My Go Kart Ideas

[drffreeze]

Hello Everyone,

These are some things I would like to explore. I have thought about many of these for years but I am now just able to fit go kart building into my life. =)

Progress Legend
Black = Idea
Red = Stopped
Purple = In Progress
Green = Done

Near Term - Little Man 1.0
Learning to weld
Making a kart that can move, turn, and stop *1st task! =)
Simple ladder frame

Little Man 1.1
Rearview/side mirrors
Arduino RPM limiter controlled by kart speed
Double belt jackshaft with manual HIGH-LOW
Trailer hitch
Trailer (mini for yard work)

Cart_Name 2.0
15" beefy tires
4WD
4WS

Cart_Name 2.1
Lightly tuned 6.5 HP Predator
High flow "silent" muffler

Cart_Name 2.2
~35A alternator for lights
LED strip lights for night riding in the forest
Break lights
Tachometer
Alternator used dual purpose for short reverse

Cart_Name 2.3
Dual 6.5 HP Predators
Snowplow (mini for kids to clean up snow spillover from the main plow)

Cart_Name 3.0
Go kart with 420 Predator
Space frameish (just lighter steel with lots of triangles)

Cart_Name 3.1 Winter Edition
Cantilever wheels (2 on each corner)
Cantilever wheels (4 on each corner)
Cantilever wheels (2 on each corner) with thin tracks
Cantilever wheels (4 on each corner) with wide tracks
Snowplow (big for kart with 420 or 670)

TBD
Belt reverse
Chain two speed double jackshaft with dog clutches
24" motorcycle tires for ultra clearance kart
Go kart with 670 Predator with Comet 94C Duster CVT
Winch
Trailer (min for picnics in the forest)
Hydraulic Dyno
Hydraulic brakes from inexpensive new car parts

End Game
With what I learn here, someday I will drive to work in a car I designed and built myself

Regards,
Drffreeze

 

[Winterz]

Yay!!!

Looks Fun! Glad I will be building this with you!

 

[Nosandwich]

Hmmmm....GAB without a CLUE....PRICELESS!!!!

 

[TT540]

Snowplow go kart racing!!!!

Keep us posted with pictures when the parts come in. And it is ok to refine expectations after starting.

 

[drffreeze]

Snowplow go kart racing!!!!

Keep us posted with pictures when the parts come in. And it is ok to refine expectations after starting.

A go kart with a plow, how cool would that be? My youngest pedals his John Deere tractor around. Grandpa made a trailer for it and he uses it to take the trash out to the end of our driveway. We can get quite a bit of snow where we live and I plow with our Kawasaki Mule 401cc and it does great. The kids should be able to push snowballs around once I figure out reverse. It may require 4WD, we shall see. Our driveway was plowed only with a Kawasaki Mule with a 410cc engine. It did quite well as seen in the below picture.

I got my engine last week and borrowed a welder two days ago. Yesterday I just picked up some metal so we can practice welding this weekend unless we get rained out. The 15" beefy tires will arrive Monday. We are excited to get started on Little Man 1.0. I am sure my expectations will grow once I get into and see what is possible but these are some low hanging fruit for now. =)

I do realize some of these items are quite challenging but I have been thinking about them for the last 30+ years. All of these warrent at least further investigation, we shall see if whether they will make it into a live go kart or not.

Yes, I do want to design and build my own car. =)

Regards,
Drffreeze

 

[drffreeze]

Hmmmm....GAB without a CLUE....PRICELESS!!!!

Before you knew anything did you know anything? You gotta start somewhere. =)

23 years ago

I said that to overclock our computers we should submerge them in some type of liquid because the heat capacity of liquid was much higher than air. Those that I told said that I should stop smoking the good stuff. =/​

19 years ago

I cooled my PC in 8 gallons of mineral oil that was chilled to -40C by a 5,000 BTU air conditioner.​

I love researching, designing, and creating. We will see if go karting grows past Little Man 1.0 but I sure hope so! =)

Regards,
Drffreeze

 

[tgus3]

Have fun doing this when/if you get to your car let us know!

 

[anickode]

Before you knew anything did you know anything? You gotta start somewhere. =)

23 years ago

I said that to overclock our computers we should submerge them in some type of liquid because the heat capacity of liquid was much higher than air. Those that I told said that I should stop smoking the good stuff. =/​

19 years ago

I cooled my PC in 8 gallons of mineral oil that was chilled to -40C by a 5,000 BTU air conditioner.​

I love researching, designing, and creating. We will see if go karting grows past Little Man 1.0 but I sure hope so! =)

Regards,
Drffreeze

Haha those were the days... I had a motherboard in a small tank full of mineral oil, with a circulating pump and a transmission cooler. I broke the GHZ barrier with a 566 MHz Intel Celeron processor about a month before the 1ghz Pentium III came out. It was essentially useless because of the L2 cache and FSB limitations, but it ran. For a while anyway.

 

[drffreeze]

Hello anickode,

Very cool! In those days I felt like I had to overclock because my computer never was fast enough. Today I have an unlocked CPU but have yet to overclock it. =/

Regards,
Drffreeze

 

[RosieVine]

I hope I will be able to help with the Go Kart to more then I think I will. Can't wait. =)

 

[drffreeze]

I hope I will be able to help with the Go Kart to more then I think I will. Can't wait. =)

You will do great dear!

Love,
Drffreeze

---------- Post added at 09:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:35 PM ----------

Looks Fun! Glad I will be building this with you!

Sounds great son, we will learn lots and have a blast!

Love,
Drffreeze

 

[bob58o]

GAB means "Go All Bob" and what "Going all Bob" means has evolved in the few years I've been here. Trust me, you'd rather GAB than PAFR.

When I first joined, I shared lots of ideas, like multi speed belt driven jackshafts, double inline torque converters.... I didn't know anything about any of it, but wanted to learn about all of it. I wanted to do things that other people haven't done.

You remind me of me. And it seems you remind others of me too. I never had a kart or minibike or anything when I started here a few years ago. Never worked on or understood small engines. Now I can identify, describe, and state the purpose of every single component of a Honda GX, Clone, or Predator small block engine.

Now I'd like to think GAB means making every attempt to research, understand, and apply the concepts needed to ?optimize? "stuff". I can research and plan for months before I start an even small project.

The bar has been set. You've got a huge hat to fill now. LOL

PAFR
Pull a Free Runner

One of my earlier threads....
http://www.diygokarts.com/vb/showthread.php?t=32171

 

[drffreeze]

GAB means "Go All Bob" and what "Going all Bob" means has evolved in the few years I've been here. Trust me, you'd rather GAB than PAFR.

In my introduction post someone said GAB about my CAD work. Not knowing what GAB meant I looked it up and the best I could find was Gimme a Break LINK. I now know on this forum it is a compliment. =)

When I first joined, I shared lots of ideas, like multi speed belt driven jackshafts, double inline torque converters.... I didn't know anything about any of it, but wanted to learn about all of it.

The search for knowledge, one of the greatest human endeavors! Kudos to you!

I wanted to do things that other people haven't done.

Wow, that is starting to resonate with me...

You remind me of me.

Funny, after reading your posts I thought you reminded me of me. =p

And it seems you remind others of me too.

I will take that as a high compliment!

I never had a kart or minibike or anything when I started here a few years ago. Never worked on or understood small engines. Now I can identify, describe, and state the purpose of every single component of a Honda GX, Clone, or Predator small block engine.

I am guessing that before you knew anything, you didn't know anything.

I always wanted to know about mechanical things but never really explored them too much. Oh sure I can change my tires, replace a hub assembly, do my disk or drum brakes, replace my plugs, do an oil change, and change a water pump but that is about all I have ever done.

I have gone a bit further in computers. I first got the computer bug in middle school in the early 80's with Apple IIe. My first serious program, a defender clone that was never finished, had all kinds of graphical issues. It turns out my program was so big it was running into the graphics memory range. I was a big fantasy reader but I found that I was a part of the story in computer RPG games. The only problem was I didn't have enough money to buy a fast enough computer, hence I got into overclocking.

I told someone we should put our computers into a liquid because the heat capacity of air was just abysmal. They said I should stop smoking the good stuff. To be honest, it kinda angered me. Four years later, to my knowledge, I was the first enthusiast to immerse my PC into 8 gallons of mineral oil and I cooled it to -40C with a 5,000 BTU window air conditioner. I had my 15 minutes of internet fame and ended up with a job in the computer industry. I eventually went to school and became an electronics technician. The next semester I enrolled in electrical engineering and I got my EE degree a few years later. This was all because I was just following my passion. It was pretty amazing!

I dabble in electronics as a hobby. Here (LINK) is my simple computer room temperature/humidity monitor that uses the cloud so I can access worldwide from a phone or a computer with an internet connection.

I am now turning my attention to all things "go kart" related. It doesn't look like a cheap hobby but I think I can pull my kids in and use it as a great platform for teaching. We live right next to the Boise National Forest so off road go karts just makes a lot of sense. =)

Now I'd like to think GAB means making every attempt to research, understand, and apply the concepts needed to ?optimize? "stuff". I can research and plan for months before I start an even small project.

