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Nice. Could you show us a view from the side? Looks like I need to prepare a 3/4” long channel to give it a prayer of being usable with this mount.

I installed the Zoom Compact mirror today. I had previously lowered the factory mirror to the base of the windscreen to reduce some of the annoying vibration, but the Zoom takes things a noticeable step further. While shake isn’t completely eliminated, it’s no longer objectionable. The mirror is slightly convex and, despite its small size, provides a good field of view between the seats. There’s no day/night function, but the surface is coated with a blue tint to help reduce headlight glare. I was concerned the coating might be too dark during daytime use, but it seems fine. My only complaint is that adjustment requires loosening and tightening a set screw. This isn't a big deal unless you regularly share driving duties, but with a wider channel machined into the socket housing, and a Belleville washer to apply constant tension to the ball, it could operate like a conventional mirror.

Of course they can be removed. Grab pair of cutters and cut the back side of the block. Don't use a box cutter or the like or you could damage the strap (not as big a risk if you had Diamond Weave straps). Then just bend the block and pull it off the strap. If, after your experiment, you think you need them, just pop them back on. They will function just the same as if you had not cut them. It should be a long time before you need to replace the straps. What usually kills straps is UV radiation. You are going to use and store these straps in an enclosed trailer. I renew my endorsement of the Diamond Weave straps with the European-style friction sleeves from www.autohaulersupply.com. I didn't buy these because my original straps were shot. I bought them because they are better.

Let's start with "It probably does not make much difference due to the friction of the strap". Now, let's neglect the friction for a moment like a lot of classical physics illustrations do. If the straps go straight down to the roller and clip, then the portion of the strap between the two is at the shortest length it can be. The tire can't go anywhere because that would require more strap length. The yellow things are not ramps, but chocks. I believe they attach to the E-track. I therefore suppose they offer more resistance to the car moving forward in braking (or, heaven forfend, a crash). I don't think that strongly-enough to go out and buy a pair. What they are good at is stopping the car while you load it at the exact place you had it last time. Since I use a remote-controlled winch so I can see exactly what I am doing, I don't need permanent stops. Non-Seven sidebar: I have left door on my full-width trailer so I can open my car door. I don't bother with the winch when unloading the car, I just get and drive the car out. Some cars are set up so the car door will not clear the trailer inner fender and the trailer door. I have fashioned plywood risers that key into the E-track. I place two of these on the left track where the tires land. The front one has a wood strip at the front to prevent the car from rolling off the front of the riser if the trailer happens to be pointing downhill when I am winching a car in. These risers tilt the car enough to get door clearance. This is really a good thing, since my Cayman has a dual-clutch transmission, so just like with a conventional automatic, I have to step on the brake to get it out of park. The risers are sized so that I can still get the tire straps to the E-track slots. I don't need these risers with a Seven. I can enter either side of a Seven inside my trailer even if it has top and doors.

I would double-check the specs and manual on your truck to see if there is a max tongue weight (in pounds) for the vehicle and/or hitch (without a wright-distributing hitch). Also check the rear axle weight limits GAWR). As loaded, you've moved a lot of weight off the front axle and onto the rear axle - which I suspect is why it feels sluggish to you - much reduced steering. I might be hesitant to get much above 55 with that much weight moved off the front axle, but you'll know by feel. As an example, my LR3 is rated for 7700 pounds towing capacity... but the hitch is only rated for 750 or 800. So if towing near the max I can only go to 10% tongue weight. At any rate, adjusting your load so that your tongue weight is closer to 10% may improve driveability.

Is there a predetermined correction for measuring to the Ali skin? Or just measure both front and rear to Ali and it’s consistent. (I switched over from Avon zzs to Toyo r888r and I think there was a jump in front tire diameter vs the rears ). Although I never check ride height and rake with the avons. I feel like now is a good time to dial it in.

Those rubber guys are captive on the straps and cant be removed. There are 3 per strap. The also have little nubs that are supposed to go in a center groove on a tire to hold the car in place even more. However, on the r888rs, the center groove is offset so you cant really use it. When these straps need replaced I will likely grab some regular straps. I plan on doing something like this eventually. I am planning on getting a second set of wheels for the caterham along with one or two trailer tire spares. This seems like the best solution for secruing them as well as maybe a few other things. You're including the 240lbs that is coming from the front axle with the trailer loaded. it would be (3020-2240) - (2800-2560) = 540 Thank you and good catch, I will move the roller closer next time and pay attention to that. I assumed it was close when i did this yesterday but you're right, looking at the photos at least the one could move at least on slot closer to the tire. If they are touching or could touch the tire in any capacity, is that too close?

