Drift Trike

[fordkid88]

The start of the drift trike.

The $8 donor.


Cut up and packed up.


The tubing donor in the background, my buggy that wasn't going anywhere.




Base frame done.


Doing a little filler work on some impurities in the weld.


Waiting for my co worker to look for a list of parts I need.

 

[royce]

That looks like a bunch of fun.
How will it be powered?

Royce

 

[fordkid88]

1 of 3 options.

1. The mystery motor, my co worker is on hard times and does small motor repair and tractor builds to help support his family and I try to buy from him to help out so he's looking for something for me. The lincoln buzzbox, oxy ace tank setup, and the rupp tank came from him.

2. 79cc predator because of the size.

3. The most likely will be the 212cc predator.

If anyone has some experience with the predator motors and could answer my question on them be awesome.
I would like to rotate the motor so the cylinder head would point to the forward direction the bike, this would put the cam above the crank, would that give it enough oil from splash from the crank?

 

[fordkid88]

Beers were drank and work was done. Fork was stripped, primed, and painted. The gas cap was buffed and most of the pitting was removed and then clear coated. Yesterday the tank was fluxed and re-soldered and primed. This morning it was painted and tonight it was clear coated. I would like to get more work done but the wife is texting me wondering when im coming back inside, she doesn't like it when i fall asleep on the couch in the garage.

 

[crewchief888]

ive been thinking about building one for a winter project...

i'll be following along

 

[Fluxion]

The trike is coming along! I'd like to build one this winter and I wish I had room for a couch in my garage.

 

[fordkid88]

ive been thinking about building one for a winter project...

i'll be following along

Do it! I had my buggy frame sitting in the shed and I wanted to utilize the pipe but didnt have an idea. The state of wisconsin won't allow a none commercial buggy on state trails so I threw this idea at my coworker and it formulated real fast.

The trike is coming along! I'd like to build one this winter and I wish I had room for a couch in my garage.

The garage is the reason I bought the house, its something like 28 x 32, I just know that its about a 100ft smaller than the house. The previous owner actually had a 4 post lift in it, wish he would have left it in though.

You should do it though, I've gotten this far in just a few nights after work.

 

[fordkid88]

Did the rear, gotta get all the welds cleaned up. Hoping my co worker still has some old metal tractor seat sitting around because im thinking that would be wicked. Until i get some parts in the progress will be slow, but i can clean/grind the welds, weld the gas tank tabs, start the drift brake bar and paint a portion of the frame, Im thinking grabber green.

 

[memphisnate]

My father-in-law built a powered drift trike with the base being a go-cart frame and engine. He bought a fat tire bike and chopped the front-end off to use and sold the back half on CL. It's a blast to drive around. Here's a short video of him on it...

He first made some pedal powered trikes last year for my BIL that were a blast.

 

[Fluxion]

You should do it though, I've gotten this far in just a few nights after work.

I've been looking at the trike stuff for a couple of years and now I'm starting to look for parts again, I just might tackle this over the winter. I already have one of the Predator 212 engines and will probably upgrade some of the parts as well.

My garage is 20x40, It's the reason we bought the house but I don't have enough room for a couch. Besides, my wife would kill me if I ever slept out there.

 

[fordkid88]

The wife tries to guilt trip me when I fall asleep in the garage but I can sleep pretty much anywhere, especially with a few beers.

Motor update. I threw some pictures up on facebook and my buddy in madison offered me a brand new predator 212 for 75, good deal if it wouldnt cost me 25 in gas round trip, might grab around thanksgiving if hes in town. My coworker found me a used intek ic 206, but he didn't give me a price yet. I'm cautious on the 206 because of the plastic cam and crank bearing is none replaceable from my understanding.

 

[ambenz]

I love to follow this but the pictures are really small....

 

[fordkid88]

I love to follow this but the pictures are really small....

I will try and fix that tonight hopefully

 

[memphisnate]

I love to follow this but the pictures are really small....

If you click on the pic it will open them up bigger. If they were bigger in the thread, that would be nice though.

