This is the Official build page for team Wide Open Design’s buggy that is going to race in the 2009 King of the Hammers event as well as XRRA east. We have named this buggy the “Hustler”.  The whole crew here at Wide Open Design has stepped up to make this buggy come together. We are really pushing our selves for a new “Race inspired” design for this buggy. We are known for our trail riding vehicles, but now we want to expand and be known in the racing world as well.  We are using a combination of parts for this build that is truly unique, and this is the shops first rear engine buggy.

We have had a lot of people from the industry get on board with us for this project, and we could not do this with out them. All of these companies products are sold here at Wide Open Design so if you see some things you like contact us for pricing and details. To all of them we want to say thank you!!!

First off we had to decide on the drive train and lay out of the buggy. This is what we came up with:

• Engine = LS 2 with CNC ported 242 heads and a aftermarket cam shaft

• Transmission= Built Turbo 350

• Transfer Case= Atlas with case modified for a rear engine buggy

• Axles= 14 Bolt Axles with Spidertrax Knuckles and axle shafts, Yukon Gears and Bearings

• Shocks= Fox Remote Resivor and Triple Bypasses all around

• Wheels= Allied Racing Aluminum Monster Wheels

• Cooling= Be Cool Radiator and fan cooling kit

• Suspension= Triangulated 4 link with 1 ¼ “Rod Ends. Fabricated lower links with Aluminum uppers

• General Dimensions= 8” of up travel all around, 21” Belly Height, 70” roof height

To get started we laid out the plat form of the drivetrain for the build to start.  

Next came the initial tubing. All of the main tubes for the frame rail and driver compartment are 1 ¾ “.120 DOM the rest will be 1 ½ “DOM in a mix of different thickness.

Notice that the tubes have a slight roll to them for good looks and to help clear the upper links at full compression.

The Atlas from Advanced Adapters. It is modified so that the case will still work right and have hi range two wheel drive to pull in the rear. It is also outfitted with 1410 U joints and an Electronic out put for easy speed odometer hook up.

Lined the a pillar up with the b pillar for good looks

The bars that tie the main frame rails to the rocker bar do not meet up at a node for a reason. Just wait to see the gusseting to tie all of the chassis together. I also picked the placement very carefully for this area because of where I wanted the suspension to end up.

With the basics laid out we started the suspension.
The lower frame rail mounts:

The upper frame mounts:

The Trusses for the flipped 14 bolt axles. They are made from a mix of 1/8”, 1/4”, and 3/8“thick steel

After a little welding and grinding...

We had a little work in front of us with building two 14 bolt axles to run in a rear engine buggy. Spidertrax stepped up and was thrilled to hear of some one thinking out side of the box and we ordered a set of their knuckles along with all of their brake kits and drive flanges. When the showed up we were blow away at the quality of their products. These are the best there is out there right now and Spidertrax is a company that is committed to pushing new boundaries for the sport. We could not be happier with these guys and their products.

Since the 14 bolt has an odd size tube at 3 ¼ “we ordered Spidertrax 3” knuckles then set them up in the mill and bored them out to fit.

The knuckles on the axles:

UPDATE 12/3/08:

On this buggy we decided to run Fox Racing Shox’s bypass shocks with their coil overs mounted to the link bars. To get the links to stay in line we added a 1” unit ball to the frame end of the link and added a light racing pinch bung to the other end of the link with a 1 ¼ “ chomoly rod end at the axle. With the unit ball a cup is welded to the end of the link bar and then we will turn out some polyurethane on the lathe to place between the unit ball and the chassis mount. This will hold the link in plane with the shocks during suspension travel like using a regular bushing would but you get the strength of a 1” rod end from it. The link bar material is 1 ¾ “x.375 wall then it is trussed with 1/8” steel plate.

The Unit Ball and its cup

The end of the tubing had to be turned down and then drilled out to fit the light racing pinch bungs. These are used so the rod end can be ran all the way in to the tubing and not have to run a jam nut. With mounting the shocks to the links it puts a major amount of stress on the links and these are a fail safe way of never letting the jam nut back off. They are nice!

