Cargo Trike Project

[Jozzer]

Hi all, Just picked this cargo trike up on Ebay. Looks like it will be one hell of a conversion, although the shell is nice, the drive chain and brakes are about as bad as can be. No gears, and useless lever operated front brakes, and a "horseshoe" brake on the back (piece of leather that get's pulled onto the axle to slow down ).

Still deciding what to do motor wise, idea's I've had include a Puma, utilising its extra freewheel to make the worlds first "easy" BBdrive (with no crank freewheel needed). I think I can gain gears for the pedals, and be able to pedal with no motor drag, and motor with no pedals flailing around.
Other options are a kollmorgan (possible donation from NickF), or if I can find a cheap controller for it and want to be able to tow cars, then maybe one of these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=170140857507&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=007 . (anyone tried these motors?)
other problems include the rear axle, onbe wheel is fixed to the axle, one has a freewheel, so it can only be 1 wheel drive/brake on the back. Anyone know how it will be affected by having both wheels fixed? I realise there will be wheels turning at different speeds, how bad will it affect me riding at say 20mph max? And cornering with a load?

Please feel free to jump in with advise/comments/abuse ...i'll never get right without help!

 

[TylerDurden]

That looks handy.

You might consider just adding another freewheel to the axle and putting a motor in the rear "triangle" such that the second chain is on the opposite side of the exisiting chain.

I would put a disc brake on the front, rather than the rear. A rear disk will be hard to service and keep clean (unless you cut an access panel in the bed).

Fun!

 

[Beagle123]

Nice, plenty of room for batteries

 

[Geebee]

Interesting project.
Regarding locking the 2 rear wheels together, don't, on road the turning circle will be massive and tyre wear severe, off road ok.
Chatted to a person with an off road solid rear no diff. recumbent trike, his comment about on road was it doesn't do on road.
It would be nice to drive one rear wheel with the pedals and the other with a multiple speed geared hub or derailleur from the motor allowing super low for heavy loads.

 

[xyster]

Nice, plenty of room for batteries

With solar cells on top maybe.

 

[recumbent]

:lol: Love that rear brake set-up, not sure how well it works though. Is the rear axle solid? If so try to seperate with two more pillow-block bearings and power one wheel and peddle the other would be the cheapest way.

 

[Geebee]

The more I look at that trike the more I want one. It will be an awesome utility vehicle when finished.

 

[Jozzer]

Hehe, it will be very usefull I think. THe shell is really quite nice, its just the running gear that needs throwing out :lol:
Looks like I will try a bbdrive Puma in there. Ordered some steel for bracketry, Going to try to make an adapter to fit an old front sprocket to the disk mounts on the motor. Seems the only tricky bit for the drive.
Brakes still scare me, its not going to be easy getting anything usefull on te front I fear, I suspect a front end cange will be needed :?

 

[Jozzer]

I got the sprocket/disk adapter done, and am ready to start cutting/welding the motor mounts in place. I am hoping to keep the rear disk as well as the sprocket drive...

 

[TylerDurden]

Won't the seat face the wrong way?

 

[Jozzer]

Idd, actually thats how the motor would look from above, and will be mounted on the other side of bike (mirror image), after carefully checking all hubs/freewheels are working in the right directions :lol:

 

[Jozzer]

I finally got this thing running yesterday. Connected the Puma up, lobbed 4 old SLA's in the back, and powered off up the road. Seems to go about 18mph (quite fast enough with the brakes it has so far!) Put a big bag of cement in the back and tried it up a medium hill, and it pulled like a train!
I definitly need to find a way of mounting a brake on the rear axle, any ideas guys? Otherwise, I'll have to have the rear wheels relaced with proper rims on them and mount twin v-brakes

Poor thing handles like a pig though, sometimes it seems dead set on going in a certain direction (usually towards a wall or parked car), and it takes a great deal of oversteering to make it change its mind, which it does very suddenly. I suspect perhaps the lack of any rake on the front forks may be to blame, I can see me havinbg to cut off the front and weld half of another bike onto it!
Still, will be great for advertising my baby EV business :wink:

Got to say, the Puma makes an ideal BBDrive candidate, much easier than an x'lyte, thanks to the inbuilt freewheel. If you read this Monster, you should try one :wink:

 

[Jozzer]

By the way, pics and maybe a vid will follow, as soon as GF gets back with my camera end next week!(unless NickF wants to come with his cam and try the beast? )

 

[The7]

Seems that the PUMA is running in resevse when compared with an normal ebike?

 

[Drunkskunk]

What you need is a differintial gear on the rear. They make them for gocarts, though adapting one to hold bike wheels might take some welding skill. with a Differintial gear and both wheels fixed to the axle, you could mount twin disk brakes to the axle

 

[Jozzer]

Puma is running same direction as usual, pic above shows the motor dropped in facing wrong way. They cant in fact reverse (or regen for that matter), since there is a freewheel built in to the internal gearing...(reverse would be nice on a trike like this!)

Differential is definitly more trouble than the project is worth I think, and doesn't explain the handling, since wheels turn independantly of each other already. For this reason, the only way to get both back wheels braking would be twin vbrakes, but I would be happy with just 1 wheel braking at the back for the moment.

 

[fechter]

Differential is definitly more trouble than the project is worth I think, and doesn't explain the handling, since wheels turn independantly of each other already. For this reason, the only way to get both back wheels braking would be twin vbrakes, but I would be happy with just 1 wheel braking at the back for the moment.

Is it one wheel drive? How do the wheels turn independently?

If both wheels had a freewheel between the axle and the wheel, you would be able to drive both wheels without binding in sharp corners.

Time for dual motors

 

[Jozzer]

One wheel is attached to the axle, the other has a bearing. So yeah, it is one wheel drive. Cant wait to try in in the mud with a full load on the back :lol:

Hmm, I think I get you...so the outer wheel would be able to turn faster than the inner/axle. All I need is 2 freewheel hubs (never heard of 1)

2 motors would be extreme overkill...unless they were both 100w rc motors! I think if I wanted a more powerfull cargo vehicle I would make recumbent with a very long wheelbase, and build it around a decent rear axle from an ATV or somesuch (with a diff built in!). Perhaps a golfcart motor at around 6hp, with regen for those long downhill stretches with a 150kg in the back

 

[fechter]

No such thing as overkill

Why not a pair of Pumas or 5305's. Lots of room for battreries. Mount 'em way back and it will do really good wheelies...

I've never seen the dual freewheel setup used, but it was something I was thinking about for a RC car. A differential might not be that hard to find. Old lawn tractors usually have them.