Delta Trike on Yard Sale Steroids

[MagicValleyHPV]

I've been saddling the blue beast pictured below approaching 2 years now, unassisted. Numerous yard sale finds over the years has left me with a sizable pile of electric push scooter parts. So.. I fished-out a 350 watt motor, the best pair of SLA batteries, and hung'em on the blue beast. To simplify the conversion, all scooter parts were transfered, including the wiring harness. I left the OEM pedal drive intact so the rig would still pacify local moped laws (no license or insurance). It's also comforting to have redundancy if the batteries die too far from a charger. The swap took about an hour and I likely have less than $25 invested. A top speed of about 28 MPH and about 20 MPH up 2-3% grades. It' nearly as addicting as wet T-shirt contests.

[Bruce S]

Nice looking setup, about how far will it go on batts alone?
The seat pretty comfortable ?
Just hang a "beverage" holder on one side and your set 
Thanks for the post.
Bruce S

[zap]

That is nice.
I've never been able to even cobble something together in that amount of time.  And I've never built one that comes close to 28mph.

[coldspot]

 
Green with envy.,.,. !
I've been working on my
Schwinn Meridian Adult Tricycle
since last spring,
No $, no speed controller
120 VDC 2.5HP
7,000 RPM
 treadmill motor
I'd like to use, at around 36 to 48 volts.
I added an extra freewheel
 sprocket to the rear axle to leave the stock pedals as is
and for easy adding to the axle
&^%$#%&^, chain sizes
just when you think it will all work and
#25 and bike sizes are not the same
Should just take an engine off one of my fleet of Gas scooters
and be happy.
 maybe this year?

  No, wait!
The 9' pontoon boat gets a couple of
trolling motors first!
I remember.
LOL

$0.02

[MagicValleyHPV]

Thanks, Bruce

...about how far will it go on batts alone?

Depends. 7 trips to the local grocery @ 1/2 mile ea (lots of stops'n starts), or about 8 miles sans stop signs. The batteries are well used and I wasn't expecting much. I'm upgrading to lithium (cordless drill batteries) this spring.

The seat pretty comfortable ?

The hard seat was changed to web last summer - vast improvement at higher speeds!

I've never been able to even cobble something together in that amount of time.

It helps when the donor parts collected need little modifications to adapt to the rig being converted.  Access to a welder certainly helps too. The 80t scooter sprocket adapter simply screws-on a BMX freewheel hub (however, I did have to spot weld it in place as I was spinning it backwards because of left hand drive - the pedals drive the LH wheel only).  

Green with envy.,.,. !
I've been working on my
Schwinn Meridian Adult Tricycle
since last spring,
No $, no speed controller
120 VDC 2.5HP
7,000 RPM
 treadmill motor

Why such a large motor? I save treadmill motors for drill press and lathe conversions. Motorized kick scooters are everywhere... cheap. You may have to buy batteries or a failed charger, but little else. Just last summer I ended up with 5 parts machines in a 6 block radius from my house. I keep all components and one or two decent frames, but scrap everything else.

[MagicValleyHPV]

A bit more work, but here's one I built for my 80 YO dad in '07.  I started with a dead mobility scooter (upper right corner) and built a tube chassis. Installed 16" wheels and two, 28v lithium Milwaukee cordless drill batteries. This one will go about 15 miles between charges.

[Bruce S]

A bit more work, but here's one I built for my 80 YO dad in '07.  I started with a dead mobility scooter (upper right corner) and built a tube chassis. Installed 16" wheels and two, 28v lithium Milwaukee cordless drill batteries. This one will go about 15 miles between charges.

AND where do I sign up for one of these  ?
If that's a welded unit, I think you've been doing welding for a few years now.
Very nice!!

[zap]

Your trike looked familiar... I'm pretty sure I've seen your Dad's before now.  Endless-sphere?

[MagicValleyHPV]

AND where do I sign up for one of these   ?

I get my share of requests - problem is, finding quality, broken donors at an affordable cost..

