Here I go again. I erroneously made a duplicate post this morning. I tried deleting one but seems they both disappeared.

Towards the end of last year I started trying to get some vid. of desert buggying. I made a few but nothing to shout home about.
I hope you find this one amusing because last Friday I had an OBE with my buggy cam running and the same OBE was caught on camera from one of my friends.

LINK:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7o7aLBG9ExQ&feature=user

That is an interesting buggy. It looks like most of it is made without welding. Do you have some photos of just the buggy? Cool video by the way. Did the OBE hurt any? Where are you riding at? Can you give a Google Earth placemark so we can see where you are?

Thanks for posting Yeti. I really enjoy watching your vids. I dream of one day going to west Texas and checking out the sand dunes near Monahan.

Susan

Quote:

Originally posted by BeamerBob That is an interesting buggy. It looks like most of it is made without welding. Do you have some photos of just the buggy? Cool video by the way. Did the OBE hurt any? Where are you riding at? Can you give a Global Earth placemark so we can see where you are?

Hi Bob,
Sorry about the location thing; I've just gone back in and corrected it.
Dubai is in the United Arab Emirates. We are situated south of the Persian gulf Our neighbours on the North side of the Gulf are Iran, Iraq & Kuwait .
To the West we have Saudi Arabia (I call it the Magic Kingdom) & South East is Oman.

Depite its geographical location, it is an extremely safe place to be. I've been here 12 years and seen this place grow into an ultra modern country.

I got a great playground because I live on the edge of the desert. It gets a bit warm in summer but heat isn't painful, just uncomfortable, that's all.

The OBE was a slow roll and I wear lots of body armour . Most of it is ice hockey gear, which probably seems a bit odd to be wearing in the desert.
I have had much harder knocks and huge falls off of dunes in the past and never hurt myself since wearing the ice hockey kit.

The buggies, when running the dunes have hard time and all production buggies break. I design & build my own buggies now. Welding is always a weak point as far as I'm concerned and have kept the welding to a minimum. I prefer to clamp parts together as far as possible. I have had a good success doing this.

Popeyethewelder has put my buggies (I currently have 3) on his site.
Check the link:
http://pic7.piczo.com/Popeyethewelder/?g=37125284&cr=7

The PL on his site doesn't look like that anymore as I have made new side rails, down tube & back axle on similar lines to my UDB (that's the one I was using in the vid).
My std PL & DBII have been sold.

I can give you more detail on the buggy construction & why I built them the way they are if you like.

Quote:

Originally posted by kitemaker4 Thanks for posting Yeti. I really enjoy watching your vids. I dream of one day going to west Texas and checking out the sand dunes near Monahan. Susan

I know it's a long ride from Louisiana but if ever you get the chance, come & visit us in the UAE. Our little band of buggiers enjoys meeting visiting buggiers.
Bring your kites & you can borrow one of my buggies.

I found dubai and noticed the plentiful desert available. I guess you could go anywhere you wanted. It is probably safe there because you are across the gulf from all the bad guys it seems.

What a great playground...really eye opening for me...when I think of sand dunes I always thought of them as having very slow sand that you couldn't ride on...Now I know different.

BTW, how are the winds there (consistency and speed)?

Thanks...great video.

Quote:

Originally posted by lunchbox What a great playground...really eye opening for me...when I think of sand dunes I always thought of them as having very slow sand that you couldn't ride on...Now I know different. BTW, how are the winds there (consistency and speed)? Thanks...great video.

The sands at the moment are very firm as we have had rains recently (rare occurence). In dry conditions, which is the norm, the leeward sides of the dunes are very soft.
Windward side of the dunes are normally hard. I have learned to read the sands over the years. Typically, the closer the ripples on the sand, the firmer it is.
We have sand varying in colour from brown through reds to shades of yellow & almost white. This, combined with terrain also gives me an idea on the sand's hardness.

You can see that I run bigfoots, which is a must. I use wide rimmed offsets on the rear and bigfoot light on the front. This allows the front tyre to bite deeper in the sand so that on slides the back wheels tend to break away instead of the front ,which is what I prefer.
Grooved tyres have no advantage in dry sand. I have experimented with grooved tyres but it didn't make any difference except that they wore out twice as fast. Based on this fact, I don't used grooved tyres anymore.

