My New-ish Buggy Design

[klicky96]

Well guys, I've done a lot of planning, aand a lot of parts-collecting. Now, I have all the fabrication skills I need, I have all the tools I need. I just want ya'll to take a look at my design and tell me some pro's and con's you think I may have.

 

[exenos]

The roll cage looks too low, you want about 4 inches above your head for crush room to be safe in a rollover.Also the big word for that frame is Triangulation all you have are squares, no triangles. Put a bar from corner to corner in those squares and you will have multiplied the frames strength many times over.

 

[r97]

Also... holey mother of wheel base! The way that thing is setup now the turning radius will be huge!

What are your plans for the drive-line?

 

[klicky96]

Also... holey mother of wheel base! The way that thing is setup now the turning radius will be huge!

What are your plans for the drive-line?

This is just a rough draft basically. Im not going completely off of this, just using it for a reference.

And for my Drivetrain, I have a Foote 3 speed + reverse trans. I'm gonna use an old 16 HP Briggs, vertical shaft. It will be belt-chain driven.

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Not only do you want "crush room" above your head, give consideration to motion. If you go over, your body will move. Even with a harness on, your head will still move towards the top of the cage by an inch or two.

I agree on the triangulation and wheelbase comments, as well.

Your sketch shows a vertical engine- is this deliberate?

 

[fowler]

Why not mount the engine in the frame rather than on the swing arm
U may as well as u have a massive swing arm any how

 

[klicky96]

Not only do you want "crush room" above your head, give consideration to motion. If you go over, your body will move. Even with a harness on, your head will still move towards the top of the cage by an inch or two.

I agree on the triangulation and wheelbase comments, as well.

Your sketch shows a vertical engine- is this deliberate?

Yes sir, I have the engine, key start, with a charging coil for lights.

Why not mount the engine in the frame rather than on the swing arm
U may as well as u have a massive swing arm any how

I am building this off of a quarter midget, and with the frame, I wouldn't have the design room to fabricate a tensioner for the belt coming from the engine unless I built it off of the engine itself, which I believe wont be possible.

 

[klicky96]

Not only do you want "crush room" above your head, give consideration to motion. If you go over, your body will move. Even with a harness on, your head will still move towards the top of the cage by an inch or two.

I agree on the triangulation and wheelbase comments, as well.

Your sketch shows a vertical engine- is this deliberate?

Is it too late to enter into the build off toystory? I know this isn't gonna be a winning project cuz, well, i'm building it. But it's worth a shot.

 

[r97]

If you think you can finish it in time then I see no reason why you couldn't.

 

[landuse]

Is it too late to enter into the build off toystory? I know this isn't gonna be a winning project cuz, well, i'm building it. But it's worth a shot.

Remember your sign

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Is it too late to enter into the build off toystory? I know this isn't gonna be a winning project cuz, well, i'm building it. But it's worth a shot.

It's always worth a shot! The contest is open to new entries, I say go for it.

 

[klicky96]

Well guys, I didn't put the project in the build-off because I wouldn't have finished it in time. But, I've gotten a lot done. I have completely dismantled the kart, chopped the rear of the frame off because there were breaks and holes in the frame. The original guy who welded this frame up did awesome with the front, but horrible with the rear. I don't even know how it withstood the racing he did with it. But I already welded up my swingarm, welded 1/4" plate across it, and partially mounted my engine. This engine has not been ran in about 6 years I'd say. When I was like 9, I was mowing the lawn and I guess the bolts came loose on the transaxle or something, but lets just say that it was sideways underneath the tractor. So my dad just put it back behind the barn, and when I was roaming around a couple weeks ago, I seen it, pulled it into the garage and replaced the gaskets and cleaned the carb. Today, after I mounted it up, I decided to see if she'll start. Lets just say, she purrs like a kitten. But I have a problem. When I turn the key off, she stays running. I mounted up my new ignition, still does it so i'm just gonna tap a kill switch into the wiring harness and be done with it. But here's some pics of the kart and engine.

 

[landuse]

Looking good so far

 

[klicky96]

Thanks. I still need to reinforce a lot of the frame, one more stupid thing the guy didn't do when he built it. But when I'm done, she'll be indestructible.

 

[landuse]

Was this kart build using the designs that you had at the beginning of the thread? What engine have you got. It looks like a vertical engine. How are you going to do the transmission?

 

[klicky96]

Those designs were just to basically wrap up what I wanna do in a short statement. I designed them as like a starting point. I used them as a reference to build the frame but did not go 100% by them. and yes, that is a vertical engine you see. It is an old 16.5HP Briggs from a mid 80's MTD. I will be using my old transaxle from my derby tractor on this. On the transaxle, before it went into the derby, I ran a smaller drive pulley on it so to be safe, I took the casing off of it, welded up the gears to make it a 2-wheel drive in the rear, I replaced all of the lube with a transmission/hydraulic mix(I made) and in the derby, it ran perfect and didn't get hit hard so Im gonna use that. I believe it should run fine with this setup but I'm gonna extend the shafts about 8 inches on each side and mount some bearing to them for support so I don't flex the shafts and mess up the transaxle.

 

[klicky96]

Well got some more work done today. I will probably have it fully mocked up in about 2 weeks. I still have to mount my shock absorbers on the swing mount, mount up my other a-arm on each side of the front, put the rear transaxle on it and make up my clutch. The Transaxle is an old spicer from my derby mower. Once thats all done, it will be able to ride. After, I will get it painted. I'm thinking a nice dark purple with a light green or yellow trim. The old mower is my derby mower. The motor took a crap and i'm not gonna spend money on a new camshaft, valves, valve springs, and a rebuild kit so im just gonna use the usable parts from it on my buggy.

 

[landuse]

Dang!! It looks like you are working in the dark there with only one light to guide you.

Nice work by the way

 

[klicky96]

I tried taking the pics before it got dark out. I got a few after I worked on the front end. Once I tore the old tractor apart though, it got too dark. My garage has really bad lighting. I have 4 strobe lights, its that bad. I wanna hang some more lights.

 

[JWales]

Nice job. How you will do breaks on a set up like that? I like your front tires, i'm hoping I can find something like that for my kart.