Vehicles and Stuff

Component Info

Electric Motors

Speed Controllers

Batteries

Adhesives

Ball & Sockets Joints

Bearings

Gears

Chains & Sprockets

Shaft Collars

Shaft Steel

 

Other Projects

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Component Search

Component Information

Plans Order

Power Calculator

Contact

Conditions

500W Electric Kart

Movie Clips   General Arrangement Drawing    Plans Walkthrough    Paid-For Plans

FOR FREE ASSEMBLY DRAWING SHEETS CLICK HERE!

 

500W electric go kart plans

Click to see design for larger 1500W kart.

Parts Information

 

Electric Motors

Speed Controllers

Batteries

Adhesives

Ball & Sockets Joints

Bearings

Gears

Chains & Sprockets

Shaft Collars

Shaft Steel

This project was popular with the kids - it's a 2 x 250 Watt electric motor driven kart and got a lot of use before they grew too big for it. 


As with most of the kids' buggies my aim was to try to build the kart using mainly non-specialised tools and materials. The main structure is glued and screwed timber and other features include ackerman geometry steering, rear band brakes, rear wheel drive differential action and forward and reverse drive.. 

 

The propulsion is from a rear mounted two stage reduction gearbox which has built-in band brakes direct acting on the wheel axles. Several key strength components of the kart are made of steel and throughout I've made use of standard stock engineering components such as bearings, bright steel bar, steel flat, gears, sprockets etc. Importantly, the design includes padded seat cushions... mustn't forget rider comfort!

 

The gearbox design is described in more detail here - it is powered by two 250W permanently engaged (no free-wheeling) 24V DC PM electric motors. It is efficient, reversible and back-driveable and, with the right choice of motor controller, can provide some re-generative dynamic braking for the kart i.e. the motors slow the kart and the energy produced is passed back into the batteries. Built-in band brakes act directly on the drive axles and provide the main mechanical braking independently of the electric drive. The independent drive to each rear wheel provides effective differential action when turning and traction from both rear wheels allows driving on mown grass, hard gravel drives etc.

 

500W electric go kart plans

250 Watt Drive Motor

 

The wheels are inexpensive pressed steel with 10" pneumatic tyres. The steering uses a modified Ackerman geometry with a direct coupling to the column and steering wheel. Brakes and accelerator are foot operated. 

 

The center of gravity of the go kart is very low because of the low slung batteries and the low seating position and this makes it very stable on cornering. We found that gearing to produce a maximum speed of about 12 mph is probably the maximum for use on good (hard and flat) drive surfaces. We could chose to reduce the speed by building in higher reduction gearing in the drive box. This would have the effect of increasing the drive torque available at the wheels and make the racer better able to handle cut grass lawns, hard gravel driveways etc but at a lower speed. 12 mph might not sound much but, I'm sure you'll appreciate, it is plenty for a child driver - see the notes on safety guidance.

 

500W electric go kart plansThe electrical system is standard for small electric vehicles ie motor(s), motor controller, batteries and speed/reverse/ignition controls. The controller used is the 24V 75 Amp Vortex controller from 4QD which has worked very well. Room for four 12 V 17 AmpH deep cycle batteries wired for 24V was built-in to the structure gives a continuous running time between charges of about 1 hour. However the time between charges depends a lot on the vehicle gearing, condition of drive surfaces and how hard the kart is driven. 500W electric go kart plansWe tested the racer on a mainly gravel circuit at full speed most of the time which produced a lot of troughing in the gravel on cornering and a discharge time of about 45 minutes - this demands power though and is hard on the motors and probably shouldn't be advised. On flat, hard and smooth drive surfaces (tarmac, concrete etc) the torque demand on the motors and hence their current draw is much less with a consequently longer battery life.


Here are some short movie clips showing the kart prototype in action........

Clip 1 (1.4 Mb)    Clip 2 (1.5 Mb)

 

 

 

General Arrangement Drawing

 

Have a look at the general arrangement of the kart to get an idea about its size and layout. The drawing is password protected and the password is: sample  (click on the image below)

500W electric go kart plansFor a more detailed look at the plans go to our plans walk-through pages or.....

Online plans Previews for the 500W mini-kart are now available here - FREE ASSEMBLY SHEET PREVIEWS. These show the assembly drawings from the set and will show you the build principals and methods used - for the full plans set which contains all the detailed part sizes, final assembly drawing sheets and the component & material buy-list go to the paid-for plans page.

 

© This site is copyrighted, If you'd like more information or have any comments please contact me at

 


READ THE SAFETY GUIDANCE HERE

Copyright © 2006-2010 BFF Design Ltd All Rights Reserved.