Reviving an old, cheap, GoCart.... Maybe?
 

So, quite a bit ago, I picked up this GoCart for ~$100 for my birthday...

Lately, I've been thinking, and a friend kind of sparked my interest into reviving it w/ a BL motor... but after thinking about it, it may not be too reasonable?

Just curious for other's insights.

First off, I want to keep it around ~$200 for the revitalization.
Second, the motor only powers one wheel... the rear right wheel..
It looks like there's a solid axle back there, but it looks like it's just rod to hold the sides together, a reinforcement.
I ponder if it'd be possible to pipe in a thin pipe inbetween this rod (not even sure if it's hollow, I assume so, though), and then make it a solid axle, so power gets to the two rears..
Thirdly, awhile back, one of my brother's friends hit a pole, and damaged the front horizontal steering rod.. I'm pretty sure this can be fixed if I just hammer back the other way, isn't a huge issue, but am getting some toe-out on the front.
Fourth, the wheels that are currently one, are not staying. They're solid rubber wheels, and absolutely suck, they grip nada!
I plan on grabbing some new wheels (like tractor, wheelbarrow, lawnmower wheels) from harborfreight, but not sure what the bore size should be.
Wheel rod measures about 0.471", so it's right inbetween 3/8" and 5/8"...
Fifth, needs to stay electric, no gas/nitro.. Brushed or brushless, both are welcomed setups.

My plan is to make this into something actually fun, something I can ride up and down my street, and maybe even conquer some slight hills.
I don't need a monster, just something that will be fun to ride.

Thinking:
No welding.. Would like to keep this pricetag as small as possible, ~$200.
Oh, and, if ABSOLUTELY necessary, I guess I could grab some new lipos, but that sounds pricey, a bit hard to maintain [since the GoCart would be living outside]. I'd like to keep using the Sealed Lead Acid battery since it's already in there and already mounted. 24V 16Ah rated.

http://s53.photobucket.com/albums/g6...rt%20Pictures/

So what do you guys think, any potential in this?

Let me know if you can find a large brushless motor and controller for under $200 for that. It seems like the best way to get more performance from that cart would be to get some lipos to replace the lead acid battery. If you've seen Mike's lipo powered dirt bike, you'd know that the batteries really make a difference in the weight and power.

If you bought 4 of these Turnigy 6s 5000mah 20c batteries and wired them in parallel, you would have about the same voltage, tons of punch, much less weight, and probably double the usable runtime. Then just bend the front steering assembly back into shape, mount some bigger tires on it, and you're good to go. Not sure how to make it 2wd in the rear, though.

Good luck!

$200 no way.
 

I admire your ambitions, but $200 to get this thing running under power with electric powertrain, I don't think so. Not sure what the Kart weighs as it sits, but guessing an average weight including you sitting in it would have to be around 200-250lbs, right? To push that kind of wieght around even on flat level road you would need something worthy enough to get you moving and make it move well enough to make it worth the price of admission. Anything less than 25-30 mph would get real boring pretty fast. Finding a good BL motor that size will more than likely cost you more than $200 by itself. Even a solid brushed motor from place like Harbor Freight would cost you at least $100. Then you have to find a spec worthy control system for the size of this project. That alone will cost you more than the $200 which you intend to budget under.

In order to do this even half way right you would more than likely have to invest a grand to build up the electronics and powertrain to a point that would make it run fairly well and actually keep it running more than a couple of days without burning it up. Just look at how much it costs to create a BL HPI Baja 5b that can run 30-50mph? You would be better off finding a good karting type 2stroke engine with enough power to push you around in the 30-40mph range and even then stying under $200 would prove to be a pretty tough task. Just my 2cents.

That is roughly what I figured..

Was just curious

I may give some 5/8" bore mower tires on it, and maybe even some lipos...
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that $200 is a long shot.

Will still be thinking how I'm going to get the axle to sleeve into the 5/8 bore..

If you drive both rear wheels, I would highly recommend some kind of diff if you want it to turn at all...

Hmm, if I were to go lipo, do you guys think 25C would be sufficient in this case?

Looking into 6S 5000mAh 25C lipos...

Diff??
 

Go-karts this size usually do not use any kind of diff. The rear axles on these applications are usually a solid rear shaft with a sprocket bolted on, and they turn just fine. If you do a little research about karts that have been fabricated to run under electric power most if not all of them have been setup with a higher voltage system due to the weight factor involved. 36v to 48v may be enough to keep it moving witout overheating the electronics as long as you have enough capacity. In fact I do not recall seeing any of them with a Lipo battery due to the overall cost for building such a setup. All of them have been built using lead acid or gell cell type batteries, because you can acquire them fairly cheap or they used batteries that were laying around their shop. Using Lipo's can be done, but not cheaply. You would need a lot more than just a few R/C batteries to even make this worth while. Look at some of the E-bike projects that have been done and shared here on RCM, and those probably wiegh about 20-30lbs before converting them to electric. We all have to live our dreams, but I believe that this will cost you a lot mor than you may be willing or can even aford to invest. Good luck achieving your goal.

