Long travel chain drive swing arms, like a sand rail on a smaller scale
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Long travel chain drive swing arms, like a sand rail on a smaller scale
Like the title says I'd like as much info on building this setup as possible, I'm trying to do a scaled down sand rail woods buggy and want to run the chain drive/reduction long travel rear swingarms so it's a hill climbing rock hopping monster. We had to give up 6x6s but wer not giving up offroad, we ain't dead yet. I'm starting with my Yamaha g9 and pretty much just using the main frame and front steering components for now. It may or may not be converted to single seater and trying to stay under 60 inches total. Planning on cutting down the stock transaxle and modifying hubs to accept CV or u joints. Not sure I need CV axles with the minimal arc in movement. Any ideas tips or tricks would be appreciated. I'm thinking I can do this for a couple hundred bucks using max bearings and axles. Not sure how much reduction to run if I want to go with 28-30" rear tires. Thank you guys for any pictures tips tricks or advice on building.
sounds cool dan....looking forward to seeing some pics as the build progresses . i always thought sand rails were cool , so this machine should be fun . jboy va.
My uncle had some very basic black pipe vw rail buggies that were a ton of fun but nothing like these setups I saw on YouTube, I stumbled on accidentally watching golf cart videos, after seeing the stuff these things could do I thought to myself that my knohler isn't too far off from a VW beetle power wide, I have everything to just ride except a belt, but if I could make it more capable by doing one of my favorite things, fab work and problem solving, then it's still a win. I can't work a clutch peddle but a cvt clutch, I can work a throttle and brake lever just fine and could probably rig up a throttle on each cut brake so I can have all the benefits of a big buggy but on smaller scale, and my friends will be drooling if I can go where their 4x4 quads can't go, well except deep mud I don't think deep mud is going to be a strong point but hills stumps and rocks like these Appalachian mountains are full of it should do well, except the big high horsepower stuff, either way it should way outdo your average v twin swapped golf cart
These are the best pics I could find to show what I'm talking about. I'm likely going to do something similar to the blue rail buggy but using #50. This Seems to be simplest and strongest looking and least likely to get damaged.
Nothing like some good old fashioned home engineering to create a buggy and go have some fun.
The general set up reminds me alot of the Chinese atvs that have hit the market. Chain drive to each side actually goes back over 100+ years.
One suggestion to keep the chains clean and operational. Make a mostly enclosed chain trough with a lid on the top so that you can service the chains, too bad that setup wouldn't work with an oil bath system. I've never had an oil bath chain system that ever had to have anything done (maybe changing the oil after a few years?).
I have an oil bath on one of my amphibs, and it works perfectly.
I like what you are doing with this project. It just proves you don't have to spend thousands of dollars to go have fun.
No real need for a chain bath. Dirt bikes have been running open chain & sprockets pretty much since their inception. I could easily get 5000 miles using a good quality O-ring or X-ring chain & quality steel sprockets. Just takes a few minutes to remove caked on mud & spray a quality chain lube at the end of the day, good to go for the next round.
yea , my max 2 highboy has had all exposed chains . i'm going on 3 yrs. same chains and just now changing all the axle bearings . as ruffus said , they are easy to wash off and re-lube regularly being so easy to get to. seems they were always in dirt and water etc. in the tub . like the rail design dan ! jb
Johnboy your highboy is one of the things that made me think this isn't a bad idea, I've seen some video of your machine in action and didn't appear to have any issues, plus like mentioned dirt bikes and quads have had open chains for years. I had considered doing a wet system but I just don't know that I will need it it should still only run 25 mph maybe, I'm not sure I haven't done all the figuring of different sized tires and 2:1 reduction and what not
yea , after hearing noel woods talking about dropping the drive sprocket size down a couple of teeth on his max.. i just went from a 16 tooth sprocket to a 14 tooth on the main drive on the highboy and i really like the added power and torque . it was only about a 20 minute job on each axle . it will be much better for when i'm running tracks . i did'nt notice alot of reduction in top end speed either . just takes some experimenting . johnboy
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