Any help with this basic build?

M

maxsideburn

Member
Okay guys, I'm looking to build something extremely simple. Figured some of you might have some ideas as to how I could do this. Here is what I am trying to accomplish:

- Cheap as possible, free would be best but obviously that's impossible. So in considering anything it needs to be cheap, cheap super cheap.

- I will be mounting it to a trike, so mounting space is not an issue

- Does not need to go fast at all, if it'll sustain 5mph that's fine by me

- Does not need to have a really long range, if it can hold a 2 mile charge at a time I'm fine with that

- Does not need to have lots of torque on take-off, I'm fine with pedaling up to speed and then kicking it on

- Does not need a speed controller, I'm fine with ON and OFF

So, given those fundamentals what do you guys think is the absolute cheapest way I could accomplish that? I saw folks using starter motors, they overheat easily but I would only be using it in bursts to get up to speed then coast for a while. Likewise something low-power like a drill motor might work but it's a heavy bike and I'm a heavy guy (225lbs + 75lbs for the bike). I tried the drill idea with an 18v cordless hooked to the rear axle nut and with my mother on it (105lbs) it moved her slowly through the uneven grass yard. I'm thinking with a full charge and with a pedal-start it MIGHT have the oomph, but not really sure.

I'm really kind of doing this just as an experiment to see if it can even be done so keeping the money I spend on it to an absolute minimum is the highest priority.

Ideas?
 
Sounds like a job for Deacon allright. I just use hub motors and lipo batts. I hear some people have good results with electric lawn mower motors but not sure how much they cost. As far as the fan motor thing I was thinking about a big shop fan with gear reduction but your right probably not enough torque.
 
Years ago I built an electric go-kart for my son. I used an old delco generator for the motor. It had a rheostat that varied the field current for speed control. It was belted to a cannibalized tiller gear box for both gear reduction and to mount the back wheels where I took off the tiller blades. Its top speed was a fast walking speed, but would go through heavy weeds and grass and through ditches with no problems. I can't remember what voltage I ran it at. Batteries were multiple 12v 7ah gel cells. It ran several days between charges.

Now that same generator is powering my mill/drill that I built out of a South Bend 13 lathe bed and cross-slide I stood up on end.
 
Pound for pound I don't think you get any cheaper or easier than a cordless drill. If you can find a cheap enough used 18V Dewalt that would do you I think. I once jumped off my Chevy van (350 V8) with two of those batteries wired together, Get'R'Done.
 
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