300lb friend would like a electric trike!

[JEB]

I have a neighbor/friend who is 22 years old, he weighs 300lbs, he would like to purchase a trike that would carry his weight, and another 100lbs of load (motor, battery, controller, groceries, etc.) max. speed 12mph~, the only one I have found is the Workman trike, seat is too high (cg) He cannot get up from a low seat like the (KMX) needs something around normal chair height. Delta or tadpole?. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks,JEB

 

[Rassy]

JEB, I have a TerraTrike Rover that is rated for 400 pounds. Before Utah Trikes quit handling the TerraTrike line they did recommend you limit the max load to about 350 pounds. Carrying a heavier load could be eliminated by using a little trailer when going shopping, etc. There have also been some concerns about a faulty weld or weak point on some Rover's, but I have not observed any issue. One good thing about the Rover, even though it's a tadpole, the seat is about the same height as an office chair.

I also used to have a Sun EZ3 USX which is a delta trike with under seat steering. The back wheels slant in at the top (cantilevered) which helps with stability when cornering. My Daughter-in-Law still has the trike. Mine was an earlier model and the new ones are similar but beefed up quite a bit.

The Rover starts at about $700 for the basic single speed and of course goes up as a multi speed hub and other options are added.

I think the USX is somewhere around $1500 and has a standard 21 speed derailleur system.

Any recumbent style trike should be more comfortable and more stable than a standard adult trike.

 

[teklektik]

I know he's looking for a trike, but a cargo bike like a Yuba Mundo or Big Dummy would carry the load if the idea sounds appealing. The Yuba is rated at 400lbs load.

 

[Lessss]

make sure all the wheels are supported on both sides of the wheel

 

[dogman dan]

I'm surprised that that the worksman seat is too high, can't be lowered enough.

My first e bike was a trike, with the Schwinn meridian trike as the base. It had weak wheels, so if you went with that one you will very soon need to get the hubs rebuilt with better rims and spokes. I think the seat should get plenty low for your guy. I used those trikes at work for years, hauling large loads or towing even larger loads in trailers. Once you fix the weak rear wheels, you should be fine for 400 lbs.

If you are in the USA, E-BikeKit's trike kit is the thing you need. A slow wind front motor, ideal for 15 mph max speed when run on 36v.

If the worksman is steel, then you could consider cutting it, and welding on a mount for an office chair seat or some other kind of regular chair seat. Mabye even keep the swivel for easy dismounting.

The Schwinn is mostly alloy, so anything done with that would be a bolt on deal. Maybe you could fabricate a custom steel seat post that some alternate seat could attach to.

Edit.

Did you see this worksman?
http://worksmancycles.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/pav3.html

 

[docnjoj]

We have the USX and it is rated for 400 lbs. My wife rides it and she is 155 lbs, and the trike handles great. It also rode fine with a 350 lb friend on it. It is simply a great trike that is easy to get on or off. Seat is around 22" from the ground.
otherDoc

 

[JEB]

Thanks guys for all the input, DOC, the Sun usx looks like it has more braking power than the worksman, what kind of motor did you put on it? my friend does not want to faster than about 12mph~ would one have to use a geared hub motor in the 20 inch front wheel?

 

[JEB]

Rassy, did you have a motor on your Sun usx?

 

[Rassy]

Rassy, did you have a motor on your Sun usx?

Yes. Originally I did some pusher trailer versions with and without a front wheel hub motor. I.e., at one time had 3 motors, two on the trailer and one on the trike, but that was at 36V and needed to get up to my house with a 15% grade, briefly topping out at 20% on my driveway.

It currently has an old brushed motor laced into the 20" front wheel powered by a 48V Ping. She doesn't have any steep hills where she lives. Even though it will top out over 20 MPH, she doesn't ride that fast and just uses the motor as an assist using the throttle. Be sure he gets a motor designed for low RPM, whether it's a direct drive or a geared drive.

Certainly the easiest conversion is front wheel on a delta. Be sure to add the torque arms since even the slow motors will produce a lot of torque getting the higher weight moving.

