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Anybody tried a 3 wheel drive trike?
- Thread starter RC_guy
- Start date
el_walto
10 kW
I've never heard of one of these.
Build one! You know you want to. 3 tiny geared hub motors? I can't really think of any reasons why 3 wheel drive would have any advantages over 1 or 2 wheel drive though.
Build one! You know you want to. 3 tiny geared hub motors? I can't really think of any reasons why 3 wheel drive would have any advantages over 1 or 2 wheel drive though.
Sure. Why wouldnt' it be?RC_guy said:
Why?
Probably, but I don't think I've seen it yet. I had plans to do this with my ARTOO, pedal drive at rear, motor for each front wheel, but I have never got past the planning stages.
AussieJester
1 TW
I think Recumpence originally planned an all wheel drive trike
when he was building the yellow beast of his...i haven't seen
one done to this date though, struggle to see the advantages
for on road use, make a good off roader for the disabled i think?
There was a chap on here building a hand cycle for offroad use i think he was
intending on a frock motor rear wheel drive though.
KiM
when he was building the yellow beast of his...i haven't seen
one done to this date though, struggle to see the advantages
for on road use, make a good off roader for the disabled i think?
There was a chap on here building a hand cycle for offroad use i think he was
intending on a frock motor rear wheel drive though.
KiM
TheKraftyRhino
1 W
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2009
- Messages
- 52
My Schwinn Meridian has a hub motor in place of the jack shaft I used an Aotema with a freewheel on the right side and a gear on the left. Also has the same Aotema front hub.
The rear drive however drives the rear axle and only turns the rear right wheel the rear left is free spinning and for good reason. Deferental torque in the rear tends to drive the bike in one direction or the other. If one rear motor drives faster then the other(say left) it will push the bike the other way (Right). I tried it anyway and sure enough you can feel it pushing. Also with the hub motor on both sides of the rear you can no longer drive a rear wheel off the axle you have to drive it off the hub with a freewheel leading to more mechanical parts I omitted this step in my experiment as the pull was not something I wanted to deal with. At low speed it inst so hard to oversome just by holding the handlebars firm but hitting 20-25 you can really feel it. I do have a friend working on a device that will monitor hall sensors, compare the wheel speed and adjust the the throttle to compensate but he is doing it free and with the winter months creaping up fast I don't think I will be working on the bike again until closer to spring time.
The rear drive however drives the rear axle and only turns the rear right wheel the rear left is free spinning and for good reason. Deferental torque in the rear tends to drive the bike in one direction or the other. If one rear motor drives faster then the other(say left) it will push the bike the other way (Right). I tried it anyway and sure enough you can feel it pushing. Also with the hub motor on both sides of the rear you can no longer drive a rear wheel off the axle you have to drive it off the hub with a freewheel leading to more mechanical parts I omitted this step in my experiment as the pull was not something I wanted to deal with. At low speed it inst so hard to oversome just by holding the handlebars firm but hitting 20-25 you can really feel it. I do have a friend working on a device that will monitor hall sensors, compare the wheel speed and adjust the the throttle to compensate but he is doing it free and with the winter months creaping up fast I don't think I will be working on the bike again until closer to spring time.
Gordo
100 kW
RC_guy said:
One wheel in the front or rear?
LI-ghtcycle
10 MW
Biggest trouble you might have is in a corner the wheel that is on the inside is going to turn less than the one on the outside of the corner, so that might present some difficulty.
Generally speaking, powering the rear of the vehicle makes for the most positive traction and handling, if you have two wheels in the rear, and a way to allow one wheel to turn faster than the other (of the two that are either front or rear) with direct drive this will be the most difficult, a freewheeling geared hub motor or better still, a single motor powering two rear wheels through a split axle with differential would be a simple way to power all three (with a hub motor up front).
There are bicycle conversion kits that have a differential rear-end set-up to convert a standard bike into a delta trike on Ebay, maybe try one of those.
Generally speaking, powering the rear of the vehicle makes for the most positive traction and handling, if you have two wheels in the rear, and a way to allow one wheel to turn faster than the other (of the two that are either front or rear) with direct drive this will be the most difficult, a freewheeling geared hub motor or better still, a single motor powering two rear wheels through a split axle with differential would be a simple way to power all three (with a hub motor up front).
There are bicycle conversion kits that have a differential rear-end set-up to convert a standard bike into a delta trike on Ebay, maybe try one of those.
I dunno about a 3 motor trike, but I've been running a dual motor regular bicycle, just about my entire "e-bike life".. (Except for the 1st 6 months)...
Dual (or for that matter 3 wheel) drive makes no difference..
AS LONG AS YOU HAVE CONTROLLERS FOR EACH MOTOR..
The best way, would to have 3 throttles too, but since we humans only have 2 hands (at least most of us), that would be a bit difficult to control...
The only other way, would be, is to combine one of the rear and one of the front on a single throttle and the other motor/controller on the other..
(combining the throttle on the two non-tandem wheels could create a small issue with "timing", but prolly not)...
I have run one throttle on two controllers (of the same model) without issue...
(I would do a forum search on "1 throttle, 2 controllers" for some "safety" concerns on the +5v connection using this kind of setup)..
Dual (or for that matter 3 wheel) drive makes no difference..
