Motorized Ice Chest I call the Ricecooler

[kmxtornado]

Ricecooler stands for Race Ice Cooler, but it does also stand for Rice in that yes, I'm Asian and am addicted to the whole modification thing as far as anything I own that I can ride. I use this motorized cooler as my stroller for street fairs, festivals, farmer's markets and car shows. Without further ado, here are some photos. More on Instagram @ricecooler, but here's the preview of my favorites:

 

[r3volved]

That's sweet!
Please don't tell me the entire cooler is filled with batteries...

 

[kmxtornado]

Thanks.
Haha, about 40% of the rear is half battery and half motor. The front compartment holds 24 cans of drinks + 8 lbs of ice + probably 8 hotdogs. In my case, it holds two helmets + a lock + our jackets. When we have our helmets on, it fits my diaper bag of milk, snacks, water, diapers, wipes, silverware, bibs, towels, hand sanitizer, sunscreen, cell phone battery backup battery, spray bottle and other misc stuff my daughter needs on the go.

Here's a pic of the insides. Battery box contains three 12v 15ah batteries. Under that is the motor, chain, sprocket, etc.

 

[Nobuo]

Now is when I really understand what did you mean when you was saying "cooler" :lol:

that's awesome!!

I want to see those 20mph at 36V, but I hope you wear a helmet like your little driver

So the cooler is the frame, or are over a wood/plastic scooter frame?

What kind of brake system do you use?

I just added you to my instagram @evmadrid

(Awesome photography quality)

 

[kmxtornado]

Thanks Nobuo for your compliments! Much appreciated. I take quite a few shots sometimes and end up ditching the ones that are no good, leaving the premium ones to publish on Instagram. I took a bunch this past weekend, but lots of them had a ton of shadows creating poor quality pics, so not uploading any of those.

The kit is in. Torque and acceleration vastly improved to a point where it was almost scary, but oddly enough, the top speed didn't increase. Either that or I gained too much weight since my BEFORE speedometer reading. Used my phone and used the same app on the same road. Outside temperature was different, but I suspect any change in that would be negligible. Curious if you have thoughts on why top speed hasn't increased despite the overvolting.

Yes, I wear a helmet too. Gotta set a good example for the little one. I usually wear my helmet first so she sees me put it on and often times, she'll tap her head knowing she'll be getting one too. Helmet is the signal that we're riding, so she's happy to wear it. What gave me the idea of the cooler (or excuse rather) is she would be very resistant to getting back into the stroller after a day at the playground. I figure if the stroller itself was fun and a game in itself, she wouldn't hesitate to ride off to wherever we end up going. Mission accomplished. The only time she wanted to get off was when she either had to pee or when she saw something at a street fair she wanted to keep seeing. She has a fascination with R/C race cars.

STRUCTURE:
There isn't really a frame. I doubt there's anything built into the cooler itself as far improving structural integrity. The dual layer plastic for insulation is all there is. The rear for the motor underneath the battery box you see in the photo above; the front for storage. The only additional structure I'm certain exists is a square tube that holds the foot pegs up front. There are metal plates underneath the battery box to support the box itself from collapsing on the motor underneath it.

This is a picture of BEFORE the mod. Stock controller. Those two large 2-pin connectors you see in the photo here are the ones that melted. Yesterday, I hardwired them using heat shrink butt connectors in place of these plastic ones that are known to melt. I wrapped it up in black electrical tape too to support my paranoia.

BRAKE SYSTEM:
No different from a mountain bike. It's got a single vented disk brake with standard brake lever with cable. There used to be a cutoff switch where when the brake is engaged, the motor shuts down automatically. With the new setup though, that's no longer the case. The brake acts independently from the motor/throttle.

 

[dequinox]

I'm liking this! Tailgating has gone green!

 

[kmxtornado]

Thanks. Haha. Everyone asks me if I have alcohol in there. "Nope, just diapers and milk," I reply.

 

[kmxtornado]

It had been all aesthetic mods with decals here and there. As of last week though, Ricecooler was given some mods from cruzincoolerupgrades' performance kit. It's been overvolted. The top speed has improved drastically after some troubleshooting. Turned out I had a loose wire connecting the batteries.

Mods documented here:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=70288

More photos for your enjoyment:

 

[kmxtornado]

First crash with the cooler.

As I headed out of a car show this past weekend, I sped down the sidewalk with my daughter in my lap hitting probably 15mph+. I figured I was going straight and it was a smooth sidewalk with no driveways in sight. Decided last minute to try a slalom between trees. Stupid idea. The cooler didn't turn. It leaned to the outside edge before I could react. Brakes weren't adjusted correctly and I knew I was about to slam into the tree. I pulled the brake lever hard anyway, put my foot down and tried to slide to a stop before getting smacked.

