and so it begins......

[davidbooth1991]

Hi all this is my very first ( hopefully of many) off road builds. I'm making it at work when I have the time to twiddle my thumbs( not very often lol) thinking full caged full suspension kart and I'm using a lot of stuff from the skip at work and hand making the rest ( disk brake, hubs, tie rods, struts and even smithing the springs. I don't have a plan or drawings I'm mainly looking at other pictures and falling on my experience. I think some things will work and other will look weird but still work haha FYI I watch scrapheap challenge ALOT lol. Stay tuned guys. Dave.

 

[davidbooth1991]

And so I sat down and scratched my head and thought 'where to start '. So I just drew some a arms on my welding bench and they looked OK to me so i went for it and made them. I made the a arms out 20 x 20 x 2mm shs. I also need to somehow connect my a arms to my cradle so I went for a simple bracket made of 25 x 6 flat drilled to take a 12mm bolt. The actual connections at the end of the a arms that the bolt slides through to pin the a arm to the bracket are made of 21mm steel tube with a 12 mm washer welded to each side.

 

[davidbooth1991]

I don't really know if there is a right place to start building a kart but this as good a place as any so next I'll be making the cradle at the nose of my kart along with the kingpins that are made the same way as the pipes at the end of the a arm just with 12mm bar instead of a bolt and a lug at each end of the bar with bolt holes to bolt to the a arms.

 

[OzFab]

Interesting place to start but, anyhoo...

Good luck with the build; my only advice is take lots of pics & record all your measurements for future reference

 

[davidbooth1991]

So I got back in today and started making the rest of the front end of my kart I just drew it on the bench again and set a bevel square up and it worked really well. I'm still not sure too sure about what travel I'll have on my struts as I'm making them but I'm sure I'll figure it out along the way. Does anyone have any advice on where best to start a build ( fabroman ) loool. Again any help and advice is well appretiated .

 

[davidbooth1991]

So today I got the front and looking abit more how it should I had to make an alteration to the centres of my a arms ( by alterations I mean chopping them out with a propane axe lol ) because the strut wouldn't have worked. I also added the brace at the top to take the struts afterwards as I thought I would make things easier and I've seen other do similar. Tomorrow imbgoing to try to get some more frame mitred and tacked on.

 

[davidbooth1991]

I knew that RSJ would come in handy. So this is were I'm up to on with the frame I think, then go to see the trusty neighbour scrapyard where I'm bound to fine an engine or two. Cheers guys.

 

[OzFab]

Does anyone have any advice on where best to start a build ( fabroman ) loool. Again any help and advice is well appretiated .

...go to see the trusty neighbour scrapyard where I'm bound to fine an engine or two. Cheers guys.

That's where I would've started; buy an engine & build the frame around it...

Don't get me wrong, you didn't do anything wrong, I've just never seen a mini buggy build started at the front, usually the front end is built onto the frame...

It should be easy enough to integrate the front end into the frame, just keep a close eye on your measurements

I had to make an alteration to the centres of my a arms ( by alterations I mean chopping them out with a propane axe lol ) because the strut wouldn't have worked.

I noticed that yesterday but, I assumed you knew what you were doing

All in all, it's coming along nicely

 

[landuse]

I agree. You are doing well so far.

 

[firemanjim]

Looks like some one has done some homework.... good job so far....

 

[davidbooth1991]

Cheers for the support guys I'm gonna start working backwards with the frame and finish with the roll cage. the box section panel I used for material had 2 x 2 10gge mesh tacked on so i might include that somewhere but haven't thought that far ahead yet I started making a make shift piston for the centre of my shocks but Its a bit harder than I thought . Thanks again guys.

 

[davidbooth1991]

Has anybody on the forum ever build a machine with a mesh panel or checker plate or anything like that. When I watch off road contest with buggy's they all have mesh panels on them ( I suppose anything big enough to fit through a gap in the mesh could knock out a tooth or two ) and I was thinking alluminium checker plate 16 / 20 gge just to tidy up the frame. What do you think???

 

[OzFab]

The floor & dash panel in my kart are 1.6mm alu checker plate & it works well. It's a bit expensive but, it's easy to work with & looks great...

For what you're building, the heavier gauge is a good idea but, don't go too far, you don't want to add too much unnecessary weight

 

[davidbooth1991]

Yeah that's what I'll mate. I'll put the mesh on the front and try and get some checker plate and tidy the frame up a bit. Cheers fabroman

 

[davidbooth1991]

another little baby step

Hey guys I just used the last of the scrap box I had left now i got to order some more. Not expensive really so it shouldn't be to long. Next I'll carry on with the upper rib all the way around but it will rake up and lead to a spine that a seats going to be bolted to. Stay tuned. Dave

 

[Felineman]

Ya building from the front first is weird but if it works for you who am I to say different. Keep up the good work Love to see it when its done.

 

[PeteNado]

I've seen so much build starting from the front, some amazing build ! If you have a plan or a good idea of what you're doing it's not a problem at all.

See some AR51 build for example here:

http://www.minibuggy.net/forum/ar51-buggy-group/18590-marks-busa-ar51-build.html
http://www.minibuggy.net/forum/ar51-buggy-group/16171-ar51-build-ky.html
http://www.minibuggy.net/forum/ar51-buggy-group/17334-ar51-sydney-australia.html

 

[davidbooth1991]

Thanks for the comments guys really appreciate it. Errrm I have no plans at all I'm just drawing schems on the floor and working from photos I have a good idea of what I wanted but its changed like two or three times already. I started at the front because all I started with was steel. No tyres no engine no axle ( I still have none of those things lmao) but its my first build and I just fancied a challenge . hense the reason im making my brake disk, shocks, springs, etc. There are a lot of excellent mind and engineers here and I've ready had a ton of help so I'm sure I'll get there in the end. Cheers guys

 

[davidbooth1991]

I think this is going to take a lot longer than I thought, that's not nessicaliry a bad thing though is it?????

 

[Felineman]

LOL look at my build, Having to wait for the grass to dry so I can get my engine. Sometimes things happen that you can't control.