Buggies with Four Wheels

popeyethewelder.com/facebook questions

2012

• Jorge Cabrera – why the buggys does’t make with 4 wheels ?
• Ken Shaw – Three reasons, Jorge. Weight, maneuverability and cost of production. One must have a purpose beyond typical riding needs of the average pilot to want the extra weight of an axle, king pin and steering mechanism hanging off the front of a buggy.
• It’s difficult to design an ackermann type front end that doesn’t weight twice or three times as much as a front fork system. Additionally, steering angles are difficult to sort and maintain durability and precision of a front fork.
• In the case of Chuckawalla Rock-It, the motivation was one of terrain. I live in the Sonoran Desert. Flat, smooth land sans flora is nearly impossible to find. As such, I have to deal with brutal terrain, two-track jeep trails, ground clearance is always an issue and seldom have an opportunity to exceed 20 mph.
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• I needed long travel suspension that could adjust ride height on-the-fly and a track width comparable to a jeep. Those constrains dictated my design. The buggy weighs 300lbs, suffers from “slow steering” and can be a real handful if one becomes overpowered. However, I easily navigate open desert scrub as fast as one would want and thoroughly enjoy climbing washes and “speed winging” back down through them. Suffice to say it’s a very narrow niche market and the buggy remains a functional work in progress.
• dean  jordan – also, since the center of gravity is so low, the typical config handles just like a 4 wheeler.