Mister Quickie

I took out the roll bar and put seatbelts in the back, never going to see the track and constantly have the need to transport >2.

Last night had me in the driver's seat (160 lbs), a 110 lb'er in the passenger's seat, and my 200 lb roommate behind me in the back seat behind the driver.

The first time I felt this "slippage" was upon hitting an uneven area on the road. The second time was about a block or two later, no uneven road area. I'd driven on uneven roads before and this never happened.
After he got out of the car and I was driving it hasn't happened either.

It's a similar feeling to when you accellerate too quickly and your wheels spin but in this case it felt like it was only the driver's side rear wheel, not both wheels.

Not sure if the additional passenger had anything to do with it or just a coincidence.

BTW the emergency brake cable is only on one side which is that (driver's) side

Any ideas?

V2Rocket

you were able to fit a 200lb person behind the driver seat?
are you a midget?

konakat

Yes, I think this is the much greater point to be made in this thread. My wife is 5'2" and hits her head on the ceiling in the back seat.

That slippage thing is weird, too...

JJR512

Are you saying that the passenger side parking brake is not hooked up, the cable is missing? Why is that?

Sterlingx2011

I would say drive the car over the same roads a couple of times with just you and see if it happens again.

I would like to know how you got a full sized human in the back. My 10 year old niece can't eve fit in there.

konakat

I wonder if maybe your tire was rubbing and the combination of sound and lack of go when that happened made you think it was slipping instead. Look for a scrub mark in your wheel well.

Mister Quickie

good idea, I'll look in the wheel well.

I guess I don't have an emergency brake cable on the passenger's side. Everytime the brake's needed tightening I've just tightened the cable on the driver's side, I'd love to know how to run the cable on the passenger's side but that's probably a separate thread.

how did he fit ... the entire interior (including rear seats) is removed, also he's not that naturally that big he just has a beer gut so fairly compact

Mister Quickie

Just checked, wheel well and tire looks clean

MAGK944

Normal. If all the weight is on the left and front then the right rear is "light" and the left rear will lose some traction. Unless you have an LSD fitted that is.

Mister Quickie

No LSD (that I know of)

If Left = drivers side then all the weight (360 lbs vs 110 lbs) was on the Left/driver's side then shouldn't that be the side that has more traction due to the weight and any slipage would be on the lighter side (in this case the right/passenger's side) ... ?

MAGK944

Doesn't matter. Without LSD when one rear wheel loses traction so will the other. You can have as much weight as you want on the one wheel it just won't turn and the "light" wheel will take all the power away from it.

You'll get the symptoms you are experiencing, the heavy wheel will seem to "slip" or lose grip then regain it again when the light wheel gains traction again.

Arominus

Mag has it, if the wheel with all the weight was the one that open diffs tried to spin we wouldn't need LSD's so bad, as it is, with an open diff the car tries to spin the wheel with the least traction.Open diffs make your cars power lazy, its always looking for the easy way out.

Mister Quickie

that may make sense, since I haven't encountered the same scenario sans the 200 lb roommate I'm going to take him out for another drive this weekend this time sitting on the other side.

We'll go over the same course and see if there's the same "slippage" this time on the other side.

The challenge will be getting him onto the right side. My seat adjusts so he can climb in the back. On the other side, the seat doesn't slide forward and he may be too heavy-set to slide himself over top of the center hump.

Anyone have an adjustable bracket they want to sell that will fit a Sparco seat?

konakat

I wouldn't bother going to so much trouble to diagnose it. How often do you plan on driving aggressively with a 200LB person in the back? If you are hellbent on diagnosing it, you could use a few bags of sand as a cheap ballast.

Mister Quickie

If it's just a wheel slippage like it felt then I don't need to pursue it further but right now I don't know that for certain. If I do the 200 lb roommate test on the other side with the same result on the other side then I know and can sleep at night.

For me it's not a big deal, we'll probably hit a bar this weekend anyway so instead of him in the passenger's seat, he just goes in the back.

and I'll just buy him a beer at the bar for the 15 minutes of extra effort it takes to pull him out from back there