So, a while back I got the idea of making a gas powered gokart using a beer keg. Actually, it started life as a barstool racer that I decided was a stupid idea due to the poor center of gravity. After some searching around, I found a beer cooler kart. But I decided their product sucked and was for boring middle aged men with no ability to make things on their own. Sorry, but 29cc engines are for weedeaters, not for bad ass gas powered vehicles. I drew up some plans and it got filed away as a project I'd likely never work on, much like my others. Fast forward to last year, after some discussions with Dream and the local Dennis Brothers Liquors, the idea was concocted to replace the beer cooler with a beer KEG instead. Lay it on its side, and ride it like a gas powered horse. For my birthday, my loving wife purchased me a small wirefeed welder from Harbor Freight. While I was there with her, I also snatched up one of their 6.5HP 212cc horizontal shaft engines. And then I made a stop to the local Discount Steel for a couple dozen feet of square tube steel. After a few orders to the local kart supply shops, and a call to Mike Wagner for some racing kart wheels and a hookup for tires, I was on my way... I laid out a plan on the floor of the garage. I wanted it to be stupid, but also capable of being fast enough to look that stupid. Then I got to work making slag and cutting things... Also, yes, for those of you that don't sit in the Shoutbox all day, I have hair now. It's not a big deal. You'll get over it...much like you did when I sold off all my Subarus and got a Nissan. This was my progress as of today. The main frame rails and ladder bars are done. The rear axle mounts are on, and the front steering arms and spindles are finished. This week, assuming my work gives me free time, I'll finish up the upper steering frame and steering shaft, and the rear engine "table" and mounting plate. I have to farm the beer keg mount rails to Bilknutz because I can't weld stainless and he's a much better welder than I will likely ever be. But once he is done putting mount rails under that keg, I will be polishing it to a mirror finish. I'll keep this thread somewhat updated as I go. It's a bit slow going, but I am planning on having it done before the end of this month. Well, that's assuming the weather stays dry, as I'm not painting it till I have a few days of dry sunny weather to allow the paint to cure properly. I'll keep you posted.
I have hair now. It's not a big deal. To those of us that are follicularly challenged, it is a big deal. Having the beer keg refillable and with a tap should be a priority. In that case the engine is too small. Looks good. In for updates.
Sadly, due to needing to weld on it, and having it attached to a 'motor vehicle.' And there being no way to refrigerate said keg, this will be a non-functional keg. I have, however, tossed around the idea of making the inside of the keg into a cooler that could hold a couple 6 packs.
This project looks awesome! How do you like using the HF welder you have? I've been tossing around the idea of picking up a cheap one myself for small projects.
It depends on how serious you are. It's perfect for welding mild steel. I've been able to penetrate pretty some pretty dense steel with it so far. Anything beyond that though and you are looking at needing something heavy duty. It's a perfect garage welder though. Runs on 120 (20A though). If you are serious about welding, put in a 220 in the garage and get one that has gas hookups. That'll put you into stainless territory. For gokarts and other mild steel projects, it's just fine. I do like it. Takes some getting used to, but after about 2 hours of goofing off and relearning some of the basics, I was doing just fine.
OH, and if you get one, I recommend picking up a spool or two of .035 Lincoln brand flux core from HomeDepot or Lowes. It's like 10 bucks, and it doesn't spatter nearly as much as the Chicago Electric crap they give you with the unit.
Polishing the ones I have is about as baller as I can get. And I'm seriously considering NOT doing that since my hands are large and the opening in the wheels is small. Getting in there to polish the faces will be a nightmare. They are likely just going to be painted gloss black
Just make the keg into the gas tank. You will be able to drive it for weeks straight on 1 "tank" of gas. Russ
Yeah, but isn't gas like 8lbs per gallon? A 15.5gallon keg would be 125 lbs of fuel. I'd probably burn up the clutch. No worries though. I found a place that sells blank mini-kegs (like the ones you get sometimes at the liquor store, or the ones that 1919 root beer comes in). I could probably put a brass fitting on the bottom of it and weld up a clamp to hold it on the back of the kart. Putting a fill cap on the top would be a bit of a difficulty, but I'm sure I can find a more accomplished welder to make that happen.
Also, upper steering frame is half finished. The structure is there, I just need to finish up some of the seams and put the mounting tabs on for the steering shaft blocks.