AS LONG AS YOU HAVE CONTROLLERS FOR EACH MOTOR..
The best way, would to have 3 throttles too, but since we humans only have 2 hands (at least most of us), that would be a bit difficult to control...
The only other way, would be, is to combine one of the rear and one of the front on a single throttle and the other motor/controller on the other..
(combining the throttle on the two non-tandem wheels could create a small issue with "timing", but prolly not)...
I have run one throttle on two controllers (of the same model) without issue...
(I would do a forum search on "1 throttle, 2 controllers" for some "safety" concerns on the +5v connection using this kind of setup)..
Rassy
1 MW
Came close, using a delta trike with a front hub motor and a pusher trailer with two hub motors for a total of three hub motors with three controllers running from one throttle. Worked great. With the pedals powering one of the trikes rear wheels there were four out of five wheels powered.
The whole thing was done to enable me to climb up to a 20% grade. My current mid-drive tadpole trike is slower but climbs better using way less energy and not producing any noticeable heat.
The whole thing was done to enable me to climb up to a 20% grade. My current mid-drive tadpole trike is slower but climbs better using way less energy and not producing any noticeable heat.
John in CR
100 TW
I did a 4 wheel drive on a 6 wheeled vehicle as an EV for the kids. The electric drive using wheelchair motors worked fine. What didn't work so well was 6 wheeled tank-like operation without a track using bike tires. The bike tires had traction that was too good for the side scrubbing required by such a vehicle on grass or pavement.
Wow guys,
We got some action on this forum.. Sorry for the questions but I am a complete noob to this e-bike stuff and this forum.
The reason for my initial question is that I live in Montreal Quebec and we get crap loads of snow here.
If I want to get up some of the hills when the streets are covered in snow, I figured I would appreciate an AWD trike.
I was thinking of something like a KMX trike
On a side note, What is the deal with everyone thanking Justin? Who is he and what did he do?
Thanks
We got some action on this forum.. Sorry for the questions but I am a complete noob to this e-bike stuff and this forum.
The reason for my initial question is that I live in Montreal Quebec and we get crap loads of snow here.
If I want to get up some of the hills when the streets are covered in snow, I figured I would appreciate an AWD trike.
I was thinking of something like a KMX trike
On a side note, What is the deal with everyone thanking Justin? Who is he and what did he do?
Thanks
LI-ghtcycle
10 MW
RC_guy said:
Making things that complicated would ruin the entire idea IMHO, just try to keep things simple. Even with all three wheels the same size there will be issues on corners, if you need better traction, get better tires, or even chains on the tires.
I really would avoid all the extra complication of three motors, not to mention all the extra weight.
If done right the best deal would be a tadpole or delta trike with either the front (delta) or rear (tadpole) wheel powered, and good tires.
If you just want good traction and aren't concerned about being low to the ground, I'd say get a Tadpole, good snow tires and as long as you have the power, and not too long of a commute, it should work just fine with one wheel.
Traction is generally going to be better with a rear wheel, and if you used a delta trike, and only powered one wheel in the back, it's going to pull to one side especially the faster you go.
Delta trike with a front hub motor isn't going to have as much weight on the front wheel as the back, so loss of traction due to that alone.
TonyReynolds
1 kW
I've never ridden a recumbant, but have been wondering about this for a while...
If one had a trike with one rear wheel set up for pedaling, could you put matched hub-motors on the two front wheels and steer using dual throttles? John_in_CR mentioned the scrubbing from having 4WD on a 6 wheel vehicle, but with just two driven wheels, that problem should be eliminated, no?
Just wondering...
If one had a trike with one rear wheel set up for pedaling, could you put matched hub-motors on the two front wheels and steer using dual throttles? John_in_CR mentioned the scrubbing from having 4WD on a 6 wheel vehicle, but with just two driven wheels, that problem should be eliminated, no?
Just wondering...
I was thinking about this the other day, after finding the following @ ebikes.ca:
Although for the use my trike gets (road, commuting) I'd rather up the voltage on the 2806 (700c wheel) to be able to go faster than the 33 mph I currently top out at.
Although for the use my trike gets (road, commuting) I'd rather up the voltage on the 2806 (700c wheel) to be able to go faster than the 33 mph I currently top out at.
Thread resurrecting again... Any three wheel drives out and about? I'd imagine it'd do pretty well offroad, as a three wheeler would never need axle articulation likea 4x4 does. In fact, apart from beaching yourself on an obstacle, you'll always have three wheels on the ground.
sn0wchyld
100 kW
RC_guy said:
You need to look up drbass's snow trike. Removeable skis on the front, studded tire on the back. Not sure how well it climbed, but it apparently handled the snow like a champ
I was going to employ a third motor on my tilting trike in the initial stages of design. The two rear motors would be used for the initial acceleration -then at an optimal speed - the large front wheel would take over - effectively a gearing system.
Could be done - I didn't do it because it is much more complex, time consuming and expensive to develop a system like that than I was willing to do on my first build. I think it has some merrit, though there is a great addition of complexity, cost and weight involved... keep it simple, keep it real.
Could be done - I didn't do it because it is much more complex, time consuming and expensive to develop a system like that than I was willing to do on my first build. I think it has some merrit, though there is a great addition of complexity, cost and weight involved... keep it simple, keep it real.
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