"Mini" Buggy Build

Andy J.

Andy J.

Doin’ it LIVE
Joined
Nov 5, 2005
Location
Winston
I'm a senior in Mechanical Engineering at NCA&T and my senior design project is this year's mini baja vehicle. Since I am the team captain and the only one with any fabrication skills, I am pretty much building this thing by myself. So I thought I would start a build-up thread. The first competition is April 12th, so I have about 4 weeks to get it finished. So here it goes...

The frame I designed in solidworks using 1.25"x.065" 1018 tubing and 1.125"x.058" 4130 tubing.
 

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Then I (guy with white shirt) mocked it up using electrical conduit. Oh, look....someone showed up to help on this day:flipoff2:

edit: anyone know how I can get a bigger picture without hosting all of them?
 

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Finished Frame. I TIG welded everything and have a nice tan to show for it:D The engine is a 10 hp Briggs and Stratton, as mandated by the SAE rules. The transaxle is a prototype Gator unit, donated by John Deere. We are only going to 2 competitions this year: Auburn, Alabama and Portland, Oregon.
 

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wow....thats a big first project

lotsa the baja teams are crazy devoted and have all sorts of tech involved and multiple departments working on the vehicle

looks great, good luck!
 
Better Watch out.. some NC State guys that are part of the Baja Team are on Nc4x4.. they may steel some of your ideas :)
 
FrontPorchFab said:
I'm a senior in Mechanical Engineering at NCA&T
Click to expand...

I was there 00-05 A/E and we got to design a Concrete canoe :rolleyes: Of course that was before Mcnair had any computers and we all were drawing by hand :mad:

That project sounds cool as hell!
 
BRUISER said:
Better Watch out.. some NC State guys that are part of the Baja Team are on Nc4x4.. they may steel some of your ideas :)
Click to expand...


X2


I know of a couple ex NC State ME baja members on here:D




Good luck. :beer: Let us know if you need any help. I'm always willing to help as much as possible


Rob
 
Thanks for all the complements! I'm not too worried about those NC State guys;). Besides, they have already seen the car at the SAE night at UNCC. I wish we had some of the resources of the bigger schools too, but we are going to have fun whether we finish first or dead last.

I hope I'm not coming off as bragging or anything. But, I am pissed off that we have 11 members on the team and 3 of us have done 99% of the work, so I will and do take credit for the vast majority of the design and fabrication;) .

CasterTroy, I can't imagine mcNair without computers:lol: . The ones in there suck something awful, but I guess I should be glad to have any at all.
 
Last one for now. I don't want to give away too many ideas;) . I've just about got the front suspension done, and will post some more pics soon.
 

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I went to a summer program at NCstate after my senior year in high school. We got to mess aroung with one of their old baja cars and they're a lot of fun! Waay underpowered though, all that suspension and you only get a slow revving Briggs? I think they aught to change the rules and let you run up to a 250cc two stroke moto cross bike engine. Your design looks a hell of a lot cooler than the one we go to play with, nice work.
 
looks awsome, what happens with it after the comp is over? do you get to keep it?
 
TheGeneral said:
I went to a summer program at NCstate after my senior year in high school. We got to mess aroung with one of their old baja cars and they're a lot of fun! Waay underpowered though, all that suspension and you only get a slow revving Briggs? I think they aught to change the rules and let you run up to a 250cc two stroke moto cross bike engine. Your design looks a hell of a lot cooler than the one we go to play with, nice work.
Click to expand...

A small block Chevy woulda been a whole lot cooler.



"Oh my bad, did I get ya?"
 
I wish they would at least let us have the Briggs V-twin:( . If I had time I would be tempted to swap a dirt bike motor on last years car. That would be awesome. Oh well

Nah, we don't get to keep it either. The school keeps it and next years team will use/abuse it. I'll make sure to put together a video from the comps.
 
Thanks! We were running the comet CVT. We would have had a top 10 run in the endurace race if my dumba$$ team hadn't forgotten to pack a spare tire:shaking: .

What knocked you out of the endurance race?
 
shoulda asked us for a spare...

we had plenty.


we were fighting CVT problems all weekend. Darn Polaris CVT didn't quite work as well as we hoped. Everything else worked great.

We are working on a new CVT and maybe more gear reduction and we'll be ready.

Design wasn't the best, but its not too bad for 6 weeks, from the ground up.


I'll work on getting some pics up.


Rob
 
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