What's easier? build a buggy or buy?

Question

stupid question, i know. dont care. when i say easier (obviously it would be to buy) i mean cheaper? would buying materials and plans then building be cheaper than buying a couple grand dune buggy? and to those answering who have maybe built a dune buggy, how was it? as in, was it time consuming, did it take over a few months, and did it require heavy attention?

Answer 1

it is much cheaper to buy. its a lot of work to built one. we got ours second hand, a bloke i know built his i think his is close to 20grand (aus) it depends on how perticular you are about it, you can take a while and make sure its all done right or you can slap it together, remember they have to be able to withstand a huge impact (we often go airborne) and also be stable at high speed (about 160kms an hour.)

if your in the states i would go with paddle tyres, we can't use them in aus, instead we use speedway tyres.

also i saw in another post about you asking about driving them on the road, we don't use ours on the road, mainly because it takes us 2 hours to get to the place also if something goes wrong we are stuffed.

good luck with it and drive safe!!

also don't go a huge V8 in the back, they sound good but get bogged easier, flip easier,and get unstable very easy. we have found that a 4cyl with torque down low are the best. they are light weight and we can easily hit 170+kms on a flat. we can even reach that with a 1.2lt toyota motor, it screams!!

have a good one mate.