 

[fordkid88]

Well I got 2 motors for 50. A tecumseh 6.5 with an electric start and a Briggs and Stratton intek I/c 206. I was really excited for the 206 but it had hairline crack in the crank case cover, the shaft had play, and the cam was way out of time.

The tecumseh has a crack mount. I've epoxied it, hope it holds. Gotta get a new spark plug and see how she runs.

Talk to my co worker and hes got a 3.5 briggs flathead to swap the 206, not ideal but it could work.

 

[racer-john]

Excuse me, but what is grabber green or did you leave out the word "shorts"?

 

[fordkid88]

Excuse me, but what is grabber green or did you leave out the word "shorts"?

Grabber Green is a wicked awesome color!

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Rust-Ole...75035&wl11=online&wl12=46891780&wl13=&veh=sem

 

[Xander]

Looks like a lot of fun. I can’t wait until my 3&4 year old boys are old enough for that stuff!!!

X...

 

[fordkid88]

Got a motor going this morning, working on the motor mounts right now, well right now I'm having a beer, and then gotta fix the cracked motor mount, the epoxy didn't hold and I don't have the ability to weld aluminum.

 

[fordkid88]

Briggs and stratton 3.5 flat head. Not the final motor but it'll get me by until I can get the right motor. Gotta do a carb relocation so I can use a carb without a built in tank.

 

[chrispyny]

First just wanna say how awesome this build is. I just turned 40 in september, but still feel like an 18 year old. I have been wanting to do one of these for a long time. I have the garage and tools for it, just lack time right now. Maybe next winter. I look forward to your completion.

my buddy in madison offered me a brand new predator 212 for 75, good deal if it wouldnt cost me 25 in gas round trip

Sounds like you are trying to spend a dime to save a penny. I say scrap the used older and less efficient engines, and dive right into the harbor freight 212 engine. It's half as loud as those older monsters, lighter, and far more efficient on gas. Plus parts are easily available. And if it grenades, wait till they are on sale again and buy one new in box for $99.

 

[fordkid88]

First just wanna say how awesome this build is. I just turned 40 in september, but still feel like an 18 year old. I have been wanting to do one of these for a long time. I have the garage and tools for it, just lack time right now. Maybe next winter. I look forward to your completion.



Sounds like you are trying to spend a dime to save a penny. I say scrap the used older and less efficient engines, and dive right into the harbor freight 212 engine. It's half as loud as those older monsters, lighter, and far more efficient on gas. Plus parts are easily available. And if it grenades, wait till they are on sale again and buy one new in box for $99.

I am/was trying to do this as cheap as possible. The little black motor doesn't want to start now. So the next thing I buy for it will be axle and brakes and I will just set aside money for the predator. Its really the last thing I need to think about.

 

[fordkid88]

I think I have the image hosting figured out, may be able to make the picture bigger if need be.

I ordered the new stem and bars. Bright green bars, I can't wait. Found some sweet grips, but I'm not sure of the type of throttle control yet. Started getting a parts list together for the drive train and putting a plan into action for that.

 

[chrispyny]

You might need to WAY lower that seat height dude.. you want low, or you'll turn over rather than drift. You want the seat down on top of the rear axle. LOW.

 

[memphisnate]

You might need to WAY lower that seat height dude.. you want low, or you'll turn over rather than drift. You want the seat down on top of the rear axle. LOW.

+1

My FIL used a tractor seat which works great.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[crewchief888]

You might need to WAY lower that seat height dude.. you want low, or you'll turn over rather than drift. You want the seat down on top of the rear axle. LOW.

yea,
3 wheels like to turn turtle...

 

[fordkid88]

I'm kinda of commited to the current design I have now, otherwise I would be in for a lot of work. I actually based my design off of 2 that I found on the internet. My next one will have huge changes with what ive learned on this one, but I'm going to finish this one this way as I would pretty much have to restart.

 

[fordkid88]

Bars on, seat was lowered an inch, I can probably get another inch or two max. Finished some welds. She is getting done slowly but surely.

