A while back I made up an alloy trailer for the buggy. It hasn't had an awful lot of use of late so I thought maybe I could convert it into a buggy.
I had some spare alloy so I cut it to what seemed the right proportions and took it to a local alloy fabricator to weld it up for me. After I told
him what it was for, he beefed up the downtube with some extra bracing.
The underneath and the axle is still the way it was from the trailer incarnation...
made some footpegs and coated them with an old bicycle tire..
Put some 5mm Gal plate on top of the alloy to stop the fork bolt wearing the alloy out and faced it with some PE from the bearing shop to eliminate
any slack...
I've only downhilled it so far, but the end result feels solid and maneuverable..
I'll keep an eye on the axle 'hangers' to see whether or not they may bend and I'll have to keep an eye on the PE to see if it starts to compress
under load and introduce any slack into the fork. It's a bit heavier than I wanted at 24kg but at least I can still get it over a fence - which is
more than I can do with the Vmax. Hopefully, I'll give it a run somewhere on the weekend.
John,what grade of alloy is that? I am very concerned about the angle you have the rear axles on....That bend is an EXTREMELY likely place to
crack,and you won't get any notice. It really NEEDS a piece of triangular plate on top AND bottom of it to rigidify it.I'm thinkin' in a few
powerslides and it will be bent to hell. I'm not tryin to bust your balls ,just concerned about your safety. Please don't take it the wrong way. I'm
not called the "weldngod" for nothin' Bro ! :bigok:
I am very concerned about the angle you have the rear axles on....That bend is an EXTREMELY likely place to crack,and you won't get any notice. It
really NEEDS a piece of triangular plate on top AND bottom of it to rigidify it.I'm thinkin' in a few powerslides and it will be bent to hell.
Yes, I intend to keep a close eye on those brackets - they are 5mm Gal steel brackets which feel very beefy to me - (very subjective with absolutely
no engineering background!) If they show any sign of bending (or break!) then I'll have the boys weld on some 10mm alloy plate for the axle bolt
with the triangular plates top and bottom. BTW, I assumed that Gal steel can't be welded to Alloy ??
As for the grade of alloy - sorry, I have absolutely no idea apart from the box section is 60 x 40 x 3mm.
you can't weld steel to aluminum, never mind galvanized. Do not ever try to weld galvanized unless you professional type ventilation, Zn fumes can
make you very sick.
S
Is it possible to design for strength, if the designer doesn't really understand what strength is?
8m speed wings.
Ozone Samurai 3m
Sky Country Reflex 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10m new 6m!
Sky Country NaSCa 2 11m
Sky Country Alasca 10m - sold
Rhombus Firebee 3m (ret).
Libre Vampir Race Pro 2.6m
Jojo Rage 8m
Do not ever try to weld galvanized unless you professional type ventilation, Zn fumes can make you very sick. S
Cheers. Did not know that. I haven't welded anything since secondary school which was over 30 years ago - I'll leave it to those who know what
they're doing.
I gotta know where you got or what you made the hand camera mount with grips out of? That is very cool. The buggy looks to be pretty solid, Wishing
you many good rides with it!
I gotta know where you got or what you made the hand camera mount with grips out of?
It was a Pelican King flashlight handle. When the flashlight was stuffed, I kept the handle = figured it might be useful for something. Screwed a
gopro flat mounting plate to it and it works pretty well.
The flashlight, on the other hand, chewed through 8 D cells very quickly and blew bulbs at an alarming rate. Definitely NOT recommended!
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:bigok:
