chetcpo
New member
Hello all. I found this site only today and it looks like I have a lot of reading to do, but first I wanted to introduce myself and give you guys an idea of what I'm up to.
I have 3 sons, the oldest in first grade, middle one in kindergarten and the youngest 3. Needless to say these boys are gonna need some go karts.
I purchased one of those one wheel drive two seaters that has the roll bar/cage overhead and sliding adjustable bench seat. It was cheap at $250 on Ebay, but it runs good and I saw potential. I thought as an introductory task I would fix it up for my kids to play with while I plan out and build something nicer.
I would like to someday design and build a full suspension kart for them since there is nowhere flat to ride these things.
I got that kart home and was disappointed it was miserable to drive. It didn't want to go straight, and it didn't want to turn. It was scary for me to try and hold it in a straight line on the pavement, and on the grass it shakes you so hard your eyeballs are bouncing around in the sockets and you can't see where you're going. So it needs some work. No wonder it was so cheap eh?
A few years ago I wrapped up a long term project in which I built a car from scratch using the running gear from a wrecked $500 Miata.
A couple pics below:
http://locostusa.com/forums/download/file.php?id=7367
http://locostusa.com/forums/download/file.php?id=7365
And here's a link to my build log: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=952
Designing a suspension for that thing was no easy task and I spent a lot of time reading books etc. until I figured it out. So I have a pretty good understanding of suspension as it relates to cars, and I'm making the dangerous assumption that it also translates to karts.
Regardless at I glance I noticed a few things about my ebay find. First it had the opposite of ackerman. So that probably explains why it was so hard just to turn around in the driveway.
Next, I noticed it had almost zero kingpin angle on the front and spacers to set it even further inboard of the center of the tire which gives it way too much tire scrub. This is probably why it was jerking the wheel so violently to the right and left as I hit irregularities in the pavement.
Finally, and much harder to address than the others above is the rigidity of the frame and the single wheel drive. This makes the drive wheel intermittently unload as I drive over irregular surfaces. I know the old flat and current racing carts have a flexible chassis to allow them a bit of twist to keep some pressure on the drive wheel, but this thing is totally rigid because of the roll over structure.
I'll post pics tonight when I get a minute.
Thanks for the cool forum and see you guys around!
I have 3 sons, the oldest in first grade, middle one in kindergarten and the youngest 3. Needless to say these boys are gonna need some go karts.
I purchased one of those one wheel drive two seaters that has the roll bar/cage overhead and sliding adjustable bench seat. It was cheap at $250 on Ebay, but it runs good and I saw potential. I thought as an introductory task I would fix it up for my kids to play with while I plan out and build something nicer.
I would like to someday design and build a full suspension kart for them since there is nowhere flat to ride these things.
I got that kart home and was disappointed it was miserable to drive. It didn't want to go straight, and it didn't want to turn. It was scary for me to try and hold it in a straight line on the pavement, and on the grass it shakes you so hard your eyeballs are bouncing around in the sockets and you can't see where you're going. So it needs some work. No wonder it was so cheap eh?
A few years ago I wrapped up a long term project in which I built a car from scratch using the running gear from a wrecked $500 Miata.
A couple pics below:
http://locostusa.com/forums/download/file.php?id=7367
http://locostusa.com/forums/download/file.php?id=7365
And here's a link to my build log: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=952
Designing a suspension for that thing was no easy task and I spent a lot of time reading books etc. until I figured it out. So I have a pretty good understanding of suspension as it relates to cars, and I'm making the dangerous assumption that it also translates to karts.
Regardless at I glance I noticed a few things about my ebay find. First it had the opposite of ackerman. So that probably explains why it was so hard just to turn around in the driveway.
Next, I noticed it had almost zero kingpin angle on the front and spacers to set it even further inboard of the center of the tire which gives it way too much tire scrub. This is probably why it was jerking the wheel so violently to the right and left as I hit irregularities in the pavement.
Finally, and much harder to address than the others above is the rigidity of the frame and the single wheel drive. This makes the drive wheel intermittently unload as I drive over irregular surfaces. I know the old flat and current racing carts have a flexible chassis to allow them a bit of twist to keep some pressure on the drive wheel, but this thing is totally rigid because of the roll over structure.
I'll post pics tonight when I get a minute.
Thanks for the cool forum and see you guys around!
