Back in September I started a new company, Goat Built, Inc. First on the list of products is a production tube buggy kit, sort of a buggy in a box. I have had this idea is my head for a few years now, started the design over a year ago, and have been hitting the Solidworks hard the last two months. All the tubes are laser notched and bent, just make a fixture base (or not if you have a nice table), assemble and weld it together yourself (of course I can assemble and weld it if you would like). Putting it together yourself takes a lot of cost out and is easily shippable on a pallet, probably $200-$300 to most places.
This chassis is an all purpose dual sport trail rig. Suspension is set up for KOH type wheeling, works great in the rocks, great in the desert. Not an IFS desert car or rock comp rig, but the best you can do in between. Of course you can race it in KOH type races, but most of us are recreational wheelers and want a well thought out, affordable, comfortable trail rig. Here are some of the requirements I had:
GM LS truck engine
TH400 auto trans
Atlas 2 T-Case
fits standard D60/14b
40 tires
rear bench seat(or storage)
14-16" travel coil overs
flat floor and firewall for ease of fabrication
sway bars front and rear
front mounted radiator
same front and rear control arms
same drive shaft front and rear/No CV joints
triangulated 4-link suspension front and rear
plenty of leg and head room
The chassis has been completely designed in SolidWorks, I have drawn every part, cycled and checked every thing for fitment. Here is the result:
I didn't notice any pictures of the Ibex dash in this thread, but found it in your gallery. I am looking forward to what you come up with for the hood.
Here is what I started with, GM truck engine, in 4.8/5.3/6.0 flavor. I designed this chassis around this engine, they are cheap ($500-$1500) and have plenty of power. Best of all it will fit stock, no need to swap the intake manifold, build custom headers and swap the oil pan or accessories, you easily spend another $1000 if you had to do all of that like many of you had to. Just pull a motor out of a truck, have the harness and computer reworked for $400 and bolt it in. I have engine mounts that fit this engine and simply fit the chassis.
And now the good stuff, the build. I picked up the laser cut tubes on Monday, Jan 23. Built the fixture and sorted all the parts on Tuesday and the started assembling tubes Wed and Thurs, what you see below is from Wed and Thurs.
Here's 200 ft of 1-3/4 DOM and 100 ft of 1-1/2 DOM
This buggy kit was designed for a moderately skilled fabricator to be able to put together in a garage, need a welder, grinder and a level (and some clamps and welding magnets help too)
First step is to build a fixture, I used a 20' stick of 2x4x.120 tube, cost about $80. You could also use 2x2. This is the most important step, you need to get this thing square and flat.
Notice the small bolt and holes at the center of the mitered joints? The hole is laser cut in tube at the center line and nodes of each tube. This does three things: lines up the tubes to each other to their exact center lines, helps hold the joint together for assembly, and provides a easy reference point to measure, on the rectangles, just measure diagonally bolt to bolt to square it up. Many of the holes will be left open where they are inside another tube, but exposed ones can be welded up, it's a 1/4" hole. Also notice the part numbers are laser marked on each tube, the chassis was built on the left side, then mirrored, the right side tubes have the part number mirrored.
Next, flip the belly assembly over and bolt it to the fixture and start the base of the cage. The arm rail tubes are a mitered rectangle that was welded before I put it on the uprights.
Here is the construction of the front, the cross tube fits the front sway bar and fits in the fixture to hold it to the correct height and distance from the subframe.
Here are some of the many funky notches and nodes in the chassis. Completely a PITA to do by hand but it all fits together effortlessly with the laser.
Looks fucking fantastic Drew. Digging the chassis design, and the whole idea of a CNC-bent, laser-notched DIY kit that includes some really slick fixtures to aid in assembly.
Yes. That's the idea. I will have a suspension bracket/ link package as well as a bracket or mount for every component. Just add parts: drivetrain shocks, seats steering etc.
Of course you can fab your own brackets or buy any of the other brackets on the market.
I don't have the price 100% nailed down yet. Should be in the $3500 ball park with all of the tubes. I will offer a stripped down version with just the exterior tubes similar to other chassis on the market for $2400 ballpark.
Cash check or credit card!!
I also have a dealer or group buy program. Fab shops can buy them, put them together and make money on the chassis kit, the assembly labor and parts. Or if a group of friends want to buy a few together they can get a deal.
chassis lines arent my favourite, but love the concept and the quality :smokin:
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