Cheap Kite Buggy

This buggy was inspired by a local fellow who rides a buggy made from a moving dolly fitted with a steerable front wheel and topped off with a folding beach chair. Original thinking! 

This fun project took a month of spare time to make. Two full weekends would be enough time to whip one up. A rough fork took shape from whatever scraps were at hand.  Square  tubing for the fork legs was easy to cut and join using a Skil saw, magnetic square and my trusty arc welder.  The horizontal fork pieces are angle stock from a bed frame.  I used a pair of old band saw guide bearings for the steering, wheelbarrow wheels, and a pile of scrap tubing for the frame.  Sure it can rust, the bearings are cheap, it looks crude and so on,  but I'll go buggying for an outlay of less than $75, including the kite. 

Expenses were around $58 as I had the rear wheels already. The frame with wheels comes to 38 pounds (17 kg) so far.  Primer is from the dregs of spray cans but I did buy a new can for the color coat.  Fitting "fish-mouthed"  tubes for the front of the side rails took more work than expected pushing a half-round file and grinder. The welded front corners of the seat and the oversized fork legs make it homely but easy to build. Square tubing across the seat front would eliminate lots of work.  The rest of the welding has been easy and next time I'll try stainless steel tubing.  The rear axle fastens to the side rails with 1/4 " (6mm) bolts.   Rear axle is 41" wide, and 48" is frame length.  The rear axle can be removed after pulling four bolts, making a compact package that could fit in a trunk.

Counter boring  the water-pipe steering tube for the bearings in my new "lathe."  The depth of cut is adjusted by paper shims under the grinder, and drywall screws act as depth stops. The results were better than expected, and the bearings pressed right into place.

Looks a tad desperate, does it?  Sometimes I wish I had a three-jawed machine lathe but the feeling passes when I find a way around it. I'd rather have tools that earn their keep instead of get in the way.

Here I'm wondering how wide my butt has gotten this winter.  One advantage of making a buggy is adapting it  to your own body.  I'm tall and have big feet, so it's nice to have something fit me for a change.  

All the wheel bearings can be upgraded to neoprene sealed go-kart bearings for twenty dollars if the soft grinding noise gets too annoying or I can just wear ear plugs.

This is a fun little project, even though welding is still a new skill for me and my equipment is limited.  It still amazes me that metal can be joined with a little black box that plugs into the wall.  After years of working around a lack of welding ability, this is a real pleasure.

Exotic frame alignment jig consisting of bricks and clamps.  This was done to weld the front of the side rails to the cross-bar.  I kept hearing that a buggy should weigh around 20 pounds, but it seems  that some buggy makers advertise only the frame weight instead of total weight.  Clever marketing!

Fork angle, frame length and rear axle width are the main variables to consider. The fork should be more vertical for nimble low-speed steering or more angled for speed stability.  A wider axle is more stable, but a narrow one can do wheelies. (lifting the downwind wheel)  Frame length is a stability-to-quick turning compromise.  A shorter rear axle could be made for about five dollars.

The joint at the front edge of the seat with two 1/4" (6mm) bolts.  Not  fancy but it seems strong enough.  More holes can be drilled along the square tube, allowing leg-length adjustment.  Bicycle quick release axles could be used here to quickly fold for transport but bolts are probably more reliable. Other than the seat and steering bearings, all the materials can be found at a store like Home Depot, but the steel tubing is much cheaper from a metal supplier. 

The webbed seat was put together by eye from poly webbing and six plastic cam-buckles, and the center frame joint must be unbolted to install the seat thus reducing the number of buckles. The seat was made up on the frame and tacked together,  then removed and machine sewn. A backrest will be fitted after a test flight. 

Final assembly:
The frame has some minor misalignment that shouldn't matter too much, but if I did things again, the alignment might be a little better. The steering bearings pressed snugly into their sockets after the frame was painted and a section of 3/8 inch pipe forms a spacer between the inner bearing races. All fasteners and bearings were coated with blue boat-trailer grease to stave off rust. Wheelbarrow wheels lack a spacer between the bearings, so a certain amount of endplay is needed to prevent overloading the bearings. This causes a loose and noisy fit of the axle bolt in the inner bearing. This can be remedied in the future with better bearings and some tube spacers but after rolling it around in the back alley, it seems smooth enough to me. 

3M Scotchtread keeps the footrests from being too slippery and gives a firm handgrip for wheeling the buggy around.