My 4 year old sons first car - the swing bin racer.
Discussion
After reading this ph thread I decided to order the plans to make my own race car. For my son, you understand. The idea of using a bin as the basis for a go kart sounds a bit crap but the finished article is actually quite nice looking, like a Lotus 7. The plans come with decent instructions, a cd guide, parts order list and full size paper plans. You can buy a ready built kart from the company but I'm pretty handy (my Golf & Porsche projects have already featured in readers cars) and I knew from the instructions there would be some stuff I'd want to upgrade.
It now has rose jointed steering, a larger capacity battery (plus optional on board spare), reverse gear (operated by a toggle switch on the dash), a speedo and steel uprights. Power is provided by a cordless drill - £1.04, the batteries were £9 for both, the steering wheel is for a wii & cost £3.50. The wheels were rather expensive at £35. Here's a few pics -
It still needs a paint job (we have chosen Bugatti blue) but the boy - and me - is keen to give it a testdrive. I'm already thinking it needs more power but this is supposed to be a budget toy so as long as it can get up a reasonable incline I'll leave it. For now....
It now has rose jointed steering, a larger capacity battery (plus optional on board spare), reverse gear (operated by a toggle switch on the dash), a speedo and steel uprights. Power is provided by a cordless drill - £1.04, the batteries were £9 for both, the steering wheel is for a wii & cost £3.50. The wheels were rather expensive at £35. Here's a few pics -
It still needs a paint job (we have chosen Bugatti blue) but the boy - and me - is keen to give it a testdrive. I'm already thinking it needs more power but this is supposed to be a budget toy so as long as it can get up a reasonable incline I'll leave it. For now....
Thanks for all the nice comments guys. I'm sure the boy will be beside himself later when we take it out. I'll try and get a video. The top speed, according to my maths, wiil be around 3.6mph. Which will probably still hurt in the ankles. For those interested in buying/building one - a fully built kart costs £300 from lightning, I've spent around £150, the cost really depends on what you have lying around in the garage. I've added another pic for the technical peeps, showing the boot area and the relays used to reverse the motor polarity.
A little video of today - http://youtu.be/EiaRrtoYSFI
Monster26 said:
That is awesome, well done Dad. But you realise that anything that breaks or needs to be made from this day forward will be down to you. Thats exactly whats happened to my poor dad.
Well so far hes managed to break the steering twice. a blob of weld and some loctite 648 seem to have cured the failures - plus i've told him to be a bit more gentle. i also need to roughen up the drill chuck (I may try putting some grooves in it with the angle grinder) as it sometimes slips on the tyre, im worried if i adjust it any further it'll damage the bearings.Here's a pic of the steering - very basic, and the throttle.
Update:
The gokart is still going strong & working well despite the abuse it gets! My boy always wanted it blue so its been stripped down, painted in what I call 'Bugatti blue' and had a few mods to beef things up. It has a working speedo now (does around 5mph) courtesy of a bicyle computer and some basic mudguards to stop little fingers getting trapped. There are still some things on the to do list like lights and a horn but its more important to get some fun out of it while we can. Anyway, some updated pics -
The gokart is still going strong & working well despite the abuse it gets! My boy always wanted it blue so its been stripped down, painted in what I call 'Bugatti blue' and had a few mods to beef things up. It has a working speedo now (does around 5mph) courtesy of a bicyle computer and some basic mudguards to stop little fingers getting trapped. There are still some things on the to do list like lights and a horn but its more important to get some fun out of it while we can. Anyway, some updated pics -
Iain XR4i said:
I think I love that car nearly as much as your lad does.
I built a Mayfair for my son (he's 24 now), but added a windscreen, and a few other bits.
The spec for that car used a Cortina wiper rack for the steering, and a wiper motor for the power - really ingenious because the fast and slow speeds rotate in different directions - slow = reverse, fast = forward.
Only sold it on a few years ago, and the buyer stripped it for the mechanical parts to use in his own scratch-built mini land rover.
Edited to clarify the opening sentence. Reading back the original, it worried me in case it was misconstrued!
It did sound a little pdf file! That mayfair is a heavy bit of kit! The lightning weighs around 20kg I suspect.I built a Mayfair for my son (he's 24 now), but added a windscreen, and a few other bits.
The spec for that car used a Cortina wiper rack for the steering, and a wiper motor for the power - really ingenious because the fast and slow speeds rotate in different directions - slow = reverse, fast = forward.
Only sold it on a few years ago, and the buyer stripped it for the mechanical parts to use in his own scratch-built mini land rover.
Edited to clarify the opening sentence. Reading back the original, it worried me in case it was misconstrued!
Edited by Iain XR4i on Sunday 11th March 01:10
Actus Reus said:
It lives!
The OP very kindly offered his lad's car to a PH dad earlier in the year and I dutifully collected it a couple of months ago. The weather's better now and my lad just about old enough to drive it, so it got a fresh coat of paint at the weekend and a quick shakedown. The steering wheel broke, but that should be fixed soon enough (you can just about make out the bodge in the picture below). All it needs now is an orange stripe down the middle, and perhaps around the end of the nose itself BRM style.
These are wonderful things and my lad loves it - if you have the skill to build one I absolutely recommend that you do it. Many, many thanks to the OP for his generosity.
(and yes, I need to sort the lawn out - been too busy messing about with cars!)
Its good to see you are enjoying it! The OP very kindly offered his lad's car to a PH dad earlier in the year and I dutifully collected it a couple of months ago. The weather's better now and my lad just about old enough to drive it, so it got a fresh coat of paint at the weekend and a quick shakedown. The steering wheel broke, but that should be fixed soon enough (you can just about make out the bodge in the picture below). All it needs now is an orange stripe down the middle, and perhaps around the end of the nose itself BRM style.
These are wonderful things and my lad loves it - if you have the skill to build one I absolutely recommend that you do it. Many, many thanks to the OP for his generosity.
(and yes, I need to sort the lawn out - been too busy messing about with cars!)
NiceCupOfTea said:
Folks, do these have enough grunt to pull themselves around over a bumpy lawn, or are they strictly smooth surfaces? I'd really like to build one for my 4 year old daughter but she is tall for age so some modifications would need to be in order...
It will be fine on the lawn but they do struggle on wet surfaces. My boy only grew out of it at about age 9.Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff