Look what followed me home
 

I couldn’t help myself, I found it on CL buried in a yard sale add. The engine smokes, it had two flat tires (I patched) Heavy Duty spindles, but the ball joints and tie rod ends are shot. However, it only cost $100.
http://buggymasters.com/forum/pictur...pictureid=2131

http://buggymasters.com/forum/pictur...pictureid=2132


So this will be my base for my Franken Buggy. Since I have a Joyner 650 SS frame in the back, my initial plan is to graft the front suspension from it on the Yerf. However since it has the heavy duty spindles, I am also wondering what the stock suspension is capable of? I am also looking at doing an IRS setup in the back. The Joyner has a dual A arm setup and I am looking at grafting it on as well. Right now my main goal is to build it with the best suspension that I can and power being secondary. The beefed up engine in my HH seems to do pretty well, but its suspension is lacking. But first, I have a list of honey dos that to complete before I can get started. So as a parting question, How well can a beefed up Yerf front end be made to work? Can I get good action or do you think the Joyner front end would be better.

Score!

With the right stuff the yerf will perform as well or better than any china buggy out there. The components can be modified easy enough.

Ckau,

How much travel are you getting out of your front end. Just started reading your post (first glimps) and you really have a nice buggy there. I may go something close to your route. Can't wait to here the first ride report.

Nice find for the money

In my build i used a yerf and cut it in half i think took out 9" or 15" i really cant remember but i took a chunk out of the whole thing and turned it into a single seat

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/...E2B75DB929.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/...E2CF1AD437.jpg

With that said i used kfx 400 front suspension and made my own chain drive irs. The front end is now complete but i am waiting on a few parts to button up the rear.

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/...39C711C49E.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/...3E10F9E192.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/...C8A44B50BC.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/...C8AFFF8131.jpg

Here is my irs

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/...047F5BDA23.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/...04B7633B38.jpg

I hope i could help with your build

[QUOTE=toomanytoys2;33975]Ckau,

How much travel are you getting out of your front end. QUOTE]
the a-arms and tie rods are capable of 13" of movement. but the whole suspension is limited by shock travel. The El-Cheapo's pictured will give approx. 3.5" of travel. You could get 12" easy if you had room for a shock with that much travel
But a shock that length would require the upper mounts some where up around eye level! :lol:

Ckau,

Is that 3.5" of shock travel or 3.5" of wheel travel? I don't mean to be condescending, but I was expecting numbers more in the 6-9" range.

That would be 3.5" of shock travel. there's compromises made to balance functionality, dependability, practicality and aesthetics.

Not to mention funds, you can drop several hundred on shocks, but you have to draw the line somewhere on what you want to spend, I draw the line at around $40 per axle, and retain the ability to mod the mounts if they turn out to be too hard or soft.

I definitely realize that, I am not a newbie to the off road world or fabricating suspension. In my Baja Bug, I Installed a bus transmission and built my own rear trailing arms that are 3" longer and 3" wider to get more travel while putting less angularity on the CV joints.

However, I am a newbie to the mini buggy world. I also do not like to reinvent the wheel. I tend to look around at what other people are doing then if I like it I copy it. That's why I ask so many questions. I would like to find out if an idea I see value in will work for what I want to do.

So I am curious, have you ever pulled the spring off of the shock to see how much wheel travel you are getting? I would really like to know what kind of wheel travel is available to a well modified Yerf front end. Right now I have three different ideas of what I might do to the front end, but I am trying to gather all the information that I can before I pull the trigger and to date Your Build is one of the nicest stock based builds that I have seen (masteroyota also).

I can say I have over 12" of top to bottom articulation available from the BD balljoints I have installed, add in the tie rods, it cuts it down to around 10" without using high misalignment spacers on the heims. I may pull the heims I have and go bigger so I can get the high misalignment ones I really want, but I'm on a ever shrinking budget right now.

I payed very very close attention to the bushings and bulkhead interference when I assembled the front, and made sure to clear away any thing hindering the control arm movement(took about 3 hours of grinding with dremel), but they have zero resistance up or down, and then the balljoints actually max out, and there is my 12" of available travel. I am always looking for shocks for the front, and guestimating the curb weight in the front to find something to match, I was told snowmobile shocks are good candidates, as their center of gravity is closer to our buggies than ATVs, and tend to be on the softer side, plus most manufacturers opt for good brand name shocks, and most can be rebuilt or change the spring rates to really dial in how they ride.

I bought a set of blaster front shocks to put on the rear, and they measure ~13.5" eye to eye, I am told they hold up well to the weight in the rear, but will require wider shock mounts, or to cut the eyelet tubes down to match the yerf shock mounts. I will likely just make some new mounts with a few holes to help dial it in and thinking of using a clevis pin/hitch pin to be able to change the settings on the fly without tools. I may also do the same to the front after the first drive.

I have put front Blaster shocks on the rear of my HH 150 and it made a huge difference. I am really amazed at how plush the ride is. I had to fab up some different mounts, but it was well worth it. However, the front end on the HH sucks. I reality I guess it is pretty good for what it is intended for. It does ride well, but I can't push it as hard as I would like to. It is definitely the weak link in the whole buggy, plus it is a hard design to modify. After looking at several different buggies, the Yerf has a clear advantage over most of them. The front of the cage is almost a blank slate and you can fab up just about anything you want and put it on it.

[QUOTE=toomanytoys2;34041]

So I am curious, have you ever pulled the spring off of the shock to see how much wheel travel you are getting? I would really like to know what kind of wheel travel is available to a well modified Yerf front end. QUOTE]

No I haven't, but I will. I may have to opportunity to do this today.
I focused on dependability, function and correct articulation while trying to stay within the boundaries of a "stock based build" ( I really like that term. Accurate description!). I knew all along travel would be severely limited by the shock length so my main concern was making sure the a-arm and tie rod travel would far exceed any shock that would fit. Seeing how there are length and position limitations, I resigned to the fact it's most likely as good as it gets. The shocks shown are intended for fabrication and set up only. They will ultimately be replaced by shocks that will afford more travel. The plan is to use these to discover spring rate, sag, rebound etc. then have a set made.

Just a little update, not really any kind of major mod. I was changing out the old hoses (vacuum and fuel) and the plastic outlet from the fuel tank fell apart in my hands :mad:. I managed to get it all out, but I had to fab up this little piece to replace it.

http://www.buggymasters.com/forum/pi...pictureid=2138

toomanytoys, you dont happen to live in Missouri do you? I just saw a buggy identical to that at a local off road shop I go to.

No, I live out in Lefty California. Where we have the beautiful weather to ride almost all year long. However thanks to our lovely people in Sacramento :banghead:, it is getting harder to find places to ride without traveling long distances.

Toomany, here's the numbers for the front end. These would be the only numbers that would differ from stock.