Check your inbox, I sent a message you can respond to yesterday.

Thank you, Croc. No insult taken, and I appreciate verification on anything I post. I didn’t know understeer was the de facto behavior as this is the only Caterham I’ve pushed hard enough to find out, and I’m still learning how to dance with it. My expectation was that it would oversteer naturally and I would have to manage it. At Autocross I did a better job of balancing the weight, but didn’t do great every time and it showed. I’m no professional and still got much to learn. Yesterday I admittedly chucked it into a hair pin expecting Chapman’s hand to give me rotation. It’s good to know about the high speed understeer too, although that sounds like aerodynamics may be playing an effect too? Greatly appreciate you sharing your specs! Good to hear that you shim the rear as well. Are there a set of recommended shim kits? Could I bother you with sharing a picture of where you measure the ride height? I thought I measured it at the right place but every time I look I get more confused. I set it to 145mm front and 160mm rear with me in the seat, mainly because of oil pan clearance but it will be lower with 13s once I eventually do that.

Maybe the #s you posted were before moving the car around a bit, but it looks to me like your tongue weight is 780lbs (3020-2240). As to the tie downs, the last picture shows the rear side dropping straight down to the swivel. I was always taught to "tuck" the straps down inside the outer circumference of the tire... ie., move that swivel roller a slot or two closer to the tire. I'm not certain my way is "right", but it does provide more strap-to-tire contact area and allows less movement. Do similarly with the anchor on the front side of the tire if you don't use the yellow ramps. Like Pethier, with 4 tires strapped I tend to engage the parking break and leave the car in neutral. I tighten my straps down quite tight, then make a point of stopping in the first 50 miles for a quick check of strap tension.

Just thought I would add my starting spec for my various de Dion cars over the years. This is intended to feel good for a track but I find it works well for road too although it can make the car sensitive to tram lining. It does not matter what spring or shock combo you have for this. Front Full caster on wishbone washers Camber - For a LHD car on treaded tires you can go 3.2RHS and 3.0LHS. Full slicks will bring this down a little -0.2 -0.1. This allows for weight bias of driver on side to side balance. You may want to just be 3.1 both sides initially and then dial in divergently each side as you test. 1mm toe out Rear 2.5deg ears with shim to get 2.6 camber. Most people do not shim but I think it is essential - particularly on an SV. Start with no rear toe in. Dial in after you baseline iniital spec - I bet you will end up at 0.1 as you mentioned in your post as that is where I usually end up. Ride Height Measure ground to chassis rail and not ali skin as older chassis and race cars have exposed tubes - the newer cars have ali skin. If you are measuring to ali skin then modify measurement accordingly. Its 120mm at back of front wishbone +5mm rake at rear - Caterhams and Westfields are quite sensitive to rake. If you want higher ride height then same process to achieve right rake. This is start point and I then tweak one change at a time from there as no one chassis is the same - they all feel slightly different - at least on a track where I can replicate driving again and again to check feel on a standardized corner. It is essential you baseline then change only one item each time thereafter otherwise you have no idea what each change is doing to improve or worsen the car.

I hate to ask this as it may be viewed as insulting but I feel I should check as most people new to these cars are expecting miracles from the car.... All Caterhams will understeer if you stuff it into a corner hard enough - even the very best set up ones. The driver has to control the weight balance manually and put enough weight on the front wheels to get them to bite for crisp cornering. These cars require more driver involvement to get the very best out of them. Even then, high speed understeer is a thing you will run up against on very high speed corners (think 110mph+). Apologies if you know this but I was reacting to what you said.

You don't need those rubber blocks on wide tires. I stopped using them long ago because they were a right pain on my lowered Elise. You can test the theory by leaving them off on one wheel. If the strap is placed correctly, it's not going anywhere. If it is placed incorrectly, I don't think the blocks are are going to help much. It probably does not matter, but I tend to have the parking brake on and the car in neutral. I use the space behind the car to stack up my race ramps and use a 1" ratchet strap from one E-track to the other to hold them in place. They weigh almost nothing. Ignore the D-rings. The car needs to move on its suspension. A Caterham does not offer much in the way of good places to hook tiedowns: That's what is so good about using the tires. I have a short strip of E-track about shoulder height on the side wall of the trailer near each corner of the car. About 6 slots: three for a tire strap and 3 for whatever else is hanging around. Since I run my ratchets ahead of the car, I generally only disconnect the after clip of the three on the front straps and leave the assemblies lying on the trailer floor while I am driving the car. When the trailer is used for something else, I hang the front straps on the wall E-tracks. With all three clips fastened, the mass of the straps themself is unlikely to cause any trouble. Don't just clip two; you don't want that idler roller swinging around when you are towing an empty trailer. If you need to put the car in the trailer and don't have time to tie it down right then, take one of the straps and put it in the driver footwell of the truck so you you don't come back later and drive the rig away.

