Desert Kart

Innovations

Mar 4

Written By GREN .

Off-road CVT driven vehicle:

2016-2018

The Desert cart is probably one of my largest projects overall that spanned over many months of work.

The project started with a go-kart frame that was locally purchased from a Craigslist seller. The frame was in pretty rough shape, was bent badly in a few places and was missing lots of hardware. It rolled and could be steered, but it was missing an engine and much more.

After fixing the bends, we installed new pedal control systems, and a proper set of brake calipers for the rear. For the engine, we use a 402cc harbor freight engine, with a traditional centrifugal clutch to drive the system. Since the frame originally used a different engine, we had to weld our own mount, which proved to be quite a challenge. Additionally, we found that the clutch proved to be insufficient as it would constantly overheat and cease to function during testing, due to the vehicle’s weight. We then opted for a continuously variable transmission setup, and this proved to be a very good fit. This gave the vehicle a top speed of around 30 miles per hour, and excellent handling on sand and dirt.

There’s a lot more finishing work to be done on the kart overall, but it’s still really fun to drive around during a trip to the desert.