my china Dune Buggy, 110cc build/modify

[my67xr]

the broken engine subframe parts have been cut off,





i have started bending up the new tubes to weld in now,
i had decided to relocate the engine forward a bit, 40mm, to let the buggy fit nicely in a 6x4 trailer.
the chain was rubbing on the case a little at the front, but now it has a fair bit of clearance.
it will also allow me to swap to a bigger front sprocket if needed.

 

[xLOCOx]

lookn good mate, need to put a yx or zonger in her or even a 2 smoker she would grow some wings and probably fly, keep up the good work!!

 

[my67xr]

thanks,
but the next time it gets used up at the farm will be it's last time with us.
we may have someone interested in buying it ?
i need to make the engine mounts strong and reliable, and then make a new header pipe for the exhaust
the new owners can then have the option of re powering it if they want to.

 

[xLOCOx]

how much would you be interested in selling it for

 

[my67xr]

we want $800 for it,
to buy a basic china Dune Buggy now, they cost around $1000, some have 3 forward gears and reverse too, but the frames/suspension wont last too long if used offroad as lots of things aren't engineered to work properly, they use to thinner steel, and don't brace things enough.

i have spent $500+ on this one, and too many hours modifying it, and i've upgraded it wherever it was needed.
there isn't much left of the original chassis/frame work,
it weighs about 15kg more now due to the heavy duty steel/componants,
but it still manages 60kmph+ on the dirt with an adult driving it, different gearing would change the top speed too

 

[xLOCOx]

thanks but no thanks and i can understand where ur coming from

 

[my67xr]

yeah, no problems

if you want a Dune Buggy, try your local Gumtree, bargains can be had if you have the cash at the right time.
there is one going cheap atm on ebay , it's up to $422, it is even more basic than ours when we bought it.
it doesn't even have rack and pinion steering or a china honda copy motor.
it has a china cheapo upright lawnmower motor powering it.(hopefully no one here owns it)
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Dune-Bug...091&pid=100033&prg=1011&rk=3&sd=221231226549&



or find a cheap little car and do something like this to it?
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/offroad-...764&pid=100034&prg=1146&rk=1&sd=111083869315&

 

[my67xr]

i have remounted the engine now,
i went for a cradle style mount using the 4 bolt holes under the engine and the back main mounting bolt.
i had to repair the original top/back mounts that the buggy came with a couple of times.
the engine hung from the top and back mounts, this would stress the overhead bars and eventually they failed.
at least with the way the engine is mounted now, the weight of it is pushing down on the mounts, so should last quite a while now.
i also made up another exhaust pipe for it, i fitted it on the right hand side of the engine so that i would use less sharp bends.
the muffler is mounted/bolted to the rear of the frame, and is bolted through some 8mm thick steel for strength.
i cant see it moving around and cracking anywhere again soon.










i replaced the corflute front side panels too today, i used up a bit more of the 1.6mm thick diamond plate.







and finally i made an adapter for the Bali MOMO steering wheel i bought for it late last year.
i cut up some 8mm thick scrap steel i had,
marked it up, to adapt the larger bolt pattern to suit the smaller steering column.
then drilled the mounting holes, and tapped the outer holes for the M6 Unbrako bolts.

 

[my67xr]

we took the Dune Buggy and bikes out on the weekend and had 3 days of riding.

the new engine subframe/swingarm performed very well.
it feels a bit stiffer under power around corners now
my son drove it for an hour or so, and brought it back so i could adjust up the new chain and rear brake caliper.

we had some friends come up and join us on sunday after lunch,
they bought their 2 sons bikes too, a CRF50 and a CRF70, both bikes are 18 months old.
we sent my son and our friends eldest son down to my minibike track to wait for us to get down there with the 2 younger boys on the PW and CRF.

we took it a bit slower due to the bumpy track.
on arrivial i noticed my son on the CB radio talking to my wife back at the house,
i pulled up and he said his friend had dislocated his shoulder, i asked my son if he was ok and he said yeah all good, but his friend wasnt.
i looked over and saw he was holding his arm against his side, almost in tears.
i dropped my bike and rushed over to him, and looked at his arm
it had a big black bruise halfway between his shoulder and elbow, and was sitting at a wierd angle.
then he showed me the inside of his arm, i could see he had broken it by the way the bone was pushing out against his skin
my son walked back over to us and said that they were both in the buggy and had rolled it.
i looked at the buggy and noticed it was parked on it's roof, upside down.