If that's a welded unit, I think you've been doing welding for a few years now.

A few. However that particular frame was fillet brazed. MIG isn't the best choice for thin-wall chromoly. Here's the naked chassis prior to paint:

[zap]

I knew I'd seen those trikes somewhere before

http://www.motoredbikes.com/showthread.php?t=29428

[coldspot]

"Why such a large motor?"

I'd like it to have GREAT speed n power.
not so much range, 4 to 6 miles would be enough

Yea, that is how my fleet of gasser's happened, sort of
people find out or know I'm into this type of stuff
and they just show up n say
 look at what I fished out of a dumpster for ya !!
Only a couple of electric ones so far
I have two different "MY1018" motors
one belt drive and other tinny chain drive
would have to part out my working and fast, fun, dangerous
Racer X,  52cc Scooter, OOP's I mean 49cc's
sticker must have fallen off.
to use the chain drive one and just looks to small,
that treadmill motor is smaller than the 1hp in my
"Solar Scooter", see my diary or @ v is for voltage
That is the one I should part out
maybe this year.,.?

[ghurd]

Why such a large motor?

I never made an E-Bike, but a lot of machines use less power to do the same work with a larger than typical motor.
G-

[MagicValleyHPV]

I never made an E-Bike, but a lot of machines use less power to do the same work with a larger than typical motor.

Well,... 2.5hp is almost 1900w. Not huge, but more than enough hp to get anyone in trouble - especially if breaches local moped statutes. But the real concerns with Coldspot's choice of motor, is the voltage and RPM rating. You and I both know how many batteries it would take to feed 120v motor - and if you feed it fewer batteries, then you'll likely run it well below its designed efficiency, so why use it in the first place? Also, at 7000 RPMs he'd have a use either an inefficient gear reduction or resort to multiple stage drive... both of which, not only balloons the cost of the conversion, but increases its complexity and reduces drive efficiency.

A Schwinn Meridian Tricycle has 3 wheels, so why not feed each rear wheel about 350w?  700 watts for starting, then stop feeding one motor once up to speed. The scooter motors I mentioned are much better suited for the application (high torque - low RPMs) than a low torque, 7000 RPM motor - and you only need 2 or perhaps 3 batteries at most - not to mention that 24-36v controllers can be had new for $25-$35.

  

[ghurd]

I did not figure running full voltage into it.
Like, a 130VDC treadmill motor with a 24~36~48V battery?
G-

[coldspot]

I've wanted to use the TM motor for something,
whole thing was $5-$7, but did have to pull it apart on lunch hour,
didn't fit under topper on truck, so just pulled the parts I liked and
left the rest.
What I might end up using-
 The S Scooter has a
"24V permanent magnet DC electric motor; High-torque 10:1 reduction transmission"
I don't like the "soft start throttle" it has.
"http://visforvoltage.org/forum/solar-vehicles/1589"
The 26" wheels would be so much better than the 10.5" hand truck type tires.
maybe next month.

[REdiculous]

I'm using a 130v treadmill motor on my push trailer. The no-load top speed is something like 62mph and it can push 350-ish lbs on the flat at reasonable speeds.

Treadmill motors are fun!

[MagicValleyHPV]

I'm using a 130v treadmill motor on my push trailer. The no-load top speed is something like 62mph and it can push 350-ish lbs on the flat at reasonable speeds.

So what did you use for a speed controller?...

And where did you mount the batteries?  Treadmill motors typically require 90-130v to achieve rated HP. By my math, that's 'at least' 7 batteries. That equates to about 47 pounds (and those are the 10Ah littles ones @ 6.75 lbs each).

Oh wait... you scored a 2000 foot roll of 10g and are feeding it 120ac.... right?

[ghurd]

http://fieldlines.com/board/index.php/topic,130323.0.html

http://fieldlines.com/board/index.php/topic,141315.0.html

[REdiculous]

So what did you use for a speed controller?...

I used this SCR speed controller. Two 12v SLA batteries and an inverter provide power to the SCR.