SAE Baja Buggy build

[dscowell]

All of the students at Montana tech and I'd assume other engineering schools are required to do a senior project to graduate. Since I'm in the general department as a welding engineer I have the option of various mechanical, civil, electrical or welding projects. I decided to join the Baja team. Essentially the project is to build a buggy, bring it to the competition and race against other schools. Tech doesn't have a ton of money like other schools so we upgrade the buggy every year instead of building one from scratch.

The competition is, for the most part, a 4-hour endurance race but it also involves a suspension, maneuverability, sled pull, and acceleration test as well as the endurance race. Our goal this year is to place top 25 since the team last year placed 26.

The buggies runs on a 10hp engine and a dual clutch gearbox much like a snowmobile. It's nothing amazing but for a bunch of students, it's more than plenty. Our goal for modifying the buggy this year is the decrease the weight from 450lbs to 400lbs. Lift the buggy up and inch or two. Increase the handling characteristics and tweak the gearbox depending on what we want to do with it.

I only have one picture of it from last years group since I have not had time in my schedule yet to see it. As we work on it I'll keep this forum updated and come competition time (Mid May I believe) I will update on how we do.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/k1EXb2ccjGSjoknQ_Rf_2wBIcYazhMfLrixFEfmoqDcFIo4XFu xEj2iC7AhohHYe1pxBXAEOMps07HZ0MzO1CEih-QS71e4vP8jl=w2400-h1350-rw-no

[ExplorerTom]

I did Formula SAE in college. Great fun. After competition we took it up to Wyoming for Frontier Days where they closed down the downtown streets for an autocross. So awesome. Blasting down the streets, "running" red lights, exhaust noises echoing off the buildings. So cool.

then about 5 years later, they were doing driver training and some kid crashed it. The carbon fiber monocoque was destroyed. Oh well.

[Swank1975]

Awesome

[dscowell]

Quick update. Apparently, I was wrong when I said we wouldn't be building a brand new buggy because we are. The goals remain the same but since we are building it from the ground up our approach to accomplishing these goals have changed. As for how we plan on going about doing it we haven't laid anything out yet. A CAD design will be necessary as well as some material and part evaluation will be necessary. The main goal at the moment is to fundraise money. In the past groups have had various companies sponsor the team which is one plan. We are also thinking about holding some events around town. It's important to raise the money not only for the build but also to enter into one of the competitions. There are three different locations but one being in Maryland that leaves us with two options and most of them only have 100 spots that fill up relatively quickly. With that said I can talk to the group if any of you are interested or know of someone or a company interested in sponsoring some money let me know and we can figure something out that can be agreed on by both parties.

The majority of the design and fundraising will be done this semester and the build will be next semester. For now, I'll be updating this thread for you guys as stuff arises and also to help with bookkeeping for the project since we are required to turn in reports throughout the year.

[dscowell]

Today we discussed some logistics and various other things regarding the buggy and competition. Our main focus still is fundraising money. We need $1300 by October 3rd to register in the event. We believe there is some money left over from last year that may transfer over so we can cover the entry fee but we will need more for materials and other aspects of the project. We talked to someone who is apart of the alumni association so that we can get in contact with some alumni who would be potential donors.

Other than that it sounds like the buggy design is fairly solid but we will make some various tweaks since the goals laid out to us by our mentor was to reduce weight and lift the buggy an inch or two. Once we get the money and start focusing on the design our plan is to use the old buggy to test parts. One part of the competition is a design aspect and the judges look for experimental testing and analysis of the parts. Some schools who have a lot of money and resources make their own gearboxes, calipers and various other mechanical parts that a hobbyist wouldn't make. Our mentor mentioned how time-consuming and expensive that would be and the how they have a higher probability of failure and reliability. We most likely won't be going that route but will be building the frame, suspension components, and a couple other things. Our main concern through all of this will also be passing the qualifications. Safety is the main concern and if we don't pass the safety inspection we won't be able to race.

Here are the two old buggies. We will essentially copy the frame design but implement some changes as we get into the testing and design phase.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Xt2KxNzxc6s/WcWJVftmw0I/AAAAAAAADw8/NPL4xv4nEkgn_8xHXZ3dmisPEpPt-fBHACJoC/w224-h398-n-rw/IMG_20170922_155016119.jpg https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-y1XiTGELcKs/WcWJVRCdxTI/AAAAAAAADw8/77i99k5aoW4kXSBvaUzE2sCvyKY0QMVqQCJoC/w224-h398-n-rw/IMG_20170922_155024383.jpg

[dscowell]

Quick update:
The semester is almost over and we are starting to get some design done. When I get some files I'll upload what I can. I won't upload everything for confidentiality since we don't want other teams seeing exactly what we are doing. I don't suspect anyone would look here but just for safe keeping.

I'm in the frame group and as of right now we are working on getting the design figured out. Frame preliminary design is due January 15. We just have to submit our CAD design and a material invoice so we will get okayed and won't lose our registration spot. One of the main objectives with our frame is to weld as little as possible. Reason for this is because welds tend to be weak points and while we have some certified welders in our group it's usually best to avoid welding where possible. As my adviser says "Don't weld." Our other concern is the material we are going to use. Some people are suggesting Chromoly steel over plain carbon steel. This would give us several advantages over plain carbon steel one being weight. Our mentor for the buggies biggest objective for this year is weight reduction which Chromoly steel would provide. Although Chromoly would run a much higher price which for us at the moment is a big deal. Also, Chromoly to weld properly takes a number of steps instead of just cleaning and welding so that is something we will be taking into consideration.

Our current problem is getting the engine order. I was under the impression that we didn't have a purchase deadline but according to SAE we have until Dec 15 to order it. While we have the money for it, all of the money is in our school account which is a pain to take money out. Currently, I'm getting an account set up with the distributor so we should be able to get it ordered in time.

Our other problem was we inherited $3000 debt from the previous year's team. We were able to get $2000 from the school but that still leaves us with $1000 we need to come up with. The school is going to set up a crowdfunding page for us but not until the new year. While we don't have to pay off the $1000 anytime soon I still don't like having this debt looming over us.

Everything else is running smooth and I will keep you guys updated as new progress arises. I'll post the crowdfunding page on here if any of you are interested in donating or being a sponsor. The crowdfunding page will include updates on our progress and all donation are tax deductible. If you want more info feel free to message me, I'm more then glad to talk about it with you.

[dscowell]

With the start of spring semester, things have been kicked into high gear. All of our modeling, for the most part, is done. We decided to go with the front brace model since it allows for a shorter wheelbase and height. Overall compared to last years buggy we will shorten the length 10" and the height 4" but keep the width the same. This will allow for a lighter buggy which is our main goal for this year since our adviser believes last year could have been top ten if their buggy was a couple pounds lighter aside from some mistakes at the competition which we have no control over at the moment. The front brace also allows for the welds to be under compression instead of tension or shear stress. For those of you who don't know no matter how good you are at welding or not matter what you do welds will always be under some sort of stress. With that said loading welds under compression allows for the least amount internal stresses making them stronger for our application, depending on other projects it may be more imperative to have them under tension or shear.

Top is front brace, bottom is rear brace.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/s-_QVmEnUY39eyA6dIJ0cq-OTBx_fjeJ8-Vf8JmqHSsLDieR9jW8_DDEX-Phib6EHONV_ZBAeEKlQ5HKKasIl64KYVffMPdeCX5J_3ZRHktz ZtHHfjIfu6i7aRrGp8Ju2Jd2mL03hl0roTKnOSfSzcz2duJya5 ke_M-V_oKRkifiexp11b6IkkY1WiuKWD7s8zDWmDtRAR4urKnvgmdpC M6HL8aFEjyKc4LmpuYvIW6xCFqkCNePiMMlstiH80DmQJobj8-fJqGf97XrFUXexAzJbgONOLfjIW7ipcwDXXJRHWM0W8BeyIbwl N25l96P_K67bqQPtvgNz6f6ewnzELVeDsSC1GcakIhXkG15aH5 6UJ9O9OvQMUOGHSMQuDiPtIzKbsYJQI5THj3cdOurFtzSl6LZx 33_Mm2VZ4WeqTIv-h8IX1_cP0osmg__VZPtPhZTM_lv9JU5FzXIBLkBOiLC2fODklk dpKs0GS0FjqF-DaADrTlylbPdFM0Tc0tt7IBtmfJ6jgQYBgZSQx1jLY6daaBq0r KS96XL_5hBW0gDrjbXrFojnIrHEUcPDEvpGdolpWLHExkLdh7U SRR4LceeknjsNTcMBC3OzWrIekEyLYNIayukjT9cV1GcAJdtQj 4nHLe3-u2KI5RiyXM3euYkiNFQUazI=w384-h608-no
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPfEGLVS6HJoW6nt-u_4bGl7LHwbA4WAjaMofPWmKhD7PmxowpL407ITtTTaYm4VA/photo/AF1QipMZtHKYx3UQC8OVNqpkv1BHSi2rnMwveFm8Av2M?key=S VIyUkRFQ0tHYVBZRDdPd2ZFNVFjMG9wdk9kekZB

