All of the go kart seats that are sold online seem to be at least $40 plus shipping--clearly a ripoff. So, over the last couple of days, I have been keeping an eye out for junk that I would be able to use for a go kart seat. This included looking through the local dumps and recycling centers for discarded chairs. Today I finally went to Walmart and was surprised to find a perfectly suitable chair for about $7. The mounting bracket, which I did not purchase, was sold separately for about $20. As far as I can tell, the seat is meant to be mounted to the deck of a boat (I found it in the boating section).
It made sense to mount the seat to the kart so that it is removable. This way, the seat can be placed on the kart to provide its dimensions (avoiding design conflicts), but can be taken off while welding. I screwed the seat into a piece of plywood with the screws that came with the seat. The screws go directly into the plastic.
Next, I welded three tabs onto the frame of the kart. The tabs were actually recycled from the 45 degree angles cut to make two of the battery boxes. I just drilled a holes in them and welded them on.
The plywood was bolted to the frame.
The battery fits snuggly behind the seat.
After testing out the seat, I can't say I'm entirely pleased with the its rigidity. I will probably weld a forth tab to the frame at some point and might use a less flexible piece of wood for the "bracket." In reality, it probably doesn't matter how well the wood is attached to the frame, since the strength of the entire seat mount is limited by the strength of the junction between the screws and the plastic sockets.
All of the go kart seats that are sold online seem to be at least $40 plus shipping--clearly a ripoff. So, over the last couple of days, I have been keeping an eye out for junk that I would be able to use for a go kart seat. This included looking through the local dumps and recycling centers for discarded chairs. Today I finally went to Walmart and was surprised to find a perfectly suitable chair for about $7. The mounting bracket, which I did not purchase, was sold separately for about $20. As far as I can tell, the seat is meant to be mounted to the deck of a boat (I found it in the boating section).
It made sense to mount the seat to the kart so that it is removable. This way, the seat can be placed on the kart to provide its dimensions (avoiding design conflicts), but can be taken off while welding. I screwed the seat into a piece of plywood with the screws that came with the seat. The screws go directly into the plastic.
Next, I welded three tabs onto the frame of the kart. The tabs were actually recycled from the 45 degree angles cut to make two of the battery boxes. I just drilled a holes in them and welded them on.
The plywood was bolted to the frame.
The battery fits snuggly behind the seat.
After testing out the seat, I can't say I'm entirely pleased with the its rigidity. I will probably weld a forth tab to the frame at some point and might use a less flexible piece of wood for the "bracket." In reality, it probably doesn't matter how well the wood is attached to the frame, since the strength of the entire seat mount is limited by the strength of the junction between the screws and the plastic sockets.
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