i asked how it had happened.
when they arrived at the track, our friends son asked if he could have a drive of the buggy.
my son said he wasnt sure, the lad said his dad wouldnt mind, so they both got in and took off around the outer oval track.
the other lad hadn't driven a Buggy before and held it flat out, he got about 100 metres around the track and rolled it over.
he said he hit a rock and had lost control.
we didnt know he was going to drive the Buggy without us there so didnt even get a chance to warn/tell him to hold on tight if he rolled it.
and to not put his arm out of the cage if it was going over.
my son thought the other lad had put his seatbelt on too, but i dont think he had.
my son also told the lad to slow down a bit as he took off, but he didnt listen to that either.

the lads dad wasn't far behind me and quickly rode over, he checked out his sons arm too.
we tried to get him to sit down and comfort him a bit while we were waiting for my inlaws to drive down from the house.

they arrived in a couple of minutes, and strapped his arm to his side to support it and took him back up to the house.
his parents were saying to us that they had though he was going to break his arm the previous weekend when out riding.
he must be a bit of a daredevil/reckless rider ?
anyway our friends chucked their bikes onto their trailer and headed off to the hospital, 30 mins away.

he was seen to pretty quickly and medicated more for the pain.
the hospital rang an ambulance and he was taken to another hospital in Adelaide to be treated, an 1.5 hours away.

on the way he was commenting on how cool it was to have finally broken a bone?

the second hospital got him into surgery and fixed it up.
it needed to be rebroken, 2 plates, 6 screws and 15 stitches
he had to stay at the hospital for 2 nights, and will be going back in 10 days to have a half cast put on to help it heal.
he wont be out riding again now for 7 weeks at least.
his parents were so laid back, cool and calm, saying how he had finally broken his arm
they even offered to pay for any damages to the buggy, but there wasnt anything really, just some torn electrical tape, and a cracked plastic light housing, easy fix

i dont think i would have reacted the same if it was the other way around....


he was very lucky he didnt hurt himself more.



when my son was learning to drive the buggy we used the throttle limiter to keep his speed down,
and had warned him about what to do if he was going to crash, or had a blowout etc before he started learning to drive it.
and slowly, over a couple of months, we gradually increased the top speed by undoing the restricter screw

i think in one of the early posts here i had mentioned that broken arms were the most common injury from Dune Buggys.


anyway once they had taken their son up to the house, i rolled the buggy back onto it's wheels
my son jumped in turned the key, it started up easy and he headed off back to the house too.
i'm suprised that not even the steering needed adjusting, or that the rims weren't bent.


we've learnt now how easy accidents can happen, so try and take it easy on your bikes, ATV's/Buggys etc

cheers, craig

 

[timeeh]

Boys will be boys, glad your boy wasn't injured. Maybe an idea to put some hand straps on the steering wheel rack, it'll stop your hands going out when they shouldn't, thats what they have on the "dirt carts" iv'e driven down the south coast. And now you know the roll cage does it's job

 

[my67xr]

i have some straps that may be able to be modified, but they seem to restrict your movement too much
i think a custom made window net might be the go ?

cheers

 

[davespitty]

When I was working @ Harvey bay go kart track we use to see heaps of roll overs and its always the first thing customers use to do when they rolled a kart was put their arm out to stop from rolling not the best of ideas lol!

 

[my67xr]

yeah, it's a natural reaction, cant be helped.

 

[my67xr]

we had another 4 days riding without a problem.
no breakages etc, the buggy covered another 160 km's





























Cj driving the buggy, his feet only just reach the pedals

 

[xLOCOx]

nice man those pics look sweeet

 

[my67xr]

cheers,
they are just taken with my Phone, the lense still has a bit of condensation on it too, was caused by the humidity in Bali last year
i need to pull it down and clean it out again.
that's it for riding up at the farm now, the track can now go back to being a paddock

 

[my67xr]

it's been a long time since the last update here.
i am getting the Dune Buggy ready to sell soon
yesterday i picked up a set of secondhand rims and tyres for $70 the set.

the tyre's are huge compared to what it originally came with.
the originals were 145/70/6, the second set i bought were 16/8/7's, and the new ones are 19/7/8 and 18/9.5/8

the new hubs are 4 stud and have a 23 spline hub, so i will need to make some adapters to fit them on which shouldn't be too hard.
and i will probably lower the gearing again to make up for the extra tyre height.







here are a couple of shots comparing them with the originals