Class 12'ish single seater fun buggy

[Chris-a]

Howdy.

I'm beginning the process of gathering parts and knowledge for a project I've wanted to do for a long time. I live out in the country in Western Oregon, we have lots of fire and logging roads around our mountains, but I'm from coastal San Diego. Until I moved up here I never had the space to build or store much besides my daily drivers. Now that's changed and I want to build a buggy for blasting around our local dirt roads, the wide open spaces of Eastern Oregon and perhaps taking down to the SoCal/AZ/NV deserts during our wet winters. I'm pretty good with my mig welder and quite a few years ago I worked for a bike company mitering and tack welding tubes, so I'm cautiously optomistic I can handle the fab work.

About 6 years ago I totally rebuilt the type iv 2.0 in my 77 westy. Less than 2 months later some crack head stole it and flipped it. It started and moved onto the flatbed and into the barn but it will never drive again. So that is the donor of the engine and transaxle I will be using for this build. Unfortunately, that van is parked at my inlaws farm in Central Washington and I can't get upto it for about 6 weeks.

I've looked at a lot of the Funco, Jimco and other brands of class 1/2 1600, 12 and score lite vehicles. That's basically what I want to build a single seat beam based vehicle. I have zero intentions of racing this vehicle, so travel limits and wheelbase constraints aren't a consideration. I've searched the area for a chassis for sale but have only found tandems or quad seats, except for one rusted out single that the guy must have thought was built out of gold. Lots of dune rigs, but most are for taking the whole family.

I'd like to run coilover shocks and pull as much travel as possible without going too crazy(13-16"front and 20-24" rear are my initial guesses).

Questions:
On a single seat chassis can I run anything narrower than a stock beam and still be able to run some longer travel rear trailing arms but maintain a reasonably similar track width?

If I stayed with the stock width beam, I was looking at this stock width front beam:
http://www.mooreparts.com/jm-pro-off-road-king-lin...ild-steel/

What would be a good rear match of trailing arms? some 3x3's?

I'm still trying to wrap my head around aftermarket vw/buggy suspension, I come from the solid axles world.

Thanks for any insight.
Chris
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I gotta have nice tools, just look at the cars I drive.

[cbeck]

I would think you would need to go wider and longer for that kind of travel. Myself, I prefer the front width to be similar to the rear. Doesn't matter if the front can squeze thru if the rear is over a foot wider.
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My cut in half and rebuild thread
www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=647779

[Chris-a]

[jimmyhoffa]

I don't know how feasible decent road trips are but as an old school enthusiast, I have noticed a few cool ones for sale on your side of the country.

Rory Ward of Racers Only Motorsport Designs has a Funco for sale, very nice to start with. I would love to build on a car like this.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2150937

I have bought parts from this guy Paul, and he has been cool to me. He also has this nice Chenowth for sale I wish I owned.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2064893
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1974 Chenowth 2RL #1244 Street Legal
My other car isn't ridiculous.

[Chris-a]

That Chenoweth is slick. I haven't sat in that model, but I've run into height issues with a couple of the Funco's I've sat in, I'm abit north of 6'3".

-Chris

[dustymojave]

That Funco SS2 should probably be a NORRA or museum build. The Chenowth could be a currently competitive 1600 race buggy. Both are now down to pretty much bare frames with body panels. The Funco has a pretty good wheelbase for forest roads at around 80 inches, the Chenowth old 1600 race buggy is about 114" WB and is rather long for forest roads or trails.

Both frames are for stock width suspension. Although either one could get +4 arms on a stock width beam and stock x 3 arms on the rear for as much as 12" front travel and 16" rear with micro-stub hubs.

Narrower than stock is not a good option unless you're building a lowered street show car and you want wide tires under stock fenders or a "Pro Street" with steam roller tires on the back, with no consideration of suspension function either way.

Why don't you just buy a regular 2-seat buggy frame and install the seat in the middle to make it a single seater. Lots of limited class offroad race cars are built that way. It has no effect on total width of the car. Lots of frames or complete buggies for sale out there. You could buy a Berrien frame new for less than $500, plus shipping to Oregon that will cost a good part of that to build your own. Having a single seat frame built to suit is likely to be quite expensive. But you can order it with a tall roll cage to suit your height, which is likely to be an issue with ANY buggy that you buy.

Class 12 cars are typically 12" or so wider than stock VW + extra wheel and tire width. And they are also typically a couple of feet longer wheelbase than stock.

To make sure the buggy you get is tall enough for you, borrow a suspension seat from somebody, even at an offroad show or shop that sells them. Sit down in it on the floor, have somebody else put a level on top of your head, and measure the distance from the floor to the bottom of the level, then add at LEAST 3-4" headroom.
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Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

[Chris-a]

Thanks for the responses. I'm solidifying my plans.

I plan on using 1 5/8 .090 for the major tubes of the frame, might bump it up to .120 for the roll cage. I believe I'm going to go with the AS-445 front arms that are 4" longer and 1 1/2" wider. I will probably pair those with some 3x5 rear trailing arms, coil overs. What width beam would set that combo at somewhat similar track widths front and rear?

Any thoughts or suggestions on those?

Couple quick questions, for now:
Front beam "caster" angle, set it back around 7-8 degrees relative to the ground at ride height?

Engine and Transaxle angle, I've read a lot and see that angle frequently mentioned. Is it to get a good alignment for the shift linkage and hockey stick?

Who makes a good engine tin/shroud for the type iv engine when used in an offroad buggy.

Thanks for your help.
-Chris
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I gotta have nice tools, just look at the cars I drive.

[Vanapplebomb]

If the stock fan shroud fits inside the rear cafe, just fine to run it as is.

If it doesn’t fit in the rear cage, the Joe’s (Nexgen) Upright conversion is the cheapest and works well, made from modified T1/T4 cooling bits. Jakes DTM is arguably the best, but you pay for it. Porsche type shoulda also work, but I’m not a huge fan...tend to over cool two cylinders and under cool the others.
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1800 Type 4 Berrien 295

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487021

[I Ride Sand]

[Chris-a]

Thanks. I meant to type 1 1/2", but that's what I get for asking questions late at night after a long day and while ordering parts for another project!

I looked at several of the knockdown kits(the warrior) but I really want a single seat, might not make sense but that's what I want.

Thanks again for the insight and catching my mistake.
-Chris

[dustymojave]