[Anonymous]

Just like seat placement or axle stiffness, seat stiffness is a tuning tool. Some taller drivers might want to switch seat stiffness if they think they are getting too much inside lift. A smaller driver might want a different kind of stiffness in the seat to get more weight transfer.

I know of a couple guys who have tuned almost solely by seat stiffness and placement.

[Anonymous]

TJ : I can understand the stiffness of the seat helping to raise the inside rear wheel . Can you site me an example AND explain to WHAT point do you determine if you are getting TOO MUCH LIFT ? . Or where you can get by with a flexible seat ? Lets face it I would venture to guess that most guys 90% have only 1 seat for their kart . The quality seats don’t come cheaply .

[Anonymous]

Well if you’re getting too much lift, the kart will either overload the outside rear and you’ll start sliding as the tire loses traction. Typically you’ll feel it lift on turn-in, and as it reaches it’s height, you’ll start to feel the rear slide and you’ll start to counter-steer, setting the inside rear down and making the kart flat-slide.

Too much lift can also cause the rear to break traction on the outside rear and cause the kart to hop a bit too as the rear grips and releases and repeats.

I can’t tell you specifically when you’d make a seat change like that since I also only  use one seat in one stiffness all the time and I’m small so I always need to find lift.

My guess would be that the soft seat works better for tall guys when the grip comes down and they need the softer seat to absorb some of the weight transfer. But I’m not positive.

[Author]

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