Help - Kids Go Kart

[O@kley]

Hi All,

Firstly - GREAT forum! I am new to this and would appreciate any advice/guidance available so here it is:

I am looking to build 2 go karts for my 3 yr old and 5 yr old:

Petrol - wide/low race style that is easily modified going forward as well as governed to what I want to start. I dont want them flying off at 100 and want to build their confidence.

Mommy wont let me get them pocket bikes so this is the next best thing. I need to MAN my boys up because mommy over does it with the bubble wrap.


I am sorry if this has been asked before but i did not have much luck searching the forum.

So, I live in Cape Town South Africa where I dont have the luxury of 1st world country service and support. My question is - How would I go about building these karts from scratch? I would like them to be wide race style if possible.

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Keep up the good work with this forum!

Ryan Oakley

 

[OzFab]

Welcome to the forum.

First off, what is your skill level?. Can I assume it's at least mid range, otherwise you wouldn't even be considering this. What tools do you have? Do you have a welder?

There are lots of things to consider: most important is the availability of parts. Have a good look around the forum to get an idea of what you might need.

As far as governing speed, that's an easy one. You can use a jackshaft &, as your boys get more confident, you can changethe sprocket sizes to alter the final ratio.

We have at least one other active member from South Africa, I'm sure you'll hear from him before too long. He may be able to guide you as far as parts go.

 

[vpetitgenet]

A Kettle pedal kart can be deconstructed to be used as a base for the frame, although modifications would be required to turn it into a race style frame, the size would be appropriate for 3/5 year olds. Hello from France!

 

[O@kley]

Hi Fabroman,

Thanks for the response and welcome.

To answer your question, I am a technical person but have never attempted something like this. Tools I have a lot of including a welder. Whatever I dont have I am more than willing to procure. As for a frame, if I had some sort of design, I could just get a company to make them for me if this was one of the more challenging parts?

I am not sure as to where to find the parts/components to achieve this so I can only hope to hear from the active South African member who may be able to assist. Any idea what his user ID is?

Hi vpetitgenet - Bonjour et merci
I have an idea in my head that the kart must look like the attached link. Something they can grow into if you know what I mean? so effectively I want the seat to be adjustable by sliding it forward to start just like a car seat.

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=raci...141&start=0&ndsp=67&ved=1t:429,r:21,s:0,i:206



Do you guys think this is overkill?

Thanks

Oakley

 

[landuse]

Hi All,

Firstly - GREAT forum! I am new to this and would appreciate any advice/guidance available so here it is:

I am looking to build 2 go karts for my 3 yr old and 5 yr old:

Petrol - wide/low race style that is easily modified going forward as well as governed to what I want to start. I dont want them flying off at 100 and want to build their confidence.

Mommy wont let me get them pocket bikes so this is the next best thing. I need to MAN my boys up because mommy over does it with the bubble wrap.

I am sorry if this has been asked before but i did not have much luck searching the forum.

So, I live in Cape Town South Africa where I dont have the luxury of 1st world country service and support. My question is - How would I go about building these karts from scratch? I would like them to be wide race style if possible.

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Keep up the good work with this forum!

Ryan Oakley

Welcome to the forum Ryan. I stay in Pietermaritzburg, so compared to the rest of the guys here, we are pretty much neighbours. There have been a few SA's on the forum the last year or two, but they all seem to fade away.

I have found that it is difficult to get any sort of go-kart related stuff here in SA. All the good stuff is in the states. There are one or two places I could suggest though.

Firstly, there is a place called Checkmate Products. They are a company that manufactures go karts, and they are base in Brits. Their web address is www.checkmateproducts.com. You can get a lot of spares from them. They are a little bit expensive though. You could probably find a lot of the stuff that you need locally at engineering shops. This will be stuff like sprockets, chain, bearings etc.

Secondly, there is a place called Grogro. They sell centrifugal clutches as well as Torque Converters. You are going to need one or the other. I would recommend getting a centrifugal clutch for what you are looking at doing. Their address is www.grogro.co.za. They are based in Pretoria. Centrifugal clutches run at anything between R800 and R1200 here in SA. You can try the guys at Maxtorque guys at the address in THIS thread. I have contacted them before, and they can actually send you a clutch from the states for cheaper than what you can buy them here.

Steel can be bought at any steel company. I wouldn't buy from places like Builders Depot of places like that. Go straight to steel suppliers. I would also suggest using 1 inch X 1 inch square tubing. It is more than enough for what you are looking at doing.

There are some really good Sticky threads on the forum regarding steering geometry. HERE is one of them. HERE is a good read on some tools that you might need.

I have had to use engineers to machine some stuff for me. Buying sprockets here usually means that they have a boss on them. This has to be machined off and holes need to be drilled for attachment to a hub. This is what I did anyway. There are practically no kart related stores here, unless you want seriously expensive racing kart parts

What engines are you going to use. I could suggest getting the Honda GX160 engine. They are brilliant!

Let me know if there is anything else you need help with

Here are some plans that we have on the sire

Free Minibike and go kart plans
http://www.sfu.ca/~jst4/plans/docs/bikes/Wren Mini Bike Plans.pdf
http://www.kartbuilding.net/Freeplans/plans.htm
http://www.kartbuilding.net/racingkart/index.html
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how-to/tips/how-to-build-a-go-kart-in-one-day

Look at THIS Sticky for more info as well