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Wed Aug 11, 2021 9:17 am

This is my baby. 2010 street legal Berrien Venture sand rail, 1915 vwac, dual weber 44 clones, W120 cam, Leduc built swing axle trans, too much fun,lol

Sun Sep 19, 2021 7:22 pm

Had quite a few upgrades since the last time, it's now up to 370bhp and has an LSD and quite a few suspension and geometery mods, so in the middle of treating it to a coat of paint:

Wed Sep 22, 2021 8:06 pm

Finally remembered to snap a photo while it was outside

Wed Sep 22, 2021 8:15 pm

Drove mine to the gym the other night.

Thu Sep 23, 2021 7:49 am

c54fun wrote: Drove mine to the gym the other night.

See, I'm not even an off road guy, but that right there, is bad ass. 8) Very nice

Fri Sep 24, 2021 8:24 am

slayer61 wrote: c54fun wrote: Drove mine to the gym the other night.

See, I'm not even an off road guy, but that right there, is bad ass. 8) Very nice

Thanks Slayer :D Its ridiculously fun.

Sun Oct 10, 2021 3:55 pm

My woods buggy street legal and gets drove alot around town and the farm...
Getting all the pieces together to add some dual 40 idf's (clones) this winter and possible a one armed steering brake.....

Wed Oct 27, 2021 2:15 am

c54fun wrote: Drove mine to the gym the other night.

One of the nicest buggies I've seen. Like it!

Wed Oct 27, 2021 7:01 am

carlos_magnum wrote: c54fun wrote: Drove mine to the gym the other night.

One of the nicest buggies I've seen. Like it!

Thanks Carlos. I just got back from Grand Junction Colorado and hopefully will be moving out there. Unlimited places to go ride at. Even found a place where they practice racing trophy trucks.

Mon Nov 15, 2021 4:24 pm

Ramsey Speed wrote: This is my new project. Picked it up a few weeks ago. New to these. Making a lot of changes to this one. First post. Hopefully I'm doing this right...

That may very well be the coolest buggy I have ever seen. I'm in Chandler and would love to check it out some day!

Tue Jan 25, 2022 11:21 pm

Bought today, been sitting, needs some work but runs.
No idea who made the chassis but it does have a modified fiberglass nose.
Nevada dirt car, there are stowage bins up front and racks for more gear in the back.

Wed Apr 13, 2022 2:22 pm

I bought my first sand rail last week and I am looking forward to giving it a try in the desert around Tucson before I take it down to Mexico!

There are a few things I need to address first such as the brakes which are terrible. I will try bleeding first and then inspecting if that doesn’t help. I am also struggling to find first gear but I don’t know if there is a problem or just a case of getting used to it. Also I have to get a new battery and there is some kind of leak from underneath in the center of the vehicle. I haven’t had chance to do any investigation yet.

The engine casing is an AE but I have no idea if the internals have been changed to increase the size.

The frame is marked as Hi Jumper RS at the front but I think it might have been customized. It seems the structure above the foot wells is a bit different to the frames I see online. The frame has holes for up to three shocks on each side at the rear.

I have a stack of receipts from 2000-2003 when it appears a lot of work was done on this rail.

Titled as a motorcycle so at least I don’t have to do emissions.

I need to figure out a cheap trailer for it so I don’t have to rely on friends to move it to/from Mexico.

If anyone has any observations from the pictures I would love to hear them!

Thanks, Andy

Wed Apr 13, 2022 10:30 pm

Nice buggy.

Not REALLY a Hi Jumper. The double bottom center tubes tells that. Along with the B-pillar hoop of the cage being lower than the A-pillar hoop. And the configuration of the side bars behind the B-pillar hoop. And the lack of 1" lacing in the rear side trusses beside the engine. And, and, and...

It not only was not built by San Fernando Buggy Center (creators of the Hi Jumper brand) wasn't even built by Prowlers (who bought the rights and plans for Hi Jumper buggies). It's far more like a Hi Jumper than many others I've seen that people claim are Hi Jumpers.

And it never was raced with any major organization. Lack of a diagonal brace in the B-pillar hoop of the cage is a quick tell of that.

But none of those keep it from being a nice buggy. Just shooting holes in what the guy who sold it to you told you about it. And like I said in the thread about the gas cap, those stories may well have been what has been told for decades and by several owners.

I suggest adding skid plates and a roof panel. Bar for shoulder belts should be up near the tops of the seat shoulders, like near the level of the shock mount bar. Shoulder belts mounted low like that can cause compressive fracture of the spine whether they're needed in a rollover or they're snugged down and you hit a bump hard.

Thu Apr 14, 2022 12:01 pm

Thanks Richard for the info and observations. I bought it because it was a nice example at a good price, much better than anything else I was seeing available. I'm more interested in the mechanical features and condition than any history stories. :D

Andy

Thu Apr 14, 2022 7:41 pm

Sand Fernando Buggy Center sold the mounting clamps separately for those who were building their own chassis.
If that is what you are seeing on the front of the chassis. The steel part of the clamps welded to the chassis, and the cast aluminum parts with Hi jumper on them mounted with 3- 3/8in bolts
I always like them for mounting the beam to the chassis compared to the bolt together half clamps that were used later on.

Thu Apr 21, 2022 11:14 am

Tue Jun 21, 2022 10:22 am

First Sandrail I have owned.
I just picked up this Sandrail wanted your guys opinion on if I gave too much or not but with the understanding there's not many of them around Nashville. to choose from I gave 2500 bucks in things I know for sure it needs is a transmission.
I haven't checked the numbers yet but was told the engine is a 1500 dual port.. brakes don't work other than looking good in the pictures...
closer inspection it's a little rough... I Was told is a 1966 it has swingarm arms and I haven't run the numbers on the motor yet.
Does not have a title. I did get a bill of sale notarized and was told in the state of Tennessee that's what it took to get a title...
So was 2500 too much? How much should I end up giving for a decent transmission?

Tue Jun 21, 2022 10:40 pm

It's hard to say whether you gave too much or not, that's kind of personal opinion.
I also live in an area where there aren't many classic vw vehicles around... you rarely see them driving around anymore... the only place that worked on them has retired years ago.
When you do see one, it's the same 2 or 3 I usually see about.

The way I look at is, when we find one and it's within a reasonable budget price for me personally then it's worth buying.
I gave the same price for mine knowing it didn't have brakes and sounded to have a misfire.
I've basically been rebuilding the entire machine since I bought it, have only driven it once.

There again, no one here knows how to work on them any more (within a 3 or so hour drive) so it's up to the enthusiasts to keep them going.
I've accepted that from now on when I purchase an aircooled VW that I will absolutely have to strip it to the chassis and fix / rebuild all of it even if it runs and drives and looks good, that is just what it seems to take nowadays.

All that said, looks like a sharp little buggy and will be alot of fun to drive when done, congratulations on your purchase.

Fri Jun 24, 2022 7:14 am

Built this Funco Bandido Notchback in 1977 is SoCal. Anyone seen it or one like recently?

Sun Jul 31, 2022 7:27 pm