Practical Corner Weighting: Ramps
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Ramps
03.02
| 00:00 | - Corner weight scales are actually of limited use on their own as you'll also need to be able to get the car on and off the scales quickly and easily, especially if you're corner weighting your car at the track during a race weekend and time is a bit of a luxury. |
| 00:14 | In order to do this, we're going to need a set of ramps that will allow the car to drive or be pushed on and off the scales without having to lift the car every time. |
| 00:22 | The reason for this is that we're going to be constantly making adjustments to the ride height which requires the car to be lifted into the air before being dropped back down onto the ground. |
| 00:33 | When we drop the car back down however, the suspension will bind slightly which means that the car doesn't settle back to a natural ride height. |
| 00:40 | For this reason we can't just jack the car off the scales, make the adjustment and then drop it back onto the scales. |
| 00:47 | Instead we need to settle the car before taking any readings and the easiest way to do this is to roll the car forwards and backwards a few meters, often coupled with bouncing the car up and down. |
| 00:59 | A good quality set of ramps which are long enough to provide a gently approach angle, makes it really easy to do this. |
| 01:05 | Another risk you run is that without ramps, if the car rolls off the edge of a scale, it can actually damage the scale and this could be a costly fix. |
| 01:14 | Most manufacturers of scales also offer ramps to match their specific scales which can vary in price from $1000 USD to as far as $5000 USD or more for systems that incorporate adjustable stands to allow easy levelling of the scales along with adjustable bridges between the front and rear scales. |
| 01:34 | Alternatively there's no reason you can't have a local engineering shop fold up some basic alloy ramps for you and this is something you should be able to have done for well under $500 USD. |
| 01:44 | We've even included some plans for ramps as an attachment to this module that you can send directly to a local sheet metal specialist to save you time and money. |
| 01:54 | There are a few things to keep in mind if you're buying pre made ramps or having some made for you. |
| 02:00 | Firstly it should go without saying that the ramps should match the height of your scales. |
| 02:05 | Secondly you're going to need them to be sturdy enough to support the weight of your car so you'd want to be considering an alloy material around 6 mm thick as a minimum. |
| 02:16 | Lastly it's a benefit if your ramps are long enough to provide a gently angle as this will make it easier to push or drive the car on and off the scales. |
| 02:24 | I'd suggest aiming for a length in the range of 600 to 1000 mm. |
| 02:28 | At professional levels of motorsport where no expense is spared, it's common to use scales in conjunction with setup hubs which we'll cover in the next section. |
| 02:37 | In brief. setup hubs allow the critical adjustments to be made without the need to lift the car on and off the scales and in this case the scales are often used without ramps since there's no need to settle the suspension after adjustments are made. |
| 02:51 | This however is an expensive setup and certainly not something that most would consider at a grass roots or enthusiast level of racing. |
