Firstly I have to say that Buggy News is briliant source of Buggy info and ultimately led me to my purchase of a Sahara 150. I thought I'd write a uniquely West Australian review of the buggy.
I have spent many nights searching the net for the coveted performance parts for buggies and whilst there's a lot out there which are US based, not many sell internationally (at least not by online purchase). This has made the ordering of some parts harder than I'd thought. The good news is I have managed to source and order the parts and they are now readily shipped to Perth.
OK, onto the review.
Firstly some background.
I live in Perth, Western Australia (WA). The former home of WRC Rally Australia and the only place in the world where the gravel is of a ball bearing nature. I once talked to a European World Rally Driver that described the WA gravel as dusty ice! Why did I go off on that tangent? I'll explain further down.
For the last year or so I'd been thinking about a Buggy. Back in the 80's when I was 10-12 years old, one of my friends had a Honda Odyssey. I remember that stock single seater was an absolute weapon and in the hands of 12 year olds, it was damn dangerous! (Although great fun) Luckily we lived on the outskirts of Perth where gravel tracks and bush were abundant and there wasn't a lot of people to get in the way.
When I looked into Odysseys in 2007, the 20+ year old buggies were still fetching $5K AUD (in good condition) which is way more than some 8 year old real cars cost!
With young kids of my own, I though about 2 seater buggies and lesser power than an Odyssey to allow them to learn to drive with one of us along side them. We also head away to the coast camping at both Christmas and Easter and run a lot of Motorsport on large properties. In the past, we'd had to walk our fishing gear down to the water over the dunes or along the beach and motorsport meant getting the thirsty 4 Wheel Drives (4x4 for the Americans) to crawl about or else we had to walk.
On searching the net, I found that I had a local bike dealer not far away from home and he had some buggies.
On chatting to the guy, I realised that he had a wealth of knowledge on the Chinese and Japanese trail bikes and also the Quads or ATV's, however not much on the buggies.
He knew about the Gy6 engines and the minor problems that could be encountered with a buggy, however apart from a better air filter and/or exhaust, he knew little else about making them perform better. This seems to be a common theme in Perth as far as import buggy knowledge goes, not surprising when the major markets for WA seem to be Trail & Quad bikes.
I parted with $2,500 AUD of my hard earned cash and left with my new 2008 Sahara 150 tightly strapped on the trailer.
The dealer had already done the assembly and pre-run checks.
Incidently, I had a thorough look at the buggy before I decided to purchase it and had a quick test drive too. Having built & raced rally cars for years and having a substantial mechanical knowledge, I decided the Sahara 150 was good value for money.
When we got the buggy home, we had a good look over it in the garage.
All the welds were sound, the tubes were all rolled smoothly and the general frame/chassis build was good, including the paint work.
Looking further, we checked the brakes (all hydraulic with cable hand brake). Decent callipers, reasonable sized cross drilled rotors and meaty brake pads. Key start, separate light switch, speedo, fuel guage, horn, brake lights & reverse gear....
Everything else looked in good order and the engine fired up and ran fine.
A few things we found that needed immediate attention.
The seats are supposed to sit side by side, however the frame had been drilled slightly wrong in the factory. The passenger and driver's seat were fouling on each other. To allow the driver's seat to adjust properly, I had to unbolt both seats and position the driver seat in front of the passenger's to allow for foward adjustment for our kids.
I also discovered that the factory harnesses (or rather the harness tensioners) supplied with the buggy are rubbish. They just simply come loose as soon as you tighten them. The harness bolts and mountings were also installed backwards. To fix the latter, simply unbolting and re-assembling correctly sorted the problem. To fix the tensioners required some lateral thinking, although a set of old 5 point 3" wide rally harnesses will be my next mod. There is no substitue for being properly strapped into any vehicle, especially a buggy.
We also noticed some of the electrical wiring was not positioned or secured very well. Some wiring could easily break or wear if left as from the factory. A few mintues un-plugging and re-routing a few wires and some new cable ties may save hours trying to sort a phantom electrical problem or worse luck, being stranded.
Whilst in the engine area we also removed the stock foam air filter, oiled it with air filter oil and put it back in. WA gravel dust is very fine and choking. Many engines have been destroyed by poor air filtration, it wasn't going to happen to my new buggy!
The next and very common issue was to spanner check every nut bolt and screw. Armed with Loctite, spanners and sockets, we found a few bolts loose.
The last two things to do were to lube the factory dry chain and grease the suspension. A few minutes with some graphite powder for the chain and a grease gun over the grease nipples finished everything off.
We took the kids and headed off to a quiet spot in the forest for a drive around.
We all took turns driving and riding in the buggy and the kids had a great afternoon. Typical of the WA summer in February, the temp was hitting the 35 degree C mark, however the air cooled Gy6 seemed quite happy to idle away and trot around at run-in pace through the bush without any dramas. Being used to 300HP WRX rally cars, the stock 150cc GY6 seemed somewhat boring to me to drive at first. I found out that getting momentum down hill would produce a good tail out drift at the bottom of a gravel slope, however the motor was not so happy about spinning the wheels on the exit to the corners and took a bit to get up to speed afterwards. I did find the brakes pulled the buggy up straight every time and that whilst the stock suspension is fairly stiff, it did give good ground clearance and absorbed the bumps fairly well. The factory suspension and tyre package did also grip the ball bearing gravel surprisingly well and I had the tyres upto 30 PSI for slightly faster running speed and to give a bit more slide!
