Have you ever dreamed of building a giant go-kart powered by a Chevy 454 big block? On this Dirt Every Day
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MotorTranscript
00:00 [engine revving]
00:13 This week on Do It Every Day we're going to talk to you about go-karts and motorhomes
00:17 and how to turn motorhomes into go-karts.
00:20 [laughing]
00:22 [music]
00:42 [music]
00:48 As you can see, go-karts are a really good time, but they're also kind of a pain in the butt.
00:53 The problem with a go-kart is it's hard to start, it's small, kind of dangerous.
01:00 I mean, those are all good things, but wouldn't it be cool if you could have a bigger go-kart?
01:05 Something with big power?
01:08 Like this motorhome that we have here.
01:10 Look, it's got a 454 under the hood, followed by a turbo 400 transmission.
01:18 What if you could put those parts in a go-kart?
01:21 I've got to make a phone call.
01:24 [laughing]
01:28 [music]
01:39 I realize that to pull off the project that I have in mind, I'm going to need some help.
01:43 I made a phone call to the local off-road club known as the Polly Goats.
01:47 This is a club from a local university and is made up of a bunch of smart kids
01:50 who like nothing more than to work on wild off-road projects.
01:54 I want to turn this motorhome into a go-kart.
01:58 So, the only thing we have to do today is destroy the motorhome,
02:03 except for the engine and the axles, and put it all in that dumpster.
02:08 Come on in. Make yourself at home.
02:13 Anything inside the motorhome, put it in the dumpster.
02:17 [music]
02:37 I tried to be as methodical as possible in our destruction.
02:40 First, everything inside that could be smashed or tossed out was,
02:44 and then the windows were pulled to try and reduce any danger of broken glass.
02:48 [music]
03:05 So, the only thing that I felt like we had to do before we completely destroyed the thing
03:09 is disconnect all these batteries.
03:11 The motorhome actually has three batteries that we want to get disconnected
03:14 so that if we sawzall through some wires, we don't set the thing on fire.
03:19 This is going to be the best go-kart ever.
03:23 Next, it was mayhem as usual, as the crew took sawzalls, hammers, axes,
03:26 and any sort of destructive tool they could find to tear down every wall of the camper.
03:33 Somehow, having people inside the pace arrow swinging wildly with sledgehammers,
03:38 while others were on the roof cutting out the ceiling,
03:40 didn't result in anyone getting crushed or seriously maimed.
03:44 In fact, we didn't even have a single report of a splinter,
03:47 as we quickly filled a giant dumpster full of motorhome parts.
03:50 [music]
04:04 You may remember this '86 pace arrow from a previous episode of Dirt Every Day.
04:08 That's when we took it off-roading and compared it to a four-wheel-drive van from Sportsmobile.
04:12 This big, ugly motorhome has been sitting in my driveway for a year now.
04:16 It's been slowly deteriorating, and most of the house parts of the motorhome
04:19 are no longer working.
04:21 I've been trying to figure out how to get rid of it,
04:23 and chopping it up to make into a giant toy seems like a great solution.
04:26 [music]
04:30 All right, we've been at this for about an hour or so,
04:33 and the thing is already looking awesome.
04:37 This is going to be the coolest go-kart ever.
04:39 You may recall there was a Roadkill episode last year
04:42 where they tried to take the engine out of a motorhome.
04:44 I think that's the mistake. You don't want to take the engine out.
04:46 You want to just keep it all together and take the motorhome off of the rest of the motorhome.
04:51 Something like that.
04:53 [music]
04:56 We are definitely making a huge mess here,
04:59 and safety is definitely probably about our third concern, you can see.
05:04 I mean, everybody's got their safety glasses on, of course, and gloves.
05:08 And they're--
05:10 I don't know if he realizes that there's not a whole lot of wall holding up that ladder,
05:14 but I'm sure he'll be fine.
05:15 That's why they have all these kids.
05:17 When you're in college, you can do whatever the heck you want.
05:19 You're not going to get hurt.
05:21 Why don't you hook one of your 4x4s to that ladder
05:23 and see if you can pull the whole back of it off.
05:26 There you go, right there.
05:28 [music]
05:31 [engine revving]
05:34 [music]
05:37 [engine revving]
05:40 [music]
05:43 [engine revving]
05:46 [music]
05:49 [engine revving]
05:52 [music]
05:55 [music]
06:02 I think we're going to need a bigger dumpster.
06:04 [music]
06:11 Beautiful.
