USAC Racing Forum

We have been running locked up in Novice.  Tried several times to run unlocked and have had issues with being able to drive without spinning.  So, I purchased a ratchet hub after speaking with some folks thinking we'd get the benefit of locked in the corners but free on the straights.  However, the car appears to go into the corner fine, but wants to spin coming off.  Is this normal for a ratchet hub?  Was my exspectation of using a ratchet incorrect?  Or, am  I doing something incorrect? 

go with less stagger.

Now that you mention stagger, I haven't had much luck being able to change. Any tips on shrinking or stretching a tire?

Change wheel size to change stagger

What wheel/tire combination are you using on the right rear and what is the circumference. What tire/wheel combination are you using on the left rear and what is the circumference?

FWIW, I have a ratcheting hub I will sell you cheap. Does that explain my results with it?

I am suprised you ran locked in Novice? We ran unlocked in Novice and then had to lock it for Sr. Honda. Is your right rear wheel in towards the car, moving it in should reduce the loose.

I am experimenting with stretching a tire right now for the left rear. It was typically 30.5 and I want a 31". I pumped it up with 25 lbs of air and it is sitting in the California sun right now enjoying itself. It is at 31" right now.

Haven't tried to shrink a tire yet, but grew a couple left rear tires.  Since then I gave up on growing and just bought several different wheel sizes and use that to get the stagger the same.

I used to grow my Dunlap, Firestone & Older Hoosier tires so they were all consistent in size.  Running 4 cars it made it much easier to swap when needed without the fear of throwing off my gear ratio.

Then Vega came along and every tire mounted was the same size.  Now with the new Hoosier, I am back to mounting 4 new tires on 4 new wheels and getting 4 different sizes.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the wear on the new Hoosiers, just hate the inconsistency of the sizes.

Out of a dozen sets, the largest RR Hoosier I have mounted on a 8.5" wheel was 34 7/8 and the smallest was 33 3/8 which is a huge difference.  I tried to grow the new Hoosiers as I did the others mentioned above and did not gain anything.  I then tripled the baking time and only gained 1/8 of an inch.  With the other tires mentioned above, I would have easily gained an inch baking that long.

With that being said, I have NOT had much luck growing the new Hoosiers so I just had about a dozen left rear tire and wheel combinations.  I had Dunlap’s, Vegas and Bridgestone’s in addition to Hoosier to get all the various sizes I needed without growing or shrinking because I would rather get the sizes as they mount up.

I have had a lucky streak of Hoosiers all coming in at 34 1/4 on 8.5 inch wheels. This weekend it was hot and I let the wheels/tires sit out in the sun for 15 mintues or so before trying to set the bead and boy did that ever make it easy!

Someone mentioned using lag on the rr when running smokered.  Has anyone else found big gains from doing that?

may vary by chassis and driver preference, we never did.

Ok, pardon my ignorance. What exactly do you mean by lag in the RR?

I assumed he was talking about lag in the rear axle.  Some run lead in the front axle, some run lag in the rear axle and some run both.

Yep, I meant moving the rr back farther than normal by lengthening the rr radius rods a bit.  We normally run the rear axle square,  locked, unlocked, smokered.

How does a lag differe compared to adjusting the front set of rods for the lead?