DIY "Car"

Hi,

I completely missed this forum.

I went to Shanghai on vacation 2011 and was blown away by the electric wheels they had there so much that I bought one on their "craigslist" and took it with me back home to Sweden on the plane, it barely made it through the x-ray machine!

This is what that e-bike ended up looking like:



This is my e-bike today:



But now onto more serious things: I would like to build a very low profile lightweight 2 seat DIY "car".

Basically a simple steel frame with [strike]glassfiber[/strike]plastic body and windows, I'm thinking:

- 2x electric bike wheels front.
- 2x bike wheels with disc brakes back.

~ 100kg of lead/acid batteries (72V/65Ah).
~ 100kg steel frame.

TODO:

1) learn how to weld the frame so it will be able to mount bike wheels on some kind of suspension and allow steering.
2) worry about the legal bits of actually being able to drive that thing on roads.
3) [strike]mold[/strike]build some kind of body for it.

What do you think?

Are there attempts like that on this forum already?

Powered by a pair of bike hubs? You have some serious limitations to face up to. Glass fiber body? You know what that'll weigh?

It used to be so easy to find the smaller than a golf kart plans online. Drying up now.



http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-an-Electric-Car-Powered-by-a-Bike-Motor/

http://www.odditycentral.com/news/chinese-car-enthusiast-builds-worlds-cheapest-electric-car.html

http://www.instructables.com/id/Three-Wheel-Bike-Car/?ALLSTEPS

Hey Dauntless,

What limitations?

No I haven't thought this through yet.

What would you use for body, just hard plastic sheets?

The last link was very inspiring!

But I don't like the complex drive train.

Also I need it to be 2 seated, I guess my Bakfiets actually is the solution I'm after...

I always wanted to build a drive shaft bike though, just complicates the gear situation. Also this DIY "car" would be electric only.

Do you have more info/larger pictures of the pictured solutions?

Another photo of my Bakfiets:



Also have any of you seen electric wheels without spokes? Where the tyre is mounted directly on the hub, preferably without ornation like the 2nd link.

Sorry I couldn't help.

rupy said:

Are there attempts like that on this forum already?

Click to expand...

one possible search:
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=velo*&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=titleonly&sk=t&sd=d&sr=topics&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

Hi amberwolf,

Thanks, with this I just realized I have a car chassi welding nut as a "neighbor" that I should probably visit about how to build the frame.

Will scour that search for inspiration...

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=25315

Yeah, you gotta read all of them because you don't know where exactly the one you want is posted. A lot of it looks neat but then you realize just how much work has to go into it. (Oh, you ARE planning an electric reverse, right?)



If you want to make a fiberglas body, keep in mind those wind up considerably heavier than people intend because they oversaturate the matrix. I think a velo body is a situation where you might actually get away with resin starved. But you can collect old coroplast (polypropylene) signs that will be everywhere with the election and make a really light body. If you just want to buy 4'x8' sheets they were $15 last time I bought any.

If your little hub motors aren't very powerful, you can't build this with much weight.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Sociable-Recumbent-Trike/

http://www.instructables.com/id/HPV-QUADRICYCLE-FOR-TWO/?ALLSTEPS

http://www.instructables.com/id/Engineering-a-Power-System-for-Heavy-Cycle-trucks-/