Thanks everyone for you commets and advice so far. Made some more progress today. New tongue weight scale came in, and it wasn’t accurate at all either. These things are junk. It would weigh the tongue weight at ~200-300 lbs which just didn’t seem right. I decided to just strap the car down and drive to a CAT scale and get real weights. truck steer axle: 2800lbs rear axle: 2240lbs trailer axle: 0lbs truck + trailer steer axle: 2560lbs rear axle: 3020lbs trailer axle: 3100lbs So the loaded trailer was 3650, and tongue weight with where I happened to place the car, was 540lbs, pretty much sport on 15%. That also gives me about 100+ pounds more payload than I thought I would have which is great. I can probably move the car back a foot and gain even more payload if I ever needed it. Strapping the car down was... interesting. I am new to ratchet straps, etrack, etc. I put it all together and wasn’t 100% confident on how tight the straps need to be or where to place them. I just cranked away until it was not that easy to do more. I checked after a few miles and the straps didn’t move or loosen, so must have been okay? Here are a bunch of photos of the car strapped. Does it seem okay or should I change anything? Should I leave the car in gear with the ebrake on? I do have drings I can certain use in addition to the over the tire straps if that would be a good idea as well. The truck with the trailer loaded with the car drove fine, albeit I was not on a high way and only was going between 30-55mph. You can certainly tell the trailer has more weight with the car loaded though. Its much more sluggish in every area.

Don't think much of the terrain tires on my F-150. The Michelin all-weather LT tires on my Suburban 2500 were much better. On the F-150, I keep the tires at 80 PSI all the time and use the sway-snubber.

The pulley is swappable I assume? Mine has a 4 groove flat and the one I’ve found that looks like it will work is a V groove. I’ve had to do that before with other cars and it was a straightforward swap, just needed an impact to get the nut off.

Took the Cat to get an alignment today expecting it would be bad after raising it so much. It was kinda bad with -1.2* camber and 0.45* of toe-out up front, 5* caster. Rear was -1.5* camber and 0.1 toe-in. To help eliminate understeer I asked them to set the front to -2 camber, 0 toe. Went for a quick blat and it feels better, but it still understeers when pushed hard enough. I’m going to shim it to try and get 6 or 6.5 caster and try again. Next step might be trying to stiffen the rear roll bar but I would rather not because likely that the tires have some blame in this. At any rate, I’m loving this thing .

I'm in the same boat with my Pectels. I'm getting a feeling that it will be easier to just sort out pectel as is instead undertaking a swap even though I have a wiring harness and new ECU already. If there was a Pectel to Omex adapter that would be convenient. I'm also in same boat of not having knock sensor and not having wideband wired. Data logging is still a struggle too

Can i reach out if this is still available?

BFH seems to have done its job, The front stay is longer and bends easier. Although I was shocked at the amount of persuasion it needed. I think the front stay is good (may have to revisit if I get the Hoosier 195s). The rear stay (on the front fender) is shorter to the cross brace so harder to bend. I think i created some clearance but might have to improve this some more.

Yeah rewiring whole thing would obviously be much more work. In my case I wideband O2 and a knock sensor would be the only wiring additions.

Here's a discussion from the UK forum... https://www.caterhamlotus7.club/forums/topic/262969-k-series-alternator-1400-supersport-1992-ecu2/ Try looking for a 55A Lucas A127 and replacements for the A127 that have the same mounting and pulley as yours. You also could use it as an opportunity to put a modern smaller/lighter denso style one on it but you'd have to work out mounting. Scott

Thanks looking for the ones with headrests like the Tillett B6.

Oh wow that looks handy! That being said, my friend was just installing grommets on a tarp and couldn't use a hammer so he used a plier clamp with the normal tool and ... Seems pretty similar without buying a new tool* *assuming you've done any cabinet work recently and bought that style of clamp The FLIR gun does sound handy as the next step after an IR thermometer. I bought one with the laser pointer AND a contact probe so I could do two jobs with one tool. Very recommended when I was chasing cooling system gremlins.

Check for an alternator repair shop.