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Offroad Go Cart Build - Too Many Builds

truck-oholic

truck-oholic

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Thought some people might be interested in this stuff since it's pretty cool and offroad related. Bought our 6 year old son a go cart for his birthday/christmas this year. It is a 150cc Yerf Dog Spiderbox. It has had a ton of work put into it by the previous owner but has been beat on pretty good and needed some work so I got it for a really good deal.

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This is how it was when I bought it

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Obviously he won't be driving this by himself for a few years but he is chomping at the bit to get behind the wheel

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Well, our backwoods Tennessee trails took a toll on the transmission housing. I think it didn't help that I was running it with the trans cover off since it was missing a bunch of bolts. In hindsight, the cover probably added quite a bit of reinforcement and overall boxing to the housing. Oh well, lesson learned and now I have an excuse to go hog wild on upgrades.

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Looking around for replacement transmission housings, I came across a complete running cart for $400 cash delivered from over two hours away! May wind up keeping both carts or may wind up selling one, not sure just yet but in the meantime, I build . . .

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This second cart is pretty much stock and after getting it I now realize just how much work had already been put into the original cart that we got for $500.

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Plan is to move stock cart's engine and swing arm over to the "big boy" cart and then slowly build up the stock cart's frame and rebuild the "big boy" cart's engine with a new transmission housing. The stock cart will eventually be identical to the "big boy" cart but with all new parts and a 175cc crate engine. The rebuilt "big boy" engine will get dropped back into that cart when done
 
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I'll be watching this, my 9 year old has been wanting something with an engine on it so obviously I'm supporting that idea.
 
prolinews said:
Sure beats that crappy go kart I had as a kid. Mine had zero suspension and a 5hp pull start engine but I felt like Mario Andretti behind the wheel.
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X2. I remember at some point I figured out that the gas pedal didn't open the throttle all the way so I would line it up on a straight stretch, reach back and open it up some more. Was awesome till it got stuck wide open, no brakes and I was too panicked to kill the engine so I found something soft and crashed it.

I guess I'm still just a big kid though cause I wish I still had it fr those days where there's nothing else to do.
 
My boy is wanting to build a go kart. Id like a shifter kart that hauls ass. Its just there are no tracks around here to even go to. Karting round los Angeles is all but dead as far as I know.
 
rdn2blazer said:
My boy is wanting to build a go kart. Id like a shifter kart that hauls ass. Its just there are no tracks around here to even go to. Karting round los Angeles is all but dead as far as I know.
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That sucks there is no place to go around you. We bought our house in middle Tennessee back in 2009 at the bottom of the housing market and it was a foreclosure that had been sitting vacant for around 2 years so we got a really good deal on it. One of the main selling points was that we have a little over 4.5 acres and half of that is woods. Even way back then before any kids I pictured in my head one day cutting go cart trails in our backyard. The reality is even better than I had imagined. I will need to grab some pics of the trail system. It is already pretty epic and I'm not done yet.
 
Hell yeah, post up some pics as you do. That would be awesome to have a dirt track on your own property. Closest I came was a huge 150ft by about 40ft RC off road track I worked out with a bob cat I rented for a weekend when I was still at my house. At my shop our parki g lot is pretty big yet secluded. I will still probably build a go kart but it wont be a shifter kart like I would like. Not enough room for that kind of speed. I'll find a used running kart and go that route vs scratch built. Got to get my shop organized first.
 
Wow! Thats a nice piece of property. Stoked for you, you and your family get to enjoy that. Thats going to be hella fun indeed.
 
rdn2blazer said:
Wow! Thats a nice piece of property. Stoked for you, you and your family get to enjoy that. Thats going to be hella fun indeed.
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Yeah, the best part about this whole thing is that my 6 yr old son really enjoys the whole process. He likes helping me cut the trails, riding on them, & best of all for me he actually enjoys working on the go carts. I have always tried to involve him in working on my 4x4 projects but most of the time he is not interested. I have finally found something wrenching related that gets him excited and that really motivates me to put more energy and passion into this shared interest.
 
Thats awesome. I hope that intrest with mechanical things flurishes.
 
Little bit of an update on this. Would be nice if all my 4x4 projects were this easy to work on and straight forward

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Making progress on tear down

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Swing arm and motor removed

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This whole swing arm is moving over to the other cart so repairs can be made on the motor with the broken case

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Pretty nice to be able to leave the motor in place on the swing arm. Saves a lot of time.

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Started working on gusset plates for the front end

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1/8" mild steel. Thought about cutting some speed holes in the gusset plates to reduce weight and for aesthetics but I am kind of liking the solid look. What are your thoughts?

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Going to do some more gusset plates in the corners where the blue tape is. Another option would be to take those gusset plates all the way down to the radius of that front bumper tube. Which would you prefer? Even if I don't do any speed holes in the "hood" gussets I might do some in these blue tape corners. You may be able to see that there are some factory gusset plates with speed holes in the B pillar area so might make sense to match those a little in different areas

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May try to fill in the rest of the "hood" with some plexiglass in the future
 
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Got the first set of gussets welded on the top side

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Going to flip the go cart over and weld the underside too

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Pic showing two options for side gusset. Shaded area is option 1 and full piece of cardboard is option 2

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Better 1 or better 2? Hahaha, eye doctor joke.

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So what is the general opinion, smaller shaded portion gusset or full length gusset?

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Had to modify the gussets on the original cart since it to my surprise it actually has a narrower front end. Makes it look way better in my opinion. I think I like this gusset design better too. Little cooler look to it.
 
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skunked said:
I think the full side gusset looks better.
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Yeah, I think I agree on looks alone but I could also save some weight and material (running low) with the smaller gusset. I will have to lay out some pieces on the plate I have left and see what I can do. If I have enough plate I may do the full side gusset on this cart and the smaller shaded gusset on the other cart just to give them different looks.
 
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Was able to get the side gussets cut out and welded on

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Fairly pleased with the way it turned out

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I think this wider front end needed the bigger gussets to look proportional

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Not my best welds but not my worst either, was playing with some heat and wire speed settings to see if I could hit a sweet spot

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I think the smaller gussets look equally good on the narrower front end of the other cart. Obviously I still have to weld the center section gusset plates on. May do that tomorrow if the wife lets me.

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This is my favorite version of the two carts. I like the narrower cart so much more that I might swap the suspension and steering from the other cart to this one and build this one instead. We'll see what happens

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Can't really think of a reason I would need one but I think an ATV winch would look pretty cool mounted off the front suspension bumper plate. Just sayin . . .
 
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