Rob

by Rob
(UK)

My kids love messing around on karts (and generally on anything with wheels). They wanted a go-kart that could carry a friend. We looked at some ready-made commercial karts but they were expensive and frankly had very disappointing performance. We decided to build our own kart and this is what we made.

Our kart has a welded steel frame built from stock square and rectangular section tube reinforced with steel gussets. A 500W electric motor propels the kart via a chain drive with power provided from a bank of lead acid batteries delivering 36V. We regulated the speed of the kart using a 4QD speed controller operated by a foot pedal. A cable operated disc brake stops the kart along with an excellent regenerative braking effect provided by the speed controller.

The seat is a welded steel frame and can be adjusted to suit the driver. We fitted a working brake light and headlights. Night driving is great fun, particularly when the under-floor colour change LED light is switched on!

This was a very satisfying (and pretty simple) welding project and the finished kart had created much interest along with some very happy children!