"Trakrite"

[worzel]

Hi

Anybody any experience of one of these devices?

As Xmas is looming and I need to have the front settings checked after a rack overhaul I was weighing up the cost of a garage doing it for me (roughly ?30) or buying one of these devices.

Regards

John

[bcmc33]

Hi John,

I vaugely remember this thing but have no experience of it. However, there was some discussion on another forum site and below is the most useful contribution I saw:


Re: Gunsons Trakrite
Reply #3 - 08. Jan 2008 at 10:06
I've got one - it's OK, but has to be used on a totally flat surface. Also, you have to be very careful about the way you push the car over it to get the readings - any slight sideways movement or hesitation or steering movement will put the readings out. Because of this, I find that it's best to take several readings before adjusting, and take the "average" as they all come out a little different.
Also, seems to be more difficult to use on heavier cars, and ones with very wide tyres. It worked perfectly on my MG Midget, less so (but OK) on my Cavalier and Saab 900, I wouldn't use it on anything bigger.
It's never going to be as accurate as a proper laser set-up but is worth having at least to provide basic settings IMHO. It's quite time-consuming to use too, and can be hard work as you need to push the car over it, not drive it, not with FWD anyway.

It's worth having, but as with all things you get what you pay for - it's an "amateur" tool at best, and needs to be used with judgement and discretion IMHO.

Just my personal experience....... hope this is of some use!

I hope this helps.

[Alex]

Before I had access to some tracking guages I used to use 2 lenghts of wood or aluminium held against the centre line of the wheels and pointing forwards. By measuring across them at 2 known points forward of the wheels and using a bit of geometry its surprising how accurate you can get the tracking. Start by finding 0 degrees which is easy as both measurements are the same. From there you can wind the tracking in a bit, re-measure then deduce the 2 sides that make the 90 degree corner of a right angle triangle. I forget if its sine or cosine to calculate the angle, but this online calculator should help:

http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/scol/calrtri.htm

Either I don't trust garages or I'm just tight. Either way it works very well!

Alex

[peterako]

After various useless machines (operators?) tracking my +2 incorrectly......including a tracking that resulted in chewing up my front tyres at an alarming rate.....

I now track my wheels myself with string tied to two axle stands and run along/parallel to the side of the car. (as a guide to front and rear toe)

Works amazingly well!

I have now got very even tyre wear.....I've tracked my wheels to about 0 degrees (i.e. parallel) which has resulted in very, very sensitive/direct steering/reaction. Might toe in a bit later in the year.

Will try and dig out the webpage that I first saw mention of this method (an Elan webpage including many tuning tips).

Peter

[ppnelan]

I've tracked my wheels to about 0 degrees (i.e. parallel) which has resulted in very, very sensitive/direct steering/reaction. Might toe in a bit later in the year.

I believe some static toe-in is usually specified to avoid any chance of dynamic toe-out, due to movement in suspension bushes, etc e.g. under heavy braking. Toe-out will make the car more difficult to keep straight...

Matthew

[Alex]

Mathew,

You're correct. I believe it should be about 3/4 to 0 degrees for Elans but 0 is a bit sensitive. I drove a +2 with a bit too much toe-out a few years back and Tesco's would have been proud of it. Lethal!!

[SADLOTUS]

I use the 'one long piece of wood with two large nails in it' method, but use inches instead of degrees, with 1/4inch toe in (I think) - easy to do, a bit time consuming but satisfying when it goes right.

........still looking for the web reference

[Foxie]

I now track my wheels myself with string tied to two axle stands and run along/parallel to the side of the car. (as a guide to front and rear toe)

I have now got very even tyre wear.....I've tracked my wheels to about 0 degrees (i.e. parallel) which has resulted in very, very sensitive/direct steering/reaction. Might toe in a bit later in the year.

Peter,

I also use the string method, it's easy and simple. However, have you taken into account that on the Lotus Plus 2 chassis, the front track is one inch narrower than the rear ?

So if the front tyres and the front of the rear tyres line up (assuming zero rear toe), you will actually already have 1/10" or 2.5mm toe-in, which is in the middle of the specified 0 -4.76mm range.

(My Spyder chassis track is only 3/8" narrower in front)

Sean

[peterako]

As Se?n states above.....

I have small toe in

(Yep I did take the track differences into account....but only to allow for 0 to some toe in).

Having said that...I'm going to toe in a bit more as (like Mathew says) steering is ultra sensitive/too sensitive in a straight line at the moment

Was in Dublin yesterday (80 + mile drive).

One thing you get froma n older car that you don't froma modern one is greater feel for road conditions.

I coulf definitely feel ice on teh roads and slowed down appropriately.

All manner of car over took me at speed (I was doing 100km/h), including a few Garda? (Police). One of which was in a 4X4. More on that in a mo'....

But at one stage of the journey I hit a particularly bad spot on teh Moterway, I felt teh ice but obviously others did not.....then to my surprise I could see teh traffic slow ahead.

A car had gone straight off at a gentle bend, was 30 metres into a field with the owner (thankfully unhurt) on his mobile calling for help....

The Garda 4X4 I saw later, quite obviously going in excess of the 120km/h limit barging cars out of its way. It caught up so quickly on traffic that the brakes had to be applied.....some serious wobble, cars moved out of teh way and the 4X4 sped away.....

I just can understand why there are so few accidents in these conditions....

What relevance does this have to the tracking thread?

Well, I have noticed with my 'close to 0' toe in that, as Mathew says, straight line driving takes a bit more concentrations as even a fraction of an inch of movement on the steering wheel steers the car off course.

But this lessens at higher speeds. So was much less noticable on teh slower drive in teh ice yesterday

As to whether a Trakrite is a good Christmas present.....sounds nice and cheep! At worst it could go on eBay if not useful!

I trust the string method more than one of the fancy computers in a garage. There was a time when a mechanic was skilled with cars and thei mechanica and engineering workings and set-up not just a a computer operator blindly following instructions on a screen!

Ah.....I sound so old now

Peter

[twincamman]

I also use the string method [ dental floss is perfect] and a trammel bar --you can get within a 1/20th of an inch ---remember to move a half the measurement per side -you need zero [or close] so when the suspension goes down describing an arc the wheels stay about 0 to plus 1 ---ed