Trihauler Cargo Trike

[kevinscargobike]

I just bought a locally made HPM Trihauler cargo trike that I'm planning to electrify and donate to an awesome local non-profit, and I need to decide what it needs.

This same bike has been used by Hummingbird Wholesale to deliver something like 300,000lbs of food over the years, and I talked to the person who maintains theirs today about what it uses. It's a single hub motor on one side, and since they carry up to 600lbs with it, they've moved to some kind of custom steel wheel and scooter/motorcycle tires.



The other caveat is that the bike I have doesn't have disc brake mounts in the rear. CAT/HPM is closed, but still in their building, so I'm reaching out to see if it's possible to have disc tabs installed...but assuming I can't get them added or it's too expensive, it seems like that's an argument both for having a hub motor with regen and using a CycleAnalyst that has a mode that keeps speeds lower?

It seems like I could follow Hummingbird's lead by getting something like a electric motorcycle hub motor (QS?) wheelset that would give me one motor wheel and one non-motor wheel, but I'm guessing they wouldn't be compatible with rim brakes.

A GMAC would be pretty ideal if it could be mounted in the back, but there's no "front" motor version. The actual front wheel on this bike has a SRAM IGH and a cassette to provide the equivalent of a triple, which seems smart for this bike, so I'd rather leave it alone.

My guess is that the bike won't be getting used for big hill climbs.

-- edit to add

A friend offered to give me some Nissan Leaf batteries for this project, the big amps could work out pretty great for this, but I've only use nicely packaged ebike batteries, so I'm a little lost on this one. Do I need an external BMS? would weather proofing require some kind of complicated battery box? How many do I need to get to a reasonable voltage?

 

[daleag]

The 1st and 2nd Gen Leaf battery modules are 2 series each, so 7.4v each. Beware that they tend to have lost quite a lot of their original capacity in the car, often as much as 1/3, especially the 1st gen cells that didnt like heat. You'll want to do some capacity testing to identify any duds and to make sure they're close enough to make a good pack.

 

[SlowCo]

It seems to be a rear wheel up front so a GMAC rear motor in a 16" moped rim with slim moped tire (much more puncture resistant an durable), would be ideal. It will have enough torque (10T or 12T motor) and be regen braking capable. A 5 speed cassette or freewheel will be enough to choose a comfortable cadence for the rider.