The most important thing to us recently has been deciding what material to use for building the frame. SAE requires a minimum of 0.18% Carbon in any steel used along with some other basic strength standards that have to be met. These requirements are only for the primary members of the buggy which are shaded black in the figure above. The secondary members (white) can be any carbon content or strength. We broke down our material choices to 4130 and 1020. 1020 being plain carbon steel requires no pre or post weld heat treatment so building the buggy will be easier, quicker and less expensive. The problem is 1020 is 0.01% off the bending strength requirement, which we could possibly get away with but we decided to not push it. The other choice was 4130 which will meet all the requirements with no problems but requires heat treating for obtaining the correct microstructure after welding to maintain material and weld strength. This would entail pre-weld heat treating up to a certain temperature then after PWHT to allow the HAZ and weld to diffuse and reduce grain size. Being that the buggy is relatively large PWHT would require a large furnace and someone willing to let it sit in there for at least a day. Using a furnace for that long would be a hefty bill but we were able to find a business in town to donate time to us so we could get this done. The additional strength of 4130 allows for less material to be needed to meet strength requirements. Due to this overall, the buggy will be some 30lbs lighter than the 1020. The higher strength also means that the material will cost more but from some quotes from the local materials distributor, it'll only cost $60 more. So with all of this in mind, we decided to go with 4130, higher strength, donated furnace time, lower weight and only slightly more expensive.

With all of this in mind and our plan to reduce the number of welds on the buggy to as few as possible, we ordered some very cheap A513 steel to make a practice frame. This is since no one on the team has ever bent pipe the A513 will allow us to have plenty of practice bends and for me and the other team member welding up the buggy to get some practice in welding. That pipe should be in Tuesday and I'll make sure to get some pictures for you guys since the thread is seriously lacking in pictures.

If you guys have a question feel free to ask, doing so may bring to my attention some details we may have overlooked.

[dscowell]

Quick update. The original design for the was to use 1" 0.065 tubing for the primary since it would pass all the qualifications without any issues. For the secondary, the person who drew up our frame design went with 1" 0.035 (20 gauge) tubing for the secondary. I was a very strong advocate against this since I didn't believe the tubing its self would be strong enough for the terrain but primarily for the nightmare of welding it. This was initially dismissed by the other members because of the desire to save weight. I talked to an old team member who is now an instructor at Tech about all of this and he also strongly advised against this. With him and the other mentors backing me up on this, the group then decided to change the secondary to 0.065 as well which will still be somewhat of a pain to weld but much less so than the 0.035. Talking with the old team member he was telling me how the course is designed to break your buggy. He was explaining to me if you took a brand new 4-wheeler on it and ran it for the 4-hour time duration that would break as well so a buggy built in a couple months by a couple of undergrad students will definitely break. I'd much rather have a suspension piece or something that can easily and quickly be bolted on and off break then a piece of the frame bending or breaking causing serious misalignment of the powertrain or suspension. With the change in 0.065 tubing for everything the price will increase some but it shouldn't be drastic or anything out of reach. We will hopefully get the frame steel ordered here in a week or two and get to work putting the bad boy together.

[dscowell]

Started bending some pipe today. I'm glad we finally got to start doing some hands-on work, I was getting a little antsy with all the talking and designing.


Bending Practice

On Monday one of our instructors came in and showed us how to use the pipe bender and we ended up making a 14"x14" square which can be seen in Figure 1. I was also given a bending program by the instructor which I modified to fit our needs a little better which can be seen in Figure 2.
http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4674/38638585130_9454dfd672_b.jpg
Figure 1: 14"x14" square


Frame

Today we bent the hoop and main roll bar of the buggy. Since we are using 4130 for the buggy and that stuff is not cheap like stated above we purchased some A513 earlier in the year for much cheaper. If I remember correctly we got 300-400 ft for ~$120 of the A513. We practiced on the A513 since it would allow for mistakes without any serious repercussions in terms of cost. Which was smart considering it took us 4 tries to get the main roll bar correct. I was primarily doing the calculations on the length of the cut and the layout marks on the bends. What I forgot was the angle we need for the cuts is the outside of the bends, not the inside. The inside bends refer to the angles in the buggy. In Figure 3 you can see the angles are 155o and the bend we need to make was 25o. Forgetting this lead to miscalculations on the layout marks and incorrect inside angles. The other problem was we were feeding the tube in the wrong way. This lead to certain lengths being too short and others being too long. In Figure 4 you can see one of the sections which should be 30" is actually 20" and another section which should be 8" was 18". After correcting these two errors we were on our way and producing correct bends and lengths.

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4744/38638586390_8fb2ea8774_b.jpg
Figure 2: Bend calculation sample for the roll hoop.

This was the excel program I was given and modified for us. The cut length is what the straight pipe needs to be cut at and the layout marks refer to where that pipe is marked for placement in the pipe bender for correct dimensions. I will need to make a few more modifications to clean it up the program but overall it worked as it should.

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4664/38638590900_096e8d7baa_b.jpg
Figure 3: Main roll bar with dimensions

Figure 3 shows the measurements from the Solidworks model of the main roll bar. We just took some quick approximate measurements to make sure everything was close. The main roll bar also includes a compound bend but for today we wanted to get the main bends down. We have some A513 left so we will attempt another bend with the compound bend included in it.

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4745/26577961438_aee45ab46f_b.jpg
Figure 4: Multiple main roll bar attempts

Figure 4 shows that the left two roll bars are incorrect. The leftmost has an incorrect bend angle on bend 2 (155o) and 3 (168o) along with lengths. The middle has the correct angles but still has the incorrect lengths. The rightmost bar is the correct one with the proper 30" and 8" length and angles. Refer to Figure 3 for dimensions.

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4759/38638588530_def0226751_b.jpg
Figure 5: Hoop bar with dimensions

Once again Figure 5 shows the Solidworks dimensions which matched up very closely to the actual dimensions if not spot on.

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4712/38638591170_ce99d0da71_b.jpg
Figure 6: The main roll bar against last years buggy.

As you can see from Figure 6 above our dimensions are much shorter than the old buggy. This was intentional since we are going to shorten the buggy up in the hopes of better maneuverability and considering Tech usually shows up with the biggest buggy at the competition. Our adviser believes that shortening it up a little will help us place better since previous years haven't done that great except last year where they place in the top 30 out of 100 teams.

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4767/38638590980_a245b3f7c3_b.jpg
Figure 7: The Hoop bar against last years buggy.

The plan is to not only shorten the buggy lengthwise up also height wise (see previous posts). We didn't take any measurements but as you can see from Figure 7 the new hoop bar is significantly shorter than the older one. It is also wider which was intentional as well.


As for assembling anything that will be in another couple weeks once we get the 4130. But I am glad we were able to practice bending on some cheap material so that we don't screw up the expensive stuff once it's in.


Welding

The last thing that's a concern at the moment that I'm in charge is the welding of the buggy. Since I'm not terribly good at GTAW (Gas Tungsten Arc Welding, the proper AWS name for TIG) we are going to have another kid weld it together since he is proficient at it. What I can contribute to though regarding the welding it the steps are taken to weld it. 4130 not being plain carbon steel can't be welded as is since the chemical composition is different and doing so would lead to either martensite (type of grain) growth or increased grain growth in the HAZ (Heat Affected Zone, Base metal around the weld which is affected by welding) which then decreases the strength of the HAZ. Taking this into consideration generally you would have to preheat 4130 and post weld heat treat it to some temperature but since what we are working with is so thin that won't essential. The plan is to just go through half of the quench and temper processes to strengthen the HAZ after welding. In reality, it won't be quenched and tempered in the traditional sense but more so normalized (I can go more into quench and tempering along with normalizing if anyone wants clarification or does not know what either of those heat treatment processes is upon request but this post is already pretty lengthy). We will probably only do the heat treating since we have access to a furnace since a company in town has donated time to us. Otherwise, we would probably skip that part since furnace time isn't cheap and we are already strapped for cash.


