Something powered for the Gathering

[lewist123]

Hello!

As many other people plan to do, I am going to make something powered for the gathering.

I did think about powering the scooter I made last year, but decided I liked it as it was and adding an engine would make it look like a bit of a bodge, so I am going to start again!

A friend (Myke) donated a lawnmower to the cause, thanks mate.

This mower is a little unusual (well I think it is) as it is a fwd mower!! seriously!!

And here it is.....



You can see the drive mechanism coming off the side of the engine and going to the front wheels.



It takes a drive from the side of the engine and has a very crude clutch mechanism inside, although I was unsure how all this worked inside...



So.... off it comes....

The drive from the engine to the drive mechanism looked plastic (I assumed it was designed as a weak link) but it actually turns out it is a metal dog drive system.



And here is the clutch actuating lever



I decided to take it apart to figure out what as going on, and to see if any part of it would be suitable for use in the drive system on the planned vehicle.



Its all full of chains....



And here is the clutch, it consits of two pins that locate into holes on the other drive sproket



So.... what is all this going to end up in.......... well I will save that for later. Just need to take a few screen grabs from google sketchup.

Lewis

[highboycoupe]

Awsome, what kind of mower is that? It looks perfect for a 4WD go-kart I want to make.

[TS]

Already excited.

[TS]

Jan 30, 2010 17:46:12 GMT highboycoupe said:

Awsome, what kind of mower is that? It looks perfect for a 4WD go-kart I want to make.

Would you actually get much speed out of it?

[luckygti]

Ha, looks like great fun Lewis! Looking forward to progress (Hope this isn't taking over from the Skoda though )

[lewist123]

Thanks for the intrest!

Pete - Skoda is ticking along (got a large update to post in a few weeks when its actually done!)

Its a mountfield mower, with an unknown engine on it, but it appears very similar in size and power to a 3hp briggs and stratton engine.

I have the briggs engine in the shed but the stubborn curse word refuses to start! The engine on this mountfield seams pritty sweet, all things being considered.

As for speed, I think 20mph would be achieveable with the right gearing and a light vehicle, it has penty of torque. I have done the obligatory stand on it and ride it up and down the garden, and it coped admirably!

It won't be mega fast when done, but thats not really what its about, plus what I have in mind won't need to go fast to be a hoot!

TBH, I actually can't decide between two options! I won't let the cat out of the bag just yet, but one is fairly straight forward but possibly a little boring, the other would be MEGA, but I am not sure it will actually work!

Lewis

[bigkris]

whatever it is its going to be cool

[lewist123]

Well... I still can't decide what direction to take.

The first idea I had (the simple but perhaps a little boring) was to build a chopper out of some of the various bikes and tubes I have knocking about.

Here is a conceptual sketch i knocked up



The second idea is to build a drift trike. The idea being using handle bars and a bike wheel at the front and some hard plastic wheels at the rear (like a big wheel trike). By driving the hard plastic wheels even at 10 - 15 mph it would drift like a champ!

I am in the process of doing a sketch for the big wheel drift trike.....


SO....... bearing in mind that I am unlikely to make a chopper as cool as it looks in the drawings, I am tempted by the drift trike, but I am sturggleing to source some solid plastic wheels.

So what is the consensus of the RR collective?

I am thinking drift trike but need wheels!

Lewis

[highboycoupe]

Get some of a kids ride on electric toy/car thing, they are always horrible hard plastic. Failing that those ketcar pedal gokarts have pretty hard wheels. I suppose the trick will be securing them to an axle..

screeeeeeee! These might be a bit big though.

[Deleted]

Feb 1, 2010 20:04:13 GMT highboycoupe said:

Failing that those ketcar pedal gokarts have pretty hard wheels.

I had a Kettcar as a kid & did so many handbrake turns in it that the rear wheels had a flat edge on them Great fun! Wonder how hard to make one petrol powered? Goes to check ebay.

[lewist123]

I had thought about kiddies plastic car wheels or similar, but the ones I have seen would be too thin, and so would likely wear out pritty fast.

I did think about getting some 6" plastic drain pipe (if I can get hold of any that sort of size) and cutting hoops out of it to put over the rubber treaded wheels that came on the mower.

What I need to find is propper solid plastic (like actually solid chuncks of plastic) wheels idealy, but I think the drain pipe idea would work, as it is replaceable if they wear out.

Lewis

[devilishdesigner]

If that geared mechanism is strong enough do the chopper and use it to raise/lower the rear wheel airbag-style instead of having a stand, tehn take the main drive off the engine as-per-usual

[datman]

Used to collect mowers.. Is it a Mountfield?

Engine might be a Tecumseh. You will really struggle to get any speed out of something like that (probably just as well!) I think it will be about 2 horsepower?

[jikovron]

this reminds me of when i was 12-13 ,,i had one of those mounted on a pair of timbers and 12" bike wheels (wheely bin for a hotrod style body haha)

i tried a 1.2hp suffolk engine with centrifugal clutch and belt drive to one wheel,,,and it'd not move even with no one in,,,,then i tried a 2hp BS engine,,this time it'd move on the flat but hills stopped it instantly,,then i found one of those 3bhp techumseh things and got my dad to test it,and it was out of controll tbh,he crashed it,,my friend crashed it into a tree as the throttle stuck open,even with 3 people piled on it it'd still move on the flat

mine ran a 5.6:1 ratio from crank to wheel which i think was accidently ideal for up to 100kg of overall mass to move (low rolling resistance helping there i guess with the bike tyres)

i found sturmey archer gear hubs were very effective when added to the driveline also

[lewist123]

Datman - yeah its a mountfield.

I did stand on it, rev it up and 'drop the clutch' and off it shot without breaking a sweat, so I am hoping to get a reasonable spee dout of it.

I have a 3 hp briggs engine, and this looks to be the same dimmentions and such, although you never now!

The briggs engine appears to be in better condition, but I can't get the bloody thing to start!

Lewis

[bigkris]

so glad your building something for the gathering surised no other threads have popped up yet. Cant wait to see construction start

[MrSpeedy]

Use the mower !

Rear steer the wheels, add seat.

WIN !

[Colonelk]

Dude....... I wanna build the chop..... !!!!

[lewist123]

Lol, I will draw you up some plans mate!

You build the chopper and I will build the drift trike (still need to upload the sketchs) and we can roll together

Lewis

[Colonelk]

SCHWEEEEEEEEET!