Your welcome anytime! We won't have the chassis back for a couple weeks so the shop be empty for awhile. This is the time I have to machine all my stuff before assembly.
any wheel that has a billet center is my choice doesn't matter the brand. The only reason we ran bead locks was for the reinforcement when you hit something. Every time we ran a cast wheel we would destroy them. I am pretty sure the reason most teams run omf are the only teams that run 15" wheels pretty sure there the only ones making them with a billet center. If you run 14" wheels you have a couple options. The brand doesn't matter it how much the bead will take before they are destroyed. We ran every season with out a spare tire just to let you know.
I believe the walker have a internal spacer in them. so they wouldn't stroke all the way.
If you are getting 12" of stroke on the rear shock, you got problems my friend. Fox quoted me 9.75" I believe on the factory replacement 3.0.
I like the extra strength you get from bead-lock too. I have actually rolled a tire of the rim with the stock tires and wheels on our Wildcat (it was a little under-inflated maybe 10 psi). The bead-lock rings and hardware do add a couple pounds per wheel--right where you don't want it--but IMO its cheap insurance. I have never run truck tires on a UTV (on 15'' wheels) but I would love to hear from anybody who has. The truck tires are significantly heavier than a UTV style tire (5-10 Lbs per tire) at least double or triple the weight a bead lock ring would add. The truck tires have a stiffer carcass and can be run with a much higher psi. I would assume they are more durable, more resistant to flats, and a lot less likely to roll of the rim....probably why the 1600 class cars (similar weights and speeds) run without bead-locks.
if i am not mistaken, your tape measure shows 12". My tape measure also shows 12", picture below. Whoever at Fox told you that, is mistaken, or maybe you misunderstood. The rear FOX shocks have the same stroke as the OEM shock, which is only 1/16" less than 12".
If you are getting 12" of stroke on the rear shock, you got problems my friend. Fox quoted me 9.75" I believe on the factory replacement 3.0.
you have to take the tire diameter into account alsoAnyone want to continue on my personal set by step guide to building a race car?
So earlier I went over steps 1 and 2 of designing a race car. Step 3 is a simple but important one. WHEELS.
The problem is that so many people view wheels as an afterthought or simply a cosmetic decision. Now I'm not saying you have to choose your specific wheel at this point but you do need to consider what backspacing and sizes are available. Waiting till the suspension is bolted on to pick a wheel in order to maximize track width is a big mistake. Increasing track width by changing wheel offset has consequences that needs to be understood.
So what are we looking for in a wheel? Idealy it needs to be light and strong. Not just statically but also be able to deform instead of all out fail if it takes a hit. You can continue on with a bent wheel but not with a chunk missing. Are you going to need bead locks?
Spun wheels like OMF fill these requirements very well but do cost significantly more than a cast wheel. Sometimes decisions have to be made with the wallet.
After you decide what type of wheel you can afford you need to consider what width and offsets you can get. These are important figures to design your suspension around. Things like scrub radius and spring rates are effected by changing wheels. You can design an optimized suspension around just about any wheel size and offset. But once the suspension geometry is set in steal, either stock, off the shelf kit, or custom, all the hard earned design that went into that suspension is changed whenever you change wheels.
Feel free to chime in, comment, correct me, or expound more on the subject. There are a lot of opinions about how to do something and this is just mine. Doesn't mean its right, so lets hear yours.
tire ballz, I never tried tire blocks. both set up's are expensive but we didn't waste tires that way. we ran 150 miles on a flat at v2r and made it to the finish line. Its easier for crew to change tire then driver look at jaggy they would of lost the championship last year if it wasn't for tire blocks. Better yet look at coastal they lost the championship not running tire blocks but they won the Baja 1000 with tire blocks. Utv racing is getting to were if you have one issue your out of the podium spot.[/QUOTE]
I have never run tire blocks or ballz but I would imagine you would want to run bead-locks with this set-up to keep the tire from spinning on the rim if it lost pressure. Do the ballz/blocks add much weight?[/QUOTE]
i attest to the ITP ultracross, no flats at Silver State, none at Baja 500, none at V2R (the 350 miles that we did), none at BWDC.
We are super excited to be moving on to the phase where all our hard work really starts coming to together.
I haven't run a set but the ITP Ultracross is the tire I've had my eye on. Thanks for the good info!
We did all 3 Baja races in 2013 with the Ultracrosses and I was very impressed with them. I know we had a couple flats but never when I was driving.
