Trailer pulling with eZip: 36v + gearing change?

I've got one of the $300ish Wal-Mart eZips, and also a Burley Nomad trailer. I've used the trailer behind a nonassisted bike and going up Asheville's hills was pretty grim.

So I'd like to pull the trailer with the eZip, but it's marginal on steeper hills already. Looking for a low-cost solution, it seems like a 36v upgrade combined with lower gearing in the motor's chain drive might do the job. I need pulling power more than speed, and maybe lower gearing would keep the motor from frying.

Has anyone done this? I haven't found anything like this in searching the forums.

Thanks for any suggestions - I realize that a whole new drive system would be better, but we just got my wife an iZip Trailz Enlightened for her (short) commute so my daydreams of 48v+ Crystalites may have to wait :|

- Dave

I would stay with 24V. You need more amps and cooling to handle hills... I don't think you can get much lower gearing without converting to BB drive.

I would explore adding a motor to the trailer.

You have a great trailer!! I

have one and love it for doing my load hauling duties... I've loaded mine up with 90 lbs before and it still handles great.

Kyakdiver

TylerDurden said:

I would explore adding a motor to the trailer.

Click to expand...

Well, I have an old ETC Express unit that I put on a Ross mountain bike for a while... way too wide to put on one of the trailer wheels, and there's nowhere to put it on the eZip.

I'll look around to see if anyone else has motorized a Nomad... or bite the bullet and get a better drive system 8)

thanks - Dave

davespicer said:

I'll look around to see if anyone else has motorized a Nomad... or bite the bullet and get a better drive system 8)

Click to expand...

http://www.rqriley.com/b-pusher.htm



That's a currie drive... You could hack something similar.

TylerDurden said:

http://www.rqriley.com/b-pusher.htm
...
That's a currie drive... You could hack something similar.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Tyler I'm not that good at piecing things together but had another thought: Suppose I pulled the Currie SLA pack from the rear rack and just let the existing chain-drive motor sit there unused. Then adding a BL36 Wilderness package to the front wheel would give me everyday power. When it's time to tow the trailer, sliding the Currie pack back into the rack would give me two drive systems.

Sounds like something out of Frankenstein and it'd be pretty heavy, but:

- it would leave the Currie drive system at 24 volts
- the WE system could come off and be put onto something else in the future
- the combination of 36x50 and 24x10, neither designed for high speeds, ought to get the rig up hills. (But would the 24x10 even be worth bothering with? Not much additional power...)

Two throttles and power switches etc would be a PITA but on the other hand if someone tried stealing it, it'd be so slow unpowered I could walk over and steal it back

For the money I don't see a better solution, but I'm sure open to suggestions. Thanks again, guys!

- Dave

davespicer said:

For the money I don't see a better solution, but I'm sure open to suggestions. Thanks again, guys!

Click to expand...

That works.

Don't underestimate the currie/Unite motor... it can kick out >500W in periodic use, esp. if drilled (like in my sig).

davespicer said:

I've got one of the $300ish Wal-Mart eZips, and also a Burley Nomad trailer. I've used the trailer behind a nonassisted bike and going up Asheville's hills was pretty grim.

So I'd like to pull the trailer with the eZip, but it's marginal on steeper hills already. Looking for a low-cost solution, it seems like a 36v upgrade combined with lower gearing in the motor's chain drive might do the job. I need pulling power more than speed, and maybe lower gearing would keep the motor from frying.

Has anyone done this? I haven't found anything like this in searching the forums.

Thanks for any suggestions - I realize that a whole new drive system would be better, but we just got my wife an iZip Trailz Enlightened for her (short) commute so my daydreams of 48v+ Crystalites may have to wait :|

- Dave

Click to expand...

hi dave... did you make mods to your ezip to add the capacity to pull a trailer? What kind of trailer hitch/attachment setup did you use? Since the motor blocks where normally trailers would attach on the ezip, I am wondering how you solved this issue. Thanks for your input. (and anyone elses for that matter )

How2 said:

Since the motor blocks where normally trailers would attach on the ezip, I am wondering how you solved this issue.

Click to expand...

Um... I haven't yet.

The simplest way would have been to remove the original motor/gearbox and rely on a front hub motor instead. Then there'd be all kinds of mounting/attaching points available. But it looks like the forks are too narrow for the WE unit. So the issue isn't solved but instead rendered moot, because attaching a trailer to an otherwise-stock eZip doesn't sound good in my circumstances. It might be okay if the terrain was flat or nearly-flat; around here (Asheville) it'd be asking for trouble. The motor gets pretty warm up some hills even with my help; adding more weight to that situation just doesn't seem feasible. There are plenty of folks on this forum with the skills, experience, and confidence to work all kinds of modification magic (cooling, for example)... I'm good at other things but not that, so I need to stick a lot closer to simpler, less-involved solutions.

With that in mind, I'm now thinking of putting a BL36 front hub onto an old Ross Mt. Whitney mountain bike which I have already set up with Big Apple tires and Avid brakes (SD7s I think). I have already used the trailer with that bike; all it took was drilling out the hitch to match the rear axle size since there are no quick-disconnects. The gearing is also a lot more flexible.

Then I can look at, say, getting a lighter battery pack for the eZip to use for plain ol' riding around... although it might not get ridden much once that Ross got put together!

thanks for the response dave and good luck with your project. Asheville has killer hills for sure! i'm here in knox, and only get bad hills in downtown, but transit takes me there so i've solved the hill issue for now.

does anyone else have ideas how to attach a trailer to a stock ezip?

Would this hitch work?
http://www.bikesatwork.com/bike-trailer-parts/

hmmm.. ya know gogo... that just might work.

the motor protrudes about 2 inches out from the frame, and then there's a battery rack to consider. It's hard to tell what kind of clearance this gives but it looks like it "may" work? Perhaps I'll give that company a call. Thank you!

I agree with some of the above posts. In particular, you have alot of weight on the rear wheel. The front wheel is featherweight in comparison. Also, you are pulling a trailer/wagon with the rear. All the stress is on the rear wheel.
There is a weight imbalance here and I agree that a front wheel hub motor kit ( e.g.Wilderness Energy or Crystalyte) would be better. rtl

Heavy loads and hills are more gearmotor territory. there is a guy on ebay selling the bafang at a decent price today. I was real impressed with my BD36 ability to climb a big hill on my route. but doing it in summer heat, over 100F, it lasted about 400 miles. The Izip motor on the trailer sounds cool to me, though. and any motor on the bike.

Instead of adding another single bat, add two more in parallel and add a 2nd motor and controller. You could throw the extra bats on the trailer- same volts, twice the amp capability. There was another guy here who did dual motors, maybe he could help you out with how to do it.

Hi Dave. I have just read through this thread. Don't really have any ideas for solving your power problem, but two motors would help a lot. Since the bike already has a motor, boosting it up to 36V and adding a front hub motor that also runs at 36V would be the easiest. Some of those small geared freewheeling hub motors like the puma (I think) would appeal to me. I just reviewed the design of your trailer and it looks like it would be difficult to motorize. If you could devise a frame member that went out around the wheel, like their other cargo trailer does, then you could install a pair of hub motors on the trailer.

All my experience with two or three motors on the same rig was with identical WE BD36's with a common battery pack and a controller for each motor. I did try one experiment with a WE BD36 on the bike and a brushless scooter motor on the trailer, 100% independent, including having two throttles. It worked, but I didn't like it at all, and when trying to use both motors at the same time it was impossible to tell which motor needed more throttle, etc.

This guy right here has 2 motors on an ezip:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4936&p=73681&hilit=kurt#p73681