Help me electrify this cart?

Hello all,

I am looking to electrify this cart I recently bought. My initial plan was to utilize a internal hub motor but I have been told that likely won't work as the top speed I am looking for is walking speed (3-4mph) and most bike motors are designed for much higher speeds. My current idea is to build a simple friction drive similar to a few I have seen on this forum. What do you all think? What would you utilize for a motor for this application? I am guessing low RPM ~500? but higher torque? Bonus points if I can use a 48v system as I could utilize existing batteries from my ebikes.

Cart details - 20" tires, weighs 40lbs empty, anticipated loads of 300 pounds.

Thanks all! Appreciate any insight from you experts

300 pounds, maybe you want to go with a hub motor. More durable than the friction drive. Or maybe a wheelchair motor.

https://leafbike.com/products/e-wheelchair-motor/200w-standard-electric-wheelchair-motor-right-773.html

Out of all possible solutions for this thing hub motor is definitely the best. Maybe even geared hub. Plenty of torque especially in that smaller wheel.

or brushed powerchair motors. meant for high torque at low speeds. the ones with gearboxes have axles for wheels to bolt right onto. many of those are very easy to bolt to whatever you're driving with them. you can simply use a pair of them including the wheels off an old powerchair (sometimes found cheap at thrift stores, craigslist, freecycle. etc).

meant for 24vdc usually, just run a pair of them in series, so each gets half the voltage (but they both get all the current),. 48v brushed motor controllers are easy to find.


there are also brushless ones; somewhere in my posts is a thread about one of them including disassembly and test pics with an ebike controller after adding hall sensors to it. the bldc ones *are* hubmotors, just not quite like the ebike ones. easier to mount for high-mass loading, because they have a big box that just bolts to the side of whatever you're building.

if you would attach an image of the cart you have to your post, using the attachments tab, it would help us to know what might fit it better. (external images aren't always visible to everyone--if you already posted one, i can't see it, for instance)

The hub would be the simplest, but there's the problem of RPM. I brought up wheelchair motor because they push around close to the weight he wants at about the speed he wants. But the task of building will be more difficult.