pedal first trailer

deacon

deacon

minor bike philosopher
trailerw.jpg


I found that a nice little trailer is the easy way to carry sla batteries. They are easy to build and carry a lot of weight with not too much extra effort. This is the one of the two I built for the padal first project. I also have one made from the wheels of a 16" child's bicycle. Usually the thrift stores have several of them. This was made from the wheels of an electric scooter I picked up somewhere back when I was messin' with ebikes before... KEEP THE WEIGHT DOWN. I tend to over build.
 
Well I'll bet you could have the brightest tail light in town if you wished! lol

Looks really heavy duty, Deacon.
Should last forever!
rc
 
This one is way way over built. I am running a 16" bike tire one now built much lighter but I'm not sure It is any better..
 
I have been building more experimental trailers to carry big ole batteries. I bought a bike at the thrift store.16" for 5 bucks. I i built a trailer with the wheels and sent the rest to recycle on the curb. the tubes refused to hold air and I just couldn't see paying more to pump up the tires than the bike cost. /since I wasn't going to be riding the bike, I rolled up some old blanket material to fill the tires then attached them to a trailer. I built the trailer too thin and 16" is a pretty high wheel for a bunch of heavy batteries. The trailer tipped over going out of the drive.

I went back to the wider trailer with the scooter wheels that are a foot tall. Still I have a 16" trailer that is wider and it seems to pull easier but isn't as solid. Guess I am going be forced to decide between stable and weight. still if I keep experimenting I might get a really good one.
 
I'm still puttering around with the trailer for my pedal first bike.

Uploaded with ImageShack.usI have gone up and down in voltage for the bike so the trailer has gone up and down in size. At this moment I am running two 12v 25ah sla batteries. So far I have not had a loss of power issue. I know it is just a matter of time since all batteries have a finite amount of power available.

The side issue with the pedal me first bike is I am having a lot more leg pain now. I used to get on the bike crank it up and just sit on it till I got wherever I wanted to go. This bike is different, the motor is the last resort. So I'm getting a lot more exercise. Frankly I am surprised but I'm not really upset about it.

One thing interesting I have found about batteries is that a 12 battery and a 6v battery are very very similar in price. The difference between thirty and thirty six volts is so small I would probably add another 12v instead of 6v.
 
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I will have to add some photos later but I was forced to go back to the international bicycle trailer design which is a tank. But at least it will hold up probably as long as I can ride a bike.

Also I broke the 350watt motor I was running on the pedal first bike. I had a 280 watt motor I had bought tfor an experiment so I put it on the bike and it barely moves me along. Too much weight for it. I ordered a replacement motor. The replacement is 450 watts. If it doesn't draw too many amps for the simple wiring system, then everything in the system is reasonably new and should last a long time. Of course batteries never do.
 
I know they are big and heavy, Deacon, but there in NC, have you considered asking for some fisherman's marine batteries on Craigslist?
The deep cycle batteries will run all the way down before they give up...
rc
 
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