Adult Go-Kart!!!

[BootyBear1111]

First and foremost, thanks for taking the time to view this thread and for helping with any questions I may have.

I'm a 6ft 225lb man. I've mastered the gasoline kart, but would like to build a electric kart. I'm new to the electric side and have read through a ton of very helpful threads on this forum so far.

I know what I should be looking for:
Electric motor / pmdc controller / Batteries / etc.. etc...

But, I am wanting to go fast. Reaaaallly fast!! Ntm, I would like to do this project for minimum to $0.
(Don't worry, I've already aquired a dumpster diving suit from Craigslist)

-Questions-
1. Steel or Wood frame? Pros and Cons...

2. What type of electric set-up should I be looking to acquire?

4. Does it matter the battery voltage? Like, would 6v batteries work? Would a 24v battery work? Is 2x 6v's the same as a 12v or is it best to stick strictly to 12v batteries? Does it even matter? (I've been reading that it really comes down to the Ah..)

I'm sure I'll have more as they come, but for now these are the basics

Thanks friends!

 

[itsid]

your not exactly lightweight; and you want to go fast "Reaaaallly fast!!" as you put it...

No wooden frame, you cannot make a wooden frame sturdy and safe enough that's not at the same time at least twice as expensive and probably heavy as an identically safe steel frame.
Honestly.. buy a racing kart frame and start from there.
it's the best thing you could do really.

well the fastest electric karts are powered by a forklift motor.
a really mean forklift motor that is.
and it's indeed the lift motor, not the drive motor.

Here's the professional build of such contraption
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wac1ofVYfd0

voltage is important... but how you get there is not.
you can run 4 6V batteries in series as well as 2 12V or just pick one 24V battery.
but the lower the rated voltage the higher the cell count.. each cell comes with a case.. that adds weight.
so be reasonable and don't run a kart on tripleA's (it'd work though if you can cool them)

'sid

 

[DeathMachine]

Many many years ago I built an electric mini bike from plans purchased from mechanix illustrated. I used a Ford starter motor and a 12v battery, the speed control was a hand wound resistor.

It was heavy, and felt faster than it was. Battery lasted about a half hour and needed to charge overnight.

Things are more efficient now, but it's still going to be heavy and take a long time to recharge.

 

[BootyBear1111]

so 2x 24v batteries are going to weight less than 4x 12v batteries?
sign... where in the world ami going to get a motor and controller like those!?!? This sounds like it's going to be a harder project than anticipated

 

[itsid]

so 2x 24v batteries are going to weight less than 4x 12v batteries?
sign... where in the world ami going to get a motor and controller like those!?!? This sounds like it's going to be a harder project than anticipated

not necessarily lighter no.. but most likely lighter yes.
(lithium batteries are much smaller and lighter than lead acid cells..
but taking the same technology and capacity yes...
1x 24V battery will be lighter than 2x 12V batteries

Well, that is about as fast as you can get,
those motors are not something you'll typically find on a dumpster.
And even used motors of that kind are expensive, really expensive.

But you asked, so I answered to my best knowledge.

Go and find an electric golf kart on craigslist...
that'd be most likely cheap and powerfull enough.
you won't break speed records, but it'll be exciting none the less.

'sid

 

[BootyBear1111]

That helps a lot. Looks like I'm going to have to get creative with this project

 

[landuse]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Skystream]

BootyBear1111, any progress on this? I'm a 40-year old "kid" who is helping a friend who wants to build an all-electric go kart for him and his nephew to enjoy on the straight streets in his neighborhood.

The main goals of our project is to have a microcontroller-managed speed limiter so that the go-kart has a lower maximum speed for his nephew and faster top speed when he drives it. I plan to do all the microcontroller stuff (as that's my area of expertise) probably with an ATMega (think Arduino) and probably a 16x2 Newhaven LCD. He doesn't want a super fast kart, but if it could hit 20-25 mph, he'd be pretty happy.

We plan to build a frame from scratch using welded 1" square steel tubing which we already acquired last fall. I've got a flux core welder that we are going to use for the welding. I build steel welded pneumatic animatronics as a hobby, and that's kinda where the 1" square steel tubing came from.

The biggest challenge is trying to figure out what motor & controller to use. My friend has already looked at trying to use a golf-cart motor and controller, but it's more money than what he wants to spend. So we haven't really done anything else yet.

 

[John551]

http://youtu.be/O-MD_4F7sNs

There is a description of parts in the video, really just consists ac induction motor, batteries, computer module, and some other stuff, it gets really really costly if you want a fast electric kart. I estimate $4000 for everything.

 

[dcastillo]

You can do it for much cheaper then $4K...
you can get 4-6KW motors on amazon for $500 or so. Another 150 or so for decent controller and then just need batteries, which could be a few hundred as well...
stick it all on a used but strong frame from craigslist and your all set...
(well theres a bit more to it then that, but you get the idea)
Ive got a 30yr old 2kW golf cart motor that gets me going 20mph with kids... (just cant afford the 4kW... yet)
-Danny

 

[Ready4Dis]

BootyBear1111, any progress on this? I'm a 40-year old "kid" who is helping a friend who wants to build an all-electric go kart for him and his nephew to enjoy on the straight streets in his neighborhood.

The main goals of our project is to have a microcontroller-managed speed limiter so that the go-kart has a lower maximum speed for his nephew and faster top speed when he drives it. I plan to do all the microcontroller stuff (as that's my area of expertise) probably with an ATMega (think Arduino) and probably a 16x2 Newhaven LCD. He doesn't want a super fast kart, but if it could hit 20-25 mph, he'd be pretty happy.

We plan to build a frame from scratch using welded 1" square steel tubing which we already acquired last fall. I've got a flux core welder that we are going to use for the welding. I build steel welded pneumatic animatronics as a hobby, and that's kinda where the 1" square steel tubing came from.

The biggest challenge is trying to figure out what motor & controller to use. My friend has already looked at trying to use a golf-cart motor and controller, but it's more money than what he wants to spend. So we haven't really done anything else yet.

An arduino to control the speed? Why not just a resistor and a switch? I mean, your speed control is expecting a voltage output from your potentiometer... simply putting a resistor inline would lower this voltage meaning not give max power. You could put a switch on it that would either put the resistor inline or bypass. I'm not sure why you would want to use a microcontroller for this, unless you're building the entire PWM circuit, in which case more power to you .