Desert Panther based (loosely) 2 seater

[XJZ33]

Been lurking quite some time (years), but finally took the plunge after buying a guys buggy parts and plans he never moved forward with to build a desert panther buggy.
I wanted a 2 seat ride and having had a sandrail in the past and worked on the SAE mini-baja project back in school I felt comfortable modifying the plans to suite.
I ride motorcycles and have been building a jeep for years so I have some of the needed equipment to take on this build. I also have access to a mill and lathe when needed.
So here is a pic to show the progress so far as the link work...

This will be a very slow build but it appears most are here on the site.

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[XJZ33]

Currently working on the rear semi-trailing arms, but not sure if it better to go with 3 mostly straight links to the unit bearing mount plate or with 4 links when 2 have bends for drive shaft clearance.

Something like one of these


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[darwinpayne2000]

My brother-in-law modified the DesertKarts plans and made it a two-seater. It turned out very nice. Good luck with your build.

[XJZ33]

So I have all the front A-arms built but will still need to weld on a brace and shock mount on the lower arm when I figure out where it needs to go.

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[XJZ33]

I also decided to use some parts I had on hand from my jeep rather than buying new stuff. I had upgraded my axles and still had my dana 30 which had good unit bearings and I had a spare axle shafts for them which I could modify and make some stub shafts for some CV joints. Here is the stub shafts I machined and welded up as well as the mount plates I will use on the semi-trailing arms.

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[XJZ33]

Got my semi-trailing arms built and mounts welded to the frame. It looks like I may have to move them back more depending on the motor that I put in this buggy but we will see when I get a motor. I would like to use these 14" aluminum wheels that were on my ranger for the buggy. I'm not sure if the bead for automotive rims are the same as what off-road side by side buggy tires have on them but I hope they are the same, just haven't had time to research it yet.

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[XJZ33]

Got some front end bracing installed and mounted my steering rack off of it. I also had to shorten my upper A-arms to give me some king pin inclination angle (I think that's the right term) so hopefully it will steer correctly once I finish the knuckles after my trailer hubs and spindles are delivered from surplus center.

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[XJZ33]

Had to modify my knuckles to account for shortening the upper arms for the kingpin inclination. I got my trailer hubs, and 1" trailer spindles from surplus center and tacked the spindles onto the knuckles. I got the "bolt lug" hubs so I can get some all-thread and spacers to mount some brake rotors inboard of the hubs and the wheels outboard on the hub in the future.

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[XJZ33]

I welded a brace between the two legs on the lower arm for mounting the shock to. I gave myself a couple options to mount the shock for tuning purposes after its complete and all the weight rests on the tires. When I welded the cross brace on to make the A, it pulled the legs in too much and now the don't fit between the suspension mounts welded to the frame properly. Anybody have suggestions to fix this and stretch the distance back out on the arms so they fit between the tabs again?

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[kustomfab2003]

try to use a bottle jack and slowly stretch them back to where they need to be. If a bottle jack is too long, there are a couple of porta-power options available, harbor freight has some that work well for these small jobs.