06:13 Michael Jordan clock.
06:17 There's no hands on it.
06:19 [laughs]
06:21 It's always time to play basketball.
06:24 I look good on the dash with my go-kart.
06:27 [music]
06:30 [music]
06:35 The rain didn't ever fully stop, and the hungry crew was starting to slow down.
06:39 But after a few hundred dollars of cheeseburgers, they were ready for more destruction.
06:43 The first order of business was a truck stack.
06:46 A truck stack is when you drive your rock crawler up on top of another rock crawler.
06:50 Or in this case, onto a giant half-destroyed motorhome.
06:53 [music]
06:55 Not up, not up, you got it.
06:57 Of course, the prerequisite club photo soon followed.
07:00 And even though everybody was soaking wet, there wasn't a frown in the group.
07:04 [music]
07:08 Best neighbors ever just pulled through.
07:11 They were just like, "Oh, you did it. That's great."
07:15 [laughter]
07:16 "You finally chopped it up." And I was like, "Yep."
07:18 And they were like, "That's awesome."
07:20 Like no mention of the destruction, the mud bog, the 40 trucks.
07:25 It was just like, "Okay, see ya."
07:27 [music]
07:30 [music]
07:34 Most of the home portion of the motorhome was torn off and hucked in the dumpster.
07:38 What was left of the dash and front controls put up a fight.
07:42 But those poly goats gave it a royal beatdown until everything finally fell off.
07:47 [music]
08:00 Even though the rain continued dumping, we quickly turned that luxury home on wheels
08:04 into a bare frame rail with a big block 454.
08:07 Perfect for a full-size go-kart.
08:10 With the RV ransacked, we needed something new to entertain ourselves.
08:14 And the poly goats were soon focused on getting the little go-kart up and running.
08:18 A few hundred pulls on the starter rope, and the next thing you know,
08:20 they were turning my yard into a mud bog as they ripped around in the little buggy,
08:24 flat tire and all.
08:26 [music]
08:37 [music]
08:45 [music]
08:59 We could have torn up the whole neighborhood, but to resist ticking off
09:02 my extremely tolerant neighbors, I shut down the party and the kids all left,
09:06 claiming they had some sort of important Saturday night studying to attend to.
09:10 [music]
09:12 Wow. We made it through a whole rainy day on this motorhome, and it looks awesome.
09:20 Those guys from the poly goats, they did a great job. I mean, look at this.
09:23 Yesterday, you could have lived in this thing. Today, you could barely drive it.
09:28 But that's perfect, because when I build this thing into a go-kart,
09:31 we don't want all that extra stuff. We want it to be really simple.
09:35 So, as you can see, down to the frame rails, just as we planned.
09:39 And here's our guys. Hey, poly goats. You guys did awesome yesterday.
09:46 Thank you.
09:47 Look at this thing. I mean, it's--
09:49 It looks like a pile of trash.
09:51 Yeah, there's a few piles of trash around, but I think that's great.
09:54 That's what we wanted. I mean, this is going to make an awesome go-kart.
09:57 So what's the plan? How is this a go-kart?
09:59 Well, this thing is going to, you know, get some--I don't know. We'll figure it out.
10:06 [laughter]
10:07 The only thing I have for the go-kart is this right here, a set of 46-inch Mickey Thompsons.
10:15 But unfortunately, these are on wheels that are 8 lug, and the motorhome's 10 lug.
10:23 We just need two bolts, right?
10:24 Right, yeah. You only need enough to hold it together.
10:26 We can line up two bolts and it'll be fine.
10:28 We still got a little bit of work to do.
10:30 Somewhere between yesterday, we were moving the house portion.
10:34 All the steering is gone, the brakes.
10:38 First things first, should we see if we can get it to fire up?
10:41 Yeah.
10:42 Does it work?
10:43 Yeah, we just need this to go all the way back to there, and the brakes all the way back to there,
10:48 and the transmission shifter all the way back to there.
10:51 I think you guys got this.
10:53 All right, that's it for Dirt Every Day.
10:56 Tune in next time when we take our giant man-sized go-kart, go out and have a good time.
11:01 Big block. Every go-kart should have a big block.
11:04 Seems legit.
11:12 Here it is, gentlemen.
11:15 Best day ever!
11:24 Whoa!
11:26 Uh-oh.
11:28 [engine starting]
11:30 [laughing]
11:47 [laughing]
11:49 [laughing]
11:51 (laughing)
11:53 (upbeat music)