Suspension

As for the suspension, one of our members has purchased some Fox shocks for the buggy and will finish the Solidworks model with those dimensions since the current model shocks in the model possess different dimensions. Once that is complete the frame and suspension models can all be mated and hopefully, if everything is correct we can be on our way to building.

The main problem regarding the suspension is the building of the control arms. The bending die we have at the school has a 4" radius and if I remember correctly the control arms would need a radius of 1" or 2". We did some searching for a different size die but had no luck and because of that, the arm dimensions will have to change. With this in mind, the head of the suspension group decides to have the upper arms not inline. What I mean by that is instead of having the upper arm mounts inline to raise the back mount up so that they are "**** eyed." This will help with breaking since it will help stabilize the buggy and keep it flat instead of all of the momentum pulling it forward and unloading the rear suspension. Essentially think about when you are breaking hard and the front of your vehicle dips and the rear raises. By changing the mounts the head of suspension believes this will be minimized significantly. While this won't completely stabilize the buggy it will reduce that unloading of the rear suspension and accommodate for the equipment restrictions.


Other

There are two more things we need to have situated within the next week or so. The least pressing in the frame documentation. While our frame model was passed by inspection we still need to provide SAE with our mill specs on the 4130 which is just a matter of the supplier sending them to us. The most pressing is the cost report. SAE wants a full cost report on everything we are purchasing and using for the buggy. From the steel being used for the frame to the bolts that hold everything together. The main problem with this is we haven't purchased a lot of parts due to limited funds but the suspension and powertrain groups have pretty much decided what they will be using for parts so it's really just a matter of filling out the cost report. The last real issue is where we will be staying during the competition and how we will get down there. The plan is to stay at my parents' house going there and leaving since driving from Butte MT to Pittsburg KS is 22 hours. Doing so will split the drive in half. The problem though is what vehicle we will use to transport ~9 people and the buggy. One of the kid's parents is from Pittsburg so they offered to drive down with us and let us use their truck to tow the buggy. That leaves what to do with the other kids. Right now we are trying to figure out if we can get a campus vehicle to drive down there but that may be more work then its worth due to all the paperwork and red tape from the school. As for living commendations, we are still unsure where we will be staying since the hotels in town have been booked up. We may try for an Air BnB but if that doesn't work we will just post up at a KOA or another local campsite for the week.

[dscowell]

Currently having some problems with images posting I'll get that fixed here in a couple minutes

EDIT: They appeared to be fixed. Please let me know if you can't see any of the pictures on the previous post.

[Jim]

Visible - now to go back and read...


Thx!

[dscowell]

We just got our donation page up and running, if any of you would like to donate the link is below. There is no obligation to donate but If you do myself and my fellow team members would be grateful. It has a quick video and a description of the competition. All donations will go towards tax write-offs.

https://impact.mtech.edu/project/9619

[dscowell]

If you are looking for some quick updates we have a Facebook page were some of the members update periodically on events and updates.

https://www.facebook.com/MtechBaja/

[dscowell]

Made some more progress bending today. We ordered some more cheap steel before spring break and made some practice bends with that and bent some of our 4130.

Frame
Last update with bending we were just being some of the cheap stuff to get a feel for everything. Today we did some of the same. Practiced the main roll bars but with the compound in them this time. Took us quite a few tries but once we were feeling comfortable we dove into the 4310. Thankfully all of our practice turned out to pay off and we got all of our bends correctly (one of the 7o turned out to be 5o but that’s not a big deal). These bends can be seen in figure 1.

http://i.imgur.com/ShLAp8Pm.jpg (https://imgur.com/ShLAp8P)
Figure 1: Finished 4130 bends.

Due to some rules, the dimension on the roll hoop had to be changed so we bent up another mock piece and placed the main roll bars to see how everything was shaping up. This can be seen in figure 2.

http://i.imgur.com/zpKv9jYm.jpg (https://imgur.com/zpKv9jY)
Figure 2: Roll cage mock-up.

These went mocked specifically to their dimension but everything looked as it should. Figure 3 as has an example of the schematic I drew up for everything.

http://i.imgur.com/hdTCtY0l.jpg?1 (https://imgur.com/hdTCtY0)
Figure 3: Sample schematic

What we were find was due to the angle at 14.53" was a compound (bending in two axes) we had to bend the piece backward from how we were originally doing it to get the angle in both directions at that bend. Once we got that figured out it was smooth sailing from there.

The plan is to do more bending either tomorrow or Saturday so I'll make sure to keep you guys updated.

Suspension
The plan for the suspension is to make it out of 4130 but since 4130 is expensive and to save money we decided to chop up an old frame laying around the shop and use that for those pieces. This will save us a good chunk of change and help to get rid of it since our mentor for the project told us we can't sell it. Sometimes it's better to ask for forgiveness instead of permission. ;) Figure 4 shows the old frame.

http://i.imgur.com/XdRBgBkm.jpg (https://imgur.com/XdRBgBk)
Figure 4: Old Baja frame.

Last years team was planning on using the frame in figure 4 but it didn't meet specs so they had to build a new one. The material they were using was too small for the primary members but since the secondary and suspension components don't have to meet any specifications we should have no trouble using it for our needs.

[dscowell]

Frame
We did some more bending today and finished everything but two pieces. All in all, it went well except one of the pieces. Due to the limitations of the bender we had to attempt once piece a few times. The problem was that one of the end pieces had a 1.75" straight section then a bend. Using the bender from where you place the pipe in and line it up with the chalk it adds 3" to that spot. So for a 6" straight section then a bend you would place the pipe in 3" from the end then the bend would keep 3" straight then start the bend. Well, 1.75" is less then 3" and due to the radius of the die being used if we were to stick the pipe in the other way it wouldn't allow for the 1.75" section. So to make life easy we just cut the pipe 3" longer so the 1.75" was 4.75" and chopped the 3" off. This seems like something pretty trivial but it was a good learning experience for us since bending pipe for this project is the most any of us have ever done. We should be all finished with bending this week then we will be on to notching and welding.

Welding
As per requirements from SAE we have to do a destructive test on two welds and bring them to competition. One it breaking the weld to make sure the material breaks and not the weld. The other is a cross section macro etch of the weld. Today we attempted the breaking strength test after some hard thinking of the best way to go about doing it. Eventually, we got it to break and it was the material and not the weld so it would pass. This can be seen in Figure 1. We will do this again since beating the life out of the steel doesn't make it look too good and might make inspectors suspicious but, nonetheless the weld passed!

http://i.imgur.com/N7K0LUQm.jpg (https://imgur.com/N7K0LUQ)
Figure 1: Breaking strength destructive testing.

[dscowell]

Made some fairly decent progress this weekend!

Welding
As mentioned in the post we had to do a destructive test. On Friday we were able to break the 4130 T-joint. That stuff is significantly stronger than the A527. We broke another A527 with the jig shown in Figure 1 and 2. It took about 4 of us sitting on the table so that the floor jack wouldn't lift the table. The 4130 took 4 of us jumping in unison 2 44 gallon trash cans full of water on the table and someone hitting it with a hammer. The test piece can be seen in Figure 3. We luckily passed the test so now the only thing left is a macro which will be easier than the destructive was.

http://i.imgur.com/avhRFAam.jpg (https://imgur.com/avhRFAa)
Figure 1: Destructive Test Jig.

http://i.imgur.com/7lHDx03l.jpg (https://imgur.com/7lHDx03)
Figure 2: Destructive Test Jig (This one has the other A527 T-Joint we used).

http://i.imgur.com/pnpvVgtm.jpg (https://imgur.com/pnpvVgt)
Figure 3: Destructive test on 4130.

As you can see is in Figure 3 the material broke in the HAZ or just outside which was expected due to the heat input causing increased grain growth which decreases the strength of the HAZ.

Frame
This weekend we started assembling the frame. For all of us, this was the first time any of us have ever notched tube and the first day we had a pretty frustrating day learning how to properly notch tube and get everything set properly. Somethings we learned was from watching video is to use a hole saw that is 1/8" larger than the tube size (1 3/8" hole saw for us) to get clean cuts with minimal cleanup. The next was to properly set up the tube notcher. The one we were using had it zeroed and zero but we ended up finding out the true zero was at 3o this was probably our biggest mistake and probably the most irritating. Until we figured this out we couldn't figure out why we had such large gaps when setting the tube together. However, we were able to weld some of the larger gaps using a double filler method with GTAW.

