What specs are needed for ebike to tow heavy load?

Jay Fora

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Hi, I am suddenly looking to convert my motorised bike from petrol to electric since petrol is now illegal where I live. But I haven't got a clue what specifications of batteries and motor would meet my needs, and this is the advice I am looking for. I have to tow very heavy loads in my trailer sometimes - up to 60kg occasionally - as this is the only thing on wheels I own (No car). Heavy loads would only be towed on the flat.
Direct drive is illegal here, and maximum output is around 200W. I think maximum speed of 30Kph is allowed.
Bike is aluminium. 18 speed shimano gears, 26 inch wheels, 70 mm bracket. Trailer is heavy by itself without a load.
I have to find something that will be super cheap to put together, with the help of a friend, and with clear instructions. - and still be reliable. Am a pensioner, so no more than a few hundred dollars.
Thanks, Jay
 
Big ask for that low a price. Chances are your gas motor was at least 1hp or more, so dropping from 800+ w to 200w won't allow you to tow much.

On the flat will help a lot, and 200w will get a your load moving on the flat for sure. The key thing is going to be a very low gear.

Cheap and reliable, to me that seems to mean hub motor. But you say Illegal there? That's whacky. Your best bet might be to scavenge power wheelchair stuff you might find cheap enough once junked. But reliability with junked parts might be a tough one. Or not, just depending on your luck.
 
If you want to stay legal, then you're not gonna get much help from your motor at 200W--most of the power to get started is gonna be from your pedalling, in lowest gear. :(

I tow heavy loads (various stuff, including a 100lb St Bernard dog in a trailer, and/or dogfood and other stuff in the side pods and/or in the trailer, sometmes up to a few hundred pounds of stuff, plus the bike itself and me, which each weigh on the order of 170lbs (now the bike is about 15lbs lighter I think but haven't hauled anything with it since the rebuild).
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=235&p=955968#p955968


For me, I used to use a little geared hubmotor on a more normal bike (DayGlo Avenger) to also pull 100lb dogs in a similar trailer, but that motor was still pulling over 1000W (for a "350w" motor) to get up to speed of around 12-15MPH most of the time. That's only on the flats, which is what most of our roads are here. I overheated that motor a number of times doing that, too, enough to melt solder on the PCB for hte halls inside. :shock: It didn't use that much power once I was going, but to get started it was pretty hard on it. With it set up for only it's original 350W it didnt' help me enough, even back when I could pedal hard to help it.


If you go thru your gears so you can shift, instead of a hubmotor, you might have a better shot at using that 200W ot get started from lowest gear, but you will probvably want to do it stokemonkey style so you still have all of your front chainrings to shift around on too (most chaindrives don't, and only leave you the rear gears, which is not always enough for low power assist like your situation).




So, as far as "specs" go, you really already have the most important one: wattage of your system--it's defined by your laws, so whatever they let you have is what you start with. Is that 200W *at the tire to the ground*? Or is it power at the motor itself? Cuz the former would let you have a fair bit of power, and the latter probably leaves you a whole lot less.

If it just means your motor must be only a 200W-rated (continous) motor, then you could probalby peak it much higher for short infrequent bursts, especially if it's going thru the gears to help it out.


Then you would need enough battery to get you the range you're after, whcih also depends on riding style. If you have ot stop and start a lot, it's like having a bunch of hills instead of riding on the flats, because every time you stop you have to climb the acceleration hill again. :(

That takes a lot more Wh out of your battery and also adds a lot more heat ot your little motor.


What you might want to do is look at adding the assis to the trailer itself, if that's legal there. it'd also mean you can put all the batteries in it, and use heavy ones cuz the bike won't have to carry them. it also means your bike is a normal bike wihtout the trailer, so you can just unhitch and ride off when you like, if you don't gotta haul a load that day.


I suggest looking at my early pages of CrazyBike2's thread, and at my old http://electricle.blogspot.com, for how I did stuff with SLA, brushed motro controllers off old scooters, and old powerchair geared motors (some of which are rated 200 or 250W, though I used 300W+ ones and overpowered those).
 
wineboyrider said:
Petrol is illegal? WTF? :?:

He means gas powered stinkcycles. Those, to be fair, should be illegal everywhere-- at least the two-cycle kind. They constitute callous disregard for other people and the world you live in.

If I were faced with the same issues, I'd get a low power brushed motor setup (like IZip or the like) and substitute a bigger controller of the same or slightly higher voltage. Plus bigger batteries if they were required to support the current demand of the bigger controller.

24V x 40A cruises at the same power as 24V x 20A, but has twice as much power to climb hills or tow loads with.
 
As of the 1st of October Petrol powered Bikes in Australia have been made illegal to use no matter what.

We are no longer aloud to ride a bike with a Petrol motor.

Got to love our Goverment.

200 Watt Rule, lol.
 
DAND214 said:
TotalConfusion said:
As of the 1st of October Petrol powered Bikes in Australia have been made illegal to use no matter what.

We are no longer aloud to ride a bike with a Petrol motor.

Got to love our Goverment.

200 Watt Rule, lol.
200 watt but is it enforced? do they have a test for it?

Dan


I dont think they do have a testing device for them but yes they do try to enforce it as ive been pulled over twice so far and asked alot of questions regarding the power.

Its also a little hard to get away with the voltage showing up on the CA which 1 officer noticed but i find if your riding in a good manner then you have alot less chance of being caught and have them checking your bike. One Police officer even wound my throttle on why i was sitting on the bike. If i didnt have my ebrake on i would have ran straight into him and his car.,
 
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