Covered my daughter's face with my left hand and pretty much used my right arm to buffer the blow. Sunglasses flew off and water bottle fell to the floor as I came into contact with the tree. I'm sure everyone was still looking at me but I was too embarrassed to turn around. Made sure my daughter was okay, picked up my stuff and continued down the sidewalk to the car. Daughter had been crying a bit probably just from being startled. No visible damage and she was fine within a minute.

Not the best conversation to have with the wife about putting her daughter in harm's way. I gotta quit being a showoff and just ride it like a mature adult. How mature can one actually be while riding a motorized cooler?

 

[Nobuo]

This happen soon or later with any motorized vehicle! it doesn't mean anything, just you had your first warning, yellow card Make this being worth remembering that tree always before starting your motor, then you will save yourself for anything worst. I really like all was just a story to tell. And your little driver also warned about this things are not just a game

By the way, I see now how are the connectors you have, I know them very very well I really recommend to you to exchange with xt60 ones, less space and 60A capable, high quality and secured plug. You can buy in black here for example

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/10-p...ttery-quadcopter-multicopter/32263086352.html

 

[kmxtornado]

I should have engaged the speed controller. It was set at full open throttle. Bad move on my part. I should've known I wouldn't be disciplined enough to handle the speed on my own.

Thanks for the recommendation on the XT60 connectors. I had not known of them before. Looks like soldering is required to make the connection. I'll have to read up on that (youtube it) and give it some practice. I haven't soldered in quite some time.

 

[ecycler]

Sorry to hear that. Trikes can be a handful a the extremes and I am sure you can amplify that effect when the trike's frame is a cooler riding two up!

Glad everyone and everything held up well. We all test the limits of our toys. Maybe you could take a day or two to get geared up and practice the extreme limits of its handling without your daughter on board? I always prefer to crash without a crowd watching or little ones involved, haha. It will make showboating a lot more fun when you are confident of drastic control inputs and the results of those inputs!

Very cool machine, and I have a feeling I am going to need to build the limo version of this one day with a huge fishing cooler. I have basically all the parts sitting around. I am thinking dual drive with tank style steering for mine!

 

[kmxtornado]

Limo style! That'd be awesome. The company does sell these motorless coolers on wheels that they call a Cooligan and it mounts to the back of a motorized cooler. You can daisy chain a ton of them, maybe 6 in a row. You'd just need a big motor to handle the weight. Perhaps a 1000v one would suffice.

I recently found out that my fork was soldered uneven with the vertical portion of the handlebars, so the thing veers a bit to one side. Annoying. I had already sent the cooler back to the manufacturer to make some adjustments and they had just added washers to other parts of it to even it out. It worked, but unfortunately they nor I had noticed the fork misalignment prior to the warranty period expiring. I might still reach out to them to see if they can send me a new fork. Worst thing that can happen is they say no.

 

[kmxtornado]

I recently replaced the stock 55T rear sprocket with a 80T one. Big fiasco in getting it to fit. Manufacturer of the sprocket said it's supposed to fit perfectly, but I ended up having to take it to a machine shop to bore out the hole bigger. But at least it works now!

The thing handles hills so much better than before. The drawback was the top speed. Fell hard from 22mph to now 14mph tops. I suppose that's still decent for what I use the cooler for, but I'm still very tempted to get a custom sprocket sized to maybe 70T to maintain some of the hill climbing ability but bump the speed back up.

Curious if there's some sort of way to calculate what size sprocket I'd need if I wanted a particular top speed, like 18mph. Closest thing I found was this: http://www.diygokarts.com/speed-calculator.html According to that, I need a 70T rear sprocket to reach 18mph. That was a pretty darn good guess!

 

[ecycler]

I recently replaced the stock 55T rear sprocket with a 80T one. Big fiasco in getting it to fit... Fell hard from 22mph to now 14mph tops.

Curious if there's some sort of way to calculate what size sprocket I'd need if I wanted a particular top speed, like 18mph. Closest thing I found was this: http://www.diygokarts.com/speed-calculator.html According to that, I need a 70T rear sprocket to reach 18mph. That was a pretty darn good guess!

Yes, 70T or a little less will be about 18mph. How many teeth are on the motor shaft's gear? It is a simple algebra problem regarding the difference in the ratios of the gears to calculate the differences in your final drive ratio and thus speed since wind resistance and other parasitic power losses will not be a factor at these speeds.

 

[kmxtornado]

Excellent. Thanks for confirming that. If I do swap out sprockets (I already did it very recently, so might tell it settle in for a bit before I let the mod bug bite me again). The motor gear is 11T.