Steering

[Manuel P.]

Can any1 tell me why rack and pinion steering is more used than a standard kart steering?

thanks!

[Manuel P.]

Can any1 tell me why rack and pinion steering is more used than a standard kart steering?

thanks!

[Max Power]

With kart steering the tie rods eminate from almost the midle of the kart. When you have suspension this can cause significant bump and roll steer, unless the wishbones also eminate from that point.

Also often tends to be too hard to get low enough ratio so steering is too heavy.

[PatClarke]

Hi,
And kart type steering is seen by the judges as a low tech solution in what is primarily an engineering competition.
Over the years, many teams have used kart type steering, and for a poor team with little budget, it might mean the difference between getting to the comp and not.
If you choose to use it, be prepared for heavy duty flack from the design judges.
PDR

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!

[Ben Beacock]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Max Power:
With kart steering the tie rods eminate from almost the midle of the kart. When you have suspension this can cause significant bump and roll steer, unless the wishbones also eminate from that point.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I totally didn't even think of kart style steering in our application and it might have saved some headaches and $$. Our lower a-arms meet at a central point on the car and the steering rack is right at the bottom. We managed to get a special rack made to only 8" eye to eye, but its still a little long for optimal bump steer.

Ben Beacock
Co-Manager
2004 Gryphon Racing - University of Guelph (http://www.soe.uoguelph.ca/uogracing)