Hello all
not sure if this is the right place for this but lets see....
I started off with a kinroad buggy back in 2012 its been super reliable and great fun but its always bothered me that is very fragile in terms of safety, if ever I rolled I think the cage would just fold up
so for some time ive been pondering building something a little more substantial but I also don't want a heavy monster that isent really a buggy anymore, I could start from sctratch and build the chassis and suspension but here in the uk that gives you a problem if you want it to be road legal, it can be done but its very restrictive and it will need to undergo quite exhaustive and expensive tests to enable it to be registered for road use,
however there is an exemption to this if I use a standard chassis and suspension of a production vehicle and mearly make a new body for it , this would be classed as a rebody and requires nothing more than a visual inspection from the appropriate dept and its good to remain on the road
so that's the route im going to go down , trying to find a vehicle that has a small lightweight chassis is not easy but Suzuki Vitara/sidekick springs to mind and I have a few kicking around so that's what im intending to use at this point , I could use the standard Suzuki engine and box its about 105 bhp so might be lively enough but with all the space that exists I may as well use a V8 since they make a nice noise lol,
non of this is new to me I built one 16 years ago and that stood up to plenty of abuse, suzukis have a reputation for being a bit fragile but I think that stems from the front axel that is aluminium and does have a history of exploding but in this instance I want to be rear wheel drive only so its going in the bin where it wont cause me any issues, I never broke the back axle before as the wheels just spin up if your over zealous with the accelerator it might be different if you were on tarmac or landing with the power on but time will tell ….
so the sidekick chassis looks like this, its mainly 2"x4" box section with independent front suspension and a live rear axle located by by a 4 link or 5 if you count the panhard rod all simple robust stuff, front axle and drive shafts just unbolt in fact you can buy them as 2 wd in some territories , I can pick up a bare chassis and walk with it so it cant be that heavy I will weigh it all as I go im aiming to be well under a ton when its finished maybe 800kg or 1760 lbs in your language
hers a few pics of the last one i made a long time ago
Andy
