Hi.

I am planning to build a dune buggy. I am having a little trouble deciding on what frame to order. I like the looks of the "Big Boy" frame by "BugPack". I will be using the buggy for dirt not sand I live in New Mexico and the desert is more of harder dirt. From what I have read the turn radius won’t be that great on a 101" wheelbase. And most of the driving will be on trails that get pretty tight at some points. For my type of terrain the website suggested a 90"-95" wheel base. Will 6" really make any difference?

If there is a forum better suited to answer this question please let me know. I haven’t been able to find any decent dune buggy forums.
Thanks in any advice.

 

Yes, 6" will make a noticeable difference. But, you put turning brakes on it, and you can just about rotate the front end around at walking speed. I had a 100" Johnny's Speed & Chrome "Invader" buggy. It worked pretty well in the mountains on trails but in tighter spots I would have preferred a 95" buggy, and for angles of high centering too. Good luck, and remember it's like building a house, it costs twice as much in reality as it does on paper. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

 

I have a BigBoy chassis from bugback with custom torsion.. imo if you get it, make sure you weld up some extra gussets around the torsion, also.. you will need to get decent suspension (fox shocks in rear) or you will start braking things. I had some small $50 coilovers on the rear at pismo and almost tore my intire torsion off [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

But otherwise, look at Berrien Buggies.. the Warrior is exactly what you are looking for!

 

my friend's dad jus put some high performance truck shock absorbers on his rail, we busted them when we jumped about 2 feet, but it was only because a bolt was put on backwards. also, we stepped it up to 2 shocks per wheel in back, and the shocks r 50 bucks a pop. good luck.

 

There are alot of forums, dune-buggy.com, deepsand.net, I like glamisdunes.com, go to the sandrail forum and ask away. I get alot of good info from there.

Also

extremebuggies.com
americansandassociation.org

I know there are others, just cant think of them all right now.