4x4 Action Group

Gents,

Trust you are doing well.

I have an itch in my arse to build a type of farm buggy for my father in law.

My initial thoughts would be something like in the attachments below:

2 seater

load bin (looking at a tipper of some sorts - but its not required)

A minimum of 250mm ground clearance.

Does not have to be roadworthy.

Most of the time it will be driven on twee spoor paadjies - to visit the cattle posts once a day.

Speed is not a requirement.

That's it.

The kicker is, I have a beach buggy with an air-cooled volla motor. Bar the brakes, the rest of the mechanical bits are working fine.

Will the volla motor do the job? My biggest concern is keeping the motor cool. I think it can be done in two ways:

1) Mounting the engine below the loadbin but high enough not to get dinged on rocks. That would place the gearbox right below the front seats. Thus rear wheel drive. Might have to fit a fan at the front of the engine - which will be tricky.

2) Turning the motor. Thus the conventional motor in the front and gearbox almost between the front seats. May have to fabricate another type of gear link to accommodate this. It will then be front wheel drive, but the engine will get enough air to cool.

Do you think it is possible?

Yes

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Oh dear, I just thought of something. If you turn the engine around to face the front, you may end up with a lot of reverse gears

Front wheel drive is crap at it's best and on dirt roads and tracks, it is useless

Try to convert the cooling system to that of the Type 4 motor used in the Microbus - the design is a lot flatter than the Beetle motor as the cooling fan is in the rear of the engine instead of in the huge cowl on top. Even better get a Type 4 engine - 1800 or bigger. They are twin carb or FI and have much better power.

Some proper cooling ducts, sucking air in from the front or even next to the passenger area and it will survive

Beetle Engine: Type 4 Engine:

Craig he wants to build it for his FIL, not his MIL

Those Beetle motors are air cooled. You won't need any additional cooling.They can handle the heat

Me and Fanus my BIL build this one for hunting in 1998. I have used 4x4 parts from my secret stash. It is running Jeep diff`s, Hilux 4x4 box and transfer case. Think the pic were take round 2002 then it were still equipped with an Essex V6. We later put a 2.4D Toyota in the old girl.
Still going strong.

What about using a Suzuki SJ 410 in stripped down form.
You wont get a much better "go anywhere" farm vehicle.
There are quite a few uncompleted projects floating around that you can get for good prices.

Hi Paul,

I would love to do it with a SJ as donor, but the biggest constraints are budget and availability of these type of engines.

I have the beach buggy with a aircooled motor. That will have to do.

grips wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 11, 2019 6:06 am

Me and Fanus my BIL build this one for hunting in 1998. I have used 4x4 parts from my secret stash. It is running Jeep diff`s, Hilux 4x4 box and transfer case. Think the pic were take round 2002 then it were still equipped with an Essex V6. We later put a 2.4D Toyota in the old girl.
Still going strong.

Dit lyk nou gaaf!

Mad Manny wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 10, 2019 7:48 pm

Fortunately we have a Forum (& Club) member here who is a VW Guru.
Pierre 'Bugger' Eksteen of VDubTech.
He has just flown to Dar to do some work for a client, but he'll reply soon...

Thanx Manny.

ThysleRoux wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 10, 2019 5:09 pm

Front wheel drive is crap at it's best and on dirt roads and tracks, it is useless

Try to convert the cooling system to that of the Type 4 motor used in the Microbus - the design is a lot flatter than the Beetle motor as the cooling fan is in the rear of the engine instead of in the huge cowl on top. Even better get a Type 4 engine - 1800 or bigger. They are twin carb or FI and have much better power.

Some proper cooling ducts, sucking air in from the front or even next to the passenger area and it will survive

Beetle Engine:
Beetle engine.jpg

Type 4 Engine:
Type 4 VW engine.jpg

If I take the beetle motor and fabricate a bracket for a cooling fan to sit at the rear of the motor (thus effectively sucking air over and around the motor) will it work? I cannot see why not?

Only down side of the VW aircooled engine is in grasslands. They suck in the grass seeds and set themselves on fire.

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grips wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 11, 2019 10:34 am

Only down side of the VW aircooled engine is in grasslands. They suck in the grass seeds and set themselves on fire.

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Ek dink ek kan 'n plan maak daarvoor.