Go Kart- Chapter 1(The Planning)

Hey guys so I am taking a break from my regular blogs and will devote some of my time in sharing my own lifeinprogress with you all. I am going to write about a project I always dreamt of. The go-kart project I started in 2015. 

It’s going to be a 3 chapter series. I am hoping for a positive response from my readers. 

Dream- a word which is a sentence in itself. It’s a thing that many people do but only few people have the courage to pursue it. It’s a thing that can help you in motivating for your upcoming life. 

It was a beautiful crisp evening and I was in my college. There was a dj night in Chitkara University. I was with my friends. We all were chatting and enjoying. 

Being a mechanical engineering student I always had a keen interest in automotive sector. We all always used to plan about a project in automobile but never took any step in direction of our talks.

Suddenly an idea struck to my friend’s about starting a team of our own. It was a project I always dreamt to do. It was a project related to Automobile Engineering. It was making our own Go Kart. It was a scary thing to form our own team without any major knowledge. But then a quote struck my mind. A quote by Martin Luther King Jr “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” This quote gave me the courage to accept his idea. That’s how our go-kart team started. 

We all were really happy about this team formation of our own. That evening we enjoyed a lot at dj night. It was quite a happy evening for me. 

From next day our planning started about this whole event. We decided to recruit some members who can help us in the construction. We took interview of some of the classmates and others too. At end we formed our whole team. It included 9 members. Some were of mechanical branch and some of electronic/electrical branch. 

So we all started planning about our whole event. We first divided our whole team in different small sub teams. We formed 4 sub teams. They were                 1) Engine and chassis   2) Braking   3) Transmission and steering   4) Electronics. I was in engine and chassis department. But as a vice captain of team I had to contribute in every department. 

So after all the planning and division we started our study. We started to study on how to make a go-kart, how transmission works, which type of brakes are suitable and about all the circuits. 

After studying we designed our chassis. It’s a simple 2D chassis which is not much complicated and is simple in  design. After completing the design we decided to conduct analysis of chassis on software called CATIA. Force analysis is a must before the actual construction starts as it helps us to detect the problems and weak points of chassis.

After the completion of chassis we moved to selection of engine. After few discussions and studying we selected engine of Honda Cb Twister 110. It’s an engine having good performance and in our budget. Also the limit given to us by the organizers of the competition was of 125 cc. So we got 110 cc engine. 

So chassis and engine work were over now. My other team mates also were doing there work side by side. Our Braking department gave us an idea to use dual disc brakes on our rear axle. It was an unique idea and we decided to accept it. Dual disc brakes in go-kart is something different and never been done before in a go Kart. Both the brakes are for different tyres and will have different pedals for operation.

 

The transmission department selected manual transmission as only that was allowed. Ackerman steering system was selected as is it easy and not expensive. They also designed our whole transmission system. 

We also used a differential in our Kart which helps during turns and reduce the turning radius. 

I really appreciated the effort all the departments put in their research work. After researching we started our calculation work. The research and calculations took the major time of our go-kart work. 

During calculations many problem occurred and we constantly had to change the design of our chassis according to different loads and force analysis. But after struggling we finally came up with our final chassis design. 

Our electronics department also designed all the circuits which were used in our Kart.

So the chassis construction, engine selection, transmission design, steering system and Braking system were all finalized. Now only our construction work left. 

After the completion of designing and calculation we all were really happy that first step of our Kart was over. 

We in the selection of materials used some of the old things and reused them like steering wheel, seat, some mild steel rods, base plate etc as we were short of budget. The organizers gave us the limit of Rs 80,000 for completion of Kart, so we had to be budget friendly. 

We all decided to take a break and resume our work ie., construction of Kart after a while. The research work took a lot out of us and also our semester exams were on our head. So we thought it’s better to take rest, focus on our exams and then resume the go Kart work. 

So in my next blog I’ll be telling you all about the construction stage. It’s going to be real fun. Stay tuned and do share your views on my this little series.