EX-Para educator and Tutor
Looking for a great Father and Son project? This is it.
Your choice of Gravity or Gas. An outstanding go kart that will last years instead of weeks. Build memories by making this go kart this weekend!
Metal Go Karts are not the only go karts out there. Look At What Wood Can Do!
Wood can perform just as well as a metal frame cart if not better. It’s cheaper too. Less than 50 bucks for a Gas Engined Go Kart.
Make Your Own Go Kart For Less Than 50 Bucks!
You don’t need anything special for this go kart. Just some wood working know how and a few tools.
Made out of every day materials this go kart is a snap to put together.
All the building is easy and step by step with the Go Kart Guru there to help you along the way.
You’ve heard that wood go karts are just not up to par with the steel framed go karts. Well that is just not true.
You can get hours and hours of fun time out of this wood go kart for a fraction of what it would cost to make a steel frame.
Imagine yourself riding a gokart at the end of this weekend.
It takes just hours to make this gokart instead of weeks.
The drive system is simple and doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out. With a few simple tools you can put this go kart together from everyday materials and few lawn mower parts.
Just think, you can peal around your yard, do donuts in the gravel pit, and do other fun things with this fantastic wood go kart.
You can start slow by making just the gravity cart. Tons of fun can be had with the gravity version. It doesn’t weight alot and can be easily towed back up the hill. Complete with solid brakes it stops on a dime. The steering system too is solid and is not eratic and dangerous. It uses a steering wheel so it is intiutive in handling.
The wood go kart handles very well and accelerates great too when the engine is mounted on it!
My husband viewed the video several times and was really impressed with the quality….you’ve gone to alot of work on a great project!
Great Job!
Amy and Mark
You may not have alot of mechanical skill or understanding of drives systems, but that should not stop you from considering this go kart. The Wood Go kart Book package talks exstensively about the drive system and helps you diagnose and trouble shoot stubborn drives systems.
The drive system instead of being a great unknown, or a black hole, is easily understood and explained in the go-kart drive book that accompanies this wood go kart package.
When most people make a wood go kart, they forget about a good braking system, well not on this go kart. This is a rock solid design that can make the go kart stop just like the big dogs that have disc brakes.
Why Consider This Wood Go Kart?
7 Major Distinct and Serious Design Considerations Between This Go Kart and What Is Out There..
Click Here!
Again imagine yourself riding a wood go kart that from the surface looks like it was made by an expert, and is not some cobbled together piece of junk. See for yourself in the video below!
You can stop imagining about the wooden go kart.
You can actually put this go kart together this weekend by getting the wood go kart book.
In the wood go kart books you will learn how to put together the wood gokart shown in the video. Complete with steering, brakes, frame, throttle, and drive system.
There are three different products for the wood gokart:
The Wood Go Kart
Bundle:
Wood Go Kart
Video:
Printed Wood Go Kart
Bundle + Video:
The books go step by step and show you how to build the wood go kart from junk. You can take an old tractor apart and use its components or you can also just go buy the components from a local tractor store. It is really cheap. We only spent 20 bucks on our go kart!
There are over 90 pages worth of materials that discuss wood go karts design and fabrication. And to top it off you have your choice of video or the video plus full printed booklet of the wood go kart.
We have had the books printed professionally and are ready to ship with the video. So take a look at what we have to offer and consider that wood go kart as a great family or father and son project.
Why wait, get the Wood Go Kart Book today!
Or better yet get the Video too!
| I am very interested tell me more! |
 
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| I am very interested tell me more! |
| Hey Wait… We Have The Wood Go Kart Video Too!
You want to see the wood go kart being put together, step by step? Now finally a step by step video showing you how to make a go kart out of wood. You may be familiar with and have appreciated the books and You Tube videos that the Go Kart Guru has put together. With all the detailed information in the books and videos you have become acquainted with, now it’s time to see a whole wood go kart being put together from scratch. It’s been a year in the making and it finally is finished. Over an hours worth of video material demonstrating the fabrication of a Wood Go Kart from start to finish it includes: – Go Kart Frame The video shows details that most won’t bother with. Details like “how to make a wood pulley” and “how to build a working brake system”, “how to make a home made compass” and much more. The little tricks that help make this go kart worth while are all discussed and demonstrated in this video. There are over 25 video segments each discussing and demonstrating something vital about the go kart project. This is not your typical hand drawn video that you may have seen the Go Kart Guru do, this is actually the Go Kart Guru working with his kids to make the wood go kart in a series of weekends. This is a perfect demonstration video for father and son projects. Remember, the Go Kart Guru is working with junk, he doesn’t have the advantage of lots of materials, just junk and the know-how to put it together. The Go Kart Guru is coming at it fresh too, so you may be amazed at some of the things he comes up with. A wood pulley, who would of thunk it?! Additionally, the video is complete with commentary as the go kart is being built. This video is a great companion work with the Wood Go Kart Building Bundle and does assume that you have the Wood Go Kart Bundle in hand while watching this video.
