Club Car TRX Fab
 

Hey guys as I mentioned on a previous post, I've been working on a build.

This is my first golf cart, so its my first ever cart build, but its also my first time welding and first time fabricating anything for that matter. So I have no shortage of questions for ya :lol:

Anyhow I figured I would start a thread sooo here she is on the day I got her. Figured it would be a good cart. Good batteries with a CURTIS gauge, headlights/taillights and decent street tires on 10" wheels. It already had a 6" lift and I really liked the different look it had from the other lifted carts I had seen. :thumbup:

Re: Club Car TRX Fab
 

The former owner had wanted a hunting buggy and make his own Z-lift without the Z - LOL. Instead he used a big aluminum plate (see pic). One day while putting the cart in the air to rotate the tires, I noticed the there was a lot of slack/movement on the front end from the rest of the cart. I inspected closer and noticed the former owners aluminum weld job was giving and all his welds were cracking/failing. Enough that it would make a "ping" sound every once and while while riding. Scary stuff.

So I trailered it to all the welding shops in the area, of those that wanted to touch it they wanted at least $200 to do it and even then couldn't guarantee the price since they had to "undo" everything this other guy did and start over.

Re: Club Car TRX Fab
 

So I found a complete Honda TRX 250R rolling chassis on Craigslist for $50 and made short work of the home-made Z-lift with a Saws-All. Tested the tires for leaks, rears were good, fronts leaked bad.

Re: Club Car TRX Fab
 

Chopped up the TRX and started mocking up the fitment. Fun stuff and love the way it was looking. The bumper that came on the TRX looked even looks great to me. Time to actually start the fabricating now.

Re: Club Car TRX Fab
 

The bottom of the TRX frame was almost the exact same angle as the Cart frame. You cant weld steel to Aluminum, and I wanted something I could unbolt and return to stock so I decided to let the Cart "sit" on the TRX frame by making plates. Then I later added some gussets to the plates for more bracing and ground smooth my ugly welds. but here it is initially.

Re: Club Car TRX Fab
 

I didn't want everything hanging off what little of the original frame I had left so I decided to fab up some brackets and also bolt it to to the top of the cart frame into holes that were already on the ClubCar. That would provide a lot of extra strength as it formed a triangular brace.

I had to extend the TRX frame a a few inches to reach the new plate because I made a mistake earlier and cut too much off - humph — ROOKIE! The "Dots" you see are from me inserting a smaller square tube into the TRX frame. Drilling holes and welding that smaller tube to the frame for more strength. I did this on all four sides of the extension in different places.

Re: Club Car TRX Fab
 

Today I ran into a problem and I need some ideas and suggestions. I was trying to figure out how to get the ClubCar hub to mate up with the TRX spindle. I located new bearings and races that will mate the two up perfectly but as you can see from the pic the TRX Spindles are much shorter then the club cart spindle ...and different bearings wont fix that. :?

So most of the day I've been wondering if its safe to cut off the TRX spindle and weld my ClubCar spindle on there? Anyone done this before, its definitely not something I will attempt myself, but before I pay someone is it even safe? All I'm trying to do is get the golf cart wheel to fit back on there without a spacer or adapter ...I wonder if any 4-lug trailer hubs would fit that short TRX spindle? That would be ideal! :help:

Re: Club Car TRX Fab
 

Jeremy, I would suggest looking into different hubs or spacers/adapters, before you resort to cutting and welding the CC spindles. Just my opinion, but there is a lot of options out there if you do some research. Keep up the pics and info.:thumbup:

Re: Club Car TRX Fab
 

Thanks Xact1, I just needed someone to nudge me in that direction. :thumbup: At this point of the build its been 4 months and I'm getting antsy to get it back on the trails! Appreciate the help, Ill hit up the trailer shop in the area.

Re: Club Car TRX Fab
 

Still having issues finding a solution for the front hubs. I thought the steering would be the hardest part of this build not the hub! So far even the machine shops Ive been to have told me they would cut the small spindle off and weld the new one in its place by making a jig to keep it all straight.

Standard 4 on 4” Trailer hubs are simply too long for the short TRX spindle. However, there is a trailer specialty shop around the corner, so I pulled the whole thing off and I’ll be dropping by there today to see what they can do with it. A phone conversation with them yesterday was encouraging, Fingers crossed!

I really want to go with finding a hub to fit and avoid welding the ClubCar spindle if at all possible. Something that also looks promising but I am having a hard time researching is the generic Chinese ATV’s. Most of the smaller ones appear to use the 4 on 4” hubs on the front, but It’s really difficult finding details on these parts such as hub length, hole diameter, etc. Here’s a site I found that listed a bunch of hubs for ATV's/Go Karts and they’re very reasonably priced, but no details on each part. :thumbdown: -Ill be digging deeper into this if the trailer shop doesn't come through today.