"Get a little mud on the tires"

[Stand_watie]

Erica and I went over to my next door neighbors dry (for now, soon it will be filled again with wet weather upon us) tank Saturday morning...


Smiling for the camera



What does a 9 year old do when you tell her to stay away from the mud? That's right, aims right for the biggest mud



"I'm glad you're my daddy"



Another small hill



What happens when the old man tries to take a picture of you going off the jump, but his finger's too slow?? Just a puff of dust and a couple dirt clods hanging in the air



Dirty buggy

[JAlexander]

Looks like she was having a good time.  That's a neat rig.  What kind is it?

James

[Guest]

[Stand_watie]

Looks like she was having a good time.  That's a neat rig.  What kind is it?

James

It's a 150 cc chinese import called a "hammerhead" that I bought at the Yamaha dealers. The motor is made by "Tongjai" if that means anything to anyone. It's a go-cart sized dune buggy or a dune buggy styled go cart. A lot of fun. Specs here...

http://www.kartingdistributors.com/hammer/hammerhead.asp

They even make a gunnies/hunter's version, but I think I can do the same thing with mine just by add ons

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

Great Kid. Great Dad.

These are the things that make good memories you'll both keep forever.  

You printed those photos for your album yet?

Regards,
Rabbit.

[roo_ster]

That looks a whole lot safer for kiddos than the usual four-wheeler.

[Jamisjockey]

How much did that cost?

[Stand_watie]

Rabbit, they're going on cd with all the others

jfruser, the wife's concern about safety was one of the reasons I got this instead of a little motorcycle or 4 wheeler for her (actually, I'm not too concerned about safety on a little motorbike, but try convincing a mom of that, and a 4 wheeler I probably could have gotten away with, but I think they're way more dangerous than two wheelers). The seatbelt tightened properly and the roll cage are a pretty good insurance policy, but even at that she doesn't drive it except very closely supervised. Even with a good cage and seatbelt if she hits an immovable object she's liable to get banged up good.

3k, Jamisjockey - yeah I know it was a lot, but it was for me as much as for her. I wanted something we could actually do together and pack a lunch and make a whole day or weekend of it. This has got a trailer hitch and a carry basket so we can pack along the guns and a trailer full of camping gear if we want to. I don't think I'd be up to four-wheeling or dirt-biking for an entire day (getting old )

[Standing Wolf]

Looks like a Citröen to me.

[Jamisjockey]

3k is a hell of a lot cheaper than an ATV.  I'll have to show it to the old lady and play the 'Scott would love it' card....

[Guest]

Unfortunately the metallurgy in a lot of the cheaper Chinese engines (gas and Diesel) are questionable.  

If you ever lunch that motor, the best answer is to find a cheap generator at an auto parts place, Home Depo or the like of about 6,000w - 6,500w and powered by a genuine Honda overhead cam motor.  Believe it or not some of these are pretty cheap; what they do is, they put a truly disgusting generator head (the part that turns the spin into electricity) on a name brand engine.  The scam is, everybody goes "ooohhh, a real Honda engine, must be good!".

Yeah, the engine is fine.  Hook an oscillioscope to the generator output though and be prepared to puke.

They'd make a GREAT donor for that thing if the engine lunches in about 100 miles or so (which would be about par for the course).  Should bolt right in or close to it...the Chinese standardized their engine fittings, shaft diameters and the like on what Honda does for gas and Yanmar does for Diesel.

Funky alternative...there is apparantly one small Chinese Diesel that's different, in that they use Japanese and German parts for bearings, rings, valve seals and stems and the like, and are therefore worth owning: Changfa.  They come in air cooled and water cooled flavors, you'd want air cooled which runs from 3.5hp to 10hp.  Around 6.5hp should be perfect for that thing.  The 10hp...well, to see what one band of loonies did with one:

http://www.utterpower.com/10hp_chevy.htm

I wanna stick the 10hp version in an old Harley frame .  Top speed should be about 70, mpg somewhere up past 120...

[Stand_watie]

Jim, that thought had crossed my mind actually. In fact a lot of the other smaller carts of this type use a five horse subaru motor. I had actually thought that 150 cc would be way underpowered for a nearly 500 lb curb weight machine, but no complaints so far. I thought when I bought it that I could put a 350 or 450 honda motor in it down the road.

 My understanding is that there are a million chinese clones of atv's on the market now that reverse engineered japanese technology. I understand a vehicle called the odyssey and pilot by Honda started this little market..

[Guest]

They didn't just reverse-engineer the concept.

It's a fair bet the motor in that thing is a bolt-for-bolt clone of a Honda motor - almost certainly a "utility motor" of the sort found in generators, garden equipment, etc.

The problem is, the metallurgy isn't up to Honda standards.

You could try and drop in a Honda or whatever motorcycle engine complete with gears but that will involve some engineering.  Not TOO bad.

OK: at present it has an "automatic torque converter", right?  Meaning no clutch, gas it and go, and there's two V-pulleys with a rubber "fan belt" which change the gear ratio based on centrifugal force inside one of the two pulleys?

That's called a "Comet clutch" after the top American maker of same...also known as a "snowmobile clutch" as that's where they showed up first.

Inside those two pulleys are springs and weights that affect the gear ratio curve based on the known power of the motor and the vehicle weight.

You can almost certainly find a Honda utility-engine visually identical to what's in there.  That will be the easiest swap by FAR.

Put some other utility motor in with the same diameter output shaft (probably 3/4" or 1", even the Japanese and Chinese use SAE on that item) and it'll be reasonably simple EXCEPT that the gear ratio setup on the Comet clutch might be off.  You can get alternate springs/weights and learn to re-tune it if it's off far enough...a gas engine in the same horsepower ballpark won't need tuning while a Diesel might (way different powerband).

Odds are you've got a clone of a Comet of some type.  See also:

http://www.billynorman.com/clutches.htm

This page is Comet's "master list" complete with pictures.  Odds are you've got one of these or have a clone (94c is the most likely):

http://www.hoffcocomet.com/comet/aftermarket-torque-converters.asp

To convert to a motorcycle engine with it's own tranny and clutch, you'd have to rig shift and clutch linkages (not hard) and replace the rear pulley on the Comet clutch setup with a sprocket matched to the chain type for the forward sprocket on the motorcycle engine.  This may mean customizing a motorcycle rear sprocket for the new bolt pattern: minor welding/machining.  You'll also need to figure gear ratios for the new rear sprocket, based on the rear tire diameter being a lot smaller.  If you can't find a rear sprocket small enough, you might need to put a bigger front sprocket on too to get ballpark close in gears (plus if it's not set up for as much top speed, that's probably OK, "grunt" is a good thing for this application).

What else...the motorcycle exhaust/muffler will have to be customized.  No biggie, but if you start with a 2-stroke dirtbike engine be aware that the pipe design has a LOT to do with power output.  Go google "expansion chambers" with "2 stroke" and "motorcycle"

Finding the Honda utility motor that you already have a clone of eliminates all this .

One other thing: if you have a Chinese clone of a Comet clutch and it grenades on you, consider swapping out to a genuine Comet (second link above).

[Ukraine Train]

Looks like a cool little rig. I'm team leader of the mini baja team at Kettering U. in Flint. We build cars like this: