Terrible Turning Radius

[watkins]

Purchased a lifted EZGO and I'm finding the turning radius is terrible.. not even 3 point turns.. more like 5 point turns to turn around. Its horrible. Here is a picture of the front of the car. Anything I can do to improve it? Can I take the lift off and still run these tires? I'm down for whatever needs to be done.

[meimk]

Your lift looks home made, which itself is OK, but the steering linkage is wasting much of it's motion because of the distance and angles. Maybe a longer pitman are swinging off the steering box? Cut it, add some length in the middle, weld it all back together? I'm not aware of anyone selling something like that already made up. Otherwise a different lift kit?

[jakesnake27]

Also, just a side note. Your tire tread is backwards, they just need to be swapped left to right.

[StoveBolt]

Originally Posted by watkins

Can I take the lift off and still run these tires? I'm down for whatever needs to be done.

Looks like they welded the spring mounts on top the axle to get the lift and sawed the ends of the original ones on the bottom of the axle.
But don't see how that would effect the turning radius.

[Rooster59]

Take a closer look. That is an older Marathon front axle. The spindles are designed to point up, not down. They flipped the axle over which makes the spindle angle reverse of what it should be. No wonder the turning radius is bad. Plus it must be pretty weird driving at any speed over a crawl while turning.

Best bet is to flip the axle back the way it belongs and do the lift right. Or buy a drop axle TXT kit and scrounge the right parts for the TVT spindles, etc. Might be too messed up to salvage from a glance at the photos.

[StoveBolt]

Originally Posted by Rooster59

Take a closer look. That is an older Marathon front axle. The spindles are designed to point up, not down. They flipped the axle over which makes the spindle angle reverse of what it should be. No wonder the turning radius is bad. Plus it must be pretty weird driving at any speed over a crawl while turning.

Best bet is to flip the axle back the way it belongs and do the lift right. Or buy a drop axle TXT kit and scrounge the right parts for the TVT spindles, etc. Might be too messed up to salvage from a glance at the photos.

I don't see anything out of a TXT kit would work on that cart.

[slonomo]

I hate when people build a lift kit and think they can just jack up the height without any negative effects. This was clearly done on that cart, just wanted max height period. Yeah it looks cool, but rides like crap. The EZGO front suspension itself is a poor and ancient design, then they added coil overs, then flipped the axle/spindles? Man, can't find any way to correct that except redo the lift the right way.

[Rooster59]

Not much you can do with that style front axle. It would take a TXT or late model Marathon spindles and a TXT drop axle. That is speculation from examining a friends '94 Marathon GXT (?).

[Backroadbomber]

Originally Posted by Rooster59

Take a closer look. That is an older Marathon front axle. The spindles are designed to point up, not down. They flipped the axle over which makes the spindle angle reverse of what it should be. No wonder the turning radius is bad. Plus it must be pretty weird driving at any speed over a crawl while turning.

Best bet is to flip the axle back the way it belongs and do the lift right. Or buy a drop axle TXT kit and scrounge the right parts for the TVT spindles, etc. Might be too messed up to salvage from a glance at the photos.

That’s a very sharp eye, and 100% correct. It’s called Ackerman steering geometry. It allows the inner tire to follow a tighter radius when turning.

OP, the “upright” parts of your spindles should be closer together at the top of the axle, and farther away on the bottom. It looks as though yours are the opposite. If you can, flipping the axle over would most likely fix your problem

[watkins]

Well. One the kids broke my rules and drove the cart into an area of the property I told them not to. Snapped the spindle off the axle.

Good news for me.. as punishment they have to pay for the repair at whatever cost it takes to do it right..

So.. where do I go about getting a new front axle for this thing that is correct. I dont care if its lifted or not.

Thanks!