Many beginner woodworkers, looking to offset the introductory costs of starting a hobby, will source their wood from pallets. Generally they’re easily found and can be low or no cost, but typically require a bit of work before they’re usable in a project. [Garage Avenger] is looking to do something a little outside of the box with his pallet project, though. He’s using raw pallets as a chassis for a four-speed go-kart, partially for the challenge and excitement and also to one-up a Pinterest post.
Almost immediately, though, the other major downside of working with pallets arose which is that they’re generally built out of low-grade pine which is soft and flexible. Flexibility is generally not a good thing to have in a vehicle frame so plenty of the important parts of this build were strengthened with steel tubing including the rear axle, steering mounts, and a few longitudinal supports to strengthen the overall frame. After working out some kinks with ordering a few of the wrong parts, and mounting the steering box backwards, it was time to test out the four-speed engine (and brakes) on the the go-kart, making it nearly ready for the road.
To complete the build, some tidying of wiring and fuel lines was done, along with improving some of the non-critical parts of the build like the bucket seat. Of course, adding pallet spoilers and body kit puts the finishing touches on the build and the go-kart is finally ready to tear up the local go-kart track and the less-inspiring Pinterest projects. [Garage Avenger] is no stranger to strange vehicle builds, either. Although it’s a bit out of season for most of our northern hemisphere readers now, his jet-powered street sled is still worth a view.
“Most pallets are made of pine which is flexible.” Most pallets are made of “swamp” oak. I dare you to try driving a nail into a hard oak pallet. The guys who repair pallets use fuel driven nail guns because it’s the only way to get nails in them. ( Think paslode nail gun). Just my 2 cents.
Destroyed my car’s jack while trying to dismantle one pallet. Probably not the wisest thing to do…
Your 2 cents are maybe valid in North America, but don´t hold water in much of the rest of the world.
I hold “most pallets are made of pine” for true as I´ve never seen a pallet made of “swamp” oak in my life.
2 Most Common Wood Species for Pallets and Why
10/30/2014
The two most common wood types used for making pallets are southern yellow pine (SYP) and oak. A former study done by the USDA and Virginia tech determined that SYP made up 18.9% of all woods used while oak made up 17.1% (by volume). Both oak and SYP actually contain several species that make up the woods classification which is based on the density of the wood.
The current trend by many pallet producers is to not separate out pallet material by species, but rather by hardwood vs softwood.
So most pallets are made of neither pine nor oak nor both together. So the Pine Realists and the Oak Nationalists defeated, world peace achieved, problem solved.
most pallets are made out of whatever wood is cheapest at the point of use, and adequately strong for the purpose. as noted, these days pallets are often divided into hardwood and softwood, or in some places, into three categories based on strength. The end-user rarely cares what kind of wood a pallet is made from as long as the objects strapped to it survive.
I have access to a lot of pallets from international shipping, and I’ve salvaged all kinds of fascinating tropical hardwoods and softwoods from pallets originating in south America, southeast Asia, East Africa, etc.
Often somewhat distressing from a sustainable forestry standpoint, but the deed was already done.
re: “swamp oak”, I’m sure that may be the predominant hardwood pallet wherever it’s the most affordable timber tree, but in a broader sense it’s actually one of the more desirable kinds of oak wood for strength and durability – the true “white oak” (quercus alba) and “swamp white oak” (quercus bicolor) are quite similar, and both are somewhat sturdier and more rot resistant than their red/black/other oak brethren.
I don’t know what the difference between swamp oak and regular oak is but they do use oak a lot in pallets because it’s strong wood if you ever try to hammer a nail through one forget about it you better pre-drill it first
Needs mouse…or rat. Different strokes (and bores) for different folks. 5 liters minimum though.
Also needs pulsejets.
Plenty of room where he has the rear idiotic spoiler. This dude makes ricers look smart.
Spoiler…ballast…whatever.
Woodies were big in the 40s.
those front wheels look like need more reinforcement they seem to be bending up under the weight of vehicle and rider
You can see at 7:45 that the steering spindles just have mad camber.
Tile stores use heavy duty (oak) pallets.
Why do we imagine our country represents mankind? Our outlook is on the skids. Make a pallet on the floor for all the still-driving men. You steel find people putting Descartes before the horse.