uh oh
- Thread starter badassmav
- Start date
That works out to about a pound an hour! Gotta watch out for those Murray guys. They asked if they could use our old rear bumper as ballast. If I start drinking more beer NOW, I could co-dog w/Marc and we'll make that minimum for sure!! O.k., so we pick up the first chassis from our local dealer, and it appears that i will never live down the "badass" tag I've given to the Monster Mav. Check out the welcome notice someone at the dealer left us on the led display upon powering up the ignition switch. F-ing HILARIOUS!!Did the Murrys fill you in on the new rule?!?!!? Minimum weight is 2500#'s
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We will be receiving our new 4-seat frame, bare, on Monday. In the meantime, I built a jig table based on one that JD squared offered (unistrut design) to assure accuracy, repeatability, and positionimg for welding, at a total cost of under $600 bucks. It was necessary because we are only using the minimum stock frame tubes as allowed, and adding to them our own space frame that will be 100% TIG welded and stress relieved out of 4130.
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I bought this durable shipping crate from my local surplus store for $45.00 and built a bracket so we can protect our motor for shipping purposes, as well as transport our spare motor to the races. This crate will protect the motor in the roughest of transport conditions, and is vacuum tight. Since I am designing the chassis to allow the motor to be removed from the bottom of the car, I estimate I can change out our motor in under 3 hours in a pit environment. It is a contingency plan for the 500 and 1000. SCORE does allow motor changes in the pro 1900 class. NO MORE DNF's!
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Game on. Look forward to seeing the final result. We followed our weight rule..... its the secret to a better ride.
Race ready, wet weight, and without occupants was between 2,000 and 2,100 lbs
. My experience in fabrication has been in building trucks, so a lot of disciplines bled over when building the Monster Mav. I'd like to think I can cut 300+ lbs. off of this new build, but I also thought we'd be a contender last season...........I have been allowed more freedom
in the construction of this new effort, so we'll see. Thanks for the inquiry.If you are going down to the frame rails I believe you can save a significant amount of wieght even with a longer chassis. Will you be using the same suspension setup? I am surprised more people weren't trying to improve some of the poor geometry they way you did.Race ready, wet weight, and without occupants was between 2,000 and 2,100 lbs
I have been allowed more freedom
To my knowledge, no one has put the effort into moving the diffs "to and fro" as I did. I moved the front forward 2 1/2" and the rear back a whopping 8 1/2". Removing the compound operating angles from the cv joints was worth a ton more horsepower at the wheels (10-15%). I can safely work them at 25+ degrees of deflection which allows for 19" of rear travel, and 18"+ of front travel reliably using stock joints.
Regarding the suspension, I am opting to use very similar a-arm geometry, but will eliminate some of the rod ends to save weight. I'll implement a cam-style adjustment at the pivot points for alignment purposes. I will also be constructing the spindles from scratch from 4130 and 4140 materials, as opposed to using highly modified stock ones like the Monster Mav has. Although they achieved the desired geometry in their modified form, the casted platform cries for magnafluxing and maintenance. I will still convert the stock steering geometry to a front steer design using a durable buggy rack to eliminate all but 1/8" or so of bump steer. I'll mount only one steering stabilizer instead of the two we run on the 2 seater. It will mount directly to the gear rack itself. A stabilizer is necessary to isolate the power steering gear unit from abrupt impacts that off-road racing generates. W/out them, we broke our wicked p/s unit in the 2nd race last season.
I need to tweak the front uniball/spindle interface to get a tighter turning radius to accommodate our longer wheelbase as well. I am changing from 16" stroke rear, and 14" stroke front Fox 2.5" internal bypass shocks to 14"/12" stroke shocks (of the same type) respectively. I was stroking them at a liesurely 1.35:1 and 1.52:1 motion ratio, and have plenty of room to work them a bit more. There's another 25lbs. or so GONE!
I'm reluctant to share many photos of this build. I felt kinda kicked aside last year. My bad for boasting without foundation. We will get their attention this season at the races when we are accumulating their highly sought-after points. Thanks to all of you who are willing to ask and learn. Constructive criticism, as well as blatantly correcting any mis statements that I may make is always welcome. This year, we're buildingv a UTV!
I sure hope you will reconsider about posting pictures! You're pictures of the last build along with the captions explaining them were probably the best ones I've ever seen in the off road world! You did a lot of changes to the car, with excellent craftsmanship, and then explained why you did the mods! Please please please do the same with this build!
Thanks for the kind words, Steve. You and MDD, and many others have been loyal and respectful followers of our efforts. Marc doesn't embelish the fact that I share extensive details on our build(s). He comes from the school of hard knocks, and his successes do not come on the coat tails of others. My "wealth of knowledge" , for the most part, stems from reading books by experienced and successful engineers who published their savvy for hungry minds like yours and mine. I reccommend picking up Carroll Smith's book "Engineer to Win". He shared with us the do's and don'ts of automotive design, based on his numerous race car design successes (and failures, I'm sure!) such as Ford's GT40 assault on Le Mans in the late 60's. It was the reading and adapting of his writings into the off-road arena that allowed me to successfully build a winning SCORE class 8 truck on my first effort. First car I ever built won in its first race overall, and it was not due to the financial abilities of the customer as much as it was the fundamental basics and disciplines that I used to guide me through that awesome experience. He (Carroll Smith) was as practical as they come. If 1018 mild steel worked as well as 4130 in a given application, he'd use it.
So, I share what I do because of his grace to us. A very wise and humble fabricator once told me early on in my fabricating career, when I'd gawk at his work that, "It aint nothin' that hasn't been done before". There are rarely any "new" ideas stemming from our dirty sport. Just re-inventions of old ones. So, my postings here sharing our build, reveals no secrets.
That being said, I am always excited to show what I believe to be sound design choices of the cars I build. I do not mean to come across as arrogant in this process, but evidentally, I have. I am flying solo this season, so I don't know how much time I'll have to document this new build. I am however, and have been for some time, collecting details and content to perhaps release a book of my own in the future. A guide on the cross over, and application of, technology from F-1 and Indycar design to the world of off-road racing. The most difficult part for a designer of SCORE-type vehicles is to effectively apply the design parameters from properly built race cars into our arena. Usually, people follow the "overkill is the key to success" rule when building for our sport. I am trying to influence change in that mentality. To encourage others to seek out the basics of design.
There! This, my UTVUG "manifesto" is now complete!!
your pics and detailed explanation of why you did it, are very rare in this sport. Most teams keep everything quiet from build materials to their learning pains.
i understand wanting to keep everything quiet but dont forget about us little guys who learn from you and your trials and tribulations.
btw just from your pictures and explanation of how you moved the rear diff back i decided on chopping mine this summer and getting more whelbase.
Thanks BA
i understand wanting to keep everything quiet but dont forget about us little guys who learn from you and your trials and tribulations.
btw just from your pictures and explanation of how you moved the rear diff back i decided on chopping mine this summer and getting more whelbase.
Thanks BA