My First Cart

[Ahmed]

Hi, I was thinking of building a kart so I gathered some parts, here's the list for the main parts.

• Peerless Transmission
• 0.065 Thick Aluminium Tubing
• 190cc B&S Vertical Shaft Engine

The kart is 3' by 6' and is designed for road use. Does the part list sound good?

 

[Nodroz]

Why Aluminium if I may ask? Do you have a special welder for Aluminium?

In my opinion, steel is so much better because it's cheap + it's easier to weld than Aluminium and you don't need a special welder to do so.

Aluminium is expensive, but lightweight. Still, I would suggest to use steel. So much better in my opinion for a street gokart.

190cc sounds OK.

What type of gokart have you in toughts? Slicks tyres? What speeds would like to get? Only road use, no offroad? etc?

 

[souperman000]

Do you have any pics of your idea? With a vertical engine and a peerless tranny, it might be difficult to use a "classic" kart frame.

 

[Ahmed]

I want to use knobby tires for a road and offroad kart. With the transmission I expect 10 to 40MPH. And The frame isn't going to be 'classic', the transmission is going to hang a few inches under the kart so the wheels can be under the frame and it should be enough to carry 3 freinds for a drive in the suburbs. I might use steel but I'm worried that it will be kinda heavy.

 

[Nodroz]

If you want to carry 3 friend, I guess you'll need to start looking for a bigger bore engine, especially if you want to reach that speed.

 

[Ahmed]

I think I could do it on 1st gear but that's not the big deal. I want to know if the aluminium is strong enough. I have an HHO welder for welding aluminium.

 

[CrashTestDummy]

What the heck is a HHO welder? It better be fancy cuz that aluminum you wanna weld is mighty thin if youre not a good welder!

 

[denhammotors]

I think that HHO is a somewhat obsolete way of referring to oxy-acetylene welding.

 

[cumminsbayou4x4]

so your taking our advice and your gonna use a transmission

 

[mckutzy]

A HHo welder is a fancy torch like an oxy/acetylene except it has a generator to split water to make hydrogen. Uses a ton of power, and it mainly used for small jewelry and the like. Cant do any cutting, and welding steel is mostly thin/small/light parts.
I cant find any info on welding non ferrous white metals.

For the money get a tig and a bunch of scrap to practice on. or a mig with a spool gun. either way, they are the best to work aluminum, in the end use steel instead.

 

[Ahmed]

Actually, if you can create LOTS of HHO you can easily melt steel without a consumable rod. But on Amazon I found aluminium tubing for $6 but steel tubing of the same size was $25 so I'll stick to aluminium. I am going to put the engine/trans assembelly at the front and run a chain from the 22" trans shaft to my main drive axle. Will that work?

 

[denhammotors]

When buying steel or aluminium, I would highly advise against buying online. The prices per foot are usually much more expensive, not to even mention the shipping costs. It's much better to find a steel supplier somewhere local, whose prices are usually between $0.50 to $2.00 per foot, and then not have to pay for shipping. Steel is almost always cheaper than aluminium of the same size and thickness.

 

[Fallenleopard]

I personally wouldn't thin that the aluminum would be strong enough, but if you are a good welder of aluminum and brace the frame enough you shouldn't run into too much trouble.

what made you decide to use a vertical shaft engine for a kart?

think if you had the engine at the front it will be more of a ride on lawnmower than a kart

 

[Ahmed]

I am putting the engine/tranny at the front so I can steer easily with a live axle.

 

[souperman000]

I am putting the engine/tranny at the front so I can steer easily with a live axle.

The posisiton of the engine and tranny does not have a huge effect on handling with a live axle. The two wheels turning at the same time and speed causes handling issues.

 

[landuse]

The posisiton of the engine and tranny does not have a huge effect on handling with a live axle. The two wheels turning at the same time and speed causes handling issues.

There should be no difference in handling. The axle is still going to turn the same no matter where your engine is.

 

[Ahmed]

Hmm, I thought that if the back end would be lighter I'd get less traction and the back of the cart would sway when I make a fast turn. And it would be easier for me to change gears.

 

[landuse]

Hmm, I thought that if the back end would be lighter I'd get less traction and the back of the cart would sway when I make a fast turn.

That might be true in certain cases. Having some more weight distributed forward might help steering a bit, but it sounds like you are just going to be putting a plaster over a gaping wound. I would suggest making sure that your steering geometry is correct first. If it is, you will probably find that you don't need to move the engine around

 

[Ahmed]

I'm using an Asuza steering kit but how am I suppost to make one tie rod 24” or so and another one 12”. And the overall length of the shafts on the tranny are 22” when my kart is 36”. Any ideas?

 

[landuse]

I'm using an Asuza steering kit but how am I suppost to make one tie rod 24” or so and another one 12”. And the overall length of the shafts on the tranny are 22” when my kart is 36”. Any ideas?

:ttiwwop: