|
Who likes mud & gunk in their face as
they ride the trails? Not me. The first order of business is to
add a set of fenders. There are more details on how I make these on my
Yerf pages. These are made from sections of a Rubber Maid tub and
attached with 3/8" steel rod threaded into pipe hangers from the plumbing
department. |
 |
|
Rear fenders added over the Mud Lite
tires. Rubber "flaps" are needed to stop mud from launching straight
up from the tires, but these do a pretty good job keeping most the gunk off
me. |
 |
|
A rearview mirror comes in handy when
driving up the street or when riding with friends. This mirror was
found at Auto Zone for about $3. It had a suction cup base which I cut
away leaving only the middle that holds the mirror swivel ball. This I
epoxied to an eye bolt which is then threaded into another pipe hanger. |
 |
|
The factory tail light was pretty feeble
and only functioned as a running light. An LED light bar was found at
Murray's Auto Parts. Very bright, yet very low current draw.
Here's how to get the hi-lo intensity of
a brake light: Disconnect the safety start switch wiring from the
brake master cylinder and use the switch to activate this brakelight.
Normally the voltage from the light wiring passes through a 100 ohm 2W.
resistor that is attached to the brake switch (dim). Pressing the
brake pedal closes the switch and bypasses the resistor--sending the full
voltage to the brakelight (bright). |
 |
|
With some of the easy appearance mods
complete it's time to get to the serious work of making this buggy more
comfortable and better handling. On the back I added a set of Yamaha
Blaster shocks. These worked well on my Yerf and they work well on the
Dune as well. Shockeyes need to be narrowed a bit to fit the Dune's
shock mounts. The front is more
challenging. The stock shocks are cool looking 18 inch long units with
stacked springs. They look long-travel but they aren't. With
shocks removed the A-arms are capable of nearly 12 inches of vertical
travel. The shock needs to travel 4.5 inches but the stock shocks are
capable of only 3.25 inches of travel. This limits the upper part of
tire travel and truthfully isn't often needed. But it's easy to get
ALL the travel this suspension is capable of. There are many good
shocks with 4.5 inches or more rod movement...but not many that are 18
inches overall. Shown in this picture is a set of brackets I made to
drop the upper mount down 2 inches to reach the 16 inch shocks I'm using. |
 |
|
These shocks are some old Honda
motorcycle shocks with reservoirs. They were dual rate shocks but I
found the upper spring to be too soft for the Dune so I removed it and
replaced it with a section of aluminum pipe that fit over the shock body.
I played around with different lengths of pipe til I found a preload that
sets the front ride height to where I want it: About 1 inch of sag
with my weight in the seat. There's still plenty enough spring to
allow full travel of the shock. Too much, actually. A set of
rubber limiters is needed on the shock shafts so the A-arms don't overtravel.
Anybody interested in following this
path will be interested to know the front spring rate is now 100 pounds per
inch and about 85 pounds preload. The stock shocks were 100 lbs/in but
at about 200 lbs preload they were so stiff the front end couldn't absorb
any bumps. The stock rear shocks are likewise too stiff. I
measured a ridiculous 800 lbs/in!! The Blaster shocks are about 160
lbs/in. |
 |
|
I had read in gokart forums that some
owners had experienced problems with the reverse unit support bending,
sometimes even breaking the aluminum lug off the crankcase. Added
insurance is to add a short brace made from steel bar to the unused
lug lower on the crankcase. |
 |
|
Now for some electrical work.
A second battery is a popular option for
some folks who run high powered lights, stereos, or a winch--which I am
adding soon. There's room behind the passenger seat for a battery
that's larger than the original battery. I added a relay that connects
the new battery to the old one when the buggy is running. This is so
both batteries will charge. The relay is a beer-budget alternative to
a battery isolator that does the same job (but more elegantly).
Battery 2 supplies current to the winch even when the buggy is off. |
 |
|
I like the "old school" look of this
gauge set better than the digital unit I tried first. This was found
on eBay and originally is from a pocket bike. The set includes a volt
meter, 0-40mph speedometer, turn signal indicators (not used) and a
headlight "ON" indicator. This set features a speed sensor that was
intended to mount on the front forks of the bike but here is adapted to a
bracket that places it near the sprocket. |
Click to enlarge |
|
Here's the sprocket. It's a
39-tooth unit from a Twister buggy. Bolts right up and gives much more
torque than the stock 31 tooth sprocket (but at the expense of some top
speed, but that's fine with me).
The speedometer turned out to be a sealed
unit and is NOT adjustable. I lucked out and found that by mounting 5
magnets to the sprocket the speedo was pretty accurate. Note to
tinkerers: I got lucky--with different sized tires or a different
speedo this might not have worked. Proceed with the understanding that
you may end up with a cool-looking but unuseable gauge set. |
 |
|
The wire from battery2 to the winch is 10
gauge. It's bundled along with the speed sensor cable and an extra
wire for possible future tach. The harness can be seen strapped to the
floorpan/chassis tubing in the upper left of the picture==> It all
runs up to this box that's mounted to 2 steel straps that bridge the chassis
tubing in the front. All the wiring for the winch/relay/rocker switch,
lighting, accessory relay, gauges and (future) tach are all on a big
terminal strip and stuffed into this recycled snap-lid box.
 |
Next Page |
