I have a J&S beach buggy I want to rebuild. It needs a new pan so what is the best option, IRS rear and Link/king front or stick with ball joint ?? Anyone know how hard it is to rego (NSW)

The body is good and it has a full professionally built rollcage, skin pans,VDO guages etc, seems a shame to not do something with it!
RTA has no records of it being regoed. As much advice as possible would be great to turn this into a registered offroad beast !!
:beer:beer

Craig , if it is a swb you will probably never get it regoed unless you can prove it has been before . Ring around a few RTA Signituries (engineers) and ask . Most will want to register it as a new car and it will have to comply with current adr's. Which it never will.There are some engineers that may interpret the rules differently and let it thru but I dont know of any. The one I was using had to cease trading. Easiest way is to build a lwb buggy , register it and then shorten it if you want a swb. Good Luck . Mark

Craig, if the buggy has not been rego'd in NSW good luck.It will have to comply with All the ADR rules.
IRS or swinger dependes on what you want to do with it, ball joint is the way to go.
if you want more info leave your email address and I will contact you.
Cheers.:beer

Craig - give ma a U2u or a call on the mobile I know of a buggy in Sydney that is like days out of rego that isnt wanted. I reckon you would get it for a song.

[Edited on 21-2-2003 by blue74l]

Thanks guys !

The buggy is to be used for a trip to Cape York and Darwin etc, very early mid life crisis ! Thought it would be more fun than in my Pajero. Needs to be strong with good clearance etc. I have a country buggy pan with drop spindles etc not too sure if I should use this as a donor ??

craig, i own a swb manx running country buggy running gear. sits very tall & the gearing suits tall tyres. while i am very happy with it, it does drive quite differently to a regular swing or irs buggy. under power, the rear suspension stands up rather than squatting. i found this to my advantage on the recent rainbow beach trip where i was heavilly loaded with gear. once under way, it would stand up & not drag it`s arse in the sand.
it does take some getting used to tho...
heres a pic...

where`s the pic ? bugger. e-mail me geaig & i`ll send you some

Man, thats one crap looking kombi..........
:P

I'd say it should win a 'dog of the day' award!!!!!
.............Oh it has
Why aren't you camping??

Its too bloody WET!!. And Ryan has a cold.
We are however going for a day trip leaving the Hyperdome at 5.30am if your interested.
Graham

I'm now ready to build the pan for the buggy !!!
So it will have IRS rear ,but what front ???

Balljoint or Early ?????

I really need advice as I don't want to waste time building the wrong pan!

Buggy and Baja experts tell what you would prefer for offroading!

what are you doing about rego then?

you are going to register it?

I think the kingpin front ends don't have as much limitations on wheel travel, because the ball-joints can bind if the vehicle is raised too much.

I'd be using the country buggy pan for sure. The fact that it stands up when you put your foot down means that you get more traction as the wheels are pushed downwards on acceleration. :thumb Unfortunately you get the opposite effect under brakes though. Do an experiment - check out how much easier a VW will do a burn-out in reverse, compared to forwards.

I think I will pass on that experiment

The trouble with the Country buggy parts is replacement availability.

I would prefer to use "easy to get" replacement parts, especially if something breaks while on a trip.:thumb

go the balljoint irs route fit a kombi gbox for strength and give the country buggy pan to me for my type 82e lol
marcel

Craig what have you decided for Rego?
Are there any good engineers left.. I need to get a supercharged Beetle checked some time