Well, lost a whole day to a uti. Hopefully I'll be a little better today. I'm tired of looking at this body,and now some steel too, and not seeing any progress. I keep wanting to switch back to the chassis I designed, but it won't work on this application. (that will make sense when the "big" ones are ready for the general public..... LoL )
I was hoping to get a quick answer to my last post, but guess not....
I'm going ahead with the swingarm but switching to coil overs off my 90cc 4 wheeler,as they are less sprung weight and I should get some droop when I sit in the kart.... I only see one huge thing I don't like about it (the kart) ...... Has too much ground clearance. Maybe it's just me, maybe it's just cause I'm looking at things upside down... (kinda feel like Tihm,but past slanted a little... LoL ) I'm looking at 9" of distance between bottom of kart and the ground. Maybe more, depending on whether I go straight axle, or put a little riser, like the OE front axle. That would drop the front a little bit. The back has to have some suspension because I fear hitting a dip or hole at 50+mph without it. It would be a rough ride, and that's just no good. I'm switching to the atv shocks because the spring weight is only half that of the vw's. The vw has 800lb springs (progressive) each. It takes all I got to get the spring to start compressing. I can get about an inch out of 8" stroke. That's just one.... The atv on the other hand, has nice springy action. If I jump on the front bumper, it will drop and then come back up almost all the way, with both.... I think that is going to fit my needs just right.
On the front, I was wanting to use tall spindle brackets loaded with high rate springs, like on a Murray Explorer or American Express. If I go that route, I would be making my own spindles out of 4145 bar stock at work. Then weld on the 1" axles to accept the high speed bearings and hubs with 4 on 4. I'm not so sure if that really has any suspension effect. I know it's barely noticeable on the smaller karts, so I'm wondering if it's worth it to try here..... ? Probably just as well make it easier and go solid front end....
you know, after starting this, I see potential flaws in my design for the big boy version. Even with a completely different chassis, I foresee suspension issues. I might have to scrap the irs idea.....
Waiting for the sun to come out and play. I'm gonna start cutting up the frame about 8:30.....
Hope the neighbors are awake, or at least slept good, cause that's fixing to come to a halt......
Gonna post pics of my progress tonight. I cleared out space yesterday so I had decent room to work. But then I took in a lawn mower and a dirt bike. No more work space. I'll just push a few outside.....
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