The winds vary pretty much with the time of year. The best winds start kicking in in February with May being the best month, then through the hot months to September they are OK but the rest of the year and early January the winds are usually poor.

We don't have nice steady winds like found on the coast but it often comes in sort of waves. I might get 10 to 15 minutes where it dies and it is difficult to fly the kite, then suddenly it comes in and I will have say 10 to 15 minutes where I'm often overpowered. It goes on and off like this most of the afternoon but steadies towards sunset.

I have noticed that on the sabkhas (huge flat plains), the winds are less gusty than in the dunes. I believe the undulating floor causes these bigger wind disturbances in the dunes.

Flying the kite in the dunes requires constant concentration to avoid being ripped out of the buggy. i.e. I am fairly apt at pulling on the brakes when needed. Additionally, we turn a lot through the dunes, so we are constantly aware of the kite position & where it ought to be to keep tension on the lines.
Buggying in 3 dimensions took me a long time to get the hang of but I find it a lot more interesting than on the plains.
the one thing dune buggying has taught me is to develop my skills on buggy speed control.

We fly on 40m lines to keep the kite in the air stream while running the dunes.

I've been buggying regularly for over 6 years now & am still learning.

The OBE I show in the vid. was a mistake that novice dune buggiers make. I had planned to traverse the ridge but didn't have quite enough speed to just roll over the top. I lowered the kite to get a bit more more pull just to pop me over but a low kite in a place like that when virtually stopped is a classic to be pulled side ways and of course tip the buggy over.
Normally, if I don't get up a dune, I will keep my kite high & let the buggy roll backwards & find a new route through the dunes.

Wind speeds are rarely excessive. If we get 30+ knots, it is exceptional. I won't bother driving to the desert unles sthe wind forecast promises a minimum of 11 knots .
Last Friday was poor & if you see at the beginning of the vid., the 8.5m Blade III that I was flying was struggling at first to get off the ground as I was in one of the wind lulls I mentioned above.

Next Friday (our weekend here in the UAE ) we have been promised 22 knots, so it should be a good day.
See my windfinder site
Link: http://www.windfinder.com/forecast/dubai

Hey Sand-yeti,,, cool videos... I am interested in seeing your camera mounting system. Popeye (carl) sent me the link to your vids.. I have been experimenting with mounting systems... I have a pretty good one hooked up to the rear ax but still have to work out the shakes.... going to shoten up the pole that its mounted on... check out my videos on youtube.. under screename of joecat818.

Quote:

Originally posted by joecat I am interested in seeing your camera mounting system. I have been experimenting with mounting systems... I have a pretty good one hooked up to the rear ax but still have to work out the shakes.... going to shoten up the pole that its mounted on... check out my videos on youtube.. under screename of joecat818.

I just realized that I can't load pics on this forum.
I have three pics in Photobucket of my bracket to share with you.
It is somewhat over-designed. 4 Bolts to clamp the bracket on my rear axle is excessive. Two would do but I found two plates with holes aready drilled laying around our fabrication shop at work. I just rounded the edges, welded a bolt to one of the plates, slid a tube over the bolt that holds the camera clamp & put a domed nut on the top to hold it.
I kept the pole short not because of shake but in the event of an OBE, it is protected between the rear left wheel & buggy rail. Obviously it worked because even in my OBE it didn't get knocked or even shifted position.

I will check out your vids on YouTube

Links to pics

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a394/Sand-Yeti/?action=vie...

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a394/Sand-Yeti/?action=vie...

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a394/Sand-Yeti/?action=vie...

Quote:

Originally posted by joecat I have a pretty good one hooked up to the rear ax but still have to work out the shakes.... going to shorten up the pole that its mounted on... check out my videos on youtube.. under screename of joecat818.

Just checked out what you mean by the shakes .
It's a pity you have that problem because I like the idea of having the camera at what I can appears to be close to your eye level when seated in the buggy. It gives a much truer pilot's eye view than having the camera mounted low like I have.
Mind you, you have some vid. which is pretty smooth and I like the idea of pointing the camera in different places. I have only looked either forwards or backwards so far. I see that I'm going to have to do some experimenting with different angles. I plan to mount the cam on the top of the forks to see how that looks.

You would need some fairly heavily braced bracket to stop that shake or as you say, 'shorten the pole'.

it's good to see what other guys are doing.

