Alan Will                       ATTEX into a SPRINGER
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  Hi Richard & everyone @ Route 6x6.

My name is Whipper & I live in Phoenix, Az. Since the early 70's, I have
always wanted to build a 6x6 Springer. About a year ago, I bought an Attex
on e-bay.

The car was in pretty good shape, but needed a total restoration. I
never liked the small 1" axles on the Attex, so I took the frame out & cut
off the outer side rails & replaced it w/4" channel so I could run 1 1/4"
axles. I also put larger bearings on the inside & made my own splined axles
& sprockets. I added some Max chain adjusters, front & rear. I threw the
twin cylinder 2 stroke away & bought a 50 hp Briggs & Stratton from
Performance V-Twins. It has 10.5:1 compression & I have to run AV gas.
I sanded the body & had it painted corvette yellow. I also built a 6 point
roll cage for it & fabricated a new aluminum dashboard.

I know this started out as a restoration, but I was really building an Attex racer. My top speed when I got it together was 58mph with no suspension. That's when I decided that this was the car I wanted to make a Springer. These are just a few pics, so you can see the transformation. When I get the time, I'll post more details of how it became a Springer.

Whipper

 

 

     
 
 
  Second Installment  
  Now with the Attex complete and running, I could tackle the next problem- how to make a bolt on Springer Kit and still make the car seaworthy. I decided to use a sideplate that would bolt up to the same holes as the bearings, so I moved the bearings to the outside of the plate. Now I would have something to attach all the suspension parts to. The next thing needed was a bearing carrier and a spindle to attach the wheel. I went with a VW rabbit front spindle & bearing, and all I had to do was make the carrier.What made this pretty easy to do was the wheels only had to go up & down and not turn. So with an upper & lower trailing arm, all they had to be was the same length and the wheel would stay straight throughout its travel. I came up with all kinds of ideas for the arms. I started out using chrome moly tubing, but that didn't work out. It would have been too much welding and too many jigs & fixtures. I ended up using 11 gage steel and had them cut on a water jet and formed in a press brake. Now, the only fixture I needed was one to set all the tabs in the right position. Since the outer rabbit spindle had its own CV joint, I had to come up w/ a CV joint for the inner axle just outside the body. For that I used a Type I VW CV joint. I had to make all new inner axles w/a VW flange to accept that CV joint. Then all I had to do was make the outer axles to connect the 2 CV joints.

Whipper

 

 

 

     
 

Excellent movies of the Springer in action, from the Verde River in AZ

Movie #1
Movie #2

 

     
  Third Installment  
 

Now with all the parts done it was time to assemble. One of the last things I had to make was a weld fixture to locate all the tabs that would hold the trailing arms and the shocks. If you noticed the arms are tilted back at 10 deg, That was to make an easy transition through it's travel and not force the wheels straight up and down. Now the wheels would travel back and then up.That makes for a very smooth ride.The weld fixture was made with 2 locating pins so I could tilt the arms 10 deg in the opposite directions for the other side of the car. The side plate has two 60 deg bends, top & bottom in opposite directions, the top one bends out to hook the shocks to and the bottom one goes under the car. Those 2 bends made the plate very strong and not able to flex.The plate bolts to the stock bearing holes in the car with the flanges and bearings on the outside of the side plates. Then just bolted everything on to the tabs.I had guessed on the spring weights to start out and it was to weak and ended up with 200lb springs. That worked out perfect.
It is truly a pleasure to ride a 6 wheel ATV at it's full potential, I can now ride as fast as I want and have total control , and not have to slow down for every bump, hole and rock in the road.I can keep up with quads, rhino's and sand rails, and I never have to worry about bending an axle ever again.I tend to go overboard sometimes and some people call it overkill, but it is truly maintenence free, and that is what I was after. More ride time! I just finished a Springer kit for my wife's Max II. I made a few changes and upgrades I'll post some pics of it soon.And yes the cars still float! I hope to make these kits available in the near future.I've got a lot more road testing to do first. This kit does provide 6" of full wheel travel.

Whipper

 

 

 

 

 

Great Videos of Alan Will riding in the AZ desert

Video #1 ............Video #2...........Video #3

 

Video of a MAX II with suspension system
Video

 
 

 

 

 
My Attex springers & my wife's Max II SS (Super Springer) were everything I hoped for. I guess I couldn't stop there. I decided to springer a Max IV.
The donor frame was out of a 1979 Max IV. I threw the body away, rebuilt & relocated the T-20 & modified the frame for Max II chain adjusters. I modified all the linkage to heim joints & fabricated an adjustable motor mount. The motor is a 60 hp water cooled hi-performance V-Twin Briggs. I hope it's enough power.
It's not being built as a 4 seater. My intent is to have a big 2 seater w/ plenty of room to store behind the seat ,camping gear & supplies.
With most of the modifications done that I wanted to do to the frame, it was ready to get springered. Still lots to do. I'll post more pics as we progress. Here's a video of how we assembled Godzilla in under 7 minutes.
Whipper

 

 

 

 

 

 
Video of how we assembled Godzilla in under 7 minutes