Rover

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjaFEEl1p6A&feature=youtu.be

For starters, I was never sure what to call this thing. Technically it is not a go kart because it has full suspension, but calling it a sand rail seemed a bit grandiose. So we will just call it rover.

My cousin Mark had been telling me about his broken down buggy that had been sitting in his backyard. I had been wanting to do a similar project but all those parts start to add up. This one easily has over $1000 in parts so I was surprised when he said I could just have it.

I could do a full post about Mark's generosity. He is like the handy man's Santa Clause and he ends up giving me something every time I see him. This was almost a full year ago and I was bummed that I didn't have a way to get it home until July when we took it apart and threw it in the back of my parents Pilot.

 On a side note I later proved that you could indeed carry this thing around on my wife's car...

Once I finally got it home the engine wasn't running and the frame was so small that Mark's little boy Timmy was about the only one who could fit in it. The other issues it had was that the disc brakes didn't completely disengage and the front tires were going bald, upon closer inspection I found that it was because in a turn the outside tire was angling more than the inside tire (the opposite of what you want it to do).

The first thing I did was take out the old broken down Briggs and Stratton and put in a slightly bigger engine (the one off of the doodlebug actually). The rover was now running...you just couldn't get in it. So the next thing I did was chop it completely in half and lengthened it by about two feet.

I though it would it would be fun if it were a side by side so I remounted the original seat off to the side and reupholstered a new one for the other side, added some width to the front, remounted the brake and gas pedals, and completely redid the steering assembly, moving the steering knuckle from the front to the back.

I put this spring in to force the calipers to completely retract from the disc brake when at rest.

The larger engine started torquing the transmission out of alignment so I later added this brace to keep things in place

After almost losing my first passenger on a turn I added a bar to the passenger side. 

The steering assembly has actually gone through about 4 different iterations. The original I already described. My first rebuild did not maintain alignment at different  points in the suspension's travel and the second was a huge work out to steer. The current set up has fixed all those problems but sacrificed a bit of turning radius. 

With all that done the rover has been a ton of fun. Neighbor hood kids are always begging for rides and the nieces an nephew are also big fans. It didn't even have to be on, Weston loved just sitting in it.

It has a wide stance and a very low center of gravity so you feel a lot more secure in it than on an ATV. I won't say it is impossible to tip but you would really have to be trying. It is still light enough and small enough that you can lift it up and it is just the right size for the back of a Ford Explorer. You can take it anywhere and if you really get it stuck you just hop out and lift it out. It can do a little over 40mph on a flat street but doesn't really have any hill climbing power. Someday I would like to find an old motorcycle engine/ transmission to swap in for a little more power,  a better transmission with more low range. "Faster" and "more power" are not Maria's favorite words so we probably won't be spending money on that any time soon.

Here are some highlights of the finished product.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjaFEEl1p6A&feature=youtu.be