Billy Cart Plan GO Kart

[AUSSIE]

HERE (http://www.kartbuilding.net/Wooden_Go-Kart_Plans/index.html)

[Claw Hama]

A plan for a billy cart??? at 7 my mates and I would build them from whatever we could find (or steal) in the neighbourhood. To drill holes it used to take 2 of us to use the brace and bit, one to push down the other to push the handle around. Then we found the biggest hill around and see how much gravel rash we could take home when the axle came out or the wheels came off. Ah those were the days, plans??? on paper??? the net at least.

[texx]

A plan for a billy cart??? at 7 my mates and I would build them from whatever we could find (or steal) in the neighbourhood. To drill holes it used to take 2 of us to use the brace and bit, one to push down the other to push the handle around. Then we found the biggest hill around and see how much gravel rash we could take home when the axle came out or the wheels came off. Ah those were the days, plans??? on paper??? the net at least.


plus one :2tsup:
and where i came from it was a boggie not a billy cart

[Claw Hama]

Texx is gravel rash called gravel rash in The States?

[texx]

would not have a clue , never been anywhere near the states .
however billycart is an american name for a bogie / go cart

[Claw Hama]

Sorry Texx, missed the Qld, billycarts have always been billycarts in Newcastle at least for the last 45years, a gocart always had a motor as far as I knew.

Became a little curious so just did a googling and found this from the power house museum.

" Statement of significanceAustralian 'billycarts' were used as early as the 1880s. They were either literally drawn by a billygoat - hence the Australian name 'billycart'- or small two wheeled hand carts for which the name billycart had already become a generic term".

They have got a picture of a great looking old cart on the site too.

[AUSSIE]

here (http://www.kartbuilding.net/Highway_Street_Kart_1962/index.html) also if you go to the bottom of the page in the first post you will find more to click on including this motorised cart from metal

[texx]

ok dont want to get into an argument over some thing like this so you call it a billycart .
dont see many with goats pulling them around here though
but in north england they have been called bogies for at least a few hundred years that i know of .
two sets of wheels or two axles attached to a frame , as in train or truck or waggon or trolley is a bogie and thats what kids in yorkshire and all over north UK have been calling them since the wheel was invented.
we used old pram wheels on ours the old metal rim spoked wheels with solid rubber tyres.
very large diameter on the back and small on the front , brakes were for sissys ,
to slow down you went off the concrete onto the grass then steer hard on way get her side ways and either broadside or roll over in a great heap , check for damage to the bogie then check for skin loss , if you were lucky no dog sh#t, then back up the hill and go again .
for that little extra i used to nail fireworks to the back off mine pretty spectacular with a couple of rockets going while screaming down the big hill with a full load of as many kids as i could fit onboard , then broadside into the big puddle at the bottom near the corner shop to put the fire out and stop , for extreme cases of need to stop we crashed into the phone box half way down the hill.
after a few hours of this it was hobble home so mum could put savlon where all the skin was missing , and carry out repairs and mods to the bogie for the next day .

[Claw Hama]

Don't get me wrong I wasn't arguing, you just got me thinking and I went off looking for some general history etc. It's all just fun and interesting. I once read a bit from Clive James book and he told this story about his neighbour hood kids all tieing about 6 billycarts together and hurtleing down the hills terrorising the neighbour hood with this huge crazy snaking billycart train, It's a great read.

[Kirk 0727]

In Queensland in the 1950's these were called Trolleys. Great fun. I make them for the Great Grandchildren now.

[mick59wests]

Kirk,

I am on my second billy-cart. Do you have any photos of the ones you have made? As you can see, I am more than interested in making billy carts.

cheers

Mick

http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=87524

http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=85580

PS: Someone needs to tell me how to include a link to a previous post. Do I need to find the URL and paste it in?

[radish]

Hey TEXX, just for a laugh, here's why they were originally called "billy carts".-- see first photo


And they weren't only used as transport for kids either.--- see 2nd photo


And when you can't find a goat, well a sheep or two, will have to do.-- see 3rd photo

[keju]

Now I've been gone from the US 10 years, but I do seem to remember these carts where called soap box cars?
Not sure if it was gravel rash or gravel burn....... on carpets it's a burn...

Juvy

[Billy]

It was the same in Wellington,NZ. Billy carts were the rage and with all the steep hills there were plenty of spills and thrills.:o Hitting ice was fun, noooooo control at all! :oo:Dad used to make his with old bearings his engineer father gave him, apparently lots of sliding and sparks but not much control.As Texx said, brakes were for sissy's.:cool: 2" x 1" timber frames and whatever we could scrounge from around about the place, rope steering and Mum must've bought bandaids by the hundred weight.
Still got the scars.:C
Billy, non racing driver, sawdust maker, international man of mystery.:wink:

[Tonyz]

Billy I used to live in ChCh every school hols 5 of us would hook home made trailers to our bikes and visit the 4 local timber yards.It would usually be 2 days work then build up trolleys and race. Biggest scare was a 10 year old loosing control going downhill and hitting at full speed the local cop car. S**t

[thefixer]

Of course billy carts are called bogies in QLD. For the same reason potato cakes are called scallops:D

Cheers
Shorty