No. I'm bending my own handlebar. The handlebar mounting stem for this steering shaft's gated collar is like 50 bucks. I figure I can save the money and just weld the handlebar directly to the steering shaft. I don't intend to change the orientation at all. Adjustability would be nice, but I'd rather not spend that much for such a simplistic piece
Spit ballin' here... but.. cut open the side, and weld a floor in at the top of the tank (when laid horizontal), and put a filler cap and drain bung off that.. then turn the panel you cut off the side into a door to allow the bottom portion to carry tasty bevs. bonus points if you put a drain on it so you can fill it with ice.
If you were on the Shoutbox earlier, you would have caught my little gripe with my brake caliper. A little background: Basically, I am a DIY type of person. I like to make things work where they weren't supposed to. I usually don't buy kits for things if I can avoid it. In this situation, I purchased a brake caliper and rear master cylinder for a 125cc pitbike/dirtbike. Now, the thing with bikes, there's no axle. You can mount things to the outside of a wheel without having to worry about what's on the outside of it. With a kart, the caliper has to mount so that the mount doesn't interfere with the axle. Since I purchased a motorbike caliper, the mounting bracket was NOT going to work at all. So as I stared down the road of "you have to make your own custom mounting bracket for this" and lacking a proper bench grinder, I got frustrated...drank a beer...and then shoved the motorcycle mounting bracket randomly into my chop saw and hit the "GO" button. After my anger, and the metal, had cooled off, I started looking at the piece I had chopped off. Held it in behind the rear axle with a magnet and sure enough...it fit the caliper perfectly! Like, not just 'perfectly'...but "in all the universe there will never be a time when a random hate-cut ends up being this perfect." Caliper was centered and had exactly the amount of clearance needed from the frame edge that was necessary to mount it. Welded it on, bolted up the caliper...done.
Made a little more progress today. Got the steering column welded up, cut the handlebar and welded on the steering shaft mounting tabs. Just have to drill a few holes before I can bolt it on there. But here are some pics of it as it sits now. I clamped the steering column bearing blocks in place till I drill the holes to bolt them in. I'll have to get a shot of me sitting on the keg so you can see the proportions.
^Lmao! I believe that "a health insurance" is when you drink all the beers. Keeps you moar healthy! Progress is looking good mang! Looking forward to pics with the wheels back on....and a beer tap brake handle.
Another day and more work. Cottage Grove was having their Strawberry Festival and instead of putting the Z in the rained out car show, I spend the rainy period of the day grinding on the kart. The other day, my tie-rods arrived. Apparently, in some strange realm of reality, you measure your tie rods and just imagine what the dimensions of the eye bolts are. I didn't know this, and instead, measured hole to hole, spindle to steering shaft. This was apparently the wrong way. So, my tie-rods arrived about 2 inches too long. After some swearing, a chopsaw, and a 3/8-24 thread tap, they were 'fixed.' I then got to work mounting up the tires to the wheels. Lots of dishsoap and a split knuckle later they were on the wheels and the beads were seated. Then, for fun, I put them on the kart to get a look at how it was coming along in the looks department.... Bitchin I still have some welding to do. But I am hoping my next set of pictures include a fully mounted engine and it sitting on the ground on the tires.
One last update for today. Before cleaning up the garage, I wanted to tack the engine mounting plate and the brake master cylinder bracket. This is about 95% of what the kart will look like minus the brake rotor and rear sprocket and brake cable. Tomorrow I plan to finish up all the welds, and then go over all the welds to make sure they are clean and solid, wire up the master cylinder, and bolt the engine to the frame.
Color/colors? Paint or powder coat? When do you start taking orders and when does the spec racing series start?
I'm doing paint. Metallic flake red. Wheels stay black. All the aluminum parts stay bare. I'm thinking for the racing series, I will have to come up with a spec. Not sure I want to mass produce them. The time needed would be prohibitive. And the price would pretty much keep most from being involved. The hours would go down if I made up a jig, but not by much as I don't have the tooling to really knock them out.
Currently I'm in it for about 600. It will nickel and dime you however. And it's good to find a source of freebies. Find a local karting shop for tires. For a kart for just goofing around, you don't need brand new kart tires. And after a racing season is over, there are TONS of used ones around. Shop around. I have found that BMI Kart Supply so far has the most reliable prices. And they have regular sales on things. The prices there were good enough that it made eBay seem like a hassle to save a dollar or two on one item. Plus, they are in Ohio, so you get your stuff in 3 days. You save tons of money if you can DIY anything. I made a cheap dirtbike brake and master cylinder work for 50 bucks, where even a low end brake setup for a race kart will run you well over 250+. A piece of steel plate with holes drilled in it is what they will sell you for an engine mounting plate for 20 bucks...the sheet metal for this can be found in the scrap bin at Discount steel and you pay for that by weight. It all really depends on what you feel you can do yourself. I got all my steel in 24' uncut lengths for 23 dollars a unit. If you go to Menards, that same steel cut to 6' lengths is 20 bucks a piece. And I needed more than 24'. Buying it at Menards was prohibitively expensive. If I were you, I would budget for 700 over the course of a build. The more freebies you can get, the better.
