Father/Son Desert Kart

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punchdrunk monkey

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I was just told about this site and wanted to share a father/son project we built last summer. First off, my son was 6 years old when we started this.

We just sold out desert car and my son asked me "Dad, now we have an open spot in the garage can we build me a car?" well there is only one acceptable answer. Yes we can. SO we talked about what he wanted and talked about how we wanted it to look. Then I started thinking about the motor and suspension. So off to the metal store we went.

The car is built out of 1"x.065 tubing. We used a Honda 185s motor. This was the biggest motor I could thing of that didn't have a clutch. I found a 10" wider axle off a Honda 200x, got rear hubs off a Honda 300ex. The rear shock is a Fox 2.0 coilover (I've re-valved it a few times). Rear disk brake is off a 200x. We built a ratchet type shifter so it's 5 gears up and 5 down. The seats are Mastercraft 1G's and Mastercraft 2" harness's (they work good, he flipped the car once). Steering is rack and pinion from an old buggy. Front spindles are from a Honda 300ex (I modified the pickup points for the a-arms). We built the a-arms and tie-rods. The front suspension took us a few times to get it to cycle right. It currently has 12" travel front and 11" rear (limited to keep the chain tight, could have 15" ). Front lights are off a Banshee and the rear lights are 2 red LED's and an amber light.

It was a great project. We both had a lot of fun building it. We both learned alot too. I would say the build took about 3 months. We quite a few desert trips to work out the bugs. So far this desert season he's been driving it hard with no problems.

Here are a few pictures.

















 

jarcynvicnchris93

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sweet ride!! very nice craftsmanship. looks very similar to some of the karts on desertkarts.com is that where you got your plans or did you design this one yourself?? did you use a rack and pinion for the front end?? all in all a very nice build.
 

punchdrunk monkey

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The rear wheels go all the way up to 1" below the bar above them and still has 3" ground clearence. So a bigger tire would hit. Plus the tires/wheels where free.

Jarcy- Thanks, we built it from scratch. We didn't copy anything. Started on the bottom and worked our way up. Originally it was supposed to to be a go kart but as you can see we got carried away. Things got bigger, taller, wider, longer and next thing we knew we had a mini-dune buggy. It does around 50mph and handles the dersert great. It out performs my Yamaha Rhino suspension. The rack and Pinion was out of a old sand rail. We make the mount and tie-rods.
 

rgvkid

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Hey Punchdrunk Its Charles from Race-Dezert. Glad to see you made it over here. You can count on your son remembering the comraderie between the both of you while spending those quality times together. Your son is going to be one heck of a builder by the time he's old enough to start his own business.

How much would you say you spent on this project? Im sure a heck of alot less then the price of the Rhino or a trophy kart. The seats were probably the most expensive in material. Where were you able to find all the bike the parts you used? The frame dimensions look great, nice and tight. I hate the chinese karts that have the roll cages way to high above the head and under strength.

Have you seen these, check out another thread i posted.

http://www.diygokarts.com/vb/showthread.php?t=2713
 

rgvkid

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Is the rear swing arm off the 200x? The 185 engine, are you talking about the late model Honda atc's? I think there was a 200M that had no clutch also. We had both when i was a kid and i think the 200M didn't have a clutch, not sure how much more power it had then the 185. I saw some 185's on craigslist for like $500.
 

punchdrunk monkey

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Thanks everyone. It was a great project together. Everyday, as soon as I would get home from work he would be begging me to go work on it. My son's cousin also helped. He's 15. I just picked up a VW Thing, so that's our next project.

We added up all the receipts and it was $1200. We had quite a few of the bike parts donated. It was orginally built with fiberglass seat. I help out the #35 Trophy Truck which is owned by Mastercraft Race Seat. So the owner of Mastercraft donated the new seats. And yes they are as comfortable as they look.

The motor is out of a 185. I paid $500 for the bike, took the motor and a few other parts then parted out the rest of the bike. We were able to recoup $300. The rear axle and bearing housing is off a 200x. We built the swing arm.

The 200m is shaft drive. Now that I've done it once, I would not be afraid of doing a clutch.

I have a JD2 bended, JD2 notcher, Miller 175 MIG, Miller 200 TIG and a bunch of harbor freight hand tools. Now I'm looking for a plasma cutter.

I'm going to pull the rear shock off tonight and do some modifications to it tomorrow. Last time we went to the desert my son went on some knarly rides with us. He was jumping it and the rear shock needs some more rebound. I'm going to re-valve the shock, modify the piston and change the spring. Should be a smooth ride after that.

I saw that sit-on-top thing. I could picture myself drinking a half bottle of Captain Morgan and taking that for a ride :rolleyes3:

Thanks again everyone. I know it's not quite a kart but as long as we built it in our garage and have fun that what counts!
 

rgvkid

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Awesome! We took the kids to Monster Jam last weekend and they had the trophy kart race and SXS at intermission. Now the kids are buggin for me to get started on something after seeing the races and that the winner of the trophy karts was 11 years old. Can't wait to start working on our desert kart.
 

88s10Durango

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Awesom build , what tooth count rear and front sprockets did you use ?? I`m in the process of gathering parts to build myself a single seater , full suspension off road Kart , I have a 1981 Honda 185cc out of a trike I will be using , I have a 11 tooth front sproket but haven`t bought a rear one yet , stock was 41 T on the back , I was thinking of using between 44 to 48 ?? Got any vids of it cruising ? thanks Bill
 
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logannull

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i'm fixing to start something similar to this.
i'm not sure if i want a one seater or a two seater though.
and i will have independent rear suspension as well.
 
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