 

[fordkid88]

Oops, lol. I was messing around with intek, I epoxied the crank case cover and I wanted to see if I could get it going. Well I did, everything was going good and then BANG! I think it may have been some sort of rod bind because everything looked good on assembly.

 

[fordkid88]

Moved the motor mount location back, this will allow my to move the seat location and lower it. Still a long way from being rideable.

 

[fordkid88]

Got a chance to do some work. I got the motor mounts welded in and a bunch of the welds knocked down and cleaned up. I picked up another junker bike for parts. Better front rim and a fork with v brake mounts, its no disc brake setup but its a hell of a lot better. Its a slightly beefier fork and won't accept my quill adapter so as I come back from an out of state wedding I will order the right size and a different stem because most of the threads ripped out...lame.

I have a pretty cool idea for a new fuel tank, but I'm not saying anything else on that until its done.

 

[skrap metal]

sweet

 

[fordkid88]

So ive had 2 trips almost a week long each in the last 3 weeks, so not as much work as I would like, but I got some work done tonight. I started the axle mounts when I got off of work.

This was the start. I needed to leave enough room to get a bolt and socket in there, but it left a gross gap.

So I tacked a 3/16 rod in the gap and tacked it in place.

Then I started to lay some beads down to start filling it in.

I filled it with enough beads so that when I ground it down it would have a nice taper that would blend in.

Here is the mostly finished product of the other side. I could fill the tiny imperfections with the wire feed welder but I'm going to do a skim coat of body filler.

Gotta finish the grinding on the other side and knock down some more welds. But the wife came home and according to her she is really fertile at the moment so we have some business to attend to later.

 

[fordkid88]

Ok since everybody was throwing a fit about the seat height, not like they were valid suggestions lol. When you guys are right youre right.

Well in order to lower the seat the trike had to be shortened. I chopped the front end off and welded on a new one. I saved time and effort and left part of the top amd down tubes on and reshaped them with a torch and hammer.

Then I thought about what kind of seat I wanted. I still wanted a tractor seat but it was gonna be to wide so I said **** it and started my own.

It does feel a whole lot better.
The seat is gonna be on springs so it will have some comfort. I took 2 vavle springs from an old set of heads I had sitting in the garage. Just gotta figure how I'm gonna mount all of that.

 

[fordkid88]

Well I stopped over at my buddies and walked away with some goodies for 85 bucks.
Sorry for the sideways pics, tinypic is being a pain right now.

Got a second wind and had to get some more work done.

Wish I 400 bucks floating around, he's got a Damn near new 80 gallon air compressor up for sale, might swing back for more goodies in the future.

 

[fordkid88]

I've got a new intake manifold mostly done. I ran out of gas on my oxy/acetelyne setup so I tried a propane torch with some aluminum soldering rods. Worked just enough but not enough to look pretty and I don't have a map torch either. Ill work it over later, for now it works and that will be good until I do paint work.

The other other day my coworker gave a none work snowblower with a 5hp briggs on it. I tinkered with and got it running strong. It came with a really cool pull start housing I've never seen before and electric start. Best of all it has a 3/4" in shaft vs 1" like old one. It just had a crank case cover specific to use with a belt tentioner. Luckily I was able to quickly swap them because the crank is 1" at crank cover.

Hopefully next week I can order the axle stuff and get some ride time. In the mean time im going to get the snowblower back up and running and give it to the neighbor.

 

[fordkid88]

Made a pot of coffee and decided to putz around in the garage tonight.

So I temporarily plumbed the pump the other night and I needed to come up with a way to mount it. But I didnt have the heart to chop up the fan shroud that I'm using so I grabbed some scrap sheet metal and started to mess around.

The shroud/pull start that I cant bring myself to harm.

The start of the fuel pump mount.

Needed to create some similar styling or at least some different.

For a good measure a hidden killswitch.

I also got the brake lines cut and partially set. Tomorrow I have to add a return line port to the tank, wire the switch, and start work on the throttle linkage.