Next the link was notched out for the shocks to sit down in.

Then they were capped off.

After they were laid out it was time for the gusseting to begin.

We rolled up some tube for the rear of the chassis

Then we had to lay out where the Be Cool radiator, the Currie Anti Rock Sway Bar, and the Fox shocks and bump stops would go. This buggy is pretty small and making every thing fit and work together is a big challenge.

Be Cool hooked us up with one of their cooling modules for the project. Since we have switched to Be Cool our cooling issues have been solved. Every turn key buggy out of Wide Open Design gets one of these and we truly believe in these guys for the best radiator on the market.

We cut off the rear frame rails and put in the Currie Anti Rock sway bar.

After we got that done, we started finishing of the rear of the chassis with some thing new for us. We have never put any kind of rear bumper on our buggies, and it always makes you work when strapped in if you are going to hit sheet metal when you’re backing up in the woods. Now it won’t matter near as much. Also if I get stuck in KOH it will be some where to get a helpful bump.

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UPDATE 1/12/09

We are using Allied’s Monster bead lock wheels on this buggy. They look great and they have special reinforcement’s trough out that make this the wheel of choice for serious rock abuse. They are teamed up with a set of BF Goodrich Red Label Tires. The two of them together look great. You can also see in these pictures how the upper mounts for the rear shocks came out.

Now that the rear shocks were mounted it was time to move on to the front of the buggy. We decided to mount the shocks on the axle housing and keep the lower links in a little tighter than the rear is. This gave us more steering angle to really let those Spidertrax knuckles turn. We are running 14” Fox Triple Bypasses along with their 14 Coil Carrier. We almost spilt the travel of the shocks and ended up with 7 ½“of up travel in the front.

We wanted something that looked good as well as provide protection in a roll over for the shocks.  So we came up with a mount that is both good looking and functional.

So after the entire front of the chassis was braced up and the shocks were on it was time to figure out where to put the fuel cell. We wanted to keep the weight down low in the chassis and as close to center as we could. There was a spot open that would give us about 16 gallons of fuel so we went with it.

With the top on the tank it serves as a major part of the floor board as well.

WARN came thorough with one of their comp winches for us. The packaging of this small winch is great for the tight spaces of a completion vehicle. The fact that it comes from them with an Aluminum fair lead and rope instead of cable makes it a give away of the winch we needed.

We mounted the winch as high as we could in the front of the chassis to keep the visibility of the front axle. Sitting in the driver’s seat of the Hustler you can still see entire front axle, and with the roll of the hood the visibility over it is great also.

Right behind the WARN winch the transmission cooler and power steering heat sink was added. Every thing fell into place and looks right at home. With the two coolers up here I hope to give them plenty of fresh air and keep them happy.  

You can also see the Currie Anti Rock sway bar as well. We use these sway bars on all of our builds and they give the vehicle a tight feel, but dose not hurt the flex of the vehicle.

The Seats we are using came from Twisted Stitch. They are the some of the highest quality seats on the market. All of the stitching is double stitched with no piping and they even embroidered our logo into the head rest for us. Our driver is a tall guy so we had them ordered to suit and they fit like a glove. The head rest is where it needs to be for safety and the seat belt shoulder strap holes are actually in the right place on these seats.

We wanted a dash that had the custom look of our one off interiors but we did not want to sacrifice any visibility with it. We came up with something that is stylish but not to much. It holds a race pack gauge cluster. It is a simple and clean solution to keeping tabs on the engine with built in warning lights and the harness from them interfaces with MAST motor sports controller so the gauges are reading off of the factory senders.

Jeff built a set of headers for the buggy that come down and out of the way instead of over top of the engine. We want to keep that area open of a storage rack for the King of the Hammers race and trail ridding.

On the end of the collector we put a V band clam to ensure there would not be any exhaust leaks and they make it easy to change mufflers when ever we want to switch from trail ridding to racing.

The chassis has been all the way apart and welded up solid. We hope to have some out door photos of the rig coming for you soon.