Crawler.. bike buggy..2 seater flat 4 variable diff pro warp

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[micky1]

WOW!

Love the evolution of the crawler.

i am impressed by the new ideas, especially the indy suspension, twin engined single seater.

keep it up.

[vitman]

first off i love the buggy!

i was hoping somebody could tell me what the BX engine and box weigh?

Thanks in advance

[Blue dragon]

Vitman

I haven't weighed the engine and box, but the head, block, and box is all ally. I can just lift the engine and box (if its on a table) so I guess about 120Kg ?

Mark

[baloo]

hi

l was having a few hours on the excavator digging out the pond yesterday afternoon when Mark called by with his buggy, l couldent miss an oppertunity with the camera could l

so heres a few for you, l also took some vid with the camera mounted on the roll cage of the buggy, but not sure how well that turned out

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heres the vid with the camera mounted on the front screen pillar above the steering wheel height, it dident turn out as well as l hoped as l think the zoom was to far out and dident give a big enough picture rather to focused on a small area infront, bare in mind the camera is fixed horizontal to the ground and cant move up or down except when the buggy does and then take note of how many time you are looking at sky or tree tops, that is the only way of telling how steep some of the slopes are as the pics dont show that very well,
l think we need to have another go at this with a different camera mount and less zoom, any excuse for another play

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIbeV-lCGpE

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[gawxo]

HI andy , looking good there . glad to see you made good use of the spoil from the pond!! , like me the spoil was as usefull as the want of a pond,


Your site is developing nicely , I must get my excavator into action this spring and shape up a few more sections , getting the ballance right between easy , difficult, and extreme is not easy but, with the aid of a few trucks , and, especialy the light wieght , it does help.


That little buggy certainly seems to cope realy well , and the modifications look to be an improvement , I hope to see it here in the future , even if its just a chance to try a different site ,

All the best Andy , see you soon I hope , JP.

[baloo]

[gawxo]

Welcome as always . JP.

[andy4w]

That is great to watch, lovely build, and in XL now hey Andy

Andy

[Slow]

[Blue dragon]

Ian

Great to hear from a like minded Canadian ! welcome. The concept above has some merits but one or two problems.

The leading link front suspension has a lot of wind on caster and the rear suffers from the hub centres moving forward on bump, neither are very desirable.

There would be lots of pitching and wheelbase change on fast bumps.

Also their is quite a lot of complexity (and weight) in the driveline and when I laid it out for real, the wheel base ends up rather long.

So what I'm building now is a bit more conventional. It should however still achieve: 4X4 with torsen diffs at both ends. 15" wheel travel and 130Bhp (5 speeds and reverse) all in at about 350 Kg I hope.

So far its all done on CAD and i'm waiting on parts to be made. I suggest you leave me at it for a few months. Come back after the summer and I'll post some progress.

Meanwhile lets see a pic of your Toyota.

Cheers
Mark

[baloo]

hi
l had another go with the video camera facing forward yesterday, bit of a better result this time,
but l tell you what, standing on that back axle holding on with one hand and filming with the other is hard work, its so muddy and slippy





here's the first one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM1lF1Vrfao

and here's one with Diesel destroyer driving
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrCCxctHJ4Y

the camera never portrays the severity of the terrain but its a bit clearer on these, now that the track is nearing completion and we have a buggy as a benchmark l am going to have a little test day when the ground drys up with a landrover 90, an sj and a landcruiser and see how each compares l am assuming the lighter the vehicle the further it will get,

[baloo]

and the last few pics

[gawxo]

Never mind about the crawler Andy , whos been busy on the digger then!!!!!.


I know what gives me more buzz !!!. JP.

[Polie]

Greetings from across the pond.

I really enjoy your build! I will be using some of you design in the future on my next build. Right now I have a pair of zuk axles with a locker in the front, spool in the rear, 5.38 gears, and chromo axles. Everything has been cryo treated.

I was wondering, have you thought about a supercharger on that little engine yet? There are some guys over here using built Swift GTi's with with sc's or turbos achieving upwards of 300bhp in these little 1.3l DOHC engine's. I know the power curve is totally off, but perhaps with the lower gearing you could get the revs high enough to get really into the power band. I was also wondering why only 31's? I can understand you not wanting to barf a burf but they should be able to handle 33's w/o any trouble. It not like your planning on running 54" boggers (although it would be awesome to see lol), but maybe a bigger more aggressive tire would help get through some of the obstacles even more easily.

One more question for you, have you had a chance to get the thing on rocks or cement rubble piles to see how the suspension preforms for actual rock crawling? We dont have much mud/dirt here in the middle of the Arizona desert and I was wondering how well the very short wheelbase preforms.

[Blue dragon]

Hi Polie.

Super charging sounds fun ! I have thought of the Peugeot GTi 1.9 as it fits to the same gearbox. I rather like the wee Citroen lump however ... not much can catch it from 0 to 40 !