For the base or floor of the buggy, we made a jig for it to make sure everything squared up so we would be able to check our notching. Even with this, we ended up having on end but 1/4" longer but in the grand scheme of things, it's not a big deal. The Jig can be seen in Figure 4.
http://i.imgur.com/KGiW3jpm.jpg (https://imgur.com/KGiW3jp)
Figure 4: Base Jig.

The first day we just got the base done since doing this took us quite a while since we had to overcome the notcher learning curve. Today we got the roll hoop, nose and rear welded up. The roll hoop when bent was too wide at the base and we ended up having the ratchet strap it to close the gap. This was not only irritating because when bending the A527 we bent it up correctly but also because we had to add those extra stresses to the welds. Since it's too wide it'll always have those internal stresses but it's not the end of the world. However, there are some benefits since it made the roll bar a little wider so there should be no problems passing inspection. As for the rest of the roll hoop, everything else went smoothly we were able to mount and weld it in at our desired 20o. The welded roll hoop can be seen in figure 5. After the roll hoop, we then welded the nose and rear to the base. This was another pain since the rear required two notches to mount up properly with base and roll hoop. We were able to get out the desired 10o for both the nose and rear. As you can see in figure 6. These angles will allow for our suspension in the front to be mounted at an angle which was desired for the anti-dive that we are looking for. The rear being a trailing arm system it doesn't make much of a difference. It can also be seen in figure 7 the difference between this years frame and last years frame.


http://i.imgur.com/Ka7iWYRm.jpg (https://imgur.com/Ka7iWYR)
Figure 5: Roll hoop and base welded up.

http://i.imgur.com/0NnqVOOl.jpg (https://imgur.com/0NnqVOO)
Figure 6: Nose and Rear welded to the base.

http://i.imgur.com/lwIufUrl.jpg (https://imgur.com/lwIufUr)
Figure 7: Partial frame versus last years buggy.

We also did a quick mock-up of the main roll bars. We notched the roll hoop side but not the nose side since it's not a square angle so we stopped there to think over how we wanted to approach this. This can be seen in Figure 8 before any notching was done on the main roll bars.

http://i.imgur.com/6BuA0UKm.jpg (https://imgur.com/6BuA0UK)
Figure 8: Main roll bar mock-up

This was as far as we got this weekend. As for primary members the main roll bars are the last piece to be welded then the rest are secondaries and we have more wiggle room on them for making mistakes and learning. The hope is to be the end of this week we will have most of this welded together. The rear brace and seat mounts will be the last things welded in to adjust for the transaxle and engine mounting and the seat mounts. After this suspension components are the last thing to build and then it's all a matter of bolting everything up which if I've learned anything from working on vehicles that will be one of the most frustrating parts.


If anyone has any pointers on fabricating or assembling this feel free to chime in. I'm trying to learn as much as I can since I've taken the lead on assembling this so I want to be as informed about what we are doing as possible.

[Java]

This is really interesting. :thumb:

[dscowell]

This is really interesting. :thumb:

Glad you're enjoying the build. If you have any questions feel free to fire away.

[Java]

It's much more interesting than most of the build threads (including mine) because of the depth of detail. :thumb:

So a couple of weeks back you posted up about not doing a typical quench and temper, which I probably don't do correctly. I am as amateur as it gets, I just dunk stuff so I can touch it sooner... what do you do?

[dscowell]

So a couple of weeks back you posted up about not doing a typical quench and temper, which I probably don't do correctly. I am as amateur as it gets, I just dunk stuff so I can touch it sooner... what do you do?

Dunking it in water is essentially quench and tempering. If you were to go through the whole manufacturing process of quench and tempering you would heat the part in a furnace then "quench" it in some medium like water or oil then temper it by raising the temperature again and re-quenching it.

We are going to Normalize it. So instead of putting the parts in water, we will just let them air cool. Doing this the manufacturing way would also be heating up the entire part to the desired temperature then letting it air cool. This will allow us to achieve the desired microstructure we want in the buggy.

[Java]

So if you were me, just making brackets and tube doors and such, would you Normalize (thanks for the new term) or quench?

[dscowell]

So if you were me, just making brackets and tube doors and such, would you Normalize (thanks for the new term) or quench?

Brackets and Tube doors aren't going to be subject to any stress or forces or at least to the same degree as suspension components or a chassis. The heat treatment won't have an effect on your doors so it's really just how impatient you are being that day and how long you want to wait for them too cool. Now if you were say making control arms I would suggest normalize over quench. Reason being is quenching locks in stronger but more brittle grains whereas normalizing will allow for good strength and ductility.

Also if you were to really Normalize or Quench you would be doing it in a furnace and heating up the entire part uniformly. It's really more important for thicker plate or pipe then thin tubing.

[dscowell]

Today we finished all the primary members and for the most part the frame other than the back which is dependent upon engine and transaxle mounting which we will tackle next weekend.

Frame
Last week we got the base and roll hoop welded up this week we were able to finish all the primary members with a little bit of a headache. The main roll bars went on with little to no trouble but the rest of the parts became a pain. Reason being was that we were no longer notching square angles and were also meeting multiple pipes together. Another problem we had was the side roll bars when modeled on SolidWorks were one length and because of the frame being an inch or two longer than planned the sidebars were a tad too short so we had to re-bend and cut which isn't the end of the work but still frustrating. I would suggest if anyone planning on doing any sort of notching cut everything 2-4" longer than expected. Another problem we were having was for the roll hoop brace but that was just due to us over thinking everything and being timid from making mistakes. The main roll bars, side roll bars, and roll hoop brace can be seen in Figure 1. One of the rules pertaining to the side roll bars is that the drives elbows cannot be sticking out past them. In Figure 2 you can see Mike taking a seat seeing if we should pass.

http://i.imgur.com/4ZYTkjml.jpg (https://imgur.com/4ZYTkjm)
Figure 1: Main roll bars, side roll bars, and roll hoop brace mounted to the frame.

http://i.imgur.com/BHkjd0ol.jpg (https://imgur.com/BHkjd0o)
Figure 2: Making sure the side roll bars are up to code.

We also got the front suspension mounting bar, main roll bar brace and 5 point harness mounting finished as well. The front suspension mounting bar was by far the hardest piece to notch out of everything we've done and are probably going to do. In Figure 3 you can see the mounting from a side view of the buggy and in Figure 4 you can see a view from the front of the buggy. Figure 3 doesn't show the angle terrible well but the nose goes down 10o from the base of the buggy. Figure 4 shows the angle that the bar also had to rotate in the opposing axis. So for this piece we ending up notching the piece in the direction shown in figure 3 and cleaned up the edges then gave it some hammer love so it'd get in place. One of the biggest things I think we should have done with this is getting all the notching and angles cut and adjusted before we welded up the side roll bars but such is life. This is a learning experience and I can say without a doubt we are learning a lot.


http://i.imgur.com/bUPSN5Bm.jpg (https://imgur.com/bUPSN5B)
Figure 3: Side view of suspension mounting bar.

http://i.imgur.com/EEzCRzVl.jpg (https://imgur.com/EEzCRzV)
Figure 4: From the front looking to the back of the buggy of the suspension mounting bar.

After the suspension mounting bars, we just had to finish the main roll bar braces and harness mounting. These were relatively easier and quicker considering we didn't have to worry about mattering 4 pipes at multiple angles. The fruits of our labors for this week can be seen in Figure 5 and 6. All we have left is the rear of the buggy which I mentioned at the beginning of this post will be completed this upcoming weekend after some mock-ups of the powertrain.

http://i.imgur.com/Nf6Jd9ul.jpg (https://imgur.com/Nf6Jd9u)
Figure 5: Driver side view of the frame

http://i.imgur.com/CWS7KxZl.jpg (https://imgur.com/CWS7KxZ)
Figure 6: Passenger side view of the frame.

Suspension
One of the suspension members has been working on mounting brackets and after a few attempts got them nailed down (forgot to get pictures:frown:). Hopefully with the brackets figured out we will be able to dive into making all of the suspension arms next weekend and get a start on all of those components. I believed I've mentioned earlier that the front will be a double wishbone and the rear will be a trailing arm system. With some luck and skill, we should be able to knock the arms out of the park considering out suspension team has spent a lot of time making them meet our needs exactly.

[dscowell]

Got a big shipment of parts this week so we can finally start bolting everything up.

