Have you ever wondered how they get away with it? You spend hours prepping and welding your buggy and rightly expect it to withstand the vagaries of off-roading, yet imported buggies and other ill-conceived contraptions from well known manufacturers often display roughly hacked tubes and brackets with poultry-poo welds.  

They usually do get away with it initially, but their poor construction will let them down eventually. 

It's not just buggy builders that can create mayhem; the car designers themselves can get it woefully wrong too. Some imports appear to be designed by draughtsmen who are obviously more accustomed to designing industrial plant than off-road buggies and you have to wonder if they've ever sat in a buggy let alone driven one off-road.  

Even some of the sandcar and buggy builders who should know better get it awfully wrong. It's easy enough to design a basic chassis using the 'join-the-dots' principal, but off-road suspension is a very misunderstood topic and its comprehension seemingly evades a lot of designers. 

Below is a selection of pictures either sent to me or gleaned from the internet. If you've snapped some design or engineering atrocities in your travels, you can submit them here.

Click any of the images for a larger view.

Design Flaws

 

		One of the most fundamental aspects of designing suspensions is providing occupant safety. Allowing the chassis to contact the ground when the suspension is at full bump is regarded as a capital offence in most countries.
		Blatant disregard for one's spinal well-being can lead to lengthy hospitalisation or worse.
		Not even a suspension seat can save you from repeated landings like this. Anyway, to rely on the squishyness of a seat in place of properly designed suspension is mad to say the least!
		Positive camber on the outside wheels can lead to an unplanned excursion into the scrub or even a roll-over... and those lights look expensive!
		Another example of positive camber. The additional loading and stress on the suspension joints can cause premature wear too.
		This example of positive camber is so severe that the tyre is in imminent danger of being peeled off the rim. That usually results in the rim digging into the dirt and flipping the car over.
		High speed roll-overs can be extremely costly and painful. All it takes is one small rock or pot-hole and the positive-cambered outside wheel will dig in and thereafter the occupants will be passengers in an unhappy journey.

Builders' Bodges

 

		Poultry-poo at its very worst. This is obviously a production vehicle and for this appalling weld to have passed quality inspection is beyond comprehension!
		Don't be fooled by a smart looking paint job. This is what appeared after this cage was sandblasted.
		Just point to the offender and pass me a shotgun!
		What can I say!
		Did they really think paint would strengthen it?
		When your life depends on your welding ability, you better know how to do it properly! This spindle was never going to stay attached for long.

Random Madness

		If this half-arsed limit strap mount even survived one jump I'd be very surprised. Never mind the clamp, just look at the adjuster angle versus the pull angle!
		I like kids (I used to go to school with a lot of them) and I believe they should be offered a reasonable chance of survival. The owner/operator of these little darlings obviously doesn't share my sentiments. Apart from the harness inadequacies, that wrist restraint won't prevent his little hand from being smashed against the chassis in a roll-over.