Go cart?

[Cobraman]

Anyone built a go cart? A couple buddies and I are looking to build one. Not sure of PowerPlant yet. 250 two stroke? 600 sportbike?

How much work and cost should be expected? Any tips?

[BajaBob]

What kind of metal do you plan on using? I have used the metal iron pipe at home depot and lowes (in the irrigation section) for minibikes, about a buck a foot. It welds up really well and is very strong. Heavy, it takes a beating really well.

One seater or two+?

One wheel drive, two, or four?

Suspension or fixed?

Belt, chain or shaft drive?

[Cobraman]

What kind of metal do you plan on using? I have used the metal iron pipe at home depot and lowes (in the irrigation section) for minibikes, about a buck a foot. It welds up really well and is very strong. Heavy, it takes a beating really well.

One seater or two+?

One wheel drive, two, or four?

Suspension or fixed?

Belt, chain or shaft drive?

I plan on snagging a frame off of Craigslist. I'd like it to be two seater but depends on what I find. I assume with a motorcycle motor it would be chain drive, but am not 100% how to make the motor work w/the cart.

[BajaBob]

I plan on snagging a frame off of Craigslist. I'd like it to be two seater but depends on what I find. I assume with a motorcycle motor it would be chain drive, but am not 100% how to make the motor work w/the cart.

Chain and belt drive is tough if you want to keep it cheap. They have LS and full slip go cart axles out there that hookup with chain but they are expensive and you will be hard pressed to find one that fits the chain size you are using on your motor. One wheel drive works pretty well, but it wont do a 600cc engine justice.

If it were me, I would pull a small axle from a scrap yard and weld a yoke onto the chain drive sprocket and hack up a driveshaft. This would allow you to incorporate a suspension easily. You might even be able to find a golf cart axle to use.

[BajaBob]

Gas powered golf cart axle...

[Cobraman]

I'm not looking to spend $2k lol

[Cobraman]

How is one wheel drive set up?

[BajaBob]

I'm not looking to spend $2k lol

Oh you can find them for dirt cheap. Just go browse your local junkyard, most charge by the pound.

[forbes]

just rob the rear axle off an old 3 or 4 wheeler.

[BajaBob]

How is one wheel drive set up?

One wheel is driven. This is a typical setup for bottom of the line go carts. You notice a difference in power when turning, but it works. If you plan on putting a mammoth of an engine on it though, you'll have some interesting results.

[BajaBob]

just rob the rear axle off an old 3 or 4 wheeler.

Yeah, they work great too.

[ram57ta]

One wheel is driven. This is a typical setup for bottom of the line go carts. You notice a difference in power when turning, but it works. If you plan on putting a mammoth of an engine on it though, you'll have some interesting results.

I had a similar 2 seater in the early 80's that I put a Kohler 7hp motor on...that thing was a tire destroying mother fucker....did nice one wheel burnouts.

[BajaBob]

I had a similar 2 seater in the early 80's that I put a Kohler 7hp motor on...that thing was a tire destroying mother fucker....did nice one wheel burnouts.

I had a two seater as well, same setup, in the 90's. Great for playing around on. If i ever built another though it would have a motorcycle engine, gearbox, suspension, the whole chi-bang.

[forbes]

we put a 350 2 stroke on one, used the 3 wheeler rear axle cause it had a disc brake. biggest waste of time and money. to much weight in the back so the front would plow, not enough brake to be safe. you would have to downshift the crap out of it to slow down and it generally would just lock the rear tires up

[BajaBob]

we put a 350 2 stroke on one, used the 3 wheeler rear axle cause it had a disc brake. biggest waste of time and money. to much weight in the back so the front would plow, not enough brake to be safe. you would have to downshift the crap out of it to slow down and it generally would just lock the rear tires up

That kind of debugging is fun to me. If I was retired I'd take the time to build one like that. Takes a ton of time though.