Frame
This weeks goal was the get the transaxle and motor mounted. Which we got done but may have run into some troubles being a tad hasty with putting it together but it's nothing we can't make some quick changes for. The main trouble is with the transaxle mount. One of the team members made a drawing and was able to cut some brackets out in the CNC machine but didn't think about the bolts or axle shafts when making it. But like I said it's not the end of the world and it's honestly a mistake anyone would have made. The mounts can be seen in Figure 1 and the transaxle mounted can be seen in Figure 2. Sorry about the poor photos but if you look at figure 1 you can see the rear bolt hole is almost inline with the rear frame bar which it is. This makes getting the bolt in and out a little bit of a hassle but nothing to difficult. The main problem is the axle shaft. In Figure 2 you can see the axle mounting shaft is very close to the rear bar. We mounted an axle on it had enough room to fit but the problem is with the suspension arm mounting. It is very possible that axle will impede on them and thus breaking something. We weren't able to get any suspension components done today but it ends up being in the way we can just adjust the mounting to be closer to the driver and that will solve the problem. One we have the transaxle where we want it we will throw in some gussets for good measure.

https://i.imgur.com/uvFySY2m.jpg
Figure 1: Transaxle mounts

https://i.imgur.com/eBGQ3hXl.jpg
Figure 2: Transaxle mounted.

With mounting both of these parts the spacing was pretty critical since we are running a CV drivetrain and we want the belt at rest to have a certain amount of tension at rest. We were able to achieve this with a lot of ratchet straps and hillbilly ingenuity see figure 3. One of the rules is the engine has to be within 15o of tilt when mounted but we just made it 0 for the ease of building everything. For making the motor mount we added two cross bars to the rear and roll hoop then connected them with a 3/16" plate which was a little wobbly from the engine weight so we just threw an extra bar underneath for support. The other thing we did was mill out the plate with a slot for mounting as opposed to drilling single holes. This will allow for adjustment of the belt and being able to say we milled stuff out ourselves for our buggy:D. The engine mount can be seen in figure 4.

https://i.imgur.com/CzaBBIBl.jpg
Figure 3: Getting the engine placement.

https://i.imgur.com/wZg33Yrl.jpg
Figure 4: Engine and Transaxle mounted with the belt.

The other part of the frame we worked on today was the front bumper. It didn't turn out as good as I envisioned but as long as it can take a couple taps and keep all of the important stuff safe I guess the looks aren't that big of a deal. It's not completely level or even since I was getting frustrated from making a bunch of them and them not working out, but like I said just needs to keep everything safe even if it looks bad. See Figure 5. One of the guys wants to cut out shark teeth and put them between the top and bottom which would look pretty cool but we need somewhere for a D-ring to latch on to so we will see. Another guy wants to throw his spare 6" light bar in there just so we can be the guys with light bars on our buggy since someone has to do it.

https://i.imgur.com/gqsBAfil.jpg
Figure 5: Front bumper tacked on. We adjusted it a little bit to be more level than what is shown in this picture

Suspension and Drivetrain
I was hoping to get a head start on all the suspension arms but due to complications with a manufacturer we weren't able to get the models we need for certain parts and we had to have one guy spend the weekend making models for everything. Hopefully with all the models made we should be able to get everything done next week. This week at least we were able to get the majority of the brackets made for everything so not it'll just be a matter placing them in the correct position.

As for drivetrain like stated above we got a lot of parts this week one of them was the primary and secondary clutches for the CV. Due to some mistakes with ordering the secondary the shaft input size was 0.125 too small and wouldn't fit. Luckily last years buggy had the right size secondary so we were able to throw that on for the mock-up. One thing that the CV manufacturer didn't include with either clutch was the keys for them. For those of you who don't know CV clutches can either be splined or key ways. Keyways have a solid steel insert that locks the clutch in place so it can turn the shaft. Without the key, the crankshaft would spin but not engage the primary clutch thus not moving the buggy. Not including keys was an odd thing but we were able to find some steel at NAPA that worked.
The only thing left we need to finish the frame is the gas tank which should come in this week.

Miscellaneous
One thing we've been putting on the back burner is the siding for the buggy. Last year used sheet metal and 2 years ago these used some plastic sheets. Well, this year due to having some people at tech who love carbon fiber and having an extreme surplus of it are going to make us some carbon fiber sidings and seat frame. One of the kids in our group doing undergrad research with carbon fiber is going to make us a carbon fiber seat frame which since carbon fiber is extremely strong will allow for a slim frame that will also be very lightweight. Having the carbon fiber siding and seat should look pretty cool as long as it turns out as it should. The plan is to paint the buggy frame orange with black siding it should look pretty slick.

[dscowell]

Since it wouldn't let me post the final picture form this week in the last reply I've added it below.

https://i.imgur.com/hJZ1Em9l.jpg

[Paramud]

Nice! I did the baja sae 2 years ago for my senior project. I welded up the whole frame in my garage. We ended up in the 40s which was great. Cal state fullerton. Had a blast doing it.

[dscowell]

Nice! I did the baja sae 2 years ago for my senior project. I welded up the whole frame in my garage. We ended up in the 40s which was great. Cal state fullerton. Had a blast doing it.

Rock on. We're lucky since we have a good shop with everything we need and more. The team last year was 35 if I remember. They did awful in all the reports and presentions so it's our goal to do better and hopefully place top ten. We have some pretty solid people on the team so if think it's possible.

[dscowell]

Frame
Got rid of the ugly bumper I made. Which wasn't that heartbreaking considering it was very ugly, some things look better in your head than actual reality. The new bumper can be seen in Figure 1. I'm not a big fan of the look of this one either but at this point, I don't think anything would look good so we will just go with it. I was also able to get the last couple engine bay roll bars in and mounted. We only need the side roll bars and a gas tank mount for the engine but I held off on making those since the main suspension guy wasn't there this weekend and I want the shocks mounted up so the roll bars aren't in the way. The Engine bar roll bars can be seen in figure 2.

https://i.imgur.com/s7iB60nl.jpg
Figure 1: New and improved front bumper

https://i.imgur.com/7OpxwW1l.jpg
Figure 2: Engine bay roll bars mounted.

Suspension
We were finally able to get around to making some suspension components this weekend. One of the team members is what I'd consider a master machinist milled out some stuff for the ball joints(?). The ball joint mounts can be seen in figure 3. We also took the time to make the rear trailing arms. We got 3 of the 4 arms made since one of them requires a notch that's to steep for the notcher we have so ill have to think about how I want to attack it. Suggestions would be appreciated. The trailing arms can be seen in figure 4,5,6. Not that the axle shaft is the incorrect length and we will get a proper length one but this is the only one we had laying around so we used it for modeling purposes.

http://i.imgur.com/9JuhbyTl.jpg (https://imgur.com/9JuhbyT)
Figure 3: Ball joint mounts.

Sorry for the poor quality photo. As you can see the teammate who made these took the chunk of steel on the right and machined each of the 5 mounts on the right manually in one of the mills at the school.

http://i.imgur.com/dGUKIvEl.jpg (https://imgur.com/dGUKIvE)
Figure 4: Top view of the trailing arm set up.

http://i.imgur.com/h2sPggWl.jpg (https://imgur.com/h2sPggW)
Figure 5: Behind view of the trailing arm set up.

https://i.imgur.com/UsWen4Pl.jpg
Figure 6: Front view of the trailing arm set up.

As you can see from the front view in figure 6 we are going to need to add another arm to the front arm. It'll be welded to the top arm and mount on the hub. This was the arm I was talking about skipping for the weekend. One the model it says it needs a 70o notch and our notcher only goes to 60o. I'm either think that I'll try and adjust to be the 60 or take it to the chop saw at the 70 then cut the rest out with the grinder.

We also have to do the front which could have been done this weekend if it wasn't for needing adjustments so hopefully, those will get done this week and we can tackle the front this week as well then it's just a matter of bolting stuff up.

Competition is coming up soon so we will need to start kicking it into high gear but we are making good progress and should have a solid buggy.

[dscowell]

Got a lot done this week. Wanted more to be done but still content

Suspension
Got our suspension done for the most part other than some shock mounts and other little things. Last week we got the rear started and decided to change it some since the rear caster was bothering the main suspension guy. While it's not going to affect anything performance wise it does give the appearance of crappy workmanship and could lead to points off during the competition for the design portion. Due to this and some lack of communication, one of the team members decided to cut one of the arms to fix this problem. That is why the rear of the buggy is on jack stands in figure 9.

