Newbie from Mich. building a snowmobile powered buggy

[catpunk]

Hi all. I have been bitten by the bug hard. I'm a snowmobile guy so I want to build it that way. A couple of questions. Where can I find rollers (reasonable ) forsale? I need a 2 seater to get it by the wife. I have found frames on the web, but my main concern is the rearend. Any help, direction, websites would be very appreciated.

[tinman]

Good luck.

[Gene]

Welcome to MBN!

Rollers are few and far between and usually priced beyond what many think reasonable.

Suefuerer (SP?) on this site has a two seater for about 4500. It is Chinese built and there is a video on this site. I can't remember any other rollers for less than 10k.

Is a roller your only choice or can you build one?

[Bugpac]

Originally Posted by catpunk

Hi all. I have been bitten by the bug hard. I'm a snowmobile guy so I want to build it that way. A couple of questions. Where can I find rollers (reasonable ) forsale? I need a 2 seater to get it by the wife. I have found frames on the web, but my main concern is the rearend. Any help, direction, websites would be very appreciated.

were at in michigan?

[yoshi]

Originally Posted by catpunk

Hi all. I have been bitten by the bug hard. I'm a snowmobile guy so I want to build it that way. A couple of questions. Where can I find rollers (reasonable ) forsale? I need a 2 seater to get it by the wife. I have found frames on the web, but my main concern is the rearend. Any help, direction, websites would be very appreciated.

As Gene said, good rollers are not cheap. You may wanna consider buying a frame kit from here:

prosandminirailframes

It's not that expensive and gives you a good start. What's your budget for the rail?

[tooltime]

Just an idea. How about finding a vw based frame without motor and trany. You could adapt in a snowmobile engine with reverse. It would involve a lot of fab but, frame and suspension would be reasonable. Good luck. Tim

[catpunk]

Originally Posted by tooltime

Just an idea. How about finding a vw based frame without motor and trany. You could adapt in a snowmobile engine with reverse. It would involve a lot of fab but, frame and suspension would be reasonable. Good luck. Tim

I was wondering if I could do that. I live in Berkley Mi. If I buy a frame would like to buy the a-arms and center carrier that works with that frame. I'm not looking to build something with a ton of travel, like most on this site.

[nutz4sand]

Originally Posted by catpunk

I'm not looking to build something with a ton of travel, like most on this site.

YOU will be....You will be..... (in Yodas voice...LoL)

Originally Posted by catpunk

I was wondering if I could do that. I live in Berkley Mi. If I buy a frame would like to buy the a-arms and center carrier that works with that frame.

The link Yoshi posted above is about your best dollar for dollar price if you want "some" of the things done for you. Look that site he linked to over well.

My Little Yoda pun thing above is in reguards to your travel issues. There is not so much wrong with building a shorter travel unit BUT if your gonna build it and not buy it then why not treat yourself to a better ride.

LONG TRAVEL ONLY COSTS MORE IF YOU BUY IT!!!!! (thats only partially BUT MOSTLY TRUE!!) If you are building YOURSELF and need to figure out all the geometery (geometry?) then its about the same to figure it out for a short armed car that gets six inches of wheel travel and a longer armed car that gets 12 etc. You pay a tiny bit more for more tubing for longer arms and a little bit more for longer shocks. The extra cost is easy to justify. IF you are doing the building!

Go to Silver Lake Sand dunes and rent the old kinda crappy short travel mini buggy and go out bombing around. Then go rent the newer ones from Wild Bills and the differeance is night and day. You may rethink your decision.

I only say this as I wish you to be informed that if you are gonna build it yourself either go with a little more travel from the get go or make dang sure you make it easy to upgrade later. But if you build short arms and buy short shocks then upgrading will cost more due to double purchasing.

I meet a lot of people who think long travel HAS to be costly as heck. It can be had for a fair price. I just wish you to be aware of that. Good luck with whatever you do decide to do.

That said what kind of travel are you hoping for? How much power? (Do you have a motor picked out yet?) Bill

[greasemnky]

Cut an fl350 in half and make a 2 seater been done once or twice before. Your better off buying plans otherwise, and building one yourself.

Oh, and I'm in berkley also, right off woodward. A few of us have a shop over at 9 and vandyke if you ever need some help. Have a couple sled powered ody/pilots, and a motorcycle powered buggy.

I've got a single seat roller, no shocks, that you might be interested in. Currently set up for a bike motor, but could be changed out pretty easy. Shoot me a PM if your interested, I'll try to remember to take pics at the shop tomorrow.

Oh, and if you have a quad or anything, we're doing a baldwin and silver lake trip in august.

[catpunk]

Originally Posted by greasemnky

Cut an fl350 in half and make a 2 seater been done once or twice before. Your better off buying plans otherwise, and building one yourself.

Oh, and I'm in berkley also, right off woodward. A few of us have a shop over at 9 and vandyke if you ever need some help. Have a couple sled powered ody/pilots, and a motorcycle powered buggy.

I've got a single seat roller, no shocks, that you might be interested in. Currently set up for a bike motor, but could be changed out pretty easy. Shoot me a PM if your interested, I'll try to remember to take pics at the shop tomorrow.

Oh, and if you have a quad or anything, we're doing a baldwin and silver lake trip in august.

I would definately like a look at the roller.