Practical Corner Weighting: Ballast
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Ballast
02.44
| 00:00 | - One of the changes you're likely to make to your car when corner weighting is moving or adding ballast inside the car. |
| 00:06 | You can do this in a number of ways, either by moving heavy components in the car such as the battery of fuel tank or by adding additional weight to the car. |
| 00:15 | For simplicity while corner weighting you'll also probably want to use some temporary weights to replicate the weight of the driver so that you don't need to constantly jump in and out of the car while taking your corner weight measurements. |
| 00:27 | When moving anything heavy within the car, your main priority is to make sure that it's fastened to the car correctly and safely. |
| 00:35 | This becomes particularly important in the event of a heavy crash as the car may end up experiencing massive forces that can result in anything that isn't securely mounted breaking loose and flying around the car which could of course be incredibly dangerous. |
| 00:50 | If you need to add weight in the form of ballast, then it stands to reason that you want to choose something that is easy to work with, high density so that it doesn't take up much room and something that provides an easy mounting solution. |
| 01:03 | One of the more common solutions for adding ballast is gym weights which are convenient since they're designed to be installed onto a barbell and hence they have a convenient hole through the centre. |
| 01:14 | They're also available in a range of weights which makes it easy to get your ballast just right. |
| 01:19 | You can also purchase lead weights in a variety of different form factors to do the same job. |
| 01:25 | Often these lead weights may not offer a convenient option for mounting to the car however lead is relatively easy to drill through so it's not a big concern. |
| 01:34 | It's worth mentioning that using something like sandbags or water containers to add ballast is not advisable since we want to keep the masses still and as small as possible. |
| 01:44 | Once you've selected a weight to use you need to bolt it to the car in a suitable location. |
| 01:51 | The most obvious location is usually going to be low down on the passenger side floor. |
| 01:55 | Most often you'll need to drill holes through the floor to mount your ballast and once you've done that you'll need suitably sized bolt to hold it in place. |
| 02:04 | You should check with your local motorsport governing body to see if they have any requirements here around mounting that you must adhere to. |
| 02:11 | Typically though, something like an M12 or larger bolt will be adequate. |
| 02:16 | It's important to understand that just bolting your ballast weight through the thin sheet metal of the floor is not going to be safe and in the event of an accident the bolt is very likely to pull through the thin sheet metal floor. |
| 02:29 | For this reason, a large washer should be used to spread the load. |
| 02:33 | Alternatively you may be able to use existing high strength mounting points such as those provided by the manufacturer for mounting seats or seatbelts. |