Take a sneak peak at the Wood Go Kart Building Video….
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Wood Go Karts An Introduction
Wooden go karts are either gravity powered, or self propelled (gas or electric).
Wood go karts are simple and easy to make.
You can use 2x4s and plywood for the frame, and off the shelf wheels. The axles can be rod. In this case 3/4″ diameter rod, that was fastened onto the wood frame by using perforated metal strap held in place with drywall screws.
We built a starter go kart from an old self propelled lawn mower. It would have taken more time to get the mower to work, than just taking it apart and using what we needed. So we took the wheels.
(As you can see, the mower is awaiting another day…. Actually the plan is to take all the usable parts, i.e. the steering, the seat, the engine etc.. and build a brand spankin’ new cart. This is taking junk seriously.)
When I am talking about we, I am talking about me and my three boys making a gokart for them. We do not want it to go too fast, and We do not want them to get hurt if they do hit something. It is a simple gravity powered kart that brings on hours of fun.
A wooden kart consists of the following;
- Body
- Steering Bar
- Brakes
- Wheels
Self Propelled Wood Go Karts
The wood go kart above will require a total revamp to get it so that it can be gas powered. The rear section will turn into an engine cover, which will also be a seat cover.
My first wooden go kart used a lawn mower engine (two cycle engine) put on its side. A belt drive was then routed to one rear wheel. Because the motor did not have enough power, I had a double reduction, and got about 15 mph out of it.
The over all layout is below:
This go kart was very fun. I think it was most fun, because it was something that I had made myself, and it worked!
Pro’s and Con’s of a Wood Go Kart
| Weight | Depending on the style, a gravity powered typically can weigh between 50 to 80 pounds.
A gas powered weighs, because of the engine and drive train, about 100 to 160 pounds. For those who over engineer, a wood go cart could get as heavy as 200 to 250 pounds. Anything this heavy requires, low gearing, and may burn belts. |
| Strength | From a durablility standpoint, vibration from the engine (if you have one on it) will take its toll on the fasteners in the wood.
The temptation to use normal wood hardware is a NO-NO, because the wood, unless it is oak, will tear out. Use of locking fasteners, such as nylock nuts is important. Use of metal components such as shafts for wheels is almost a necessity for good load transfer. An example of this is the front wheels. The front wheels can be held in place with lag screws. But once under way, the front wheels will tend to bend the lag screw up, causing the wheels to tweek up in an angular position. A shaft, if fastened in place, serves as a load carrier and will not bend, allowing the wheels to stay in the proper orientation. Strength is directly related to the material selection too. Pine, will typically be the selection of choice. Two by fours the construction material. Oak boards, from pallets, are even stronger. An oak board is extremely hard, though, and will require drilling and bolting for any extensive fastening. |
| Comfort | Comfort is dependant on how you make the seat. If the seat is like the one that I first made, it is a bone cracker. Every bump is felt. It is important to provide some cushion to your gluttumous maximus, else you will be feeling it after about ten minutes |
| Driving Surface | The driving surface for a wood gokart is typically a very smooth surface. Any surface irregularities such as rocks, bumps, or even grass driving can be difficult.
With the ‘wagon style’ steering system any divits or rocks will cause the steering board to be shot back suddenly. This sudden movement will cause the gokart to turn suddenly as well. This can be hard to control and requires ample leg strength or hand strength to hold the rope. Use of a cable system to a steering wheel is a better alternative, however, sudden jarring of the steering mechanism is still an issue. Cornering the ‘wagon style’ steering system also causes the wheels in front to move out. This can cause an imbalance in the over all weight transfer, which may cause it to be more prone to tippage, especially if the steering system is not rigid . |
| Potential Obstacles | Potential obstacles for a wood gokart are the same as in any other gokart accept rocks, gravel driveways, and rough terrain is tough to deal with on a wood go kart. |
| Roll Over Risk | The center of gravity, typically on a wood go kart is usually 8 to 12 inches or more higher than on a conventional steel gocart. The higher center of gravity means higher roll over risk.
Also, if the ‘wagon style’ steering is used, the roll over risk is higher during turns, because the turning board is not able to hold the go kart from the torsion developed in a turn. The back rear corner then becomes lighter in a turn and tends to pick up the back end during tight turning manuevers. |
| Control Performance | Controlling a wood gokart is a little awkward in that your feet typically are doing the steering, and you hands are operating throttle controls and breaks.
A better alternative is to change the design to be more conventional, with brake pedals, and accelerator pedals. This increases the control performance. Unfortunately, it adds weight. |
| Cost to Fabricate | The materials typically are wood which is readily available. So the costs are relatively low.
Once you start adding features like engines, brakes, steering wheels, etc… the cost of just fabricating something out of steel is about the same. You will find that wood will not last as long as steel, and does not have a resale value. |
