So you want to buy a dune buggy. You’re new to the sport, don’t know much about it, but it looks hot. So you’ve decided to find a dune buggy for sale and buy it and get into the sport. Before you consider buying a dune buggy there’s a few things you ought to think about.
Number 1 is to decide whether you should build your dune buggy or buy it. Now of course for many that’s not an issue. Building a dune buggy is a drawn out process requiring many skills and a lot of time, and it’s something that you don’t tackle lightly. Dune buggies are just like any other vehicle, if you want to build one you need to know what you’re doing, or it won’t work. Don’t try to build your own dune buggy unless you’re confident in your skills, and you have the time. Expect it to take a while. It’s not a project you start today and you’re sand driving next week.
Otherwise you need to find a good dune buggy for sale and buy it. There’s lots of dune buggies for sale, but not all of them will suit your needs. So here’s a few more things for the dune buggy buyer to think about.
Firstly decide what your needs are. Where are you going to drive your buggy and what do you want it to do? For example there are many who just want a hot buggy to cruise the streets. That’s fine, but if you you’ve got different needs to someone who wants to do some serious sand driving.
For example it needs to be street legal. No point in buying a buggy and finding out that you can’t take it on the road. And there’s really no point in buying a buggy with great four wheel drive for instance, if it doesn’t need 4wd to cruise the streets. You’re just spending money on something that you don’t need.
How many people are you hoping to carry in your new buggy? Now of course you’re unlikely to be taking the whole family shopping in it, but there are still plenty of people who want to take their girlfriend, say, on a great sand driving weekend. To do this you need to be able to seat the 2 of you. Or is it just you, in which case a single seater will be fine. And it is possible to buy buggies that take up to 4 people, though this is rare.
What size buggy do you want? This of course relates to what you want it to do, but there are also other factors to take into consideration. For example you are limited by your storage space, if your garage will only fit a buggy of a certain size then that’s the maximum size you can buy unless you want it to sit out in the weather.
What size trailer do you have, or can you borrow? Because of course if you buy a buggy that’s too big for your trailer you’re in all sorts of trouble. Some buggies are street legal of course, so don’t need a trailer if you can drive them to where you plan to play, but many need to be trailered.
Learn a bit about the different build and motor options you have, and learn some of the terminology. For example do you know what a sandrail buggy is if you see a sandrail dune buggy for sale? Do you know what different types of frames there are? What’s a Baja bug? Like all sports dune buggies have their own lingo, and you need to learn it.
And finally, learn as much as you can about motors and how they work. Whether you want to or not you’ll be doing plenty of dirty hands on work. Even if you’ve decided that buying a buggy is the way to go for you because you couldn’t build one, be prepared for plenty of time spent with hot oily hands. Driving a buggy is a heap of fun, but it comes with it’s own work, and if you’re new you need to understand the basics of mechanics, and be prepared to get your hands dirty and learn fast. That’s fun too, but it’s all part of being a buggy driver.
This may all sound a bit basic to the seasoned buggy drivers out there, but for the person just looking to get into the sport there are some basic questions to answer. Do your homework. And if you’re not prepared to build one you’ll need to find a great dune buggy for sale, and buy it, but only after you’ve sorted out exactly what it is you need.
And of course set aside some money. There are some great places where you can find cheap dune buggies for sale, but even so expect it to cost a bit. It’s motorsport, and owning a dune buggy is no exception.