Thanks for the heads up, I can Fab damn near anything and was gonna build the frame from 1-1/4 HREW tubing (I own the bender and everything already) so I think the motor? Rear end would be my biggest expense. I'll have to start looking for parts...maybe a 4wheeler rear end could be maid to work. Thanks for some inspiration
Depends on your goal. If you are looking for a road kart, I'd stick to kart parts. A live rear axle is super easy. There is a diy kart making forum that is a wealth of knowledge. The rest can be tabbed for sure, but there are a lot of cheap solutions for a lot of it..
This is going to sound stupid, so I'll just state it anyway: I had a dream last night that you stole my vintage 1963 truck (name/make escape me because I don't own nor do I know anything about vintage trucks other than my dad's 1967 F150). You hid it from me and use the front grill/bumper headlights for your kegkart project. I was having some pretty weird dreams, I don't know how the KegKart got in them so don't ask. Therefore, I say it needs a grill and headlights.
Nice... Also, I finished up all the welds this evening. Well, aside from the little arm that holds the brake line conduit in place, but that's a 5 minute job. Now time to grind the crap out of the frame.
No updates lately, and I apologize. I got some of the final assembly started. But I'm hung up right now because I don't have a chain breaker. And I have to rig up a throttle system for the engine. Erik's Bike Shop hooked me up with a brake cable from a tandem bike with a cylinder stop that fit my twist throttle handle perfectly. I completely underestimated the cable length needed to get to the engine, but that is now solved. That, and I missed my deadline on the Keg welding, and I'm not going to bother Bilknutz about it since he's getting married next weekend and I don't think he'll have time for it right now. So, list of stuff to do is as follows. * Rig throttle cable to engine * Break drive chain and chain the clutch to the rear axle * Attach cast iron vintage bottle opener to side of chassis ( a must ) * Weld support brackets to keg ( I am not capable of doing this myself ) * adjust front camber ( requires some cutting and welding ) * adjust front alignment * add ackerman steering arm extensions to spindles * add oil to engine * fill fuel tank * run motor for break-in.
Faces come out in the rain. When you're strange. When you're strange. When you're straaaaange. Uhhhuhhh yeahhh.
So, I've run into a few issues. The clutch is gone. It ran twice before being a smoking mess. Likely due to a couple things. 1) the throttle cable conduit slipped, causing me to be at light throttle most of the first run. The clutch is made to engage around 2k rpms, I likely was just skirting that most of the time. 2) the brake caliper is out of alignment and is rubbing the rotor, which wasn't helping the light throttle issue. Being constantly near the RPM threshold for the clutch and having the brake partially engaged is a special sort of hell for a little kart clutch. The other problem is, the steering/front end geometry is all fubar'd. I need to chop the front spindles off and re-weld them back on with 10 degrees or so of caster. Probably add a couple degrees of camber as well while I'm at it. And I need to add some extra tabbing to the spindle arms for ackerman (inside/outside turn ratio). Right now, when the clutch engages, the kart pulls hard like it wants to throw you into things, and the steering does absolutely nothing, kart simply pushes hard in the direction the rears are pushing it. As soon as you let off throttle or apply the brakes slightly, the front wheels grab hard and jerk the kart in the proper direction. I'm lucky I didn't break anything (aside from a Jagermeister bottle with the stale rinse booze from the Jager tap machine that needed to be tossed out....yeah, It hopped the concrete lip to my garage and launched me into my shopvac). It's completely unwieldy and will need some serious fine tuning. I'm hoping a little toe/caster/camber/ackerman adjustments will get it to turn on a dime. And steering would be good steering right about now. Also, I still have nothing to sit on, so it is especially fun to watch me risk death while standing on the frame rails of the kart doing 0-25mph in "HOLY **** COCKS!" only to have no steering and have to hammer on the brake to get some steering bite and then have the kart pull a hard 90* turn. It'll be alot more fun me-thinks when I get the steering undercontrol and have someplace to place my ass that isn't 2.5' in the air. Makes for a craptastic center of gravity.
