Front Lift Dilemma

[BaselessEarth12]

Hello, all! Been reading the forums since my junior year of high school back in 2014. Well, long story short, my senior metals project was resurrecting a '94 Marathon or Medalist (can't remember which, will have to find the old phone for pics). It was accomplished by swapping in a 1979 Arctic Cat Jag 3000 motor, performing a spring-over conversion, and yanking the seats out of an '04 Subaru Impreza. Made a custom motor mount, spring bracket spacers, and steering column, but no longer have access to a milling machine or lathe...

So, here we are, almost 5 years later. I want to finish this project properly. What all have you guys done for front lifts on your carts? I'm thinking either ATV-style double wishbone or radius arms... Something that will work with/around the bellcrank steering rack. Thanks in advance, any and all input is greatly appreciated!

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[slonomo]

I used a stock Yamaha Warrior atv front end for my cart, modified 8" wider to fit the cart. It works flawlessly, mostly because the atv suspension is tried and true. I kept the stock mounting frame, thus kept the Yamaha engineered geometry, which is probably one of the best for atv's etc. I incorporated a rack and pinion unit for a sand rail buggy, and use Polaris Scrambler atv wheels and tires. It's the single best mod I've ever done to my cart. It took a little work, but well worth it. I did the project with little to no fabrication experience, so if I can do it, anyone can. The parts cost me approx $600 if I remember correctly.

Read my thread here
http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/lifte...sion-done.html

The reason I did this is because my cart, Yamaha G1, does not have a long travel front suspension kit available from the aftermarket. This left me with no other decision than to built it myself. In using the atv platform, most of the design and engineering was already done, huge shortcut. There's a lot that can go wrong when designing this kind of suspension from scratch. Things like bump steer and tire scrub come to mind. If it's not done right, it will not perform like it's supposed to, and could possibly be unsafe.

You could use any atv front suspension. I would recommend a full size atv with disc brakes. Also choose one that is popular so that you can always find parts available. The following are the more popular quads on the market.

Yamaha Raptor 660
Yamaha YFZ450
Honda 400EX
Honda 450
Suzuki Z400
Kawasaki 400

Any of these would work nicely for donor parts. I actually found a full stripped frame for my Warrior front end for $50, which I sectioned and used to mount the parts to, taking the guess work of where to mount the a arms. So you might look for a totaled or stripped atv and use the parts you need then sell the rest.

If I were to do it over again, I would use the Yamaha Raptor 660 frame and suspension. It's a little heavier duty and newer technology than the Warrior.

Good luck!

[BaselessEarth12]

I was originally thinking about grafting an ATV front end on it... But here in Maine the least expensive quad (even if a total POS) is selling for $1500 and is a good 10 years older than my cart. There is a Raptor 450 getting parted out that I might be able to get for relatively cheap, though...

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[slonomo]

I bought most of my stuff off ebay.