One of our biggest problems this week was building the front A-arms. Due to the anti-dive in the front the nose of the buggy is 10o down so to compensate for this we had to angle the ball joints at 20o for the caster and camber. This was extremely difficult for us n00bs to do the compound notch we gave up and just pulled out the Dremel. With all the angles and bends, the arms ended looking very... interesting. I'm not a fan of the look of them since they aren't completely symmetrical aesthetically but will work like designed. You can see the lower arms in figure 1. The upper and lower arms can be seen in figure 2. In figure 2 you can see the leading arm on the upper arms having the bends facing up while the trailing arm is facing down. It the look bothers me but like I said if it works then so be it. Figure 3 provides a bird's eye view of the front arms showing the caster of the front. Figure 4 shows the ball joint cup welded up.

https://i.imgur.com/pOIAWDKl.jpg
Figure 1: Front lower A-arms.

https://i.imgur.com/wbcy9b4l.jpg
Figure 2: Upper and Lower A-arms.

https://i.imgur.com/geFjKMHm.jpg
Figure 3: Front A-arms (sorry for the vertical picture).

https://i.imgur.com/cv4q8JSm.jpg
Figure 4: Ball joint cup welded up.

We were also able to get the rear shocks mounted up so the buggy can sit under its own power now. The shocks were are using are progressive Foxes with the rears being at 200 psi and fronts being at 150 psi. The rear-mounted shock can be seen in figure 5.

https://i.imgur.com/XgKsfJPm.jpg
Figure 5: Rear shock mounted.

Power Train
Another issue we've had with our stance length (can't think of the correct terminology) is getting axle shafts that are long enough. We got some Polaris Outlaw axle shafts and they were still about a half inch too short so we had to extend them with a sleeve. One of our mentors suggested we go with a longer sleeve but we figured for our purposes our smaller sleeve should be fine. The modified axle shaft can be seen in figure 6. We essentially cut the shaft found some pipe that would fit and put 4 plug welds in the sleeve for strength. While I agree with the suggestion for a sleeve to be the complete length of the axle shaft I think for how little power our engine has and how light our buggy is our smaller sleeve should be fine. Considering last year they did the same except they didn't even use a sleeve they just groove welded the shaft together and their shaft held up fine.

https://i.imgur.com/xq9A3OUl.jpg
Figure 6: Modified axle shaft.

We also mounted up the gas tank but we had no fuel line so we couldn't fire the buggy up which was a shame. There are a ton of rules regarding the gas tank that we have to adhere to so that we can compete. Some are the gas tank has to be completely enclosed and have splash guard so when mounting the gas tank we had to take all of these things into consideration. The mounted tank can be seen in Figure 6.

https://i.imgur.com/vl5ueeOl.jpg
Figure 7: The push mower gas tank mounted up.

This weeks finished product

https://i.imgur.com/Qkmo7XWl.jpg
Figure 8: Everything we got down with this week.

https://i.imgur.com/Ba97hCNl.jpg
Figure 9: Side by Side with last years buggy.

[dscowell]

Almost there, almost there!

Frame
Got the last couple required piece of the frame made and welded on. We will maybe add a couple more for seat brackets or miscellaneous things. The first was the engine bar roll bar. The trouble with this piece was to keep it out of the way of the CV and the shock. The roll bar also per rules had to be in line with the side roll bar of the cab, which in our design was very close to the shock and unfortunately due to the CV I had to bend some metal but I was able to take an old piece and just copy the bend and get the pieces in. This piece can be seen in figure 1. The second piece was for the upper siding which holds the numbers and kill switch. This one was just a simple straight pipe with two notches in it and it can be seen in figure 2. The last was moving tube for the harness mount which could have been avoided had we read the rules before installing the original bar. The reason for the change was the mounts could not be above the driver's shoulders and the original bar was ~3” higher. The center lines of the two shoulder straps also have to be within 7-9” of each other and the best we could do because of the cross tube was 9.5” and even then the harness was shifted left. You can see the new bar and some mounting in figure 3.

https://i.imgur.com/Bq6IEFOl.jpg
Figure 1: Engine bay roll bar

https://i.imgur.com/jFpugNOl.jpg
Figure 2: Upper siding and gas tank enclosure bar mount.
https://i.imgur.com/R7J5G7Gm.jpg
Figure 3: Harness mounts. If you look the driver's shoulders you can see the new mounts.

Suspension
The suspension was completed this week by getting all the shocks mounted and trailing arms finished. The shock mounts for the front were a little bit of a pain since the shocks are being mounted parallel with the caster of the hubs. This was solved by just giving them some hammer love to one way or another. The front shocks can be seen in figure 4. The trailing arms were also finished. The brackets one of the team members made for going around the hub was a little weak as is since we were able to bend it standing on the tire was reevaluated and fixed and is significantly stronger. I forgot to get a picture of the new brackets so I'll try and do that this week. We were also having a problem with one of the rear tires toeing out due to a wrong cut but that was fixed by cutting halfway by the weld and smacking it with a hammer until the toe was where we wanted it. The final part of the trailing arms was the bottom arm or support arm. I was hesitant on doing this arm since the notch that it required was ~72o and our notcher only goes to 60o. This was solved by notching the tube to the 60o max then adding a bend to the pipe to make the angle of the notch work. The finished arms can be seen in figure 5. The last thing to do with the suspension is final adjustments once painted and adjusting the shocks for our desired ride height. In figure 6 and 7 you can see us “testing” out our finished suspension.
https://i.imgur.com/H8diimrl.jpg
Figure 4: Front shock mount on the lower A-arm

https://i.imgur.com/ZMzMVxFl.jpg
Figure 5: Finished Trailing arm (still needs to be welded)

https://i.imgur.com/unXihfTl.jpg
Figure 6: "Testing" out the suspension

https://i.imgur.com/P4mr8hkm.jpg
Figure 7: more "Testing"

Powertrain/Steering/Braking
We were able to get the engine fired up so we at least know it works. We are having some trouble with the governor since it has to be set to the 5 position and CANNOT BE MOVED (Automatic DQ). But our problem is when it’s set there it doesn’t open the throttle body what so ever so were hoping once we have the engine firmly mounted we can play around with it to do what we need. One of the things that was mentioned to us by our mentor was keeping the engine from sliding during the competition since we have it on adjustable mounts. One of our members can up with a system where we have a piece of steel mounted to the ends of the engine mount and run a bolt through it so the engine cannot move either way. It’s more easily understood what it is if you see figure 8. We were also able to get the steering figured out after 2 u-joints and a lot of machining. The biggest problem we were running into was clearance since the front A-arms mount fairly close it give little room for play in the steering. So through the use of some spacers with misalignment and an angled base mount we were able to get our steering in place. I once again forgot to get a picture of the steering I'll upload some this week.

https://i.imgur.com/MRovSygl.jpg
Figure 8: Engine Placement blocks. We tapped these mounts so a bolt can be run through to keep the engine from vibration across our mounts.

The brakes were causing us some trouble in that running two masters did not give a lot of room for movement in the front and we were trying to space the brakes out in such a way that they’d still be comfortable for the drivers. We were able to shift the mounting as far to the side as possible allowing for us to still get the caps off but in doing so the masters had to be mounted at an angle. The pedal was also a problem since it was long for our set up and instead of using pressing it with your toe it would be more in the center of the foot. This was fixed by making a new brake pedal which was shorter than stock. See figure 9.

https://i.imgur.com/JibSKuPl.jpg?1
Figure 9: New brake pedal

We were also able to devise a gas pedal and mounting for our needs. I ended up purchasing a throttle cable that was a little excessive for what we’re doing but we were able to make it work. See the pedal and mounting in figure 10. The other problem the throttle cable caused was mounting to the engine so we again made some mounting for the engine side which will probably end up working better than last year’s design. Will upload picture later this week. The last linkage we needed to worry about was the shifter linkage. Last year had a very sloppy electrical taped design granted they built the buggy in 2 weeks but this year with more time we decided to do something a little more professional. The shifter is mounted on the front along with the pedals and wheel for a better look and should be more solid. The only problem with this plan is our drivers having short arms but we can make do it needed. Will upload picture later this week.

http://i.imgur.com/LjP1ugHl.jpg (https://imgur.com/LjP1ugH)
Figure 10: Throttle pedal and mounting for it.

