Most Tarantula builds reach us as a handful of photos. This one is a film. HolmesMade starts with square steel tube on a folding table and ends with a kid pinning a bare-metal suspension kart across the back field, and shows most of the cuts and welds in between.
The running gear is nothing exotic: a Harbor Freight Predator 212, a Comet TAV2 torque converter, a parts kit from BMIKarts, and a Kubota tractor seat from Tractor Supply. You can source all of it in an afternoon. The fabrication is the part you cannot buy, and it is where this build earns the spotlight.
It Starts With a Chop Saw and Square Tube
No jig table. No fixturing. Layout marks, a chop saw, and a Hobart humming in the corner. That is the whole idea behind the Tarantula: the frame repeats the same handful of parts, so the skill you pick up on the first bracket carries straight to the next three.
“In this video we go from steel tubing to a driving GoKart. We did a custom build of a SpiderCarts Tarantula kart.”
- HolmesMade
Predator 212, a TAV2, and a Tractor-Supply Seat
Look at the pivot brackets. The welds are tidy and the rear swing arm and coilover are hung square, which is what keeps the geometry honest the moment a rider loads the frame. That travel is the reason the Tarantula exists. Four wheels and real rear suspension, so it takes rough ground without rattling your fillings loose.
The First Drive
A build is only as good as its shakedown. The closing shots have the kart pulling hard across an open field, suspension eating the bumps, throttle nowhere near pinned. For a first serious fabrication job out of a home garage, that is a result to be proud of.
Go watch the full four minutes, and leave HolmesMade a comment while you are there. If it makes you want to cut some steel of your own, the Tarantula plans are below.
Watch the full build