Quote:

I just realized that I can't load pics on this forum.

How to upload images to this forum: http://www.powerkiteforum.com/viewthread.php?tid=5259

Hey Sand-Yeti

thanks for the info and response. I will trade you the camera angles for the steady cam hook up... ha ha... I tried to check out your photos on photobucket but you need a password to view them,,,, if you can u2u the info or I will just wait to see if you post the photos on here now the pkf has showed us how to do it.

I have probably made a pigs ear of this but have added a new thread showing three separate posts with 3 views of my cam holder. I think you should get an idea of what it looks like. It's a lot simpler than popeyethewelder's (Carl) bracket, a lot less elegant and less robust too.

I don't know why you can't access Photobucket. That seems to be something new.

Incidentally, I share a lot of info. with Carl and even went to visit him last year in England. He's an interesting guy, full of enthusiam in the kite-buggy game. Above all he is superb craftsman and a real perfectionist on all the stuff he makes.

Hey Sand-yeti thanks I will check them out..... joe.

Just saw the photos,,,,, thanks.... same camera I have also which is good. Question: do the shocks on your buggy have an effect on the camera stability?

Quote:

Originally posted by lunchbox What a great playground...really eye opening for me...when I think of sand dunes I always thought of them as having very slow sand that you couldn't ride on...Now I know different. BTW, how are the winds there (consistency and speed)? Thanks...great video.

The Sand Yeti is to me one of the most inspirational buggiers on the planet and is why I have dedicated a huge part of my web site to him, I had the pleasure of meeting him last year when he came to England, and made a special trip to meet me.

For anyone not familiar as to where and what the Sand Yeti does work your way through this link.

He kindly shares his vast knowledge of the ways of desert buggying

Three dimensional buggying, stories, tips, videos and knowledge, every buggier should read it

The Sand Yeti

My Meeting with the Sand Yeti

Quote:

Originally posted by joecat Just saw the photos,,,,, thanks.... same camera I have also which is good. Question: do the shocks on your buggy have an effect on the camera stability?

Obviously, The suspension does mean a smoother ride but don't think it makes that much difference on the videoing. Check out popeyethewelder's vids. He uses the same cam and doesn't suffer the same shakiness as you do. He has his cam mounted on a rigid axle.

I think having the cam on a long pole is the root cause of your problem. We need to see a pic of your bracket to be able to comment better on that point.

Obviously, the terrain you ride on will influence what sort of vibrations are initiating the problem. Without getting too scientific, it could be that the camera resonates on its mounting close to your buggy's natural frequency as it rolls over the small undulations on your floor. I note from your vids that you have a very low frequency but high displacement. This very characteristic of many mechanically resonating parts.

Have you tried different wheels or tyre pressures to see if that move the resonancing away from the buggy's natural frequency?

My desert floor is not very smooth and that is just one of the reasons we are not obtaining very high speeds here (my max. is only 72 kph). There are other reasons, such as the kites we use and the way we set up our buggies.

The main reason I use suspension is to reduce the dynamic loading on my buggy & me mainly when I transition from a dune wall to the floor. I have a rigid axle buggy as well that I sometimes use and I have observed that the loading in the vector transitions zones is considerably harder on my body frame.

You have some very good questions joecat. I don't know all the answers but it is good to kick around ideas why things go wrong or perform the way they do.

ok

Just messing with you on that last "ok" response,,,,,,, alot of good info there....Hopefully this weekend I will get out again,,, and I am going to start with the shorter pole. As you and PTW say it may have a great impact on the stability. And its realatively easy to do,,, with the pvc piping. Should be interesting... I will try send the photos of my setup that I have now, minus the shorter pole. Thanks again,,, also I like the music that you play in your vids,,,

Hey Sand-yeti here is the link to the mounting system I have made.

http://picasaweb.google.com/josephcatanoso/KiteBuggyCameraMo...

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Originally posted by joecat Hey Sand-yeti here is the link to the mounting system I have made. http://picasaweb.google.com/josephcatanoso/KiteBuggyCameraMo... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ also I like the music that you play in your vids,,,

1) Well! when I saw your camera perched on the top of that long plastic pipe, it became quite clear to me why you have severe camera shake.