Optimize: I had a tiny pocket LED flashlight that I found the PCB for on the internet so that I could see if I could optimize it. One of the major filters in my life is that I see everything through a, "how can this be optimized" lens. E V E R Y T H I N G It just feels natural.

The bar has been set. You've got a huge hat to fill now. LOL

I will take that challenge and if I have anything to say about it so will my sons and daughters! =)

Feel free to ignore any questions I ask. I Know I ask a lot.

From one of your old threads. I feel bad sometimes for others because my questions just never end.

PAFR
Pull a Free Runner

Case in point, I don't get it. I would suspect it means, "don't be an idler pulley". =)

One of my earlier threads....
http://www.diygokarts.com/vb/showthread.php?t=32171

I have yet to be convinced that a manual belt HIGH-LOW "sub-transmission" wouldn't be a good solution for my problem on Little Man. I guess more research is required.

Thanks for all your input!
Drffreeze

 

[Whitetrashrocker]

PAFR.

Free runner was a member here who did stupid dangerous things.

Example? He welded and ground a new cam profile. Despite the whole forum saying it was a bad idea. He did it and quickly blew up his engine.

Entertaining? Yes.
Good role model? No.

Welcome to the zoo.

 

[bob58o]

Plus my posts tend to be "wordy".
I gab when I GAB now I'm gabbing about GABBING.

What engine on the first iteration, and tell me about this rev limiter you plan to implement.
I've recently explored rev limiting options for Honda Clone engines, but didn't find anything to meet my needs with the flywheel I am using.

 

[anickode]

PAFR.

Free runner was a member here who did stupid dangerous things.

Example? He welded and ground a new cam profile. Despite the whole forum saying it was a bad idea. He did it and quickly blew up his engine.

Entertaining? Yes.
Good role model? No.

Welcome to the zoo.

That used to be fairly common practice for some racing classes that required stock cams, but there was no rule about modifying said stock cam. And before that, when you had to go to a machine shop if you wanted a performance cam.

 

[bob58o]

That used to be fairly common practice for some racing classes that required stock cams, but there was no rule about modifying said stock cam. And before that, when you had to go to a machine shop if you wanted a performance cam.

This was more like
Step 1. Buy 1st engine ever.
Step 2. Drill out venturi of carb
Step 3. Buy 306 lift cam shaft
Step 4. Grind, weld and regrind camshaft by eye.
Step 5. Drink Grain Alcohol though nose
Step 6. Hit stuff with hammer

I think he has a youtube channel. Speedy212 or something.

 

[mckutzy]

But He ground the cam by eye with an angle grinder...

He also went and drove his kart 60mph with no brakes like it was an ouboard motorboat, one hand on the throttle lever and the other on the wheel.... Had some gps overlay with his phone and filmed it.....
It was a long road no traffic ahead of him.... but somewhat managed it... Then sometime after that he killed the motor with nitro-meth or something....or he drank it.....

 

[drffreeze]

What engine on the first iteration, and tell me about this rev limiter you plan to implement.
I've recently explored rev limiting options for Honda Clone engines, but didn't find anything to meet my needs with the flywheel I am using.

I just created our 2018 Build Off Contest thread. It should be posted in a few days. Before we get very far in building we will need to go through our build criteria. Some of that is started but it is a bit dated, 2015. The team will have to talk about it as I will be teaching them the Engineering Design Process (LINK). I think of it as the Scientific Method for people that make chit. =)

We are just using a Predator 212cc to start. I prefer to build off of other people's greatness when available. As of yet I have not found anything to my liking which really surprises me. On another project, I am using some logic level MOSFETs that can handle 30A 60V 10 for $17(LINK). They can be controlled by logic level from a little microcontroller. I was thinking maybe something like the Arduino Uno for ~$9 (LINK).

I need to at least break the engine in before RPM limiter work. The kids will really get a kick out of that so we will probably do that soon.

Do we need tons of practice welding! haha​

My goal is to get the kart driving around the yard ASAP so the RPM limiter may take a back seat. If I have some time to myself I may be able to tinker on that as it sounds like a blast just to make. It feels like it is the perfect solution for my needs but we shall see.

If I get any work done I will keep everyone posted.

Question:
Should ever topic that touches LITTLE MAN 1.0 be in the build thread? In other words, if LITTLE MAN 1.1 may have it will it need to all be bundled in the original build thread? It feels like each major topic would get its own thread but I can do what is preferred.

Regards,
Drffreeze

 

[Nosandwich]

Everything in one thread.