I have tried it on some rubble ... not quite a proper rock trail !
The 31" are a good size for the machine, the tyres are rather disappointing, as they are designed for a much heavier vehicle. They clog with mud very easily. I'm going to attack some of the treads with a router.



I bet Arizona would have some dream trails ... meanwhile i'll have to make do with some snowy tar heaps !

Good luck with the build.

Mark

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkOA3-u42yk

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr5bI3hcz7g

http://www.youtube.com/user/andyhaycock1?featur...a/u/1/KOhgY-fYEj4

[Slow]

Sorry I lost track of this thread Not my usual posting place.

Here's a picture of my 2500lb buggy. This is based on an 1982 toyota pickup, but now sports fuel injection, dual t-cases etc. The engine is in front of the driver but behind the front axle. The front driveshaft is very long and the rear is very short. The weight distribution is pretty much exactly 50/50 front to rear with me in it.



It has an aussie locker in the front and a welded rear with 40" ag tires.

I still like the chain drive idea. After doing a bunch of reading I think a snowmachine engine might work very well as you get a CV transmission with a fairly wide range .. something like 3.2 - 0.78. You would need a way to make reverse work but I would think you could kind of make a gear reduction/reverse box using chains and splined sprockets?

On the suspension, I wonder why you couldn't do a link style independant suspension. eg just like a 4 link where you can control the anti squat/anti dive with the positioning of two links but keep it independant. If that doesn't make sense I could draw a picture. Actually I think I mocked it up in phun one night.

Anyway, just letting you know I'm still here

Ian

[baloo]

hi Ian

nice buggy, is there a biuld up of it anywhere ?

snowmobile engine would have plenty of power but l wonder about the rpm range its all at the top, Lee has a rotax 800cc snowmobile engine in his pilot no shortage of power and for reverse the engine runs backward its the strangest feeling when you come to a halt press a button and the engine slows almost to a stop and then picks back up running backwards, 80 mph backwards is no problem ( if a bit stupid )
the other issue with snowmobile/motorbike engines is the noise, with a car engine on its standard silencer no one knows we are there climbing about, when we have the buggys in whole county know we are there, if you dont irritate the neigheours they wont complain to the council

sounds like an angry wasp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb2lnqli6Vs&feature=fvw

Andy

[John yota]

What about something like the BMW GS1200 (1250? not sure which) engine? From my understanding they have a good wide power band and a decent amount of torque at their disposal. Maybe ask Richard D if he thinks it might be suitable as he has one.

Cheers, John

[baloo]

hi john

yes bmw motor bike engine would probally be a good choice and the ones l see on the road are quiet, maybe its the sort of person who owns a bmw bike is not into race cans for the exhaust etc, l see no reason why any bike engine cant be quite but they arnt are they, you go and listen to a rage buggy with a fire blade engine and you need ear plugs but with the right exhaust you could get round that but you still have the age old problem of no reverse gear, imagine going of road with no reverse just not possible is it ? sure theres ways round it but non are easy or cheap, the honda gold wing has reverse but its does so using the starter motor, fine for reversing away from the kerb with a 400kg ( guess ) bike but trying to drag an 1000kg buggy up hill backwards it might have a very short life, theres also the reverse boxes made by quaife and others but these are designed for bike engined cars that run on smooth tarmac and dont see the shock loads that offroad vehicles do, plus they are usally made to be installed inline with the prop which is fine with a caterham/7 type car but difficult to package in a 4 wheel drive set up, and the price tag is not insignificant, a decent bike engine and quaife reverse box might set you back £2000 while a front wheel drive car of ebay can be less than £100, ok the bike engine buggy might be faster but l could live with going at 9/10ths the speed at 1/10 the cost when its a hobby or bit of fun, where l see a bike engine would be a great benifit would be in comp safari where you are against the clock and speed matters, they would be ideal for ripping across a field at indecent speeds and as long as its dry and flatish l dont think much would get near it but find a corner with axle deep mud and you might miss the torque needed to drag you through it, if bike engined buggys were the answer we would be awash with them in comp safari's but we arnt are we ? some of the answer might be the gearbox on the bike engine its desgined to haul a bike around tarmac where it dosent see shock loads and even then it has a cush drive to take the sting out bike wieghs 400 kg ish buggy 1000kg, instantly you are stressing the gearbox and to make matters worse you are going to have to fit bigger wheels with grippier tyres to get round the track and ruts left by 33" tyres or bigger of the other 4x4's, goodbye gearbox,
so l am staying with a car engine for now metro 1.4 with the cvt gearbox can be had for £75 its all ally and no gear chages to upset traction, ok its a k series and its almost certainly going to need a head gasket but they last almost 40 000 miles so throw one on and it will see out all my off roading, having said all that Mark is well on with his bike engine buggy so he certainly see's a future for them
l am sure he will post some pics when its out and running but l am banned from posting pics of it for now