Jbuggy’s Madmax buggy

[Jbuggy21]

Also was hoping for battery advise. I’m skeptical of buying a odyssey because I don’t want to let it sit for a long time and have it die. I have a battery tender. Better to buy a cheap battery and just change every year or two or buy expensive?
My last car had a yellow optima and it didn’t last much longer then a cheap battery.

[baja5]

I run an Odyssey pc925. It’s a beast of a battery but they don’t seam to last as long as I would expect. I have a feeling it is due to the charge rate of the car but I may be wrong. I keep it on a battery minder when it the garage but I was always told that AGM batteries should be charged at a low amperage rate. My alternator used an ELD( electrical load detection) in the van it came out of. They are built into the fuse box and allow the pcm to control the alternator output. As I’m not running the stock fuse box I think the alternator doesn’t lower the charge rate like it would in the van. Anyway, I seem to get about 3 years or so out of a battery. I think I’m on my 3rd one now. I have no doubt that all of the pounding doesn’t help. I will say that it is a nice small battery and I have the mounting tray built for it rather than a traditional hold down so the install is clean. Hope this helps.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

For what it is worth: I had a similar 3 year problem with the battery in my glass dune buggy but when I went down to get a new battery (the guy was familiar with sand cars) said that the battery I was using (stock size and draw for a VW bug) that when I changed over to a bus trans the battery also had to be upgraded for the additional draw the bus box required (I still don't understand all of it) so I bought the upgraded battery and the problem has since stopped. I also leave a "trickle charger" on it all the time but I was doing that before too.

Lee

[Jbuggy21]

Quick question. Will a 32x11.50x15 fit a 15x3.5 x 170 wheel?
Currently has a 33x10.50 on it

[dustymojave]

The '170' isn't part of the wheel size designation.

Whether the tire will fit the wheel depends heavily on who mounts the tire. Most big chain tire shops will not consider mounting a tire on a wheel that is out of the rim width range specified by the tire manufacturer.

Class 5 Open and Class 12 and Class 10 offroad racers commonly use 4"wide rims for all 4 corners with tires up to 35 x 11.50-15.

[Jbuggy21]

Thanks for the reply dusty. I’m not too sharp on this narrow of a wheel. Probably going to get the new Bfg utv 32’s or the diggers again.

So some progress. Wiring is pretty much done. Some securing before testing. I replaced everything except the gauges in the dash and added a power port for phone charging. Need to relabel all the switches.
Replaced brake stop switch and engine breather. Cleaned up some engine stuff and getting ready to fix seat tabs and get seats and tank back in. I’m alittle hesitate about the brake and clutch master. They aren’t leaking and seem to be hold pressure. I’m going to bleed them all out and see but I guess if it’s holding and not leaking no need to rebuild it.

[Skidmark]

I fought a brake bleeding problem for some time before I tuned my brake light switch almost completely upside down. In the position you have it, an air bubble can become trapped in it, and you can't bleed it out. Upside down and the bubble will stay in the line and bleeding will eliminate it.

[Jbuggy21]

That’s a good point. That will be interesting to see what happens. The old one was like that so I’ll see what happens before I redo it. If I change that I will redo all the lines.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Do you have turning brakes and if so are they on the floor or mounted on the tunnel? Makes a difference on how you bleed them if they are on the tunnel.

Lee

[Jbuggy21]

No turn brake

[Jbuggy21]

I’m holding myself back from getting way too involved in the rebuild. I pulled the other seat and now I’m stopping myself from grinding and rewelding everything lol. At this point I’m not going that far. Maybe I’ll strip it all the way down in the future and redo all of it but for now I just wanna get it back in the dirt... but I did repair the seat brackets and prime the raw steel.
Old temp and pressure gauges are staying but the ampmeter ima ditch now that I have fuses. Any recommendations on what to replace it with? Voltmeter?

[Ol'fogasaurus]

https://www.speedwaymotors.com/the-tool ... eter/28744

This might help. I grew up in the really old days where cars came with ammeters to watch/measure current flow or the lack there of. I have been told several times you can make a volt meter (by wiring it kind of funny) do the same thing but I have never actually seen it done.

Volt meters measure the electrical field differently but they are more common to see used now days.

One thing about ammeters is that you can see current draw as each electrical device (power draw) is actuated and it will tell you when you are drawing more than the charging device (generator or alternator) is creating. If you get a short then the needle pegs to the negative.

Its kind of like comparing it to the red idiot light on your oil system vs. and oil pressure gauge. The gage is faster to tell you if you lose pressure than the idiot light does.

I hope this helps somewhat.

Lee

[Jbuggy21]

Always helpful man. Appreciate it. I figure the ampmeter was good when the car has no fuses since you wouldn’t no you had an issue til it was melted. I guess aside from oil there’s really nothing else to monitor aside from electrical system.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Always helpful man. Appreciate it. I figure the ampmeter was good when the car has no fuses since you wouldn’t no you had an issue til it was melted. I guess aside from oil there’s really nothing else to monitor aside from electrical system.

One of the things you might try is that (if I remember what I did correctly) the generator/alt charge normally goes directly to the starter (or something like that) then back to where it belonged. I run the charge line directly to my circuit breaker box with a 50 amp circuit breaker in-between which VW did not do (It has to match the power source and at the time I did this the 50 amp CB vs. a 55 amp alt was all I could get) then back to where it belonged.

Copy of Dune Buggy rebuild 10-11-06 002.jpg

This allowed me to buss the CB box for both a hot side and an ignition controlled side (I had reasons for doing it which I forget right now).

Lee

[Skidmark]

I run an Odyssey pc925. It’s a beast of a battery but they don’t seam to last as long as I would expect.

I have been running that same battery for 15+ years now without any problems. At least three times I have forgotten to turn off power to my GPS (Lowrance Baja 540c) and drained it dead. It took a charge and has kept on going without any loss of performance. Your life issues on that battery must not lie with the battery itself, imho...