2) The music on my OBE'ing vid. should give you a clue to my nationality. Note that I reside in an Arab land and even buggy with Arab friends but I'm not an Arab. I have never met a yodelling Arab.

I always get comments about my taste in music. Seems it isn't everyone's cup of tea.
Just to make you feel like a proud American, I am very fond of your 'Country & Western' music. It's one of your oustanding exports in my book.

Hey thanks,,,, I will let you guys know how the new setup works out... most likely will have another video if I go down to the beach.

Hell if thats the worst OBE your laughing. I had a 661 suit and blew it apart and use hockey gear too. I always end up in some strange places ( top of large hedge row)or on network television...lol
Just had to throw the Penguin comment out there as I usually ride with hockey Jerseys too and have a Penguin as well as a good selection of Junior teams too.

I seen a guy use a shock mount from a 1" microphone. It has a suspended system in rubber mounts. Seemed to work pretty well just a idea to think on.

Cheers

May be something to check into.. Thanks.

Quote:

Originally posted by WolfWolfee Just had to throw the Penguin comment out there as I usually ride with hockey Jerseys too and have a Penguin as well as a good selection of Junior teams too.

The fact I have a Penguin on the hockey shirt is somewhat incidental.
I was about to buy the Club shirt that I support, which is the Bern Bears. That shirt is dark red with a Bears head on the front and not to the best colour for buggying in the heat. Our desert gets pretty warm in summer so I asked the shop assistant to give me the lightest coloured hockey shirt they had. If I remember rightly, the shop assistant told me that that it was the shirt of a top Canadian ice hockey team.

Anyhow penguins in the desert are a nice contrast. Imagine camels in Antarctica; just as bizarre I suppose..

Hey Sand-Yeti,, I made it to the beach today, Saturday, Winds were pretty good,, not the best direction but it still worked. Well I got ride of the shakes,,,,,,, I used my same mounting system but I shortened the pole length. Its only about 11 inches long now... So the shakes are gone for the most part,,, so our ideas worked... I have posted another video on youtube.. Dont have the link yet but you guys can go on youtube and search "joecat818" its the video titled "North Wildwood Feb 2nd

Quote:

Originally posted by joecat Hey Sand-Yeti,, I made it to the beach today, Saturday, Winds were pretty good,, not the best direction but it still worked. Well I got ride of the shakes,,,,,,, I used my same mounting system but I shortened the pole length. Its only about 11 inches long now... So the shakes are gone for the most part,,, so our ideas worked... I have posted another video on youtube.. Dont have the link yet but you guys can go on youtube and search "joecat818" its the video titled "North Wildwood Feb 2nd

Your Vid
First I saw you going over road bridge. Wild I thought, good kite flying keeping the lines away from the lamposts. Just kidding (LOL).

I see a huge improvement but still a bit of shake in places but not too bad.
Seriously, your buggying vid looks a whole smoother now. Good job.
Nice beach you have to play on.

I didn't do any videoing last Friday as we had nucleur winds slash through the desert and it whipped the sand up bringing down visibility to a just few yards at times.
I buggied 6 hours and clocked 172 km ( (100+miles).
My top speed was only 40 mph. Could have gone faster but was chicken. I was scared I'd hit a rock, hole or something else not being able to see. Most of it was done on the desert plains as I found it was far too difficult to run the dunes in the high wind that they tell me gusted up to well over 30 knots. I was flying my smallest kite (3.0m Blade III). Got lifted out of buggy on one gust, came down on head & dragged about 25 yards. Despite helmet I still had a headache for about 10 minutes otherwise I'm still intact.

Look forward to more of your buggying vids joecat

Hey Thanks,,,, I did notice in my video that at one point it did get a bit shakey when I ran over an area that had ripples,,, yes but all and all the improvement making the pole shorter was great. The winds yesterday were about 15 mph and I hit top speed of 25mph. It wasn't the best day Ive had so far but it was good... I was using my 3meter Beamer. The beach is good, its not a desert with hills but its pretty good. It gets much larger in some areas. That area that I was in yesterday was an area good for low tide and weird wind directions. Im trying to think of a hook-up where I can reach back and turn the camera, rotate it to different angles while I am riding,,, just a thought... Talk to you later. And for you Wildwood Buggy guys, here is the link to the new video so you can see what you missed yesterday,,, would have been better if other people were there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-bPBhk13nY