Miscellaneous
The firewall and numbers were also built this week. The firewall is just made out of some sheet aluminum with some weather stripping to cover the sharp edges. See figure 11. The numbers were made out of some steel sheet which I think I’ll recut once we get some more aluminum sheet since each number weighs probably over a pound. See figure 12.

https://i.imgur.com/Qu0Q33km.jpg
Figure 11: Firewall

https://i.imgur.com/9wVMfBal.jpg?1
Figure 12: Competition Numbers

Things left to do
We will hopefully get our brakes routed and bled by Thursday and then it’s off to testing and paint later that week. We’re thinking of going copper frame, black siding and maybe some different cream for the suspension (I’m not a fan). But after those two things, it’s really just a matter of getting the siding on and other odds and ends and we should be ready to race.


I have multiple pictures of various parts or if anyone wants more let me know and I'd gladly take some more.

[dscowell]

No major writing just pictures.:D

Miscellaneous Pictures.

Here are a few more pictures of the front end and suspension components.

https://i.imgur.com/TjLLNO6l.jpg
Figure 1: A better look at the throttle, brake, steering and shifter set up.

https://i.imgur.com/xfu89xll.jpg
Figure 2: Birdseye view of the front end set up.

https://i.imgur.com/LKCQ8Kll.jpg
Figure 3: Steering rack ends

https://i.imgur.com/Rcsjpjll.jpg
Figure 4: Steering rack ends

https://i.imgur.com/Ma0ApsKl.jpg
Figure 5: Steering rack mount. Obviously, it was fully welded later.

https://i.imgur.com/HCrwaRvl.jpg
Figure 6: Throttle set up.

Looks a little funky since the throttle cable I purchased was overkill and not necessarily right for our application but we made it work.

https://i.imgur.com/hZ3H17el.jpg
Figure 7: Seat and bottom skid plate.

https://i.imgur.com/M6GZlxJl.jpg
Figure 8: Reinforced rear arm brackets and mounting.


I've returned home so from here on out I'm posting fellow team members photos until the race.
https://i.imgur.com/pDUDk05l.jpg
Figure 9: Got a nice copper powder coat.

https://i.imgur.com/FgEsvSAl.jpg
Figure 10: Batteries mounted for the brake and reverse light along with the reverse beeper.

https://i.imgur.com/B6MHcwol.jpg
Figure 11: Getting the CV cover made.

[dscowell]

https://i.imgur.com/3MZEWxYl.jpg
Figure 12: Fire Extinguisher mounted.


https://i.imgur.com/t5sLsthl.jpg
Figure 13: Almost ready to Rock and Roll.

https://i.imgur.com/1Q4X6sll.png
Figure 14: Lastly what build is complete without some trucker ladies!

[dscowell]

Well we had competition in May and I've been a little too busy for a large update encompassing everything that happened but I'll get one up here hopefully once school starts again when I have more time.

In the meantime here are some results on how we did.

Sales Presentation - 76 out of 89
Design Presentation - 68 out of 84
Design - 44 out of 95
Acceleration - 68 out of 77
Maneuverability - DQ, Hit the track markers disqualifying us. Only 55 of the 95 teams were able to complete the course.
Sled Pull - 2 out of 72,
Suspension - 59 out of 73
Endurance - 38 out of 95
Overall - 49 out of 95

Here is SAEs website with the results of all the teams
https://www.bajasae.net/res/CompetitionResults.aspx?competitionid=6bf956b9-4796-4b39-a8e7-8caeb55d5d73

[Jim]

I don't know what to think. Part of me says - bummer, things could have been better, but the other side says - what did you and the kids learn and what would be done differently next time?

[dscowell]

I don't know what to think. Part of me says - bummer, things could have been better, but the other side says - what did you and the kids learn and what would be done differently next time?

We were all bummed about our performance but some of it was due to weather which I'll elaborate more on in the full post. Overall I learned more doing this project that I feel could be taken into the working world then I have in my 8 semesters in college. First place or last I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. I'll get into more detail in that last post about what could have been done better or where we fell short.

What I'm also a little bummed about it they had a live feed of the event and it didn't occur to me at the time to share it here for those of you interested to watch.

[Java]

No loss, you win or you learn. :thumb:

[dscowell]

A long read that should encompass everything that happened. I'll upload pictures later in the week and reread through everything so it's all in proper English not sloppy quickly typed up by an engineering student English.

Well, the build and race have come to an end. It was a great experience which I wish I could do one more time knowing what I know now but such is life.

Thursday
We went down to Pittsburg Kansas for the race and competed against 94 other colleges ranging from upstate New York, California, Texas, Quebec, Mexico, Brazil, and even India. The first thing we had to do was get our Paddock for parking our trailer and staging repairs. One of the competition rules is the first 25 teams get a guaranteed top 25 number for tech inspection so if they need to change anything they have more time to do so. The Paddocks opened up at 7:00 am we got ourselves in line at 5:00 am and ended up 84 in line. Apparently, some of the teams camped out in line since 7:00 pm the night before to get their Paddock number. Once we got our Paddock and set ourselves up we got our engine inspected and idle set. During this time we got in trouble for our trucker ladies from event staff and were required to take them off. Since last years team did the same thing as us I guess the event staff was specifically looking for our buggy knowing we would do it again. Everyone came up to our buggy and got a good laugh out of them but I guess in this time and day it's not appropriate.

Friday
The next day was tech inspection which started at 9:00 am. We had one of our kid's sleep in the trailer then wake up at 4:00 am to get a tech number and ended up getting 35 which was pretty good considering there was a number of kids sleeping in line. The tech inspection was probably the most stressful part of the competition. At the beginning of all this, we were given a rule book which we had to follow and tech inspection was for checking all of that. The first thing we had to do was provide our weld samples which one was at a wrong angle so that wasn't a good start. We then had the frame check which we were right on the edge with everything. The rules were written in lawyer talk which none of us being lawyers took the rules as the only way for the buggy to be built. Even with being on the edge we passed everything except two members which in the rules say no bent member could be longer than 33" and we had one that was 35" so we had to add two pieces. As for everything else we passed the rest of tech except one of the judges didn't like our siding placement so that was another thing we had to fix. It's very rare for teams to pass tech on their first go around unless they've already been to competition so with only two things wrong I was fairly content. So after that, we went and got a new number and got back to work in hopes that we'd make it back in line before they closed the inspection tent. We hauled to get all the pieces in and had to run the buggy back to the tent with a kid sitting in it finishing bolting everything back up. We got there in time that they wouldn't skip us and we were second up and they closed the tent for the night. That was pretty frustrating but we were second up on Saturday for inspection.

Saturday
We went through tech a second time and passed. One of the judges didn't like some of our siding which we changed but I was able to talk him off and got the judge we had yesterday to come to check our papers for us. Once tech was complete we went to brake check. For brake check, all four of your tires have to lock on either pavement or gravel which we knew would happen for us since we did it at school quite a few times. Once we passed everything we were able to compete in the dynamic events. Right by the brake check was the sled pull so we decided to do that first. We ended up getting second overall in the sled pull and was only one of four teams to pull the sled the entirety of its length. We did so well on this from the light pole trick. You tie a strap around a light pole and have an adjustable mounting point on your rig then throttle it out and change the mounting point until your tires are just barely off the ground. After this, we went over to Acceleration, Maneuverability and Suspension/Traction. On the way over torrential downpour came and everyone had to evacuate the area since a tornado touch down about 8 miles from us. After the storm had passed we were allowed to return and compete in the events. Unfortunately, the entire dynamic area was in the dirt so it all turns to nasty thick mud. For acceleration, we ended up getting bottom ten which was kind of expected and not a big deal. For suspension, we should have done really well but this is where we found out one of our major faults in the buggy. The suspension course was U and the turn was too tight for us to make. This was frustrating since no other teams had trouble with this but us and we were flying through the first part and would have on the second part if we could have turned. The driver tried reversing and turning that way but the shifter I got for us was crappy and the transaxle we were running wasn't much help either so we ended up getting screwed and not finishing the suspension course. Last was maneuverability which had some tight turns and the mud made everything worse. For the suspension and sled pull you got points for the distance and then the time you got upon finishing the event, with maneuverability it was all time if you didn't finish you didn't get any points. We didn't finish this course but from what I was seeing most teams didn't finish either so that wasn't the end of the world but still missed points. After all that we were finished up and just had to prep for the endurance race on Sunday.

