How to Build a Go Kart and Fulfill that Childhood Dream
SPONSORED LINKS
Wondering how to build a go kart? Building a go kart can be memorable father-son project, it can be a way to save on costs, or a way to get a go kart customized to your specifications. However, there are a few steps, considerations, and some planning involved before you even get to buying parts and actually putting it together. This article will make sure you don’t miss any steps and that you put the proper thought into planning and designing your go kart, so that you’ll get a great end product.
What Type Of Go Kart Do You Want To Build?
The first thing you have to do is decide what type of go kart you need. Do you want to build a go kart for adults, or for kids? Besides just changing how much of each material you’ll need, this also determines how strong your materials should be.
Are you building a kart for just one person or two? Again, the two person kart will have different dimensions than the one person, because you’ll want it to be wider and longer.
Are you looking for how to build a go kart for racing, or just one to cruise around the neighborhood? Do you plan on going off-roading with it?
How about the engine that you want to put into it? Do you want a quiet, rechargeable electric engine that runs for about 40 minutes after 12 hours of charging? Or do you want a faster, louder gas engine that is only restricted to how much fuel you have in it?
Finally, do you want to know how to build a go kart from scratch? Or are you planning on using a kit, but just can’t decide which kit to use? By asking yourself all of these questions in the beginning, you’ll be much more likely to end up with something that you’re happy with at the end.
How to Build a Go Kart: Kits or from Scratch?
We usually recommend that people use a kit to build a go kart. There are a few reasons for this. For one, all of the designing has been done for you! This is often the hardest part to learn when you want to know how to build a go kart. There are a lot of different designs out there, but by purchasing the right kit you don’t have to worry about that. If you want more information about go kart kits, you’ll find much more detailed information about go kart kits here.
Another thing is the materials. They’ve been proven to work time and time again. If you try to build a go kart without using a tried and tested method, it’s hard to say if you’re going to be as successful.
Consider your time. Do you really want to spend all of that time welding pieces together, or drilling holes and making notches in just the right places? Probably not. Unless you enjoy the process of building and have the expertise to execute successfully, you can save yourself a lot of headache if you learn how to build a go kart with a kit instead of buying your own materials and building it from scratch.
So if you decide this is the way to go, there are a few kits I highly recommend. If you go on Amazon.com, they have a few kits to choose from such as the Stingray Go Kart Kit and Azusa Engineering Go Kart Kit. These are both pretty high quality, and you’re saving a lot of money by putting it together yourself instead of having a store do it for you.
How to Build a Go Kart Without a Kit
A kit is still going to be more expensive than building it from scratch. With a good guide and one hundred bucks for materials, you can build a decent go kart to cruise around the neighborhood or a parking lot, but I wouldn’t plan on doing any racing in it! If you want to know how to build a go kart from scratch, there are several books or guides online that you can check out. Some are free, but they generally just aren’t as good as the ones that you have to pay for.
Also know that if you learn how to build a go kart without a kit, you will probably need access to a welding tools. Sometimes you can rent them, but if you plan on making this a very long term project it would make sense to just buy your own. You can also hire a welder, but we would recommend just purchasing a kit, unless you want some serious customization. You can find more information about welded and unwelded go kart frames here.
This adds to the cost significantly, again part of the reason why we recommend building your go kart with a kit. At least that way if things go wrong, you can always get some support from the company you bought it from.
Related Articles: