"kIDS" Go-Kart

[VOH]

After a couple weekends of the kiddos driving the lawn tractor like a go-kart, we decided to build an actual kart. it will end up with a Predator 212 for the motor (at least starting). bunch of the parts started life as a china kids ATV.

 

[toolman9w]

A 212 will move it surprisingly quick. We have 3 Karts one with a 212 it moves pretty good with 2 kids on it.
Love the build.

 

[xyster101]

That is great! A ton of work. Would be nice to know the expense on a project like this too.

 

[protegeV]

Looks great. My kids are looking forward to a kart build once my new shop is up and running.

 

[VOH]

Re: "KIDS" Go-Kart

So we have been driving this around a little bit, but I have encountered a fault in the steering. Little back story, I cut apart a "china ATV" an utilized that for the front end suspension. i modified the vertical steering post from the ATV to a horizontal arrangement and lengthened the tie rods to fit the wider stance. For the steering, i built an offset arrangement that in theory should be just fine. Trouble is 1)Its a CRAZY short turn. 2)Its hard to actually turn it. Can anyone else look at this and school me one how this may work, or confirm that i just need to scrap the setup and either do solid axle or chase down a rack n pinion for it.

 

[Damon L.]

I would try and shorten the lever arm on the steering column. This will reduce the linear travel per degree of steering wheel rotation and change up the leverage ratio.

If it were possible to get the column and steering shaft parallel, you could do a chain drive setup and experiment with the sprockets on either side to dial it in.

 

[bullnerd]

Hard to tell from those pics whats going on.

Where does the steering shaft even go? Looks like its not hooked to anything from here.

Looks like you need a u joint right after the column support and another lower down near the bell crank.

Also, are they the original front rims/tires? That stuff is way off. lol.

 

[VOH]

As many had suggested, I tore out my attempt to make the steering with scavenged arts from the old 4-wheeler frame and bought a rack-n-pinion setup for one of the karts. After a couple of mods to the tie rods and the steering linkage, it fit perfectly. What a HUGE difference!

 

[sberry]

I was trying to find vid. I give them tractors with deck removed. Back to your great kart.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

Looks way better!

 

[bullnerd]

Yeah, that looks much better.

Now, about that front wheel offset?

 

[FANTM58]

There’s a bunch of online aftermarket support for the predator motors.
A guy has a video showing his stage1 ETC exhaust,intake ......
Really wakes them up !! He was on you tube

 

[Motown]

Drill the jet out to .034, it will wake up the predator quite a bit. They are jetted pretty lean.

 

[tarbellb]

By the way, is there any cheaper alternative to Predator 212?

The Predator IS the cheap option

 

[Kent_B]

Can you give me some image or link product? Thanks

https://www.harborfreight.com/212cc-ghost-kart-racing-engine-57531.html Maybe this is what you're looking for