Very good points Jerry..

Though I'm just not totally set on the difference between SLA and Lipos.

In my experience, SLA seem to decrease and sag immensely over a short amount of time under load, especially during spikes.
However, lipos can USUALLY keep their capacity and keep on trucking.

In addition, I feel that the the stock solid wheels weigh a ton, and switching to some 10" pneumatic tires from harbor-freight, and after managing to fix it to the axle, that it should run much smoother.

Though, I'm not too sure, since I have not dabbled into the complexity of much electrics as others (linc, or briang) have.. Maybe their input would tip the scale.

I'm pretty much leaning towards dropping ~$25 bucks on some new wheels (if they don't work, I could always return them, or give them to my dad to create something with). If somewhat of a speed/torque increase is shown from actual grip coming from the tires, then I will probably pick up one 6S 5000mAh 20C battery, to give it a try. If it exhibits something that I'd want, I'll pick up another of the same battery, hook them in up in parallel, and have it as a 6s 10Ah pack.


In other words, I have dropped the idea of going brushless, and will be seeing what I can do with the stock setup.

Hey guys,

After talking to eovnu (Mike), the one with the creative barbie jeep... I'll be skipping the tires for now, and will probably be trying out some new batteries (6s 5000mAh anyone?), and if it doesn't do what I want, will probably sell off the battery..

The motor on the right wheel will act sort of a diff, and make it easier to turn, as opposed to a solid axle... A solid axle will also lose some power & traction..

I pulled some wheels off of our wheel dolly that my dad got from harbor freight (so essentially, the same wheel I'm going to get), just to see if they're up for size.. Looks like it's going to be a bit more work than just drill a few holes & go.

The sprocket looks to be a bit too small, but the brake cylinder, I could probably chop off (could use something else for brakes), and so the mount seems to be the main issue.

Pics below.

Any ideas? -Excuse my ignorance, have never really ventured into this world-

http://s53.photobucket.com/albums/g6...20and%20Tires/

It's more work than it is worth. Those go-carts are cheap and barely handle the power and speed that comes stock.

It's like putting a brushless system in a radio shack r-c. You can make it work, but it will just tear things apart.

Honestly, you are better off just spending $2-300 on a better go-kart.

And without an LVC you will quickly blow any single lipo you use.

I don't like to discourage projects, you just have a lot you haven't considered.

Forget about going solid (or in kart terms "live") axle. Number one it requires welding and its out of your budget in parts alone as you'd need the axle, axle hubs, new wheels and tires for those hubs, sproket hub, sproket, brake assembly and weld the flange bearings to the frame.

Wheels. Unless you have a way or someone to pefectly line up the hubs in a new set of wheels I don't recommend drilling. Racing karts use wheel with 3 bolts, maybe the pattern is the same. Either way they can be expensive depending on what you get.

Personally I think you can work with this thing. I'd try and find a 48 volt controller, beg, borrow or steal enough bateries to try it out on 48 volts to see what happens. But I think you can have some fun with it on 48v, if not dump the controller and the kart.

Ha, I had one of these. I ran it with a 6s 5000mah pack, 40c IIRC. Not long enough to really do anything.

I would say 3 6s 5k packs, 20-25c should be fine. Wired in parallel that would give you 15ah.

Pretty sure it only did 10mph or something like that. Taller tires will give you more speed.

I don't suppose you had the same identical one? :whistle:

Did you see a noticeable (and price-worthy) difference in speed from lead acid to lipo?

I plan to do more packs if I see a nice increase in speed from Pb to Lipo.

Perhaps look into some of the E-Bike motors? Not the hub motors that replace the wheels but they have some big, nasty motors for $200-$300 that should push that thing around pretty well. Sorry I don't have links but there are a ton of non-RC motors out there that should be able to get that thing up to speeds that would be worthwhile, but I'd expect to pay $500ish just for the ESC and motor plus another couple hundred for enough lipos to keep it going long enough to be any fun. I believe it was a 48v 750 watt motor that I saw in a miniature motorcycle that was pushing it to 40ish, I can remember the pictures of the thing like it was yesterday but can't find where I saw it at...

www.goldenmotor.com

All the goodies any gokart needs can be found at Golden Motor