Overall, I was impressed with our first gravel outing. The kids (and girlfriend) also enjoyed themselves greatly too.
The next gravel test came at a motorsport event we ran just a couple of weeks later. Again the temp was in the high 30's and we had 2 full days of gravel, dust and hills to contend with, including some night running.
The Sahara did well, not giving any trouble after running consistently for most of the 2 days. The only thing I had to do was tension the chain slightly at the end of the first day. The buggy would have easily covered 30km+ in driving back and forth plus carrying around equipment, the eskys (full of cold drinks) and being a general run around and taxi.
On the down hill or level harder surfaces, the buggy went well. At one point I glanced at the speedo touching 55km/h on a flat section of track. We even hearded sheep with the buggy to get them out of a paddock we were using! The farmers were very impressed and are now looking at buggies for the farm to replace thier ageing quad bikes. We also gave a couple of kangaroos a run for thier money along a fence line too. (believe me, kangaroos move fast!)
The Sahara's down fall was the hills. Any steeper gradient, the buggy's stock CVT settings let it down. With two 80kg adults in the buggy, the rollers were throwing out too early and the motor was bogging down. We got up all the hills, however a run up was required most of the time.
When we took the buggy on the beach at Easter, the results were the same. On the harder damp sand the buggy motored along ok, as soon as we hit softer sand, the buggy struggled. I did let the tyres down low on the sand too. Still, we never got stuck and carried kids and fishing gear in and out of our favourite spots. At one point it did take a bit to get away from a dog that thought it novel to chase a small vehicle with two people in it along the beach. The horn did help to aid in our escape!
After each trip onto the beach, we made sure we gave the whole buggy a good wash down to remove any salt water and sand.
Also between Feb and March (Easter) the run-in oil was drained and the buggy serviced. Apart from a light chain tension, air filter clean and re-lube, everything was fine.
As we use Castrol Edge synthetic oil in our rally cars, the same stuff was poured into the Buggy's GY6. With race oil in the engine and high octane ULP in the tank, the stock engine should go for a very long time...
Before the next outing in mid May, the buggy is going through some minor upgrades. As I don't have the time to fit a new carb, air filter or exhaust, the stock items will suffice for the moment. We have also found that after run in, the engine has a bit more power too.
What is on it's way from the US, is a 1500 RPM Yellow spring and some 9g rollers. An hour's work by all accounts, should cure our hill climbing issue and provide more driving flexibility for the vast differences in terrain we cover. I'll review the mods as they're fitted and put up further posts.
By all accounts a great buggy and worth the investment if you're looking for something fun and well designed. If you have kids they'll love it. For me, the buggy is much safer than a quad or trail bike too. Also for a few hundred dollars, the buggies can be easily upgraded to produce more power and have better driveablity. I say this, as the difference in price between the 150cc & the 250cc buggy was $1,500 AUD.
Following on to my last post, I have now fitted the first of a few planned upgrades to the buggy.
In working on the CVT I encountered a few problems with siezed clutch & front pulley nuts. Have a look in the repairs/maintenance forum for the thread on removing siezed CVT nuts, it's worth a read to be well prepared, just in case.
Due to the shortness of time when I finally got the CVT apart, I only changed the roller weights.
I decided on the 9 gram weights as it seemed the best place to start and we do climb a lot of hills and run along the beach a lot too. Worst case, I figured it will only take a few days to order heavier roller weights.
Over the weekend just gone we used the buggy extensively to set & run motorsport. There were a lot of hills and gravel tracks designed for cars to race on as you'd expect on any rally circuit. The perfect testing ground for the buggy's new mod.
What a difference!
As many have said in different posts throughout this forum, developing the CVT will make the buggy a totally different drive.
Apart from the new rollers in the CVT (stayed with rollers, did not go for the sliders... yet) my buggy is stock. The acceleration, hill climbing and general drive (fun factor) has increased significantly!
Where the stock Sahara 150 would not spin the wheels or get the tail out without some speed, the new rollers have changed the effective rev range in which to use the stock GY6's power.
The buggy will now spin on dirt from a standing start and easily step the rear out in a corner with a tramp on the accelerator.
We climbed some very steep hills when herding sheep away from the track as well as when setting some of the rally tests and the buggy lapped it up.
We also had to cross several deep water ruts carved through some of the paddocks and the buggy easily climbed out of them from a standing start as well.
I did notice a slight drop in top speed (approx 5km/h less), however as the buggy now accelerates to top speed much quicker and is more fun to drive, the overall top speed is not really a concern. For me, the 9g weights are perfect.
The next mod will be to fit a performance clutch and the 1500rpm clutch spring as well as fit a new bigger exhaust and free flowing air filter.
If those mods aren't done for a while, I'm not bothered. The change in roller weights alone has me satisfied that this very cheap and relatively easy upgrade has been worthwhile.
I'll continue this review thread as the upgrades are done.
Thanks Karl for the great write up! I enjoyed reading what you have so far here and look forward to more from you.
Welcome to BuggyNews Mate _________________ DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT!!!!!!!!!
DAZON 150 SINGLE SEAT
2.5inch rear wheel spacers
1.5inch front wheel spacers
UNI, 130jet, BIGE built intake tube, custom built exhaust, royal purple oil
Excellent review! I enjoyed reading it. So, any pictures of this beauty? _________________ Carter GSX150R2-10 Gram Rollers, 1500RPM Spring, Koso Clutch, Bike Speedometer, Rooftop Lights, 12V Power Plug, and Better battery
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