Cannon Ball 2
I have the intention of making a slow geared down wagon that is powerful. The art vehicle I saw at Burning Man 2011 had the steering awkwardly I can say just like a little kid steering from within the wagon. The wagon was as I said was way scaled up in size.
Nothing that big did I see in the markets as toys. Since it is restricted from 5 mph an under at the event, the rough roads at some points probably had no trouble with enough torque.
You’re not going fast so the steering worked. If the idea was to go fast, it would be crazy. Two adults and about 7ea 10lb bags of ice I saw it carrying without any much tug on the engine.
The knobby tires I am not sure lend itself too well to the use of friction drive. I looked at a few of the posts pictures and I suspect there no knobby tires using friction drive. Less surface area would be a problem.
I suppose a few more friction rollers 2 or 3 in series pressing on the tire might be able to make up the difference. Even with that so, it might eventually be more work than just devising a direct drive that could be installed and removed.
They used just as I thought from the vertical shaft lawn mower engine use a belt with a half twist and two pulleys. A gear box as well doing max gearing down underneath attached before making the live axle turn.
I like the idea of modular build, so that things can be changed when you like.
Anyway I’m already working on my off road motor bike that I shall make modular to receive a covering to be an art vehicle, and it should be off in the future if I go at some kind of project that I would like to have additionly.
I did get interested in the friction drive as I see potential for modular design. Many years ago as kids we took apart a Marx-a-cart kid toy electric vehicle and used the electric motor attached to a bicycle using friction drive. A car battery gave much extended time running the thing.
The pusher things you talked about I'll look at that idea too, it obviously could be made easy to add and remove.
Measure Twice