 

[dogman dan]

I'd never seen the sun trike.

http://sunbicycles.com/product_detail.php?short_code=EZ-3+USX+HD+Trike

Looks great to me. Put the same E-BikeKit, trike front motor kit on that one too. Smaller wheel, so it will be even slower. likely the perfect 12 mph if you run it on 36v. No cargo basket, but I bet a knapsack would hang from the seat just fine. Or a trailer for large cargo works good with any trike. At 12 mph, you can tow one of those large garden wagons no problem.

Or get a slow winding motor from some other source. I DO NOT recommend a low power motor for this guys weight, like a small gearmotor. But a larger gearmotor like the Mac, in the slowest rpm, would work fine.

 

[dnmun]

he should get a bench seat also since that much weight on his bone will destroy the tissue. i am amazed at how many people i see this size, all the time. even on food stamps. my cousin's 14 year old daughter is heavier than me now, spends her life on the couch with the ipad.

i now think that being so desperately poor and hungry my whole life may have been a benefit. now getting fat as i get older than bejesus and finally have some money to play with.

 

[ddk]

Thanks guys for all the input, DOC, the Sun usx looks like it has more braking power than the worksman, what kind of motor did you put on it? my friend does not want to faster than about 12mph~ would one have to use a geared hub motor in the 20 inch front wheel?

I recently had occasion to compare a magic pie (DD) to an ampedbikes geared-hub motor (MXUS) in the same situation. The ampedbikes MXUS is a 350W-rated motor.
For me, the ampedbikes geared-hub motor is clearly the better choice with a 36V battery.
I had to overpower the magic pie to 48V with a 30A controller to get similar pulling power that the MXUS provided at 36V with a 23A controller.
In a 20" wheel powered with a 36V battery MXUS 350 tops out at ~16MPH.
In a 16" wheel it almost reaches 12mph.

as always, this is my opinion, based on my experiences, where ymmv

 

[jimw1960]

Go with the worksman. If the seat is too high, just get the model M2020-CB, which uses 20-inch wheels all around for a lower center of gravity and seat height. Worksman uses wheels with extra thick spokes that will handle all the extra weight. Made in USA, too!
http://worksmancycles.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/movers.html#M2020-CB

 

[kriskros]

I think KMX makes a heavy duty model

 

[dogman dan]

With a higher seat? He needs a seat just right at his size, not too high, not too low. Even that Sun trike might be too low.

Hope it works out for him, if he faux pedals it enough, he could slim down 50 pounds. 250 still sounds huge to many, but It's going to help him a lot if he pedals any.

I wouldn't go with the too weak muxus geared, or the pie. The pie is a slower wind, but he needs really slow like the trike kit. EM3ev also sells the slow motors.

I've run that slow motor on my cargo bike. With battery it's 150 pounds, then me at 190, then cargo. Works fine, but is slow to get going with just 36v. If he doesn't mind paying for strong batteries, you could give him 40 amps of 36v with those motors. Get him going faster, yet still never go past 15 mph max. My guess he won't mind the takeoff speed with a stock 20 amps kit.

 

[jimw1960]

I have a couple of 300+ lb friends who ride regular bikes, with no electrical assist or anything. One of them is over 400 lbs! He does use heavy gauge spokes and an extra wide seat (by worksman!) but he keeps up with the rest of us on the cruiser scene. I'm wondering if JEB's friend has some additional handicap that makes it hard to get on and off a bike.

 

[dogman dan]

Likely has trouble with chairs. I hope pedaling a trike some will hugely improve his flexibility and strength.

I've worked construction with 300 pound guys that were very strong and agile, despite a huge beer gut. But that was guys that throw plywood around like potato chips, not a guy that sat too long.

Be fine for him to stay at 300 pounds, but turn 250 pounds of it into hard muscle. He might have got that way through illness. I'm having a hard time not ballooning out now that I'm sick.

 

[dnmun]

yep, the guys who work concrete too. but it seems like in the last decade the number of double wide children has just skyrocketed. i am now over 200 and it hurts so i don't know how people can carry it without paying the price. my shoulder is gone from humping lumber and shit all my life so i wonder how these young people will make it to geezer land without a wheelchair.

hi fructose corn syrup in the soda pop they are all addicted to now and ipads and iphones to eliminate any normal human activity children used to engage in and they are now suffering from hearing loss also from constant exposure to high volumes of music from the ipod and iphone.