yard buggy
- Thread starter jgrieve
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welderboy14
Silver Member
their is not many 4wd buggys out there but the best plase to start is carter bro (CARTER BROTHERS) i hope this helps
pat32rf
Veteran Member
How big is your yard? Will the kids be using it? Will you be towing firewood trailers etc?
I've always wanted to take an old jeep frame with front and rear axles, then mount the engine and transaxle from a small front wheel drive car logitudinally, with each end of the axle hooked up to a differential. You would have an extra 4:1 reduction in the diffs giving you lotsa torque for bigger tires....
I've always wanted to take an old jeep frame with front and rear axles, then mount the engine and transaxle from a small front wheel drive car logitudinally, with each end of the axle hooked up to a differential. You would have an extra 4:1 reduction in the diffs giving you lotsa torque for bigger tires....
Iplayfarmer
Super Member
The hard part about 4X4 is getting power to front wheels that can steer. You could do a Mid-articulated cart made from two peerless lawn mower transaxles. Those transaxles always seem to outlast the rest of the mower, and they can be had for cheap or free. The articulation could probably be accomplished with a Power steering box and a power steering cylinder.
You could also scavenge parts from a broke down 4X4 ATV.
If you want to get real fancy and allow a lot of freedom for design, use hydraulic wheel motors. Then you don't have to design around axles, etc. You could build the buggy to be as low or high as you wanted. You could probably also design the hydraulics so that you have positive traction to each wheel rather than a differential that slips.
This could be a lot of fun. Keep us posted.
You could also scavenge parts from a broke down 4X4 ATV.
If you want to get real fancy and allow a lot of freedom for design, use hydraulic wheel motors. Then you don't have to design around axles, etc. You could build the buggy to be as low or high as you wanted. You could probably also design the hydraulics so that you have positive traction to each wheel rather than a differential that slips.
This could be a lot of fun. Keep us posted.
reply I have thought about this b4 what about the differential, I think you would have to weld the spider gears or something to always have power on each end.? Is this possible?
Iplayfarmer
Super Member
If you welded the differential, you'd have to be careful to not drive on dry pavement or other high traction applications. You can build up a lot of tension in a driveline due to differences in traction between front and rear axles.
You could do it without welding the differential. Your traction would be limited by the wheel with the least traction, but you'd still see a big improvement over 2wd.
Ideally you'd have some way of locking or unlocking the three differentials (front, rear, and longitudinal transaxle). Don't ask me how to do this, though, because I don't know.
shinnlinger
Silver Member
I was thinking about this the other day. If you used front 4x4 axles from a truck, but they were too wide, you could shorten them fairly easily like the guy did who built his own tractor on this site, If you did two, you could have 4 wheel steer, and I would go hydraulic so you could easily have them steer opposite each other or in the same direction for maneuverability.
BUt once you did that (Or found short enough axles in the first place) , I was thinking of driving the axles not with a transaxle like mentioned above, but with a truck rear axle with welded diff running from front to back and belt driving (thinking Harley Davidson drive belts and sprockets) from the big axle to the drive axles. You could dial in a nice ratio for torque. You could also do this again when you power the main axle to your powertrain for a real low range if desired.
I was thinking a rear engined transverse mount front drive drivetrain (say a diesel vw) to spin a second transmission connected to the diff on the big axle.
I even have a frame idea in my head with hydraulics to make a skid steer sized machine, but for now the kubota is getting it done so no need.
BUt once you did that (Or found short enough axles in the first place) , I was thinking of driving the axles not with a transaxle like mentioned above, but with a truck rear axle with welded diff running from front to back and belt driving (thinking Harley Davidson drive belts and sprockets) from the big axle to the drive axles. You could dial in a nice ratio for torque. You could also do this again when you power the main axle to your powertrain for a real low range if desired.
I was thinking a rear engined transverse mount front drive drivetrain (say a diesel vw) to spin a second transmission connected to the diff on the big axle.
I even have a frame idea in my head with hydraulics to make a skid steer sized machine, but for now the kubota is getting it done so no need.