NRB Hybrid Go Kart

Electrical Routing in Solidworks

 After about a good week's worth of work and staying up till 2-3 o'clock in the morning, we had a very successful NRB (Navigation Rensselaer and Beyond). NRB is all the events welcome the freshman to Rensselaer and helping them get settled in their new environment. For our contribution we take a few freshman and put together a Go Kart, which we later take apart and have them assemble. This should help keep growing the team after our seniors graduated. Starting out this project ran into a lot of roadblocks. We planned all summer to make a brand new cart with electrical wiring and everything buts Sam, Kyle, and I decided that we didn't have time to weld the chassis to implement this overall design.

Original Go Kart Design

Deciding to just modify the old go kart chassis we used in previous NRB's we went to work. After a few nights of hard work, we got the cart to a state where the we could take it apart so the freshman could rebuild it for the first day of the NRB.

Checking the Etek Position

David after Mounting the Steering Rack

Finished Kart!

Mounting the Battery Box

Kart in pieces

After the incoming freshman put the go kart back together there were a few discrepancies that had to be rectified as pointed out by our advisor Casey Goodwin.  We then took the kart to JEC to make the necessary additions, and made sure that it would be able to handle the abuse of the following day. Despite a small miscommunication about getting the track reserved and some minor chain tensioning, the kart ran well. All the Freshmen had the opportunity to take it out for a drive, and we saw a lot of interest  in hybrids and our team. Overall the NRB and the new go kart was a great success and is a prelude of the successes in the season to come.