Hello everyone, my name is Paul.

First off I would like to say that in general, I try to search heavily through the forum for answers to my questions before asking them because I understand that others may have already asked and answered them, however I have not found much luck addressing my question so here it goes. P.s. If you have a link to a post that does address this I am all ears

As a child, I could not imagine anything more satisfying than having a go kart. A go kart to me is the quintessential toy for a child, however, growing up in a booming suburb, I was never able to have one because there was no where to ride (or so I thought.) Now I am 26, have my own house, my own money and gosh darn it, I'm buying my child hood dream toy!

Having never been involved with motorsports or atv/offroad stuff in general, I figured it would be as simple as buy the buggy, buy a trailer, take a safety course, drive to the trailhead, pay some usage fees or sticker fees and then go have a good time. The more and more i research this subject the more and more I feel like I need a personal attorney with me. Holy cow are these trail rules complicated to someone who has no experience!!!

Between width restrictions, ground clearance rules, maximum decibel level, and terminology I have no idea if I will be wasting my time getting a buggy. (I hope not, as an atv or side by side just don't appeal to me, I like the "car" experience as opposed to straddling an atv or sitting in a golf cart style UTV)

I am looking at a trailmaster 150 (300 if I happen to have the extra money when I'm ready to purchase) HH 150 or similar style buggy, and I expect to have to travel a few hours to use it which I have accepted and don't have issue with but my question is this... where do those of you in the southeast wisconsin / north-east illinois area ride? Are these buggies primarily just ridden on private property or farm fields because I can't seem to get any information on where I might be able to go.

I've reviewed the Wisconsin DNR Off-Highway Vehicle Regulations and I don't see any specific mention of buggys on trails. They say that a "go-kart" can't be registered as an ATV (even though the one I want meets all criteria except width at ~53") and they say a "dune buggy" cant be registered as a UTV (even though the one I want meets all criteria except minimum weight of 900 lbs). Yet on the wisconsin DNR website they fail to define either "Go-Kart" nor "Dune Buggy" and i seem to get the impression that the only thing that may prevent this vehicle from being legal on off road trails is simply what word I choose to use to label this device. I understand width restriction and am not arguing for me to be able to access narrow trails, I'm just trying to do my due diligence so as to not elicit a ticket for my vehicle even if I meet every other criteria for being on the trail.

Does anyone have any suggestions on where to trail ride with a HH 150/Trailmaster style buggy in the ~6 hour give or take radius of chicago? I read that lots of you like to go to badlands in Indiana, and I've seen videos and the place looks awesome and its pretty close to me relatively speaking. I certainly would love to ride there but I'm afraid if that is the only option that i really have that I may get alittle fatigued of riding the same place without variation.

Thanks so much to all of you who contribute on this board! Without a forum like this I probably wouldn't be as close to joining the addiction! This site has been immensely helpful to me to understand the capability of what i should expect performance wise, and the mods that will help pull every bit of power from these motors. Hope to meet some of you out on the trails some day!

Thanks!

-Paul Z

Welcome, There are more in the Southern Illinois area than North. A few of us Midwesterners go to St Joe State Park In Leadington MO
See post Buggy Bash 2018.https://buggynews.com/buggy-bash-2018-t49590.html or https://buggynews.com/back-to-roots-ride-2-2018-sept-7-9th-t49574.html

Williams Hill Pass in Southern IL is a nice trip in the Shawnee Natl forest.
Rider Planet has suggestions. For the most part the trails in IL are Side by Side Friendly. Wisconsin has the Cheese trail but I may be a little long for a 150.

the cliffs in il.

When registering, don’t call it a gokart or dune buggy - Call it 2wd side by side. This will put it into right vehicle category to ride the places you want. Many states consider a gokart a track or yard kart, so this makes off-road registration difficult. Dune buggies are usually fiberglass bodies on VW pans or sand rails which are typically restricted from off-road trails due to being to large.

Look into liability insurance in case you hit someone or damage property. You don’t need full coverage, just enough to keep you from going into the poor house if there is an oops.

The cliffs! Thanks Funnyman, That is cool that is less than 2 hours away from me, not too bad of a drive. Gndoc, St Joe looks cool, I know I'm a little late to the party but if I happen to get a buggy by June I will have to try to make it down that way. I'm sure I'll be pretty Gung Ho to ride once I get it. I may have to camp somewhere else if its filled up but we will see. Williams Hill I have seen signs for in the past, I go down and backpack in the Shawnee every thanksgiving and that is a beautiful area, I think I could have some fun there with one of these!

Thanks PGH about the side by side tip, I thought I might do something like that but I wasn't sure the implications or if anyone else had experience with it. Side by Side does seem to be an appropriate name, you had a good point about what the state visualizes when you use either the "kart" or "buggy" terminology.

Thanks to everyone for your knowledge and suggestions, It has certaintly eased some of my concerns and I feel I can see the path forward now. I owe you all some beers now me thinks

Get a buggy and come on down to st joe. I just happen to know where a single seat 150 is for sale.

https://buggynews.com/kinrod-150-single-seat-for-sale-t49698.html

It is a great time there.

Give me a jingle when you want to go
St Joes is the place to be in june!

Welcome to the addiction. Hopefully we will get to see you in June.

Gndoc, I am looking to get a 2 seater so I can take out the misses with me from time to time. I have to many solo hobbies so I need to get something where she can tag along with me, but once I get a 2 seater I may have to get that single seater from you if it is still available for my "personal" toy haha. I myself would prefer the single seater, its just looks so cozy like you are sitting inside a cockpit as opposed to in a car but I would just feel bad having another excuse to say "see you later sweetie."

Funnyman I definitely will let you know when I get one and am ready to shred, I will need someone to show me the ropes and help me put band-aids on when I flip it haha.

Im going to do my best to get things rolling so I can hopefully meet you all in June at St. Joe!!

Thanks everyone for the quick responses, I feel at home already!

Don't feel comfortable yet, you haven't met us yet!😁

This is true, but your icon is a dancing banana, and that doesn't sound like a bad time to me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFnb-qWRETI



This why the dancing Nanner