I've been gathering stuff from the side of the road for years, one of the things I never pass up is old bed frames, last summer I found some old boat seats in pretty good shape, I also pick up lots of bikes, and old mowers, last year I found 3 riding mowers, I brought all of it home, it sat around awhile and the plans for this project came to me while reading a popular mechanics issue that had a Rhoades Car pictured in the back.
I started the project on Oct. 27th.
The frame is made entirely from old bed frames, the front spindle's from a riding mower, along with the pitman arm and tie rod ends, the tie rods made from steel rod and threaded, the rear axle made using 2 old riding mower axles split at the differential, the differential is still there, the parts were just rearranged to put the differential in the center of the car.
The motor is a brushed 24vdc lawn mower engine that was given to me a couple of summers ago, I had got it with intentions of putting up a turbine, but the motor was to high rpms, it made it to a mower deck and I cut the grass with it a here at home till I killed the 2x17Ah sla's, I severely abused those batts, I did not have any meters on that mower to show me the state of charge, and I ran them way way down just about every time I mowed, lessons learned. Batteries are much better taken care of these days. The transmission from..... yep, Ridin' mower, 5 forward and 1 reverse.
The bike will get peddles on both sides, 3 speed using only the crank gears, the one way cassette's on the axle was cut from the wheel of a kids scooter, again picked up on junk day, The controller and all the switches and head lights and tail lights and horns and turn signals from the scooters will also be used, the seats are adjustable, and I have a guy who will sell me a bunch of 12v/18Ah batteries from those jump start boxes for $7.50us each, I have only spent about $60us so far, $30 for the wheels, I think they may had been made for a garden cart, or possibly a welding cart like they sell at Harbor Freight, they are way heavier than bicycle wheel, and had a 5/8in sealed bearing in them, and I spent $30us on a 24v wheel chair charger, And the guy gave me the rest of the chair with it, he said controller was bad, But I got it working with very little effort, thats next years project if the funds allow, It will become a r/c lawnmower. I'm thinking that 4 batts, with the $60 already spent and this will be on the road for a grand total of right at $100, depending on what misc. I still need and the paint and welding rod. I would also like to charge this with wind or solar someday. I'
