racers and they get to launch the heats...

[FatSebastian]

The lifted BestTrack is honestly too high for most participants to reach...

Ah. We also lift our track, but will use a small staging platform. Even then, some lil' kids are still not tall enough, but when they are that small they are usually being escorted by guardians anyway, who will either lift them up or else stage the car on their behalf.

[whodathunkit]

Is there any advantage or maybe a little bit more speed that can be gained.. by also toeing in the lifted wheel slightly so that air is deflected around the lifted wheel cavity.
I'm thinking by toeing it in.. that if it were to also hit the rail that the contact patch of the wheel surface to the rail would also be less to scrub on the track rail .

[FatSebastian]

Is there any advantage or maybe a little bit more speed that can be gained.. by also toeing in the lifted wheel…

Maybe? It would indeed be a slight toe-in. Changing the toe angle of the wheel increases its effective cross-sectional area relative to the airstream, and generally such has a negative drag effect. And a lot of toe-in could create an unwanted aerodynamic side force. I suspect that the very low speed aerodynamic interactions between the wheel cavity and body are non-trivial to assess from the armchair… sounds like an interesting experiment though!

[Loud2ns]

Is there any advantage or maybe a little bit more speed that can be gained.. by also toeing in the lifted wheel slightly so that air is deflected around the lifted wheel cavity.
I'm thinking by toeing it in.. that if it were to also hit the rail that the contact patch of the wheel surface to the rail would also be less to scrub on the track rail .

In the basx class, we turn the lifted wheel for aero advantage and see some gains from it. I don't have a specific amount that it helps as I don't tune on a track, but that's what I was told by several people and what I do on my cars.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[whodathunkit]

Cool.. Thanks Load2ns!
Going to give that a shot on my adult outlaw scout car this year.