Well this has been quite a year. We made a wood go kart a pedal wood go kart and managed to work on the vertical engine go kart little bit this year too. We made a full-length video and managed to get a blog up this year as well. We’ve been pretty busy developing new products and enhancing the old ones.
Last year as I was watching the webpage and where people were looking it dawned on me that the market that needs to be served the best was the vertical engine drive and the wood go kart series. With the downturn in the economy people were looking for low-cost alternatives in go karting.
We managed to get the wood go kart made in a weekend, complete with gas engine from leftover tractor parts. It just amazes me how maney people just throw away tractor parts and they’re ripe for the picking. We were able to put the wood go kart together for less than 20 bucks because of throw away gems.
We Wrote Books and Made Videos
Getting a go kart book together is quite a challenge orchestrating all the pictures and assembly steps, bill of materials and to top it off video record at all at the same time. It was a good time. The boys had fun making the go kart and obviously trying it out. We had some good laughs, especially when I did some bonehead things like drilling into my toolbox on accident while videoing the wood go kart.
The wood go kart start out as an idea and then propelled itself into a weekend project. By the time Thursday rolled around we were getting materials together: bolts, nuts, wood and all sorts of associated hardware. Come Saturday morning we started whittling down this go kart and by around 10 at night we had the go kart done. Done in its first stages which was a gravity powered go kart. The next weekend then we threw the engine on and improved various elements of the go kart such as brakes and added an on-off switch.
All in all this was a very fun project and was well worth the effort.
Pedal Go Kart
The next ambitious project was the pedal wood go kart. The idea behind that was to use a bunch of bicycle parts and make a pedal powered go kart. We happen to have a couple of bikes sitting around that we found at the dump. We used bike wheels, and bike pedals. The rest of the go kart was made out of plywood, 2 x 4’s and standard axels that could be purchased at the hardware store. We happened to get full length video of the whole process, but haven’t gotten around to editing it.
That really is the biggest logger jam of them all, and that is video editing. To be quite honest it is easier to write a book than it is to compose the video. It is like writing, but watching. Quite a process, but I think you’ll agree that when the videos are done they say a whole lot.
Go Kart Blog
We also managed to get a Go Kart Blog officially started this year as well and made the ambitious goal of releasing an article every week. That can be quite a challenge, but it has been quite helpful in keeping abreast of go kart news, go kart building projects and go kart problems that people have.
The object behind the blog is to get you fresh information every week, and not repeat stuff, but fresh new stuff that helps you not to fall into costly pitfalls and waste time and money on go kart projects.
Whats Coming Next Year?
Vertical Engined Two Seater Go Kart
The next up coming year has ambitious goals as well. We are trying to get the Vertical Engine Go Kart completely finished, have a book written on it, and compile all the video together. There is some much going on in the Vertical Engine Go Kart that it might take up two DVD’s. So there is a lot of good information there, it is just a matter of completing the project and getting it released.
Vertical Engine Drive For Wood Go Kart
The next product that we will be working on is a Vertical Engine Drive for the wood go kart. This will be worked on over the winter months and should be ready by spring. The object of this project is to take a standard broken engine, get it breathing again, and used everyday common wood materials and parts to assemble the standard Vertical Engine drive system on the wood go kart that we already have built.
This will be offered as a video and will come as a package with the standard Go Kart Building 202 (Vertical Engine Drive) book.
Engine Diagnostics Book
We also intend on getting a book on engine diagnostics put together, which will go into all the ins and outs of engine repair and troubleshooting. This book will be a great help to those who have old engines and are trying to get them running again. As you know having an old engine can save you close to 500 dollars. This book will be well worth the read when complete. And to top it all off a companion video will be offered as well.
Shop Class and College Tech Curriculum Courses
Additionally, this upcoming year we intend on having a full curriculum available for shop classes and college tech classes. We have had numerous inquiries into our products from shop teachers and tech schools. Our aim is to have a full product that includes course work, videos, lab projects. The products are designed to instruct fully about mechanics and mechanical design from a high school level and a beginning technical school level.
These are lofty goals, but I think you will find that we will be continuing to offer the high quality information this next year as well.
If you have any requests for products, be sure to go to our contact page and tell us what you are looking for.
Regards
Go Kart Guru
Gas Powered Wood Go Kart, made this year and compiled as a book and video
Pedal Powered Go Kart, made this summer. Video and book is coming next year!