Sunday
The mud from Saturday didn’t dry up which was expected from the “hurricane” that came through but to make it worse I was woken up at around 4 am to it rain just as hard but raining sideways this time. I’ve never seen anything like it before and could only think of how nasty the course was going to be. Well, my fears turned out to be true. The field we had to walk through to get to the course was a complete swamp and the course proved to be no different. We set a couple guys up in the pits, I went about halfway down the course to flag the driver for gas and another kid was standing in the stands talking to the driver the whole time about conditions. They started the race having the teams who scored the highest in the acceleration at the front and let teams out every 10 seconds. Us doing so bad at the acceleration were towards the back. The first couple laps went well for everyone then the mud started to set in. I got a call from our team member in the stands the “crew chief” saying that we were sent to the pits because of our reverse beeper was on the whole time and one of the brakes was out. I frantically called the pits and said screw reversing just cut the wire so it stops and zip tie the line so it looked like it was attached. They were able to get a patch pretty quick and we were off back to races with no more issues other than our gas cap. As per the rules of the competition, everyone had to run the same engine, gas tank, and gas cap as they were purchased. The teams who placed top ten last year were allowed to run a new aluminum gas tank they were testing. The problem we ran into with the gas cap was since out gas was gravity feed the gas cap had a small breather hole in the top which kept getting clogged with mud and creating a vacuum in the tank not allowing gas to flow. We weren’t the only ones with this problem literally everyone else had this problem. I didn’t know about this until I radioed the crew chief and he informed me of this. Every team’s buggy was puttering along at around 3-5mph since no one had any power and the hill obstacle I was perched up at had a line of buggies since none of them could make it up it and the volunteers had to push everyone over it. Eventually, the race ended after 2 hours from being shortened from the original 4 hours because of the awful conditions. After the race, all the teams were allowed to wash their buggies off and it was well needed. Our buggy had around 100lbs of mud in it and our driver couldn’t get out until we dug him out and it looked like a mold from where he was sitting. After getting our driver out and yelling at KU for doing a full detail of their buggy so we could use the power washer we headed back to our paddock loaded everything up and went to the award ceremony. Being that we placed second in the sled pull we were guaranteed money so we all went hoping for the $500 check and the trophy. Well sad news for us the money was sent to the school so our plan of going to the bars to blow all of it as fast as we could was ruined but nonetheless we all took shots out of the trophy to celebrate LOL.

Monday
Packed up and headed home. When checking out Texas A&M offered to pay for our rooms since we did so well but the real motive was to get a bigger budget next year for their buggy.

Afterthoughts and things that could have been done differently
First of all, I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. I had a blast through all of it other than the meetings that went on too long but besides that it was great. I feel like I learned more doing this than I have in my last 4 years of college. College is great for learning theory and all that stuff but when it comes to practical knowledge, critical thinking and adjusting to things with a strict deadline college falls short. The only thing that I found truly frustrating about the whole experience is not knowing about this when I was a freshman and only being able to this my senior year, but that’s how it goes.
As for things that could have been different. The long meetings all first semester. All we pretty much did was talk about BS and not get anything done so we had to haul the second semester to get the buggy done. One of my biggest suggestions to next year’s team is to get started the first semester on building it. At least just the primary members of the frame if nothing less. Second is to get more test time with the buggy. If we had more time to test it we could have figured out that our turning radius was virtually nonexistent and that trying to adjust shock pressure is a bad idea if you don’t know what you’re doing. Next would be to ask questions about the rules to the committee. This is something none of us were aware that we could do and would have made tech inspection a lot less stressful and could have possibly made a difference in our weight distribution and turning radius. Next would be to design a smaller buggy. Our buggy was an effin monster truck compared to other schools and ended up meaning no one could pass us on the endurance course but it also leads to our buggy being +100lbs more than most other schools. Next would be to get a different shifter, man was it irritating having a purchased part not work worth a #*%!. The last would be to look into building their own gearbox. Most schools did it and ended up making them tiny and lightweight while still functional.

I was disappointed in our results at the end of the competition but in retrospect, there wasn’t a whole lot we could have done to prepare for the inclement weather. Plus the knowledge I gained from this was invaluable even if we came in last in everything.

I’ll get pictures uploaded later in the week once I harass everyone to upload all the pictures they took.

[Getaklu]

Chalk it up to a learning experience, you will find many of them through the years. You had fun, learned a few things, and lived through it; what more could one ask for? Thanks for sharing.

[dscowell]

https://i.imgur.com/5VeyrcDl.jpg
This was the first time I saw the finished product since I had to come home before we finished.

https://i.imgur.com/4JVnqM8l.jpg https://i.imgur.com/lHao4Kvl.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/ivstKp1l.jpg https://i.imgur.com/0e4PCtMl.jpg
Waiting in line for Engine Inspection. This was the first time getting to see all the other schools buggies. Couple schools still had to put their buggy together but as long as you had your engine mounted and kill switches hooked up you could do engine inspection.

https://i.imgur.com/Exisijcl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/vE0kZrql.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/RhdXdpml.jpg https://i.imgur.com/SRrXHLWl.jpg
Got all of the sponsorship stickers on the buggy. We got Longmont Printing to make all of these for us. They were great to work with and did an excellent job I highly suggest them for anyone looking for stickers to be made.

[dscowell]

https://i.imgur.com/8LTxogXl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/4CIGyUxm.jpg https://i.imgur.com/0uKEBVBm.jpg
Had some late night work the first night. We decide to bleed a little bit of the pressure in the shocks off but we soon found out that using a tire pressure gauge is a big no-no. We ended up almost blowing out the shocks so learn from us. Get a proper shock pressure gauge or be like me and just pose by the shocks and not actually do anything.

https://i.imgur.com/AGjnXUBl.jpg
Like mentioned in the long post above we missed one member during our tech inspection (Friday). We had to grind the powder coating down, try to cut and notch (notching an angle with a power drill is awful) the pipe to the proper length and angle. This was the only thing that failed during our tech inspection but due to the part, it took us a while to fix it with the tools and equipment at our disposal.

https://i.imgur.com/mmKOELCl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/zWwpFMtl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/E9x8AZJl.jpg
Right before the inland hurricane hit (Saturday).

https://i.imgur.com/PyMFxnQl.jpg
Getting set up for gridding (Sunday).

[Jim]

Cool!

Impressive cloud front. Any crazy rain from it?

What failed / had to be tended on the bar?

[dscowell]

https://i.imgur.com/6X5oGkol.jpg
These were the hills I was posted up by to signal for fuel. After about 10 laps no one could make it over so all of the volunteers had to move over to it to push all of the buggies over.

https://i.imgur.com/WRbD8hKl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/28zitIEl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/1kkUIgOl.jpg
Some random action shots

https://i.imgur.com/sugZyJdm.jpg https://i.imgur.com/VVGrrjWm.jpg https://i.imgur.com/0ZhRWYll.jpg https://i.imgur.com/1dpJrpll.jpg
Post race. Yes, there is a driver in there.

https://i.imgur.com/ruzhj12l.jpg
Final shot with the team, buggy and our trophy for placing second in the sled pull.

[dscowell]

https://i.imgur.com/oo7BtDll.mp4

I uploaded some videos to Youtube but they won't allow me to access them on my computer for whatever reason and the video sharing on the site doesn't allow for Imgur videos. I'll get this figured out hopefully sooner rather than later. So in the meantime enjoy the video of the sled pull set up before I get this figured out.

[Jim]

IMPRESSIVE MUD

[dscowell]

Cool!

Impressive cloud front. Any crazy rain from it?

What failed / had to be tended on the bar?


After this we went over to Acceleration, Maneuverability and Suspension/Traction. On the way over torrential downpour came and everyone had to evacuate the area since a tornado touch down about 8 miles from us

Yeah, it resulted in some ridiculous rain. It moved in hard and fast. We decided to ignore it and that ended up in all of us getting soaked. I looked like I jumped into a pool with all my clothes on and got out.

With the bar we needed to add was because of a misinterpretation of the rules. In the rules, it said no bent piece could be longer than 33" without a support piece meeting at a primary member. Because of how the rules are written we thought they meant no bent member could have a straight section before the bend. We ended up measuring at 35" so we just barely missed it.

[dscowell]

Here are some videos. Sorry about the low quality my phone doesn't take the best videos or pictures especially when zoomed in.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGHjDEdOgog

Here is the suspension course. As you can see at the end how we had no turning radius but made it through everything with relative ease.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EmuutUuAdE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EmuutUuAdE

Another video of the suspension course. The second attempt we made the corner but got stuffed on some concrete.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWOl8bnMBEk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWOl8bnMBEk

Maneuverability. Taking it slow since like stated above our turning radius and handling was less than adequate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KrptZRswis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KrptZRswis

Last attempt at the Maneuverability course.

[dscowell]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlYAU99wGmU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlYAU99wGmU

Second Place sled pull run.