New to forum, and to karting

[KidsRbuilding]

Hey All!

Four years ago my 4 year old son decided he wanted to build a go kart out of a frame we found at a garage sale. I told him I would help him if he paid for the entire thing himself. Well, 4 years later he finished the go kart and now we are hooked

Him and his little sisters have had so much fun on the kart that he built that they decided they wanted another one, and we just found a little two seater on Craigslist and the kids all went in on it together and got it for $140 (pretty good deal in my opinion, because people in my area ask almost that much for the Honda 5 HP engine that's on it).

We do have a dilemma though... we live in Mesa, AZ, and we are struggling to find a good place for the kids to ride. In Mesa all of the parks won't allow motor vehicles. The schools have their parking lots gated off to keep people out. The karts don't have suspension so we don't want to just take them out to the desert because they don't work really well on rocky terrain.

Anybody know of places for kids to ride in the Mesa, AZ area? I would totally appreciate any tips!

In the meantime, the kids have ANOTHER two seater frame to work on. If they can scrounge enough money up for an engine, clutch, chain, and some tires we may have three karts working soon! I'll be sure to look at all of the great advice in the forums while helping them with that build

 

[landuse]

Welcome to the forum. It sounds like you are teaching your kids sound financial principles by having them buy the stuff themselves. They seem to appreciate it more.

Have yu got some pics of the karts?

Sorry I can't help you out with areas to ride. Have you maybe called the local karting tracks. Sometimes they will allow private karts

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Welcome to the forum! (I can't believe they close the school parking lots there, that's a drag!)

Show us what they've done!

 

[KidsRbuilding]

what they've built...

Ok, here are pics of the kids' projects...

First, the oldest started with the frame for this one seater and built it from there. He put a 6.5 HP Harbor Freight engine on it. Overall he spent about $240 building the kart, and he earned that money himself fixing lawnmowers (with a bit of help from me). The tires are 10 inches, and that engine just has too much torque for the gearing and tires and so it spins the tires really easily. At first he loved it because he could do donuts on the street all day long. However, once he had just about burned through his rear tire we started driving it in our front yard around the trees so he wouldn't burn out the tire anymore. In the dirt the tires break loose around the turns really easily. I think it would be a good idea for him to upgrade to larger rear wheels (both in diameter and width) to help him stick to the ground more and improve his top speed.

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Next, the kids inherited an old two seater frame from some friends. It came with an old tecumseh power sport 5.5 HP engine that wasn't running. We were looking into fixing it and found people saying that engine isn't even worth fixing because of how poorly it is built (I guess they just wear out really fast). Anyways, as we looked into getting another engine and the other necessary parts we realized it was going to cost him around $200 to get this kart running. Here is a pic of that frame:

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As we were looking for an engine on Craigslist the kids found another two seater that was already running and they were able to get it for $140, so they spent their money on that rather than getting the other frame running. The kart came with a Honda 5 HP engine. It tops out around 35 mph (faster than the one seater) but doesn't have the same torque as the one seater (smaller engine, bigger tires). The decrease in torque and larger rear tires actually makes the kart easier for them to handle though, because it sticks to the ground way better. Since we are doing most of our driving on dirt lately, the fact that it sticks to the ground in turns is really helpful. We also love that we can fit two people in it, because now the kids give each other rides!

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My son and I have raced the two running karts around our trees in the front yard, and at this point whoever is in the two seater is always ahead because of how much better it sticks to the ground in the turns.

That's what we've got so far