My next buggy?

[RC51 Rhino]

 Saw this and started thinking about the next project I want to tackle. 4x4 with4 wheel independent suspension (long travel, of course). I have a 2l Ford front wheel drive car with an auto trans...gives me gas and go and full time 4x4, ad locking hubs and I get 2wd when I want it. Thinking about using BMW difs front and rear (flip the one for the front for reverse rotation), they use the same diameter CVs as a 930...might even have the same bolt pattern? a set of 18" stroke airs and build it about the size of a Polaris Ranger.......What do you guys think?

"http://www.youtube.com/v/iD7Aief5pKA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1

[Baloo]

hi RC51

exellent idea

this is right up my street  , looking to do something simalar after my present buggy is finished, l have been thinking/planning this for a while now, collected most of the bits,

have mocked it up on the garage floor a  few times with different engines, its more  difficult than it looks to package it neatly in a small space,

l started off planning on using solid axles off an suzuki sj before l moved on to solidily mounted diffs, do you have the mazda mx5 over there ? they have a nice light ally rear diff unit that l am thinking of using front and rear, they come as an open diff or LSD,

where are you going to mount the engine/box ? beside the driver or in front ?

Andy

[fabr]

Very interesting!

[RC51 Rhino]

 Engine will be between the seats...haven't decided on 2 or 4 seat yet. It should actually fit under the seats with only a little sticking through if any. The BMW diffs a maybe a bit heavy but I want something stout! I'm scouring the pick-a-part often and will look for the mx5, I'm sure the are here.

[Baloo]

bmw diffs are very popular over here, as you say very stout indeed but with that comes a wieght penalty,  we had a play in this car below a few weeks back, it had bmw   7 series diffs front and back, the twin supercharged v8 engine was pushed hard and dident worry the diffs even when landing with the power on,


l started off thinking l was going to use a subaru engine and box, mainly because of the very low engine/box  height being a boxer engine, this enabled me to get the seats on top of the engine/box, heres a pic from a year or so ago

it also has the advantage that all the heavy bits like the crank diff etc are at the bottom and should result in a very low cog, however l felt that making it light was the most important trait so l ended up with a suzuki baleno engine and auto box, same engine as tracker l think, 1600cc 16v 105bhp with a 4 speed auto,  but this is taller than the subaru engine and from mocking up l dont think l can get the seats over the top of it, so l am following the idea on this thread but with indipendent sus instead of live axles
http://www.4x4sweden.se/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7877&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30
just have to look at the pics unless you speak the lingo but pics are worth a thousand words, even more so if you dont understand them 
looking at the finish-ed buggy you can see its about as small as you are going to get a 2 seater to be ?
but l think thats how l am going to arrange my drive train,
heres a mx5 diff, nice and small/light with LSD
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120488228573&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT 

[Wyattboche]

I was thinking of building a 2 seater just like the one in the video. Wonder where you could find some more info about this buggy?

[RC51 Rhino]

 I've looked all over...can't find anything else. It is inspiring, non the less. I can't wait, be pulling the engine and trans soon. Getting my axles and CVs out of a bmer this week for the RC51 car, hope to get a good look at the mounting of the diffs then.

[fabr]

How heavy is the mx5 diff? I assume it's cast iron?

[RC51 Rhino]

 Baloo says 'ally'....I'm guessing aluminum? I was also thinking about the Toyota RAV4 and Honda Oddesy type AWD cars. They have a diff in the rear, not sure it would be up to par with a big tired offroader, though.

[fabr]

Any idea of the weight?

[RC51 Rhino]

As far as the BMW...I'm thinking about 60 or maybe 80 pounds?? I'm not too worried about it 'cause this would be a fast moving crawler type, not so much a dune runner or race car. What I'm likeing is the fact that most of the FWD cars have a final drive of at least 3.50 to 1, mine is something like 3.85 to 1 and the BMWs range from 3.50 to 4.11 to 1. So, averaged it's gonna have about a 14 to 1 crawl ratio! The TJ Rubicon is approx. 16 to 1 and they have 32" tires stock...I want to run 33s so with this ratio, I should be able to do 60 mph or so and still have the bawls to crawl...as it were.

[fabr]

Sounding better all the time.

[SandDragon]

I would love to know what software they used simulate the test drive.

[Baloo]

hi

if you are not to bothered by the wieght of the bmw diff then they must be the way to go, a lot of the top end racers over here use them so they have a proven track record of being very strong, and l dont know about over there but here there is thousands if not millions of old bmw's about so should be cheap
l still like the idea of being as light as possible, do you get the ford  sierra over there, 20 years old now, and probally called something else your side of the water, looks like this

well these have a nice alliminium diff in them, good choice of ratio's and the cosworth versions had Lsd's fitted,  l think the diff wieghs 20kg, or 44 lbs


looks like it would be easy to mount in a buggy frame ?

the buggy in the vid sure has a lot of appeal, if we could thrash out a design for it we could post up the dimensions/drawings and files for laser cutting etc  and we could have several of them being biult around the world, would be cool huh

Andy

[odypilots]

I believe the Mercury Mercur (sp) was the same as the Sierra. We didn't get them for too many years, the car wasn't very popular.