T-man's Karts
T-man's Tumbler go kart (the wesite)
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In the summer of 08 I started mowing lawns as an extra form of income for the house. In that time I came across one customer that had a go kart sitting out behind their house not driven for years. I asked if they would be interested in selling it to me and they did. I took it home and had to get a new motor, and torque converter for it. I drove that thing around with my kids for the rest of the summer, they loved it.
It started getting cold outside and the lawn mowing business dropped out. There I was with a lot of time.
I started thinking of how fun it was to drive that go kart around and thought to my self " I would like to try to build one" , so I started to search the internet and I was coming across a lot of designs that I didn't like, there were the real plane frame ones , I didn't like those because they were to generic looking, Then there were the off road ones, I didn't like those because they were to springy looking, then there were the racing ones and those don't work very good on grass and dirt roads.
I then started my search in designs of futuristic looking cars, and then it happened ( I saw the movie trailer for batman the dark knight) Oh…. that car would be cool to build as a go kart, then I thought " hey the first dark knight movie came out in 05 so there has to be some one out there that has built a go kart version of it"
I started my search, and searched some more, Nothing. "What!!! No one has done this", I told my girl friend about it and then I said " I'm going to do it" "I'll be the first one" . "Ya right" she said "you've never done that stuff befor"
The build of the T-kart started in November of 08, I started building it up in a CAD program called Solid Works.
Taking measurements of my own body and estimating placement of parts and structure I started designing.
First was the arms/front and how they would hold the tires and structure in relation to the look of the car. Then came the rear end, then the mid-frame, and Finally the panels.
In the time I was designing this, it came to mind that I should see if others would be interested in building one also. That is when I decided that I was going to sell the plans , so I had better do a good job.
The weather started getting warmer. I started a build log on Chickslovethecar.com (http://www.chickslovethecar.com/board/Topic73566-27-1.aspx)
Feb. 9, 2009 Time to attack.
The lawn mowing season hadn't started yet, so I had time to start and get a good amount don.
I started working on the middle frame of the kart. When I got that done I would go into the house and post pictures of my progress on the build log. That is what I did for 5 months strait, everyday. I knew the lawn mowing season would be starting up so I was on a time limit.
The popularity started early, two months after I started my build a fellow member of the build log (Conrad) informed me the it was being carried by Google (search tumbler go kart). A few weeks went by and I decided to start posting videos.
Not to much attention at first until I made my video of me driving it. Then after I had it done I started to sell the plans on Ebay. Then it happened, someone, big, saw my eBay listing and the video that I put on it and then everything went crazy.
August 10th (my 36th birthday ) 2009 the views of the video of me driving it started to skyrocket. The video was getting posted to big websites like
Cinematical http://www.cinematical.com/2009/08/13/fan-made-create-your-own-batman-tumbler-go-kart/
Comicsalliance http://www.comicsalliance.com/2009/08/19/man-builds-the-dark-knight-batmobile-in-go-kart-form/
Mtv http://splashpage.mtv.com/2009/08/19/homemade-tumbler-batmobile-yes-please/
This went bigger then I thought or could have imagined, and the rest is history.
I now have a website www.tmanskarts.com two youtube channels ( tully712and Tmanskarts ). The build log of the kart at ( http://www.chickslovethecar.com/board/Forum27-1.aspx) Listed as T-man's Tumbler Go-kart and another build log where my new designs will be ( http://www.chickslovethecar.com/board/Forum17-1.aspx) Listed as T-man's karts .
The T-kart plans were offered for all most two years, in that time only 57 plans were sold. So the decision was made to pull them off the market and pursue other avenues, a product that doesn’t sell isn’t worth holding on to. December 2010 was the last month.
The Story of the T-kart ( tumbler )
The T-kart
A rendition of the batmobile tumbler in the dark knight movies.
A rendition of the batmobile tumbler in the dark knight movies.
In December of 2010 the decision was made to pull the sales of the T-kart.
Please be sure to view all my videos and my build log before purchasing. There are parts of the plans that have been left out ( video 5 ) because the outcome of the build will differ based on the equipment that you use compared to what I used. Also for Legality reasons, I don't want Warner Brothers or DC Comics comming after me.... gulp !
T-kart plans $37.00
Order NOW
Order NOW
I am selling the T-kart plans for the next month.
